An away win, three valuable points, a clean sheet and up to fourth. What’s not to like?
Judging by some of the post-game reaction, it depends on your perspective. For those who have already decided that Dean Smith isn’t the right manager for Norwich City, the game at Swansea was seen as further validation of their view, while others saw signs of progress, particularly in the first half.
My own view was that City’s performance may have been more workmanlike than sparkling, but ultimately in a results business it’s the final score that matters, and an away win at a promotion rival isn’t to be sniffed at.
There is no doubt that the game wasn’t much of a spectacle, with relatively little goalmouth incident and plenty of errors on both sides, so all credit to the 600 or so City fans who made the long trek to south Wales to witness it first-hand, because they certainly deserved to see a win.
Clearly a goal within the first couple of minutes was a dream start, and in fairness, City threatened more in the first half and certainly seemed to be getting the ball forward with greater urgency than before the lay-off.
What was concerning was the way they faded as an attacking threat after half-time as Swansea started to control the game, helped by some sloppy passing that saw promising breakaways come to nothing and possession gifted to the home team.
Fortunately, Russell Martin’s team were unable to turn that to their advantage as they produced a largely toothless performance that was reminiscent of the early part of the Daniel Farke era at City, with lots of passes but very little end product to show for their high level of possession.
That, however, shouldn’t detract from the quality of City’s work when they didn’t have the ball and the solid defensive core provided by Grant Hanley, Ben Gibson, who in my opinion had his best game of the season, and Isaac Hayden, behind whom Angus Gunn was once again very commanding.
Any problems that Swansea did create came from the flanks, particularly City’s left where Sam McCallum, after a good first half, had an increasingly torrid time before being substituted in favour of Dimi Giannoulis.
McCallum looks really impressive going forward, but there are still question marks about his defending, highlighted when he allowed Kyle Naughton a free header at the far post just before his substitution.
To be honest, I thought Smith timed his substitutions well throughout, not only replacing McCallum shortly after that incident but also taking off Gabriel Sara just after he’d given the ball away cheaply twice and then failed to track a runner, resulting in Swansea overloading City’s right flank.
I’m not going to draw any firm conclusions about the much-discussed City reset from a single game. There were still worrying aspects, not least the way that Smith’s side were forced more and more onto the back foot as the game progressed, but also the fact that they still don’t protect the ball well enough, something that will always offer opponents opportunities.
However, the defensive shape looks better and there seems to be more willingness to progress the ball quicker, both things that Smith will be keen to build on in the coming weeks as City face a tough schedule, but one that, if navigated successfully, will stand them in good stead for the second half of the season.
Another positive is that last week’s game marked City’s first win of the season against a side in or near the play-off spots and they’ll need to do that again this afternoon against an unpredictable Blackburn side who will be smarting from their humiliating loss to Preston as the Championship continues in its usual topsy turvy fashion.
In 2018/19 City’s title push only ignited in mid-winter. Let’s hope that’s the case again.
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