Chris Goreham: How can David Wagner put Norwich City together again?

There was something rather poetic about the dramatic downpour that followed Blackburn’s goal at Carrow Road on Sunday. 

With almost perfect timing the heavens opened in spectacular fashion. David Wagner looked every inch the beleaguered main character in a movie attempting to battle through hard times. A new reign in driving rain on the touchline. His challenge now is to use this black comedy against Blackburn as the start of the next magical era at Carrow Road. 

It did at least leave Wagner with a good idea of what he’s walked into. It was as if the players had agreed to perform a 90-minute recap of the season so far to help the new guy catch-up. There was more intensity than in some recent games but that should be no surprise from a bunch of players with a new manager to impress. 

Wagner has inherited the pieces of a jigsaw that looks like it could be quite good when it’s finished. He’s just got to work out whether they can all actually fit together and just how many missing pieces there are. 

Against Blackburn the players put in a wholehearted performance. They gave away a silly goal and then struggled to turn promising positions into clear cut chances. Yes, there were plenty of shots but how many of them were actually proper goalscoring opportunities? 

If this is to be Teemu Pukki’s final season with Norwich City, his contract is up in the summer remember, then he will leave without scoring a single FA Cup goal.  

The Finn has often been one of those rested on third round day but that was his eighth appearance for the Canaries in the cup. The very fact he started underlined that this was no ordinary cup tie for the club. Pukki ended up looking as frustrated as anyone else in the ground as his usual faultless work rate failed to lead to anything resembling an obvious scoring chance. 

He’s now gone 10 games at Carrow Road without finding the net. Nothing sums up Wagner’s biggest challenge better than that. Can he find a plan and does he have the personnel to regularly open up Championship defences?

David Wagner has much work to do to form a promotion-winning side at Norwich City (Image: Focus Images) 

Pukki is the fourth highest scorer in the club’s history. The other striking options are Josh Sargent, who remains the club’s top goal scorer this season, Jordan Hugill who has 42 Championship goals in his career and the promising Adam Idah. It ought to be possible to form a potent strike force from those options which would be the envy of many a second tier manager. 

They can’t do it all themselves so how Norwich City create chances for their strikers is something that neither Daniel Farke nor Dean Smith could crack in a post-Emi Buendia world. 

Wagner needs to do some serious tinkering in the engine room that is the City midfield. 

It’s an area of the team that has been reshaped twice since the last Championship winning season. After Farke’s second promotion Oliver Skipp, Mario Vrancic, Marco Stiepermann and Alex Tettey all left. A midfield to have a crack at The Premier League was formed with Billy Gilmour, Mathias Normann and Pierre Lees Melou all coming in. Buendia’s departure brought an influx of wide players, Milot Rashica and Christos Tzolis joined that summer. None of those mentioned above are currently with the club. 

During Dean Smith’s 14 months in charge Norwich City only made four first team signings and they were all midfielders. Isaac Hayden and Aaron Ramsey joined on loan while South American duo Gabriel Sara and Marcelino Nunez both cost decent money. Kenny McLean is the one constant in the revolving door that has been the centre of the park. 

It all leaves David Wagner with what’s left over from the various attempts to rebuild.  

It’s hard to imagine those Norwich City strikers thriving or the good times returning to Carrow Road until the right balance can be found in that area of the team.  

It may take a bit of time, let’s not forget that Farke, Vrancic and Stiepermann were not viewed as roaring successes at the end of their first seasons in Norfolk. All are now fully fledged Canary heroes. 

There’s much for Wagner to ponder as he waits for his coat to dry out in his office this week.  

If he’s to become the next big Norwich City hero he may need to be prepared for the long haul. It’s a club that hasn’t had many overnight successes. 

Nostalgia

The internet is a goldmine for archive footage of football matches. 

Certainly during lockdown I spent quite a bit of time finding clips of the Norwich City team that I grew up watching in the early 1990s. Supporters love a bit of nostalgia. 

It’s very exciting when you happen across something for the first time. 

Ahead of FA Cup third round weekend a Twitter account devoted to old football clips put out the goals from Norwich City’s 3-0 win at Yeovil at this stage in 1980. 

It wasn’t a game I knew about, it was two years before I was born, but Barry Davies is the commentator which suggests that the BBC had picked out that tie as one with high shock potential. 

It was a routine win for City in the end thanks to goal from Paddon, Robson and Fashanu. What really stands out from the pictures though is that Norwich are playing in all yellow.  

The usual green shorts have been replaced with some that are a slightly different shade of yellow from the shirts so it’s quite a look. 

Sharing the Tweet prompted some brilliant memories from Canaries fans.  

David Cole replied that he remembered the game because his dad’s Vauxhall got two punctures on the long journey back to Norfolk. That tells you something about what fans really remember from long away trips. It’s very rarely the football. 

David went onto say that he remembered the Yeovil goalkeeper playing on with double vision after a bang on the head. This is another trend I’ve noticed. Any stories about games before I was born always seem to include a goalkeeper suffering some sort of awful injury but playing on.  

It’s a miracle that Peter Shilton was able to play at the age of 40 in Italia ’90. It might explain why he didn’t save any of the German penalties though.