Mike Taylor: Making it right when it has gone so wrong

We need to act in the short term and we will need to act in January. This is a frightening time and in my opinion, we are closer to being a Sheff Weds or Nottingham Forest, than we are a Burnley or Brighton.

The debrief of Leeds United is easy: The first half was pretty good but Leeds tweaked it at the break and DF didn’t even acknowledge the changes and the second half was poor. 2-1 down and then Tzolis and Idah replaced Dowell and Sargent. It couldn’t have been any more like-for-like. Our system had stalled so spectacularly with the Leeds shift in the second half that like-for-like was UTTERLY POINTLESS.

It needed a plan B. Instead, Placheta, left sided, joined Tzolis, left sided, who had joined Rashica, left sided, because the one player who would have changed that game was Cantwell, left sided.

Secondly…. I thought we started 3-4-3. Apparently, I was wrong, as was everyone around me…. and we in fact played 4-2-3-1. Presumably, that meant Sargent was playing as a wide attacking midfielder and not as a number nine, which is how it looked to me. This is why Andy O ended up as a LB. The point is, nobody had a clue. WHICH. SAYS. EVERYTHING.

As for DF failing to protect Andy O repeatedly facing 1v1 with Raphinha? Ridiculous.

I am so sad to say this, but DF lost my confidence a long long time ago. The impartial fan would probably argue that without Skipp and Buendia, City wouldn’t have been anywhere near the play-offs last season.

Forget Pukki without Buendia, take Stiperman and Vrancic, even Hernandez, and now Cantwell, out of the equation, and there isn’t an ounce of attacking support for the GOAT in this team. Not at this level or in the Championship.

But looking forward, I am sad to say I don’t think DF can lead this group any more. DF dropped 4-3-3 because the public didn’t give him a choice otherwise he’d still be persisting with it now, like he did with 4-2-3-1 after Project Restart. He then chose 3-5-2 and played the wrong players within that system which is why on Sunday, he changed again.

I don’t care if we are relegated, I don’t care that he tinkers, but even on Sunday, no fan would nominate those players in 4-2-3-1. Or 3-4-3. Or whatever it was. 4-1-4-1 was the last version of events I read about Saturday.

So…. who replaces him. That depends on if SW intends to stay or not.

My opinion is the sporting director / head coach model has it’s limits, depending on finance and the league in which you want to play. The set up at this club, what DF and SW have achieved, is absolutely sensational. It is READY to be an established top flight club. But does it need to remain sporting director and head coach?

I don’t want to nit-pick, but under SW, ‘sell-on’ profits have come from Madison, then Godfrey, then Buendia, which is one per season isn’t it? And for the record, Maddison and Godfrey both arrived before SW did anyway. Of course, I credit academy sales to SW as well, which would be Lewis, the Murphy twins, and soon will probably be Aarons and Cantwell etc, but that’s hardly a revelation.

With a good academy, as long as the head coach or manger brings along youth appropriately, income from academy crown jewels should always be there. Andy O will be next. Abu Kamara after him.

My opinion with the club structure is that at the Premier League level, there is scope to play maybe two, at the limit three, young players. In a bid to prove the system and baulk at the status quo, Sargent, Kabak, Rashica, Tzolis, Williams and Gilmour have joined the party. When the limit of young players is two to three, and we already had Idah, Cantwell, Andy O (and Sorensen), the party looks over-crowded.

So much youth has come at a forfeit and that forfeit is the backbone of the team. What do we want? I’ve argued it many times over, but my opinion is that if we couldn’t afford Kris Ajer, then Ben Davies was probably more suitable than Kabak, or we could have given Hourihane a chance as part of the Buendia deal, instead of Gilmour, had we taken up Alex Mowatt as a free agent instead of PLM, or John Fleck, then we would be far better suited this season.

A relegation battle is not the time to bring in six players who all expect first team football into a squad with far more obvious holes to fill. SW hasn’t made the same mistakes, but this summer has been a subjective failure in other regards.

Unfortunately, DF clearly never gave SW a definitive brief on what he wanted either, hence this eclectic mix of summer arrivals, none of whom complement each other or those that have remained. With every arrival this summer, more questions were being asked than were being answered, so few made logical sense or offered obvious improvements. There were no signings that made me jump out of my seat.

Gilmour baffled me; if we were prepared to protect him with two dedicated holding midfielders then why not apply the same strategy and keep Vrancic? Sign Gilmour when McLean was literally the only recognised central midfielder on the books (excluding the once-converted wide player that is Rupp) knowing we’d need to protect him? Simply committing to Gilmour meant chasing two dedicated, specific players just in include him in the squad. We bought nobody for the right side, no experienced forward player to supplement Pukki who would be capable of helping Idah (and now Sargent).

Succinctly, no player except Normann unequivocally improves the squad by Premier League standard and more worryingly, no experienced pros have joined the ranks. Imagine next season if McLean takes his family back to Scotland for some Champions League time with Rangers, maybe Hanley tries his luck elsewhere, any decent team will snap up Krul.

It is plausible we will have no experienced players in the squad at all, bar maybe Gibson, maybe Pukki. Who knows? Those that remain will know that 'they don’t truly belong at this level' and it is plausible that the most senior players could well be quite defeatist, and I don’t see any experienced player wanting to play under DF after this season. This summer could be a minefield.

Get so many young players in 'little old Norwich' and I’m sorry, you cannot keep all of them happy. Only two or three. And Cantwell proved himself at this level two years ago so he deserves to fly the post-Buendia flag. Petulant, immature? I couldn’t care less. Deal with it. Play him.

So if SW wants to stick around, then clearly a belligerent and difficult character like Chris Wilder (who reminds me of Paul Lambert) won’t be interested. But he’s a manager that can give the likes of Hanley, McLean, Pukki, Cantwell, Andy O a boost. Ask someone from Bundesliga 4 to inspire those characters now? Forget it. It will take too long.

For the record, CW promoted Sheff Utd from League One, the Championship (TWO promotions, just like DF), and then he KEPT THEM PROMOTED the first season up. Sure, they were relegated after that, but whatever. Four wins and a draw for Chris Wilder against Daniel Farke since 2018. People just don’t like him because he’s prickly. But they are also correct that SW will need to gauge his own role with character like CW. I expect Neil Adams won’t flinch in the future with such a situation.

Let’s hope SW does stay though and wants another head coach: Eddie Howe. Recently, I was slated by someone who called Howe the 'south coast family man'. Now let me get this straight, we pride ourselves on being a small, family orientated club…. I’m confused…. Howe does or doesn’t this fit?

Next, Bournemouth are smaller than Norwich and Howe was happy there. But let’s talk facts. He took charge of a Bournemouth side facing relegation to the Conference but was able to avoid relegation despite having started the season on -17 points, and instead they were promoted to League One the following campaign. After the disaster at Burnley, Howe returned to Bournemouth and led them to two further promotions in three seasons (sound familiar?), taking them to the Premier League. Bournemouth survived for FIVE seasons before they were relegated last season. Why on earth isn’t Howe perfectly qualified and suitable?

I am astounded at the logic sometimes. DF didn’t get us promoted last season, Buendia and Skipp did. Without them, DF would have led us to mid-table mediocrity and excuses would still have been made. Lastly, Brexit. We won’t be getting another coach like DF unless that coach is already in England.

Personally, I think we must change. These players need a different leader and the longer this drags out, the less time there is to save the season. And if Nuno is available as of Monday, then add him to the wish-list. His Wolves team was absolutely fantastic, we would play a back three and, fingers crossed, Skipp would follow him here.

OTBC