Touched the ball maybe 5 times in the 60 mins I watched. I don't get this team. Completely breezed through the Champ last year, and have no clue now. Watford and Brentford both look far better, despite being worse in the efl. Must be farkes style or something, just not translating to being an underdog.
From the early going ... "17' A small shaft of light for Norwich as Sargent makes a couple of moves down the right wing. Nothing comes of either run, but he's looking lively whenever the ball comes near him."
Yeah, I watched the whole shift. Whole team was listeners, disorganized and out of sync with one another — I assume because of Chelsea.
For what it’s worth, Sargent has looked good in my eyes. He had a good first half. Pukki was non-existent. Strikers sometimes have this issue where they stop being footballers when they aren’t on attack. Obviously, that’s not Josh’s problem or let’s say Firmino, but strikers like Pukki are dire when they aren’t attacking or creating opportunities.
Not sure what it’s worth but Sarge was highest rated Norwich player on fotmob with a 6.5 against Chelsea. edit: and highest on whoscored.com with a 6.1
It's a bizarre thing when you are doing "well" as a forward when your team loses by 7 and they've scored 1 run of play goal in 9, but here we are...
Definitely not worth the clicks it takes to get to those websites. Being best of the worst still leaves you in the worst pile unfortunately.
Probably Pulisic. Because he was injured and not there. Had we had him on the field, it'd have been an entirely different story.... PS: This Mexico is not beating anyone 7-0.
It's been clear from the beginning that Norwich is not battling the upper or even mid-half of the table. The battle is (and always has been) against the other 5-6 clubs at the foot of the table- holding par in most cases and gaining points on the bottom 5-6 in other cases. So- unless they let this result get to them emotionally- it is totally irrelevant. They would not be expected to pick up points against the top ranked team, Chelsea away. The real battle is head-to-head matches with bottom 5-7 clubs. So far, Norwich has had a harder schedule than the rest of the bottom of the table. 6 of their 9 matches have been against top 10 sides. The 7th was against Leicester, who has been a top 10 side for most of the last 6-7 years. So they have been disadvantaged (so far) in picking up points. The good news for all us: The next 5 games will be against bottom 10 sides. This stretch will be a strong indicator if Norwich will remain rooted at the bottom of the table- or if they will be in the fight to avoid relegation. Their rivals at the bottom of the table have harder schedules during this period, so the expectation should be the Norwich can close the gap a good bit during the next 5 games or even climb out of relegation zone (every so briefly). They need to pick up around 6-7 points minimum during the next 5 games to make it is dogfight seem possible at bottom. Something like a couple wins and a tie (2 wins-1 tie-2 losses) or (2 wins and 3 losses) during next 5 games. Not gaining ground, or sinking deeper at bottom will be a very bad sign. Also for Josh, this will be his opportunity to get some goals and help lead a turnaround in the table. He will get his chances over the next 5 games against weaker sides and weaker defenses than to date. There is still time for him (and Norwich) to make this a successful season, despite naysayers. They can still stay up in the Prem. Historically, we've seen struggling sides go on runs of 3-4-5 wins in a row during 2nd half to stay up. (Fulham, Wigan, Leicester- to name a few) But it is certain fair to expect/demand much better performance over this next crucial 5 games from both Josh and Norwich, if they will be capable of making a go of it later on. They are 'on the clock' now.... So maybe some of the acrimony on the thread can end now as the schedule allows everyone here to get more clarity on the direction for Norwich and Josh this season. All the arguments here can be rooted in better data.
Josh was Norwich’s best player against Chelsea, and it wasn’t close. ( It also wasn’t saying much, because the other 10 players were dire).