Worrying Norwich City trend could cost David Wagner his job | OneFootball

Norwich City lost once again in their last outing despite taking the lead against Watford.

David Wagner’s side went flying out of the blocks at Vicarage Road, boasting a two-goal advantage over Watford with less than 15 minutes gone.

The hosts, who are starting to find some form of their own, fought back though and ended up beating the Canaries 3-2, making it one loss in eight for them now.

Norwich, on the other hand, let another lead slip and the patience in the fanbase appears to be wearing thinner and thinner.

Norwich City throwing away the lead again

Norwich City are a team that most people associate with a title-charge whenever they are in the Championship.

Promotion looks very unlikely for them this time around though, and when they picked up just one point from a possible 15 in October, it seemed that David Wagner’s time at the club was drawing to a close. The manner of dropped points surely the spark for growing frustration.

Norwich took the lead on three separate occasions in their thrilling 4-4 draw with Southampton back in mid-August but didn't come away with maximum points.

More recently, they struck first against Coventry City and ended up drawing, scored twice in the first-half when Leeds United came to Carrow Road, only to concede three after the break, and threw away an advantage against Sunderland also.

It is becoming a common theme for the Norwich faithful that they are seeing their side start well only to blow various leads and to slip further down the Championship table.

Similarly to the meltdown against Daniel Farke’s Leeds, Norwich had a 2-0 lead away at Watford. It is a habit that nobody wants to see their team pick up and something drastic needs to be done to steady this ship that likes to self-destruct.

Looking at the numbers

Back-to-back wins over Cardiff City and Queens’ Park Rangers prior to the Watford defeat show that it isn’t all doom and gloom for those of a Norwich persuasion.

The former are a very solid side under the stewardship of Erol Bulut, but then the latter actually managed to outperform them on xG (1.21 v 0.67), which is not exactly a narrow margin.

Ui-Jo Hwang’s strike after 21 minutes was the only goal of that game against QPR and, on another day, if the London team weren’t in a slump of their own, that could have ended very differently.

Relegation isn't something that Norwich should be concerned with as the likes of Sheffield Wednesday and Rotherham United - amongst many others - have nowhere near their firepower. Nothing is impossible by any means though, and the rate at which this team is conceding goals must be hugely concerning. At the very least, it will stop them competing where they actually want to.

Norwich have the second-worst goals against record in the league, and they also have the second worst xGA, with only Rotherham below them on both metrics.

Wagner’s men are conceding 1.94 goals per game and their xGA is 1.57 - neither of which are particularly promising numbers.

They have been out shot in seven of their last nine Championship outings, so whilst their own attack may be performing well, Norwich’s defence is outweighing that massively.

In saying that, neutrals should tune in for Norwich games given the rate at which goals are flying in at both ends. But, from a club point of view, throwing away these leads is only damaging and Wagner’s prospects of retaining his position at the club are becoming slimmer, with the blame always likely to land at his feet.