Norwich City hit the jackpot with free transfer after Brighton release | OneFootball

The Dutchman proved to be a great signing after spending half a decade at Carrow Road

Norwich City were a force to be reckoned with during the 2018/18 Championship season, with Daniel Farke’s Canaries producing a swashbuckling style of football that took the second tier by storm.

The East Anglia outfit were scoring goals for fun throughout the season, with no side coming close to their 93 efforts that found the back of the net throughout the campaign, although a porous defence left them involved in their fair share of humdingers other way to promotion.

You have a shot, we have a shot; that’s the way it seemed to be at Carrow Road under the German in those early EFL years, leaving the Norfolk side reliant on their big Dutchman in between the sticks to claw them out of trouble on a regular basis.

The signing of Tim Krul made all the difference as City strode to the title that year, with the experienced shot-stopper proving indispensable as a free pickup before the season began.

Tim Krul excellence helps Norwich City promotion push

Having regularly donned the gloves for Newcastle United in the Premier League earlier in his career, it was no secret that Krul had it within him to produce the goods in the Championship, but after two years spent between his native Netherlands and the Brighton and Hove Albion bench, the Dutchman headed to Carrow Road looking to get back in the action and prove himself once again in the English game.

Right from the off, the new arrival would have realised the task at hand, with an attack-minded outfield team more focused on going forward than giving him protection, as a 2-2 draw with Birmingham City and 4-3 defeat to West Bromwich Albion testified.

Another defeat to Sheffield United followed, before Farke managed to find the balance between defence and attack, while Krul came into his own as the last line of defence, as momentum began to build on the banks of the River Wensum.

While the 57 goals he conceded was by no means the best record in the division, it was down to Krul that City continued to stay competitive in games and go on to win all three points, as he was called into action much more than a lot of his peers who were also battling for promotion.

Compared to Leeds United’s defence - who offered just 144 shots on target to their opposition all season - Krul had to face 192 chances during that campaign, a number matched by 19th placed Queens Park Rangers, but his proficiency in keeping the ball out the back of the net is what made all the difference in the long run.

With players bombing forward at any opportunity, time and time again it fell to the experienced campaigner to fend off an opposition attack, with 13 clean sheets along the way.

A run of just one defeat in their last 20 league games saw Norwich fly through the pack to earn automatic promotion come the end of the season, with Krul regularly called into action, and proving to be more than a match to whatever came his way.

Tim Krul earns another Norwich City promotion

As was the case with City in that era, promotion from the Championship was immediately followed by a slog in the Premier League, which would ultimately end in relegation, before Krul and the Canaries did it all again in the 2020/21 campaign.

While a hamstring injury saw him stuck on the sidelines between November and January, the Dutch international came back to the fore in the new year, with 36 appearances throughout the campaign, as a new-look City side tightened up at the back.

With only 23 goals conceded in those appearances, Krul kept 17 clean sheet in the second successful season, with the Norwich rearguard proving impenetrable on their way to another piece of silverware for winning the title.

Having joined for nothing, Krul would go on to amass over 150 appearances for Norwich during his time with the club, and proved vital in earning two promotions to the Premier League, not to mention helping the club reach an FA Cup quarter-final along the way.