The end is near: An international break stock-take | OneFootball

From the season so far, what gives you hope for next season?

Paul Buller: Some of the football has been great to watch, especially movement that’s created goals; opposition managers have talked about it being hard to set up against us because Norwich don’t have predictable ways of moving and scoring. If this builds, we could be in for a fun 25/26.

Matthew McGregor: The manager. We can see what he is trying to do, and if/when it comes good it is going to be great. In addition to Hoffball being a thing of beauty, he’s the sort of decent, no-nonsense person I love having as our manager. He speaks honestly and is so straight with fans.

Adam Brandon: Maybe I’m in the minority, but I actually think we’re a good side under JHT and are mainly let down by (mostly experienced) individuals. There are issues the coaches need to sort too, but I think we’ve been pretty unlucky with certain things: injuries, suspensions, and even opposition finishing their chances at a much higher rate than you’d expect from the quality of chances conceded. Maybe my memory lets me down, but it felt like most agreed this would be a season of transition and a mid-table finish was most likely. But now that prospect is upon us, some have chosen to give up on the new project already. I don’t get it, to be honest. This club focused too much on short-term results from the pre-season of 2021–22 until the last summer transfer window, and as a result went backwards. I believe that Knapper and JHT are on the right track to put us on the right path again, but undoing three years of damage in eight months was never going to be an easy thing to fix.

Nick Hayhoe: In the manner of Bart Simpson curling up in a ball and repeating to himself “Krusty is coming, Krusty is coming” as Kamp Krusty collapses and deteriorates around him, this has been the season of “Farke’s first season was like this. Farke’s first season was like this”. Fits and starts of lovely, lovely stuff supplemented by absolute shit, mainly from a defensive unit that has been chopped and changed more than the Ship of Theseus. Stumble on a centre-back partnership to match those that eventually formed under both Farke seasons, then things could take off. Otherwise, we will find ourselves in Championship Mid Table purgatory for years to come.

Ben Stokes: The constant comparisons with Farke’s first season must surely mean that we’ll win the league next year, yes?

Cameron Huggett: When everything has clicked this season, we really have looked great. The issue has been the lack of consistency. Get this team firing on all cylinders week in, week out and we could really challenge.

Jon Punt: It just feels like we’re not that far off being a really good team at this level. We create good chances, often plenty of them, while we have plenty of players capable of finishing them (at least for now). Given the turbulence Thorup has had to endure, that’s a fair achievement. Also, defensive lapses aside – our structure looks way more solid than under Wagner or Smith. It’s almost like there’s a plan and a thread running through the football club again.

Nathan Hill: The highs have been higher than we experienced in year 1 of Farkeball – many more goals, much more entertaining football and going to Carrow Road has been fun again. Those performances and scorelines – I.e. 4-1 against Watford, 4-0 against Hull, 6-1 against Plymouth, 4-2 against Luton, 5-1 against Swansea, 4-2 against Stoke – aren’t flukes and are a real sign of what flowing Hoffball can look like.

And what’s giving you the heebie-jeebies?

Matthew: The team. Or more specifically who’ll be left after the summer. If we lose Sarge, Sainz and Núñez, the team will look very, very thin without instant, unrealistically great replacements.

Nick: You know what, from an all round point of view I think we are in a pretty good position as a club so nothing really gives me the fear there. The only thing is if results don’t improve, we have no choice but to jettison JHT and we end up knee-jerking the signing of a new manager who’s on the way down (looking at you, Sean Dyche).

Nathan: The Mickey Mouse goals we’ve been shipping all season long, even in games we’ve eventually won. This summer, and the continued shaping of the squad in Thorup’s image, will go a long way to proving whether the current crop have just been habitually making poor footballing decisions or whether the instructions are too intricate or flawed.

Jon: Gah, defensive blunders and concentration is frustrating. It is very 2017-18, and actually occurred a fair bit during 2018-19 until momentum was really building. Which, on the postive side of things, means it could and perhaps should be eradicated from our game when the coaches have had more time with a squad in their mould. However, losing two or more from the triumvirate of talismen in our squad is a worry. The contractual status of Marcelino and Borja might necessitate their sales, but can we realistically also contemplate letting Sarge go and expect minimal disruption?

Adam: Things we might currently put down to bad luck could continue, and it will end up looking like negligence rather than misfortune — just see Ange Postecoglou’s time at Spurs for how even his biggest believers have turned on him in the end, and justifiably so. Postecoglou at Spurs also set himself up for a fall in his second season by saying he always wins a trophy in his second season. Those of us pinning a lot of hope on everything coming together in the second season like it did for Farke might also suffer from an over-expectation. Sargent might be pretty hard to replace too, if he’s sold.

Paul: Norwich’s downfall for many seasons has been the lack of ability to make enough good decisions at crucial times in games. Grant Holt was the last player to truly embody that game awareness and lead by example. I fear if we don’t sign someone to emulate that mentality (because there certainly doesn’t seem anyone like that currently at the club) then we’ll continue seeing a lot of good work going to waste.

Cameron: We really do leak some avoidable goals. I know that Norwich City and ‘defensive stability’ have never really belonged in the same sentence, and ‘we’ll score one more than you’ is very much baked into our philosophical DNA, but the amount of points we have dropped this year from winning positions needs to be rectified.

Ben: The failure to fully iron out sloppy mistakes in defence and a lack of evidence that subpar performances can be turned around from the dugout.

What should be top of Knapper’s to do list?

Ben: Offer Shane Duffy whatever it takes for him to leave, find a central midfield and depending on how the season finishes, he may have an even bigger task ahead.

Cameron: Greater squad depth at centre-back is a must for me, Clive.

Nick: We need to sort Angus’ contract out. I am a big of Angus Gunn, and I think anyone who thinks we are better than him is somewhat delusional. Lose him and we could be a real “careful what you wish for” position and struggle to get a proper first-team keeper.

Adam: I’d do what we can to keep Sargent and Núñez, but players who have been here longer than that should probably be moved on. It needs a clean break from voices that have been in the dressing room too long now to really resonate anymore. I’d encourage Knapper to build on a lot of the good work already done in the transfer market, but I wouldn’t be against signing a couple of players who are ready at this level from the get-go, if finances allow.

Nathan: If Josh Sargent goes, good luck finding a striker of his age boasting all his attributes who can score 15-20 goals a season for under £20m! Maybe he already has (in Ante Crnac, but it seems a bit of a stretch at this stage)…Until then, it needs to start from the back – two new centre-halves and a goalkeeper if, as anticipated, Angus is departing.

Jon: A keeper with the ability to play out effectively from the back while also being fairly competent at shot-stopping, please and thank you. It has felt like the pace of our build-up play can be dictated by the keeper, and neither Gunn nor Long seem to have grasped they need to be quicker at it this season.

Matthew: Keeping as many of Sarge, Sainz and Núñez is step one. Sorting the back four. And maybe getting around the finally replacing Skipp would be nice.

What do you hope to see from the rest of the season?

Adam: A heavier preference for youth over experience. More chances for the likes of Schwartau and Wright over Sørensen and McLean, as well as McConville over Duffy — that is an absolute must at centre-back, as we won’t have a better time to blood him. I think we know by now that Duffy isn’t somebody you want to be building a team or culture around. We’re a better side than our league position currently suggests, so I’m hopeful of finishing the season in the top 10. I’ve never seen being in the promotion race as a priority this season — the club has to have stronger foundations if it is ever to try and compete at Premier League level again and at the moment it is far too soon. Even next season might be.

Jon: Let the players who will be part of The Project next season play. Give the likes of McConville and Schwartau the minutes they need to really find their feet in the Championship, so they can hit the ground running in the promotion campaign of 2025/26.

Paul: No goals from Josh Sargent, so he goes off the radar.

Matthew: We need to avoid fizzling out. Another stretch like the last eight games, and the mood music going into the summer will be bordering on toxic. We haven’t been too far off it, so 12 points or so has to be the goal.

Nathan: If we take the lead in a game, to firmly take control of it, in and out of possession. I just want us to prove we have got a level of grit and nastiness to us. We also need to prioritise giving game time to Oscar Schwartau, Jacob Wright, Ruairi McConville, Lucien Mahovo et al. Start getting into good habits now, because while there will be plenty of departures, these youngsters are our investments and will be a huge determining factor as to whether this project succeeds or not.

Cameron: We all know that this was a longer-term project. That being said, we need to continue to see progress towards the goal of a team capable of mounting a sustained promotion challenge in the next couple of years.

Ben: Some signs of progression, maturity, ingenuity; and no, playing badly for 75 minutes but somehow winning 4-1 doesn’t count. That and squirrels… lots more squirrels.

Nick: Some sort of major off-field drama always keeps things spicy. I am looking over at Shane Duffy to cause some sort of social media storm. Also, Ipswich’s big relegation day will be a good day. Living down here as I do, and having to put up with all sorts of shit this season ranging from Kieran McKenna mannequins and Ed Sheeran adverts wherever you look, I am going straight down to the shop to get a bag of cans as soon as it is confirmed.