MONDAY MARDLE: Is winning ugly or the “Norwich Way”? You make the choice.
I ended last week by quoting Liam Manning. that Norwich City was travelling. They are at a very different place this week than they were last, which is what a trip is all about. Two games away. Two victories. Just one scoreline. Watford was the first. After putting on a strong first half and taking a two-goal lead, City lost badly in the second half. held on but gave in. Well, you already know what I’m going to write about Portsmouth.
The “Norwich way” has been the subject of much hand-wringing throughout the years. playing football in an attractive way. playing the game in the “proper” manner. Is such pure vision what we want? Or are we willing to do whatever it takes to win? Now I can speak. It wasn’t a nice victory over Portsmouth. Both objectives were predetermined. It wasn’t flowing Farke-ball. However, there was a great sense of satisfaction when the last whistle blew.
I’m dozing off throughout the Portsmouth game because I was in a different time zone with an early start, not because I was bored, but rather because I was sleeping during the Carabao Cup victory. As always, The Full 90 saved my life, but when you already know the score, it’s never the same. But I saw Pompey in its entirety, with the hardly credible extra ten minutes of time, live. The fact that England managed to win was one aspect of the most recent Women’s Euro victory.That’s what City did on Saturday lunchtime. The home team would have won this game 4–2 last season. Under Thorup, the city was a delicate, brittle side. When you give up a goal, you can see the guys’ confidence ebbing away. The data from Saturday shows that the Class of 25 is composed of more robust materials. Vladan Kovacevic is the only one who does. The key to football is momentum. After he made a spectacular save at the near post, City doubled their lead with a throw-in at the other end.
The huge guy saved City’s bacon with another penalty save when the pendulum swung and Portsmouth was ahead. This simply postponed the Pompey comeback, of course, but in a match when every second mattered, that delay altered the outcome. Kovacevic appeared hesitant to leave his line in order to claim the high balls that were pelting his area against Millwall. Manning claimed after the game that Vlad and Tony Roberts had collaborated on this. The outcome? a performance against the barrage that was far more dominant.
These days, there are a tonne of statistics on the game. I’d like to see the weekend’s “time ball spent on the ground” stats. It was probably less than fifty percent. Sometimes the city was their deadliest enemy. They had some degree of control over the game in the first half, especially in midfield. They never looked the same after losing Marcelino Nunez immediately after the restart and Emi Marcondes at halftime. The defenders were in control of the game. The majority of the aerial battles were won by Jose Cordoba, Jacov Medic, and Harry Darling.
When the ball was pumped long to Josh Sargent at the other end, he consistently finished second best. City didn’t want to play the game that way. It took until the first minute of the extra ten minutes for them to gather themselves and resume passing down the grass. However, this is how they performed it. and appeared sturdy. Mirko Topic’s response was delayed by a quarter of a second, which led to the equaliser. He failed to close down, and Segecic scored from a distance through the throng.
Pompey, buoyed by the score, pushed forward and had a shot hit the bar, but Big Bad Vlad was far away. But City was stoic once more. They knuckled down and ended the game when the time extension was declared. The team has changed significantly in just seven days. It might include finding the ideal combination of players; at the moment, Nunez and Topic appear to be a more effective pairing than Jacob Wright and Topic.
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