West Ham thrashing epitomises Norwich City’s identity crisis

There was a sea of yellow and green at Carrow Road on Sunday afternoon, but rather than fans donning replica shirts, it was the colour of thousands of empty seats.

Norwich City’s 4-0 defeat at the hands of West Ham summed up their season, but perhaps in an even more exaggerated way than many would’ve predicted. The Hammers had only just returned from a heartbreaking defeat away at Bundesliga side Eintracht Frankfurt that ended their incredible run in the Europa League, and fans were expecting them to be both mentally and physically exhausted.

It didn’t take long to find out that that wasn’t the case. David Moyes’ side took the lead after just 12 minutes, as Saïd Benrahma’s deflected effort bobbled underneath goalkeeper Tim Krul. 18 minutes later, it was 2-0, as a mix-up between Krul and right-back Max Aarons allowed Michail Antonio to prod the ball into an empty net. The boos had begun well before the half-hour mark in Norfolk.

West Ham wrapped up the win before half-time, as Norwich players flocked to defend a throw in down the right flank, leaving the middle of the pitch totally exposed for Jarrod Bowen to square the ball to Benrahma, who rifled the ball past Krul in first-half stoppage time.

Many of the supporters who hadn’t left at the interval did 20 minutes after the restart. The Canaries improved with the introduction of Lukas Rupp and debutant Tony Springett, but eventually fell 4-0 behind after VAR penalised Jacob Sørensen for a hand-ball in the penalty area.

Lanzini was chosen to take it, dispatching a low, powerful shot into the back of the net, sending Krul the wrong way.

The final 25 minutes were arguably the worst, as West Ham understandably passed the ball around their team for the rest of the match. Norwich couldn’t lay a glove on them, and that was made worse by the fact that the Hammers never left third gear. The lethargic tempo at which the game concluded wouldn’t even pass for a pre-season friendly.

The full-time whistle was met by deafening boos, the likes of which have rarely, if ever, been seen in the Premier League this season. The fact that Carrow Road was half-empty at this point makes that even worse.

The Canaries will only play one more game here this season, when they host Antonio Conte’s Tottenham Hotspur on the final day of the campaign.

The hope, or even the expectation, is that everything will change after that. Some players leave, others are signed to replace them. Norwich win promotion back to the Premier League, or even a third Championship title, and everything will once again be forgotten. Such is the life of a so-called ‘yo-yo club’, right?

But the reality could be much harsher than that. There’s never any guarantee of success in the second tier, which has been regularly labelled as one of the most competitive divisions in Europe. Even Norwich, a side with immeasurable Championship pedigree in recent years, can’t say for certain that they’ll be back in the top flight in 2023/24.

The lack of quality in the Canaries’ squad has often been highlighted, which is a fair comment to make. Much of the squad that failed in their previous Premier League season are still at the club, while the none of the new signings have hit the heights expected of them before the start of the campaign. In truth, this is still Daniel Farke’s team, despite the German boss leaving Norwich on 6th November 2021.

It can’t be forgotten that Dean Smith was appointed just nine days after Farke’s sacking, and the former Aston Villa manager was given no support in the January transfer window. But the underlying issue at Norwich isn’t the quality on the pitch, it’s the attitude of the players, the staff and the football club as a whole. Their clear identity crisis was ruthlessly exposed by West Ham, extinguishing any doubt about the severity of their current situation.

Even Moyes himself admitted that he was worried about how his side would cope mentally after the crushing midweek defeat in Germany, but claimed that they “could’ve scored as many as they wanted”. This exposes Norwich for what they are in the top flight: a free win, an easy three points and an escape route for a struggling team to overturn their dismal form.

West Ham had lost four league matches in a row before Sunday’s game, but a trip to Carrow Road not only allowed them to end that run, but also to record their biggest win of the season. Those who don’t beat Norwich often end up paying the price: Rafa Benitez (Everton), Claudio Ranieri (Watford) and Sean Dyche (Burnley) were all sacked by their respective clubs are losing to the Canaries this season.

That means that more than half of Norwich’s league wins this season have resulted in the opposing manager being fired. The Yellows have won just five of their 35 Premier League games this season, finding the back of the net just 22 times and conceding a whopping 75 goals in those matches.

But the reality is that they do have more quality than what they’ve shown on the pitch in the top flight this season. Before the start of the campaign, many considered Norwich’s squad to be strong enough to put up a fight in the relegation battle, and a considerable number tipped them to survive. They were ultimately relegated with four games to spare.

To some, that explains the lacklustre performance against West Ham, but the lack of effort that the players showed was the most concerning. This has, for many, been a consistent theme throughout the season, but Sunday’s defeat was the epitome. There was no intensity to Norwich’s game and they hardly ever pressed. The mistakes that led to the goal would be an embarrassment in the Championship, never mind the Premier League.

They registered just 36% possession and eight shots, only two of which were on target.

The club has a mental block, something that prevents them from performing in the top flight. Their mindset has echoed a small fish in a big pond, whereas Brentford, for example, have never adopted that mentality since they were promoted from the Championship via the playoffs. As it stands, the Bees have recorded the same number of points this season as Norwich and Watford, the two teams who finished above them last season, combined.

Their opening fixtures won’t have helped. The Canaries were always going struggle in their first four games, losing to Manchester City, Liverpool, Leicester City and Arsenal. Those defeats totally destroyed the relentless winning mentality that they had the previous season, and it would take them until 6th November to register a league victory. By that point, the decision had already been made to sack Farke.

That may come back to bite Norwich in the long run. Farke won two Championship titles in his three seasons in the second tier, and many would’ve backed him to win another promotion from the second tier if he’d been given the time to turn things around. The decision to part company with the German manager was made in order to give them a chance of surviving in the Premier League, which obviously hasn’t happened.

So Norwich will now face a Championship campaign without Farke, and instead with Smith, who has finished no higher than 5th in his four seasons as a manager of a second tier club. His one promotion came with Aston Villa, who at the time had far greater resources than the rest of the division. While parachute payments will help the Canaries, this is a totally different situation for their manager, and a much bigger risk for Norwich.

Perhaps it’ll all be fine, and Smith will reshape the club after relegation in the same way that Farke did. But, while Norwich have shown that they can consistently win games in the Championship, there’s little to prove that they can bounce back from defeats. When the Canaries lose one game, many more seem to follow. As the old proverb goes, “it never rains but it pours”.

That’s the biggest problem for Norwich. If that losing mentality continues into the Championship next season, then they’ll stand no chance of getting promoted. It’s a division where a single mistake can be fatal, and a poor run of form can totally destroy a team’s campaign.

Equally as important are the off-field issues. Norwich’s last relegation was somewhat masked by the pandemic and ‘Project Restart’, but there’s no excuse for their performances this season.

Fans are concerned that their side cannot compete at the top level while Delia Smith is in charge as they are significantly weaker financially than their opponents, while Sporting Director Stuart Webber has also come under fire for a number of poor signings and the comments that he made in his recent interview in The Times (paywalled).

The fans have now turned too, much more than in previous relegations. Some have started taking their anger out on players and staff, whether that be the supporters who shouted at Webber after the 3-0 defeat to Newcastle United at the end of April, or those who apparently followed Manchester United loanee Brandon Williams back to his home in Suffolk after Sunday’s loss to West Ham.

The stability that Norwich have been known for is long gone. This is a new, post-Farke era for the Canaries, but it remains to be seen as to whether it’ll be for the better or for the worse. Based on what we’ve seen so far, it’s the latter, and that’ll continue to be the case until the club manage to change their losing mentality. If they don’t, an immediate return to the Premier League will be nothing but a pipe dream.

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