Norwich need to sort defence or face relegation

I don’t care who you are. I don’t care who you’re playing. There is no excuse for A) letting a 3-1 lead slip and B) equalising in stoppage time, having messed up your 3-1 lead, then proceeding to make a hash of things and concede a last gasp winner.

If Norwich City sort out their defence, they will stay in the Premier League. If Norwich City do not sort out their defence, they will be relegated. A topsy-turvy thriller for the neutral, and a completely horrific experience for myself. Premier League going forwards, Sunday League at the back. Norwich’s 5-4 defeat to Liverpool was gut wrenching, bonkers, infuriating and something I’m still enduring flashbacks to.

Steven Naismith and Dieumerci Mbokani combining has the makings of a partnership in the vein of Ant and Dec, Laurel and Hardy, Batman and Robin… It looked good. In a few weeks, it could well be great. Timm Klose is my Luke Skywalker. A New Hope. The one to bring balance to the Norwich City backline. To destroy the Galactic Empire of incompetence we’re blighted by. A couple more new faces wouldn’t be a bad thing either…

Naismith showed real quality on his Norwich debut.

I could try and tell Alex Neil what to do to sort things out, but I trust the guy with every fiber of my being. He’s young. He’s talented. He will go on and achieve great things in football management. But he’s no fool, he knows what’s up, he’s pledged changes, he’s after a couple more signings so for sure, we have a big 10 days ahead at Carrow Road.

By the time Norwich play again, the transfer window will have closed and it’ll be four damn gruelling months ahead of us. It’s not going to be easy. There’ll be highs. There’ll be lows. It’ll be a rollercoaster of good times and bad. But we stick together. We fight as one. We win together. We lose together. These boys gave us one of our best ever days last season. Wembley. Neil was heralded as a genius. Everyone was a hero.

They are also damn capable of being a very good Premier League side. In light of Saturday’s defeat, it’s easy to make knee jerk reactions, in the immediate aftermath I sure as hell was emotional, but I’m calm. I’m relaxed. And I am telling you, Norwich City are not far away. Naismith appears to be a piece of quality we’ve been missing, a leader out there, someone to get stuck in and make things happen while bringing the best out of Mbokani, another bit of quality we’ve got, in the process.

Timm Klose? Swiss international. Wolfsburg. I know my Swiss footballers (having lived there for six years, and continuing to still follow all things Switzerland) and he’s an upgrade on what we’ve got. Alex Tettey was sorely missed. An unsung hero doing a vital job. There is real talent in this City side. The bits of quality can be the glue that holds this complicated, inconsistent puzzle of a side together. The sparks to ignite a raging fire of consistency and half decent football.

Fifteen football matches left. Time for highs, lows, uncomfortable evenings, happy ones and a hell of a lot of sweat. There’s a big fight ahead.