Saturday Night’s Alright for Fighting.

At least that’s what Sir Elton John taught us. The message didn’t seem to get through to Norwich City’s players at Watford. He’ll have to sing louder next time he plays a concert at Carrow Road. ‘Fight’ was just one of the qualities that Dean Smith bemoaned a lack of after his team’s second successive defeat.

Like most football clubs Watford are very proud of their history. Pictures and murals of their former owner are everywhere at Vicarage Road. Our commentary position was even housed in the Sir Elton John Stand.

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It was a different famous Watford supporter that I was thinking of after interviewing Dean Smith. Miles Jacobson may not be as famous as Sir Elton but, as a 40-year old man, I can definitely say he’s had a bigger impact on my life.

Jacobson was one of the creators of the Championship Manager series of computer games. I was exactly the right age to have plenty of spare time after school in the evenings and at weekends to devote to his particular version of Fantasy Football when it was released in the 1990s. The game has a cult status. It’s so compulsive that it has reportedly been cited as a factor in at least 35 divorce cases over the years.

The game has now evolved into ‘Football Manager’ and has such a detailed level of research that its database is often tapped into by clubs in the real world.

It’s probably been responsible for supporters of my generation believing we know far more about football tactics than we actually do. Neither Dean Smith nor Daniel Farke have ever asked for the secret as to how I took the Canaries into the Champions League in the game I started during the first lockdown.

Smith certainly has a real-life puzzle to solve over the next few weeks. He doesn’t even have the option of pressing CTRL, ALT, DELETE and starting a game again when his side goes 2-0 down at Watford.

If Saturday’s game underlined anything it was a lack of balance in the current Norwich City squad. It’s packed with players who are undoubtedly individually talented. There is a certain level of inconsistency which has to be tolerated at Championship level. Those who can perform to their best every week tend to stay in the Premier League.

Smith has a selection of players that he must find a way to get the best out of.

In Kieron Dowell, Todd Cantwell, Aaron Ramsey and Danel Sinani he has a group that aren’t midfielders in the old-fashioned sense. Neither are they natural wingers or out and out strikers. There’s an argument to say that Marcelino Nunez and Gabriel Sara could also fall into the same category but it’s early days in their Canary careers. All of these players ideally exist in that mysterious area of the pitch that has become widely referred to as ‘the number 10 role’. The position from which Wes Hoolahan, James Maddison and Emi Buendia have been allowed to create their yellow and green works of art over the last decade.

It’s certainly useful to have a player or two in the squad who can flourish in that role. It is however a luxury that relies on having the right team around them. The midfield dirty work, the wing play (defensively as well as offensively) and the business of actually finishing off chances in the box still needs to be taken care of.

Dean Smith’s attempts to unlock some of that creative potential but also cover all bases has seen him play some players away from their favourite positions. Josh Sargent, an £8 million striker, is usually found on the wing while Dowell and Nunez at various points during the first half on Saturday struggled to keep up with Watford winger Ismaila Sarr, who is probably the best player in the division.

For all the criticism aimed at Dean Smith it’s worth remembering that tussles with a big, physical Watford squad were regularly a challenge too far for Daniel Farke’s Canaries. The German lost all five of his meetings with the Hornets against several different managers across the Premier League and Championship. A lack of athleticism is an ongoing issue in the Norwich City squad that still hasn’t been properly solved.

Something that the introduction of Isaac Hayden as an immediately steadying influence in midfield at half-time underlined. A player who was nowhere near fully fit was able to make a difference by just doing the simple things well.

Despite all of those lost hours on Championship Manager I don’t have the answer that might work in the real world.

The last word as I Ieft Vicarage Road on Saturday came from the main man. ‘I Guess That’s Why They Call it The Blues’ was ringing out from the pub opposite the club shop. Or at least a version of it. It was either an Elton John karaoke night or the great man was actually in there and was desperately struggling to recapture the form he showed at Carrow Road earlier in the year. Dean Smith knows the feeling.


Well played, Harry

It’s a decade since Harry Kane was struggling to prove how good he was going to be during his loan at Norwich City.

That fruitless spell has gone down in Canary folklore. Disbelief has given way to an amused acceptance as Norwich fans have watched him become the best striker at Spurs, then in England and now one of the best in the world.

Football players are not known for their humility. An unfailing self-belief is perhaps one of the qualities most needed to succeed at the very top.

It was very refreshing to see Kane acknowledge his City struggles in a video that was released last week. An animation, voiced by the man himself, tells the story of his career from being released as a youngster by Arsenal to where he is now.

Kane is launching a foundation aimed at supporting young people’s mental health. For someone of his standing to be prepared to talk openly about the times that things didn’t go well is significant.

The most poignant moment was the bit where he’s sat all by himself in the dressing room at Carrow Road with his head down. “There was self-doubt but I didn’t want anyone feeling sorry for me,” Harry says at that point. You’d have to have a heart that was harder than a Grant Hanley challenge not to be moved by it.