Watford 3-2 Norwich City: Paddy Davitt Championship pointers

1. That’s entertainment

Too much as it turned out for Norwich City after a drab, if effective, Championship win mined in gruelling circumstances against QPR.

The perfect start to this follow up at Vicarage Road with Danny Batth’s header and Hwang Ui-jo’s fearsome hit putting David Wagner’s side two goals up with 12 minutes gone.

But the defensive frailty they had apparently eradicated with tough talking and hard yards at Colney resurfaced.

Two cheap concessions inside three minutes pegged then back, and then with the game for the taking Yaser Asprilla rifled home from close range to inflict an eighth league defeat in the last 12 for the Canaries.

Those who stayed behind at the final whistle vented their frustration towards the players, who attempted to show their appreciation for the backing. Wagner wisely did not subject himself to that audience.

This is a season going nowhere under a head coach who is seemingly incapable of drawing a line in the sand and finding the elements that underpinned an unbeaten start to the season. That feels an eternity ago. A bit like the current lull waiting for a decisive move from those above to inject some life into this squad, and this campaign.

2. Vote conservative

At 2-2 and this game in the balance midway through second half, Wagner turned to his bench and introduced Liam Gibbs for Adam Idah. While Borja Sainz remained sat in his seat.

Therein lies the problem for this City head coach among a growing constituency of Norwich fans. Some of whom in the away end at Vicarage Road drew uncharitable comparisons with Daniel Farke, as inhibited Norwich retreated and Ashley Barnes cut an increasingly isolated figure.

A player who himself started from the bench after his emergency 90 minute shift on Saturday, following his return from a knee ligament injury. The experienced frontman was pressed into early service once more when Hwang had to make way after his stunning intervention.

Not for Wagner any thought to carry the fight and regain the initiative at the start of the second period. More of the same, more of the tried, trusted and failing. Onel Hernandez and Christian Fassnacht were again preferred in wide areas.

Sainz eventually appeared in the 83rd minute, and conjured a goalbound shot Ben Hamer acrobatically tipped over within moments of his belated arrival.

But it was all too reactive, back foot thinking and symptomatic of much of this sad, slow downward spiral under a head coach who on a human level retains plenty of credit for how he has attempted to navigate Norwich into less choppy waters.

But this limp offering was again a long way short of the brand of football Ben Knapper mapped out as his preferred methodology upon arriving in post. At some point in short order the two have to align or part ways.

3. Samba shuffle

Few better Championship creators than Gabby Sara. Retreat purely to the numbers that matter and his two first half assists at Vicarage Road took his personal tally in 18 league appearances to five goals and eight assists.

A level of productivity that merits a platform far more salubrious than toiling in the middle ranks in a drifting side.

That may come soon enough for the Brazilian midfielder if he continues on this trajectory. One hopes not as soon as the January transfer window for those of a Norwich persuasion.

In a team that is painting by numbers he is the creative touchstone.

But his defensive failings were underlined again for Watford’s opener, when Ismael Kone – a player coveted by Stuart Webber back in the day – veered infield and lashed a low swerving strike beyond George Long’s despairing dive.

There were other numerous examples of Sara’s positional struggles parked on the edge of his own penalty box as Watford’s wide players moved through the gears, and City as a collective started to fray in the face of the Hornets’ smooth rotations once they had wiped out a two-goal deficit with Sara again the architect.

We saw on Saturday for the QPR winner his level of technical proficiency with the ball at his feet is considerably higher than most of his team mates.

There was another example of his threat from deeper-lying positions shortly after the interval when he chipped the perfect ball at the feet of Dimi Giannoulis who was unable to find Idah. But with each passing shift the evidence grows on both sides of the ledger.

Could Sara be the answer further forward in a position of need? Freeing the midfielder of the onerous defensive responsibility that appears to rest uneasily on his talented shoulders?

Or does that merely spare Wagner another fruitless quest for a specialist who can offer the protection that is clearly not Sara’s stock-in-trade.

4. The big pitch

Mark Attanasio’s presence in the Vicarage Road directors’ box was the first of two public appearances scheduled this week for the person who increasingly feels like the kingmaker in the future direction of travel at Norwich City.

Attanasio will be sat alongside fellow joint minority shareholders Delia Smith and Michael Wynn Jones on Thursday evening at Carrow Road, for what is a sobering set of accounts presented to shareholders.

The debt refinancing package that underpinned the growing scale of borrowing - since ejection from the Premier League in 2021 - now tied to Attanasio’s Norfolk Holdings group laid bare the growing reliance on funds from across the pond.

The timescale for any significant transition of power within the Norwich boardroom may still be in lock step with the wishes of the club’s custodians, but what Attanasio says to shareholders, and gathered media, in the Carrow Road lounges on Thursday evening may carry far greater ramifications than what is currently unfolding on the pitch under Wagner.

City fans crave a sense the plates are moving, and there is renewed energy and dynamism to what lies over the horizon. The growing influence of the Milwaukee Brewers’ figurehead feels like a catalyst.  

Knapper’s recent arrival is one clear sign of change, but it is the evolving situation above the new sporting director that holds the key to what this looks, and feels like, both in the here and now and the coming years.

Attanasio’s messaging on Thursday will be scrutinised for every clue going in a bid to sketch some colour between the lines from a figure who, thus far, has been happy to remain in the shadows.