Agree with all the above. People focusing on Knapper as the problem is all well and good (and I agree), but equally football is a game where - both in game and in management - a lot comes down to something that looks pretty close to luck. Sometimes, a simple change of manager can breathe fresh air and find a click between players that wasn’t there before. Especially when it is a club that isn’t obviously suffering from financial difficulty or major upheaval from a longstanding regime change. I also think the jury is still very much out on Crnac. He’s getting a lot of game time and also at a basic statistical level, he probably looks like he’s done OK for the cost.
That's assuming Darling would have still joined us if Manning wasn't here, which I doubt. Also kinda counters some peoples argument that Knapper's recruitment is ineffective.
-1 games We can’t score, we are easy to defend against, everyone plays with more energy than us, we cannot defend, we lack structure and we are conceding all the time, we also look vulnerable from set plays and in open play, especially when we try to play it out of the back - but we are not very good at hoofball either - and the players do not seem to understand each others’ movements. The crowd are also against the team and Manning, it’s the worst home matches start to a season ever. We are seeing other clubs sack managers now. I agree that Knapper is a huge part of the issue - but all the above points are manager responsibilities. What exactly is there to be positive about Manning?
I have been searching for confirmation he's been sacked. It's pretty unbelievable they wouldn't have already made up their minds that another home loss could not be accepted. It never feels acceptable to sack a manager so soon, but our home record is exceptional in a very not good way! Bah!
Well I’ve just read the extract from his post-match interview and I see Manning is now blaming his players, claiming they are not doing what he is instructing them to do. And also saying that he isn’t sure the structure of the squad is right. Even as the opposition manager (and not the only one this season) points to the extensive quality in the Norwich team.
I think that's part of the problem, I don't think Knapper has recruited players badly this summer: Kovacevic, Darling, Mattsson, Kvistgaarden, Topic are, in isolation, not bad players - but they feel like JHT players more than they suit Manning? The whole point of a Sporting Director should be continuity and an evolution of styles, not upheaval every time you change manager. It seems like the club had planned for a summer under JHT and just...never changed their plans? Under JHT, like early Farke, you could see what he was trying to do and there was a blueprint there, but was dealing with a squad with a large number of young players or those new to the league, and it was taking time to bed in. Then at the end wasn't helped by losing the dressing room and conflicting goals from senior management. But fundamentally, there was promise? And the summer recruitment actually did a good job of addressing the weaknesses in how we played under JHT. But rather than do what a sporting director should do and keep the direction, we've made a kneejerk change in playing style whilst the squad hasn't changed in the same direction? Manning has come in and tried to play with wing backs in a squad that doesn't have any, with Diallo, Fisher, Schlupp used there to mixed success, with really only Stacey suiting that role. It's baffling we ended up in that situation, Knapper and Manning just not on the same page? I think the most damning thing for Manning, and it's exactly what Bristol City fans have said, is that Manning's tactics rely on an error-free performance to stand a chance of points. We haven't rescued points in a single game that we've gone behind in this season, despite having the best striker in the Championship, fully fit and with a World Cup to aim for. It's embarrassing. Under Manning we're always going to be one moment of brilliance from the opposition, or one mistake from our back line, from a defeat. And the quality of this league is too high for that ever to be a serious route to promotion? (How reasonable you think comparing Burnley's tactics to Manning's is, it's not exactly been a common route to promotion in this league). The appointment makes no sense, the recruitment that followed is seriously questionable, and now Knapper/Manning have turned Carrow Road toxic. And there's no way Manning's tactics win that crowd back any time soon. Surely only one solution?
Perhaps the board didn't want to sack him because it was the anniversary of his son's death? Norwich need a manager who is adaptive and is good at getting a fit team. Norwich players are still simply not sit enough, they were out on their feet after the last game, getting cramp etc. They have a lack of leadership and creativity, far too many changes and rigidity that they must play one way, the best managers are adaptive to the needs of the game/ time and the players they have available to them at the time
