Can Norwich find safety firing blanks?

 

Romilly Evans takes a look at the reasons and the manager behind the miscuing Canaries...

 

A riddle Stephen Fry can't unravel? A recipe Delia Smith can't follow? Both these high-profile supporters of Norwich City still look decidedly low-brow alongside their fellow fans at Carrow Road, as they toil in blind ignorance as to where have all the goals gone?

 

The Canaries have now scored once in their last five Premier League games. Throw in an unsavoury FA Cup exit to lowly Luton Town and it's one in six. Top-flight survival is all that remains for Norwich now this season. And while they are certainly not alone in that fate, their odds on plummeting into the dreaded drop zone are shortening by the day (currently trading at 8.0 to back).

 

The gaping black hole is pulling them closer to oblivion. And for all manager Chris Hughton may urge his players to get back on the bikes and pedal furiously, their gains towards safety are about as tangible as those made by Wile E Coyote attempting to evade a falling boulder, dislodged by one of his many Acme devices.

 

Hughton has yet to resort to such desperate mail-order solutions. But with the final transfer window now closed, it's too late to purchase any more dynamite strikers from the catalogue. He has to make do with what he's got.

 

Specifically, on recent evidence, the Norwich boss hasn't got a lot up front. But he did try to address this problem in the January sales, snaffling Argentine Luciano Becchio from Leeds and Sierra Leone's Kei Kamara from the MLS. Both forwards ostensibly failed to make an impact during Norwich's latest 0-0 snore-fest against Fulham but perhaps it's too early to judge.

 

While Kamara is short on match fitness, he at least provided an intimidating six-feet-three-inch frame that unsettled the opposition when he arrived as a late substitute. Primarily because the Cottagers' defence wasn't used to encountering trespassers in its final third. For his part, at six-feet-two, Becchio should only add to this new dimension of physicality and aerial ability. He was certainly in good heart at Elland Road.

 

However, such a threat is rendered listless without the oxygen of good service and Becchio was starved of it on his debut. Grant Holt's last-minute back spasms, coupled to the niggling hamstring of attacking midfielder Anthony Pilkington, shut down the two most creative avenues. That pair of playmakers was present during Norwich's last remotely edifying performance (1-1 at home to Tottenham when the team both scored and created) and should return from the treatment table in time for the Canaries' clash with Everton this Saturday.

 

In the meantime, Hughton has taken his players to training fields warmer in Abu Dhabi. Horseracing giant, Godolphin, was the first to exploit the Arabian sun for bringing horses out of their winter coats. And the Norwich manager will be hoping it works similar wonders for his own two-legged stable. Norfolk's wettest winter in recent records certainly wasn't helping his cause for getting in the required penalty-box drills. Still, as the level-headed veteran knows, you shouldn't build an ark just because it's raining.

 

Remember, it wasn't long ago - in fact, as recently as mid-December - that the Canaries were Europe's second-hottest team behind Barcelona. An unbeaten run of 11 matches had taken them out of the relegation debate. Yet they're already back in the discussion, sitting on a precarious perch six points above 18th-placed Reading. Two more games and their former streak could have garnered an unwanted symmetry: no league wins in 11 games.

 

Nevertheless, as Hughton himself says, "if you cannot win these games, you have to make sure you do not lose them." Although that may not be the right brand of fighting talk to rally the troops, it is true that Norwich have found a defensive backbone to make up for mislaying their offensive flair.

 

If Norwich can now rediscover their earlier net gains - likely with Holt and Pilkington leading the line - Hughton can still silence the Carrow Road doubters. Becoming their resident Head Chef and Renaissance Man may take a little longer.

 

But managers are only asked to manage. And the 54-year-old is doing exactly that.

 

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