Norwich City

Matthew Soakell
Fan writer

Image source, Rex Features

Now the dust has settled - although I'm not sure we'll be able to accept last Sunday's result for a little while yet - it would seem Norwich City is as fractious as it was in the days leading up to Dean Smith's dismissal and later David Wagner's.

As fans, we've found ourselves in an endless cycle of positivity, mediocrity and then staunch negativity since Daniel Farke was dismissed. The trouble we now have is some fans are apathetic. This, of all of the things, is the most dangerous for the upper echelons at Carrow Road.

Right now the biggest question marks surround Ben Knapper, who will have led back-to-back failed appointments should Liam Manning be relieved of his duties any time soon.

For what it's worth, I didn't see the appointment of Johannes Hoff Thorup as a failure but saw the sacking as a failure and a poorly timed one at that: a premature decision that pulled the rug completely from underneath the so-called project that Mark Attanasio had tweeted about only weeks earlier.

Jumping the gun so soon on a young head coach, whose side were the second highest scorers in the league last season and created more chances than most in the league, showed JHT had a style of play he was implementing but perhaps needed some patience and time to perfect. "Tighten up the defence," I thought, "and we'll be a real force this season." It wasn't to be.

At the second international break of the season, we find ourselves languishing in 19th place, and fans are one part frustrated to one part apathetic - at least from the various group chats I'm a part of and the sentiments I've seen on social media.

Defeat at Portman Road has fuelled the frustration further - turning many angry - and so the challenge Mr Attanasio now has is whether he keeps Knapper for the entirety of this season or whether he boldly rips another project up and resets the club further.

Do we need yet another restart and new head coach? I don't think so. I think that's a dangerous spiral to go down and end up like Watford - who have made yet another managerial change and where manager of the month isn't an award but closer to contractual status.

We need togetherness, we need leadership and a hierarchy who will come out and say, "We know things are not where we or you as fans want them to be right now, but trust us, we'll turn it around." Doubt or silence won't do from the top - they need to be bold and aim to unite.

At risk of being labelled a happy clapper, which I'm absolutely not, the slippery cycle of managerial changes is something that can lead to a poor culture and an unattractive club for future managers and rarely leads to sustained success.

For this reason, let's get behind Manning for as long as he's at the club, irrespective of whether it's the next two months or two years.

Hear more from Matthew at Where Canaries Walk., external

In the wake of Sunday's East Anglia derby defeat, The Scrimmage spoke to BBC football reporter Nick Mashiter about the situation at Norwich City, and the pressure on head coach Liam Manning and sporting director Ben Knapper.

"Ipswich are probably one of the best, if not the best side in the Championship and started to hit their straps a few weeks ago, so it probably wasn't a big surprise, the result on Sunday, as much as it's going to be a disappointment for all Norwich fans," Mashiter said.

"But there's no panic stations, nobody's pressing the big red button to hit the alarm bells at Colney at the minute.

"There doesn't seem to be any rush to make a change, it certainly looks like the plan is to stay the course.

"At Norwich, they believe they have enough talent to be able to make this work, Liam Manning is planning to be here for the long-term and from the noises we're hearing, that is not changing from anybody above him."

Sunday's 3-1 defeat at Portman Road was Norwich's first in the derby for 16 years and left them 19th in the Championship ahead of their 18 October meeting with Manning's former club Bristol City.

"Liam Manning, other people at the club, they're not naive, they know what industry they are in... they haven't done well enough, they are not ignorant of that fact at all.

"They came in, Liam Manning and the coaches, to a club which was definitely not a ready-made machine. This is a team that was on the slide last season. So for them not to hit the level this season is probably not a surprise.

"There's a bit of a hangover from the players that were involved last season and maybe that's affected the new guys because there isn't a lot of Championship experience (among them), so that means a player like Harry Darling has had to come in to a new club and be one of the main men straight away."

Image source, Getty Images

Norwich City defender Kellen Fisher has been called into the England U21 squad for their forthcoming Euro 2027 qualifiers against Moldova and Andorra.

The 21-year-old has been added to Lee Carsley's party after Newcastle's Lewis Hall pulled out through injury and Manchester City full-back Nico O'Reilly moved up to England's senior squad.

Fisher has been capped at England U20 level and was involved with the under-21s for their 2-0 win in Kazakhstan last month but did not feature in the game.

England, the current European champions, visit Moldova on Friday before hosting Andorra at Derby's Pride Park three days later.

Marc Webber
BBC 5 Live at Portman Road

Image source, Getty Images

Listen back to the post-derby Canary Call on BBC Radio Norfolk, and three minutes and 46 seconds in, host Rob Butler asks the very question everyone involved in Norwich City should be asking right now.

"Can you see why fans will look above [manager Liam Manning] and say, he hasn't got the players, he hasn't got the tools?"

People will point the finger at manager Manning for that first derby defeat in 16 years. He is not blameless, for sure.

But, as former owner Delia Smith will tell you, it takes more than one ingredient to make the perfect recipe. And eyes must turn up and down from Manning's position to ask why it is going so wrong for a huge club like Norwich City?

Aside from the 188-second response from Oscar Schwartau to equalise, you rarely felt someone else in yellow would turn effort into endeavour.

Add to that the unhappiness from fans being moved from their lifelong Carrow Road seats as part of a stadium redevelopment plan, and I left Portman Road just asking myself one question.

What is going on at Norwich City these days?

Image source, PA Media

Norwich City wing-back Jack Stacey says his side must find a way to become tougher to score against following the East Anglia derby defeat at Ipswich Town.

The Canaries went down 3-1 at Portman Road - their first loss in 15 matches between the two sides since 2009.

"To concede the third goal and how we reacted after that is probably where the frustration is," Stacey told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"We're probably not making it hard enough for teams to score against us. If you're going to concede soft goals, you're going to make it very hard for yourselves to win games.

"We're looking forward to the (international) break to work on certain things and look towards the next game in two weeks' time, (when) we're going to be in a better position than we are now.

"We're not where we want to be at the moment and people are judged on results at the end of the day.

"At the start of the season, that was our goal, to get into the play-offs - it's very early in the season but we have to look at it now, there's no grey area, if we're not up there, it is underachieving, yes."

Norwich will be at home to head coach Liam Manning's former club Bristol City when they return to action on Saturday, 18 October.

Image source, Rex Features

Liam Manning believes his relationship with Norwich fans is "recoverable" but he understands why they are on his back at present.

Sunday's 3-1 derby defeat at Ipswich was a fifth loss in nine Championship games, with Manning's side also having lost all five games at Carrow Road in all competitions.

City are two points above the drop zone, with eight points from nine matches, and asked about his position coming under scrutiny so early on, Manning told BBC Radio Norfolk: "It's where the world is at in this industry, unfortunately.

"When you look at the back half of last season, the change in the summer, where everything's at, we've got a huge amount of work to do. I'm under no illusion.

"I'd have loved to hit the ground running, played some beautiful football and won games, and really built a rapport with the fans, but we haven't done it."

Manning says he'd experienced similar pressure early on at Bristol City and said: "All I can control is keeping my head down and keep working.

"We've acquired a load of talent but we're now in the process of trying to build a team. It does take time, but whilst you're doing that you do have to win games and that's what we're not doing.

"You have to find a way of grinding out results to keep people on board and we haven't done that well enough.

"If we win games the relationship with the fans is recoverable. I had it early on at Bristol. Rightly the fans are on us, we have to accept it, but the only way to change it is by delivering, and that's what I'm focusing on."

Manning said the East Anglian derby loss had hurt him as much as it had the fans, adding: "I'm gutted, disappointed. Basic errors cost us again, which has been a little bit of a pattern so far this season.

"If you look at it outside the goals, I didn't think there was a huge amount in the game."

"When I went back eventually and played against Norwich at Carrow Road, I without a doubt received the full wrath of it."

Former Ipswich and Norwich goalkeeper Andy Marshall has some advice for new Tractor Boys signing Marcelino Nunez as he prepares to face his former club in the East Anglian derby on Sunday (12:00 BST).

Listen to Marshall's full thoughts on BBC Sounds.

This will be the 93rd league meeting between these East Anglian rivals with the first game in Division Three South ending in a 5-0 win for Ipswich in September 1946.

But it's Norwich who have had the better of things in more recent times and have not been beaten by the Suffolk side in 16 years.

• Ipswich Town have lost just one of their past seven league matches (W2 D4), this after losing five of their six matches prior to this run (W1).

• Norwich City are unbeaten in their past five league matches on the road (W2 D3), their longest unbeaten run away from home since April 2023 – also a sequence of five (W2 D3).

• Ipswich Town are winless in their past 12 league matches against Norwich City (D5 L7), with their last victory coming back in April 2009 – a 3-2 victory under Jim Magilton.

• Norwich City are unbeaten in their past six away league matches against Ipswich Town (W3 D3), while they've found the net in each of their past 14 trips to Portman Road.

• Azor Matusiwa leads Ipswich Town in the Championship this season for tackles (18), interceptions (13) and possession won (37), whilst only Jacob Greaves (46) has won more duels for the club than him this term (43).

Phil Daley
Sports Editor, BBC Norfolk

Image source, Getty

Norwich City head to Ipswich Town on Sunday (12:00 BST) for the first East Anglian derby of the season.

The Canaries lost 1-0 to West Brom at Carrow Road on Wednesday night.

Head coach Liam Manning has been speaking to the media in the build-up to the game against Ipswich. Here are some of the key points:

• Kenny MacLean has reacted positively to treatment on a back injury, which saw him substituted in the West Brom game.

• Reflecting on the West Brom defeat, Manning says there were positives and signs of improvement, but he needs wins.

• What would it mean to win at Portman Road? "Everything - I'm desperate to, we have to go there, be brave and give it everything on the pitch," said Manning.

• On Marcelino Nunez: "It's more about us, you need to stay calm and composed in these moments. We've done our work on the whole squad and not just create a plan for him."

• "Every game at this level is tough - the margins are so fine, you can be dominant and lose and vice versa."

• "Fans on the road the fans have been amazing, there's been plenty of energy from them."

You can listen to full live commentary on Ipswich Town v Norwich City with BBC Radio Norfolk on FM and DAB from 11:00 on Sunday.

Norwich City defender Lucien Mahovo believes the Canaries produced enough to win the game in Wednesday's 1-0 Championship defeat by West Bromwich Albion.

A single goal from Albion's Josh Maja in the 20th minute was enough to separate the two sides, leaving Norwich without a point at home this season.

"It's frustration really, I feel like that's been one of our better performances and that we definitely deserved to get something out of [it]," second-half substitute Mahovo told BBC Radio Norfolk.

"We had some massive chances and he [Albion keeper Josh Griffiths] made some big saves, he played well, but we really need to be scoring them.

"There was enough to win the game for sure - yes, we could be more dominant, we could have more chances, but from recent performances that's definitely an improvement."

Norwich have had a disappointing start to the season at Carrow Road having lost each of their five home games so far.

"It's on us really, we're the ones that have got to go out and perform and figure out where we're going wrong - he [boss Liam Manning] can give us as much help as he wants but ultimately it's down to us so we have got to be better," Mahovo added.

Manning will lead his side out for derby day on Sunday against Ipswich at Portman Road, and Mahovo says the magnitude of the occasion is not lost on the squad.

"Everyone in the changing room knows how big that game is," he added.

"I'm fairly new here but I know we haven't lost [to Ipswich] in 16 years so we don't want to be the squad that goes and breaks that record. We're definitely hungry and we've got that fire to go and win."

Listen to the full interview and more on BBC Sounds.

Norwich City head coach Liam Manning is not feeling any pressure despite his side losing all five home games this season.

"Ultimately I've got to win games, I'm quite clear on that. I can't control those things - my head's focusing on the lads making sure that we haven't got time to feel sorry for ourselves," Manning told BBC Radio Norfolk.

The Canaries lost 1-0 to West Bromwich Albion on Wednesday night despite dominating possession and having more shots on target.

"[After] the control we had, the chances we created, to lose is a tough one to take because I actually thought the performance was good," Manning continued.

"I thought we created some really good opportunities, I think we just didn't take them - we weren't clinical enough. We weren't ruthless enough."

Norwich have lost all five home games in all competitions but are yet to lose on the road. Their dire home form means they sit 19th in the Championship.

"We want to make [Carrow Road] a difficult place to come. I thought we did that without having that edge in both boxes [against West Brom]," Manning said.

Norwich City will visit Ipswich Town on Sunday (12:00 BST) for the East-Anglian derby, when they will aim to continue their strong away form.

"In these moments you have to fight, you have to dig in. We're developing resilience and a toughness because of the period we're in," Manning said.

"We understand how important the game is on Sunday and we have to use that as fire and fuel to make sure that we're ready to perform and win."

Listen to the full interview with Liam Manning and more Canaries on Sounds.