The Canaries had a tricky season last time out and there were calls for Farke to go after losing 3-0 to Leeds but since then they’ve bounced back in style.
We’ve reached the halfway point of the Championship season, with 23 games played out of 46, neatly splitting the campaign up for Christmas.
What a turnaround it’s been for Norwich City, who only four months ago had lost their third game of the fledging season, a 3-0 home hammering by Leeds United.
Under Daniel Farke, the Canaries finished a mediocre 14th in the 2017-18 table, while after the loss to Marcelo Bielsa’s side in August, they were 17th in the standings.
Some fans at the time – understandably so perhaps – took to Twitter and called for the Norwich boss to go, but since then, they’ve won 13 league games and lost just one en route to second in the table, though they were top until Leeds ran out 3-2 winners over Aston Villa on Saturday.
The likes of Tim Krul, Teemu Pukki, Jordan Rhodes, Moritz Leitner and Emiliano Buendia have all bedded in well at Norwich following their summer arrivals, while three academy graduates – Jamal Lewis, Max Aarons and Todd Cantwell – have also featured under Farke.
The team’s style of play is also proving effective as well as pleasing to the eye, with possession-based football, short passes and high tempo, which the players are fully buying into with great results.
Ahead of the start of the campaign, the Guardian’s fan-led pre-season preview had Norwich fan Ian Hobbs suggest his side were “in a playoffs-at-best scenario” and would “just fall short of the top six”, so by those standards, the Canaries are definitely exceeding expectations.
With 14 wins so far, a 41-goal tally only bettered by two teams and a not-too-worrying 26 goals conceded, Norwich certainly have a good springboard upon which to build for the second half of the season, while it will be interesting to see if Farke can strike gold again in the January transfer window.
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