What’s up with that?
Much has been made of Norwich’s midfield in the first three games. The lack of a ‘CDM’ or central defensive midfielder has been decried by the fans and Farke has consistently mentioned the clubs desire to bring one in before the window closes — with Mathias Normann signing that bit of business is sorted.
After the Leicester game there many comments of ‘Gilmour isn’t a CDM/defensive midfielder’. This is contrary to the fact that when he first broke through at Chelsea it was playing in the same role he has been doing at Norwich, and in Tuchel’s 3–4–3 he would often be the deepest midfielder. So, Billy Gilmour is a central defensive midfielder, he just isn’t Oliver Skipp (as previous talked about here). Gilmour plays a more complete game than Skipp, who only at the end of the 20/21 season started to break further forward, and almost only focused on defensive work. Gilmour’s primary role for Norwich is to be the beginning of all attacks and direct the play (the director part being particularly relevant). His passing range is fantastic and his ability to hit switches from one side of the pitch with pace and accuracy is a large part of how Norwich are trying to build attacks and shift opposition defences. This role means he will often need to be higher up the pitch than the other two midfielders deployed in the 4–3–3 (or 4–1–4–1).
Football Manager and football tactic fans will recognise this role as the ‘Regista’ – which means Director in Italian (told you it was relevant).
Here is a handy guide to what a Regista’s role is for the uninitiated.
Where things are breaking down for Norwich is the lack of cohesion among the midfield 3. It is not the role of any one player to sit deep and break attacks, but it is a collective responsibility. In theory, this should be more solid that having one single player carrying out this role, but does open up greater potential for errors and being open to attacks on the transition. It should be said that Norwich being weak to attacks in the transition is nothing new, and has been a feature of all of Farke’s Norwich teams – which is slightly surprising as in Germany the transition is king, with many Budesliga teams focusing their attacks on this phase of play.
Even with Skipp in the team Norwich were vulnerable to the quick ball over the midfield into the channels (or even the centre of the pitch). Despite the much improved goals against column in 20/21, Norwich’s xGa (expected goals against) increased from 1.3 per game to 1.31 (according to WyScout). The improvement in the amount of goals conceded came through opposing teams not converting their chances as well as in 18/19 (and Krul’s much improved performances).
Leicester, who focus much of their play on counter attacks, were often able to completely bypass Norwich’s midfield with a simple ball over the top. Vardy’s pace and aggression meant he could harry Norwich’s defenders, or get in behind the advanced full backs.
The midfield three were often caught in no-man's land. Too high to protect the back line and too deep to apply pressure to the Leicester player on the ball. This gave the player time to lift their head up and pick a pass. The Norwich midfield line was often very straight, making it easy for balls to be played through them, especially into ‘Zone 14’ (see below).
How to fix this;
The simplistic answer is ‘sign a new player’ and while Norwich are in need of an additional player in central midfield, it will not be a magic bullet to Norwich’s problems. The problem is not so much personnel, but implementation. McLean and Lees-Melou both have the required attributes to play the box-to-box supporting roles to complement Gilmour as the central ‘Regista’.
As with all tactical/system issues, the solution is either to improve the players’ understanding of the system or change the system.
You’d hope with greater time to work with each other (this was the first time McLean, Gilmour and Lees-Melou all played together) a greater understand of their roles would develop. During the Leicester game it wasn’t uncommon to see one of the midfield three gesturing to the others to either push up higher, or drop deeper as they seemed to not all be on the same wavelength.
In the first half Norwich attempted a higher press on Leicester, maybe trying to exploit Leicester’s makeshift defensive pairing. However, the press was often poorly executed with not enough Norwich players committing high up and Leicester being able to play through it easily. The 2nd half saw Norwich revert to Farke’s preferred low/medium block and this lead to an improved performance, with fewer spaces for Leicester to exploit.
However, it seems unsustainable for Norwich to try low blocks in all games, as it can invite constant pressure and most Premier League teams will have the ability to create clear cut chances if given the time. Being able to press high seems crucial to Norwich’s survival.
While it is possible that Normann’s arrival will see him shifted to the central position and Gilmour moved to one of the other midfield positions. This though would seem to not get the most out of either player though. Normann is a box-to-box player who offered as much in attack for Rostov as he did in defence (Normann average 2 shots per game in Russia, more than Sargent would take at Bremen). Positionally, he operated mostly on the left of a midfield three but would also take on the deeper playmaking role in some matches. He could take on this role from Gilmour at Norwich, but has he has a much more attacking nature than the Scot, it could see gaps arise behind him.
Normann is not a magic bullet and fans need to avoid heaping expectation onto him, or assume he has to come and play like Skipp. In all likelihood he will challenge Lees-Melou and McLean for one of the box-to-box roles, while Gilmour remains at the base of midfield.
