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"Happy Lovely Boy" ACN Pod 99

The Along Come Norwich Podcast
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54 Plays2 years ago
Marcelino Nunez is Chilean football expert Adam Brandon's favourite player, and Norwich City have signed him, so here's a podcast where we ask Adam Brandon why we should all be so excited. We also review the Cardiff disappointment and make some guarantees for the upcoming Wigan game.
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Transcript

Introduction and Guest Welcome

00:00:22
Speaker
Welcome to the Long Come Knowledge podcast. Chocolate block with chums and chortles as we cherry pick the choicest chunks of chat we can chuck at you about our new Chilean chap. Chilean football expert Adam Brandon joins us and everything else opinion expert Edie is also with us. First up, he's here and he's perfect. That's just the club account put it.

Insights on Marcelino Nunez

00:00:44
Speaker
Adam, talk to us about Nunez. Did I move my nose enough when I pronounced it? Yeah, I think
00:00:51
Speaker
I think that was just fine, Tom. So Marcelino Nunes, what do you want to know? He's been playing regular football now pretty much since sort of when Chidi and football sort of restarted after the pandemic, which was around sort of August 2020. So he's had, I would say, two years of regular football in the top league in Chidi.
00:01:20
Speaker
in terms of the standing of the top league in Chile. I would say the technical level is not too far off sort of championship standard, but the worry would be the difference in intensity between the Chilean league and the championship. The championship is much faster, much more intense, and I think
00:01:50
Speaker
that would probably be the main reason. I would say that he will definitely need a few weeks to settle, I would say. He's obviously going to need that off the pitch anyway. He can't speak the language. He's never been out of Santiago in his life, apart from playing football matches. He did have a
00:02:19
Speaker
I was reading the other day that in his teens he did have a short experience in both Northern Ireland. And I think he might have said Manchester as well. He briefly visited in his teens. But he definitely was in Northern Ireland to play the Milk Cup tournament in Northern Ireland a few years ago. That was for his school team, I think it was. So, yeah.
00:02:50
Speaker
He's pretty green, I would say, and that would be a slight concern as well.
00:03:00
Speaker
So the intensity element that you mentioned, do you mean in comparison with the leagues, it's the speed or the physicality tempo intensity? Yeah, tempo more than anything like the time, the amount of time on the ball that you get. I think in the championship, defensive midfielders are going to be a lot quicker at closing him down than they were.
00:03:30
Speaker
here. I would say that would be one of his biggest challenges that he has to overcome. What I will say is that certainly in his first year and one of the things that really caught my eye even when he was at youth level was that he could play one or two touch. He didn't need loads of touches on the ball. I would say that over time maybe he's
00:04:01
Speaker
The bigger the role he's had in the Kotoloka side, the more touches he's got and he's got more confidence to go on dribbles and stuff. But if the instruction to him is just keep it simple, just keep the ball on the move, I'm pretty confident he can do that successfully.
00:04:21
Speaker
We know we've got a midfielder who likes to point and shout and kind of cajole. Edie, from what you've seen of our early season and obviously knowing the squad hasn't changed very much in terms of who we've played on the pitch so far hasn't changed at all.

Nunez's Playing Style and Role

00:04:38
Speaker
Have you got any particular, is there a particular box that you are hoping that Nunez is going to tick that effectively you want Adam to reassure or warn us about?
00:04:51
Speaker
The quality, quite possibly, looking at what I've seen so far is a very deep, unbridled and innocent joy. And I think if we've got like a little weary team and maybe, you know, they're a bit down in the dumps, maybe they're a little bit lost. I mean, he just looked like he was about to say football is life. Well, yeah.
00:05:18
Speaker
This is another reason why I've just always been drawn to this player in Chile, to be honest, because, you know, he, he does play football with a smile on his face. Um, I did, I did, I did joke to somebody yesterday when I, when I said that to him, um, I'm sure the Cara road crowd after a two nil defeat to Robert home or something, we'll soon beat that out of him.
00:05:43
Speaker
But, um, yeah, but generally, yeah, he's, uh, yeah, he's, he's such sort of a positive, um, happy guy, a little bit timid, very, very humble though. Um, and yeah, he's, uh, he's quite religious from, from all the interviews that I've, I've watched with him as well. Um, and he says that that, that and his family are the, like two of the things that keep him really grounded.
00:06:11
Speaker
in sort of the dressing rooms he's been in before, both the Katolica dressing room and the Chidi national team dressing room. He's been
00:06:21
Speaker
you know, that player that the older players, you know, really like to look out for, look after a bit. Scruss is there. Yeah. Yeah. We're losing 2-0 to Rotherham, we'll keep anyone grounded. Punt, same question to you, Punt, you know, ask AB something that you want. Yeah, I mean, I'm slightly less emotional than ED when it comes to, you know, kind of these attachments and what I... Yeah, exactly. I'm really interested, I guess, Adam, in your opinion, because you've seen
00:06:51
Speaker
so much more of him than probably anyone else supporting Norwich City Football Club. It suggested via the journalists involved that actually it could be a number eight, it could be a number 10. I think he's maybe played a bit of his club football out wide when he was coming through. He certainly occupied those positions. And I think we'll come on to this, but my fear about Norwich this season is about the, I think it's most people's fears, is the supply line to tame a Pookie. Like how
00:07:21
Speaker
How much do you think he's going to be able to fill the void that, say, is still a gaping hole that Emmy Buendia vacated? And I don't want to make the lazy, right, he's an Emmy replacement comparisons, but I've already almost convinced myself that he's going to be the next Emmy, so I may as well make them anyway.
00:07:38
Speaker
Yeah, I would steer people away from the Emmy Buendia comparisons as much as possible, because they're not particularly similar players. I mean, they do share some attributes, but in terms of the roles that they've played on the pitch to their careers to date, there's not very many similarities there as well, apart from sort of the ability to play quite a nice through ball.
00:08:05
Speaker
from time to time, so that should be music to Timo Pookie's ears. My feeling, and from what Smith has said, and from watching the play out, I'd be very surprised if we used him anywhere other than on the right side of the three, in a four, three, three.

Formations and Tactical Discussions

00:08:26
Speaker
Certainly to start with, go in for, if, huh?
00:08:33
Speaker
Which three? Middle three or forward two? Middle three, yeah. Middle three. Okay, okay. On the right side of the middle three, yeah. Again, you know, with Buendia, we had put him on the right side at the top of the pitch. Yeah, I wouldn't expect to see Nunez there.
00:08:53
Speaker
mainly because I think he can offer quite a bit defensively. He's got a great engine. You can expect to see him going box to box, which I believe Sarah, a player, even though I'm based in South America, I watch hundreds of hours of South American football a month. Personally, I haven't seen tons of him.
00:09:17
Speaker
over the years, just one or two games, but from the people who have seen him over the years, he seems to offer a bit of an engine and box to box element as well. So if you look at how the teams function under Smith so far, I think you can expect plenty more running from them. Whether we can form the patterns of play needed to create more chances is
00:09:46
Speaker
is I think the concern we all have as Norwich fans under Smith at the moment, because let's face it, we haven't really seen much of that so far. But if you're asking Nunes to play sort of a more technical role, he can definitely do that. And he's played under various different managers with various different ideas and systems.
00:10:09
Speaker
Yeah, if he's on the right of a three, if he's on the right of a midfield three, then obviously it means it's him in front of Max. And then behind one of Ida, Sargent, maybe Rasheets here if they mix things up instead of him being on the left.
00:10:26
Speaker
If he's good defensively and he's got a good engine, you'd almost rather he'd be on the left, because I feel like, you know, Dimmy needs someone else to help him on the left more so than Max does, especially based on... But is it typically like, do you think, because typically I think when Smith plays at 4-3-3... But when Smith plays at 4-3-3, I think like the three, the middle three are quite narrow anyway, and it's the wingers, like kind of up top in that top three that will give you the width.
00:10:53
Speaker
Is he suited to a more central role? Is that your view that he's more of like a number eight than a number 10? Or is that the kind of in the realms of what we're talking about here? Well, he's definitely comfortable playing a number 10 role as well. And I was going to come on to say that because I've seen sort of a few debates as to where Smith can sort of take the squad, tactically and formation wise.
00:11:20
Speaker
And forward, you know, if, if we were to go back to a, you know, a favorite of a four, two, three, one, where you've got, you know, Hayden or Gibbs or Hayden and McLean holding, for example. Um, and then, you know, you've got the three in front and yeah, in, in that kind of system, I'd then be more tempted to have a look at Nunez in sort of.
00:11:47
Speaker
in the hole really behind trying to thread those through balls like what we used to see from Steeperman or or Dal who's played that role sometimes before as well. That's the interesting thing for me is that when I've seen you know thinking about him being creative and linking the play from back to front
00:12:08
Speaker
campwell is the one that seems to be in form and if he can be a foil either the other side of the pitch or just behind campwell and help give campwell someone or give the defense you know that when we're in possession give the opposition another problem to think about to free up campwell more

Team Dynamics and Leadership Concerns

00:12:30
Speaker
And that's what excites me. But really, to Edie's point, and slightly touching on the Cardiff performance now,
00:12:43
Speaker
It's a squad crying out for a breath of fresh air and we were all worried about naturally only signing injured people and kind of a hangover. Edie, how much do you think the fans need a couple of new faces almost as much as the team does?
00:13:01
Speaker
I was really taken aback last season at Sargent's reception. I know he hasn't had a good time, but he's got that sort of vulnerability that I was really surprised that some people went in studs up on him. I still am obsessed with the idea that actually given the right moment and the right psychology for him, he actually could repeat some of his most giddying moments more regularly.
00:13:27
Speaker
so it's I think some more characters that people can kind of get to know and see that they're part of Norwich and then get behind them that way rather than I don't know it's been a very weird time where we have these presses from Smith where he just doesn't sort of use any psychology as much as he just sort of talks about how annoying we've been or how we've we've been satisfactory in our levels of support whereas
00:13:58
Speaker
I don't know. I think if we don't have a manager to do that, it would be lovely to have a couple of players who can act as a bridge that sort of, you know, we can actually root for, even if they're not doing brilliantly at the time, because no one ever did better from being criticized heavily and booed. Now, Hayden's our only chance for a new face to do that because he's the only one who's going to be able to speak English well enough.
00:14:23
Speaker
in the coming weeks and months to be able to be that guy. I made no bones about it last season and in the preview that Smith needs to fix, Smith needs to take responsibility for the current lack of belief
00:14:42
Speaker
that the supporters having him. And whilst he seems to want to have a, I get that he plays the whole, oh, I don't look at the table, I don't look at social media. Oh, what's my face? I've never, I've never clogged onto that. Oh, my son goes on the Twitter, but I don't do that. That's not acceptable in today's game.
00:15:03
Speaker
unless you are winning loads of trophies or winning loads of games, or you have got, for example, Shakespeare or some other or very, very vocal, prominent, maybe younger men like a campwell. Yeah, you've got someone else who's doing that job to such a successful degree for you that actually you can genuinely kind of tune out from it.
00:15:25
Speaker
I read an interesting article, an interview with Ben Kensel, who's now at Hibernium, about how much he was pleased with the communication. He listed a bunch of things that he was pleased, that went well at Norwich, and then obviously went on to talk about what he's doing at Hibernium. One of the things he mentioned was the legacy of the communication and the fan engagement that he left behind.
00:15:45
Speaker
and things did improve a lot under his watch. I still think that Smith could have avoided some of the criticism that he's coming under after just 90 minutes of football or 97 minutes of football.
00:16:03
Speaker
If he just, I mean, to your point, Edie, many times before, if he had a brand consultant or spent a bit of money on PR for him specifically from a football point of view rather than the football as a club point of view, what do you think, Punt? How does he fix that?
00:16:19
Speaker
I think it's pretty simple. He needs to win some football matches. That's all it comes down to. And I've spoken to people in and around the club and you get a couple of wins and suddenly the mood with the players is really different and the mood with the fans is really different. If we go and beat Wigan 3 or 4-0, it's really simple. But I think for me, the bit that I worry about, and again, it probably all evaporates if we win a couple of games.
00:16:44
Speaker
is he looks jaded to me. He looks tired. He looks like a man who managed his boyhood club, was really excited about it, really loved it, and then got binned off and jumped into something quite quickly on the rebound. And that scares me whether he can get his mojo back. I have absolutely no idea. And look, let's all hope we have fun finding out. But I mean, I think when Smith joined us and I'm pretty sure I mentioned it on this this podcast,
00:17:12
Speaker
You go rooting about YouTube because I'm interested in the people at the top of our football club being inspirational leaders or, you know, kind of decent, have decent leadership qualities. And I watched it's pretty like a 25 minute video where he's giving a talk at I think it was the University of Birmingham to some business students or something along those lines.
00:17:32
Speaker
And he was thoroughly engaging. Like you really kind of bought what he was saying and you could tell he was riding the crest of a wave and he was confident in his own ability. And then I contrast that with I went to the the fan social club evening, which was I know what a couple of weeks ago and him and Shakespeare out there and Shakespeare.
00:17:53
Speaker
was really good I thought you know on the night and and spoke eloquently and seemed to have personality about him and Smith just seemed quite withdrawn and I think I think he's lost something of himself that we need him to get back really quickly and so I do hope is it's as simple as let's win a couple of games but I'm not I don't know but this is a niggling part of me and it's too early in the season for that for me to go all right all in on like he might not be the man
00:18:21
Speaker
But actually, these new signings, there is a lot of pressure because people are now going to say, well, this is your team. And actually, that's tricky when you've got two South Americans who don't know the culture or the country and allowed who's coming back from a really long term injury. So it does worry me. And sorry, Adam, I know you've been trying to chip in, please say more things than me. No, it was it was just actually you brought up a point that I was going to bring up tonight on
00:18:49
Speaker
I think that is sort of one of my biggest concerns about Smith is that I'm not sure he's psychologically recovered, as you're saying, from the whole Aston Villa debacle. And then he's jumped into a relationship with a club that isn't fully recovered from their previous relationship with
00:19:13
Speaker
Daniel Farker, of course. It's the ultimate sort of, you know, possibility of a toxic relationship going on where neither party is that happy and they wish they were with their ex. Do you know how he behaves, Adam? You bang on. The way I think he behaves, it reminds me of, and this is when we score a goal,
00:19:39
Speaker
Have you ever scored a darling to me? But we did win a couple of games and I'm fascinated, similar to Pont, I'm fascinated with how people are leaders at a football club and similarly to Easy although also I don't have her amazing skill set, interested in how people try and create a personal brand, especially within football.
00:20:03
Speaker
And just how little he tried to capitalize on the moment, I almost feel like he is managing our club with the demeanor of a player returning to a former club and not wanting to accelerate too hard because he feels bad about it. It's almost like he doesn't. I hope no Villa fans see any highlights of me sort of cheering or getting on with the Norwich fans too much. I hope no Villa fans see a press conference where I'm saying, you know, this is our fortress.
00:20:27
Speaker
There are times during presses when from Smith's body language, he goes into full like, I'm just here to do a job. And it just feels a bit like he got his new amour. He told him all sorts of things about how dreadful the ex was. And oh, yeah, you know,
00:20:48
Speaker
Oh, dreadful, dreadful, dreadful. You can come along. You can fix me. You can make all my dreams come true. And actually, it's really dawning on him that it wasn't just the Evil X. It was a deep-seated malaise. Yeah, I mean, so let's kind of look at the Cardiff game specifically. I watched it in full, getting progressively more frustrated.
00:21:17
Speaker
Not so much with the result because you lose games in the championship. You can lose several and still win the league. You can lose loads and still be in the playoffs. More just with how predictable the bluntness of our attack was. And that's the point that you
00:21:36
Speaker
there's already been brought up this evening and we recorded this on the Wednesday evening and this week before the Wigan game at the weekend and it was just all of this all of this nice kind of positivity of what didn't didn't the preseason tall and nice don't allowed seem to be getting on doesn't you know haven't we got a good squad at this level really and then you just thought oh you've done exactly what we all thought at the back of our minds or dreaded might happen which is put together one or two half chances really
00:22:06
Speaker
I mean, look, if Todd takes that chance with a bit more authority in what, 17, 18 minutes, you know, early on, within the first 20 minutes, we one nil up and all of a sudden, obviously, it's a game of sliding doors, ifs and buts, but

Challenges in Team Strategy and Attack

00:22:23
Speaker
From that that was for me there was then the other one where should have been squared or it was squared They shouldn't have been in the second half We should not be going to a team who are going to be in the bottom eight this season at the end of the season more than likely Who are still finding a shape and got seven new players? There's no way we should only be creating two proper chances away from home So so John what what's your what do you think he can do? this weekend
00:22:50
Speaker
I mean, I would say with some of our fan base, it's already must win, irrelevant of how wrong that might be. Yeah, I think you're right. It's must win already for fan base. So what do you think he might do? What would you expect him to do to try and change things on Saturday?
00:23:07
Speaker
What I expect him to do and what I think he should do are probably two different things in so much as I expect him. Yeah, exactly. But what I would say is that he seems quite insistent on 4-3-3 and he seems quite insistent on players out wide who can run at people, who can get across into the box.
00:23:27
Speaker
I just don't think it plays to to team his strengths and and that is the main concern for me is that if we haven't got players from deep who can play those passes to our strikers I don't know where goals come from now that could be and that is on the proviso that we're a team that's set up to
00:23:46
Speaker
win the ball and to keep the ball for a little bit of time and it seems like that's where Smith wants us to be is that you know not necessarily massive Daniel Farker possession based football but actually it looks like we're trying to play out from the back if we can you know to play
00:24:00
Speaker
not massively intricate football, it's slightly quicker from A to B than than Farka. But at the same time, you know, we're looking to be relatively progressive in our play. But as Adam touched on, the patterns of play worry me because it's abundantly obvious in Iran. Exactly. But it could all change on a couple of
00:24:21
Speaker
key players actually being in the right position. So for me, I don't think you see Pookie thrive unless he has a number 10. And I would point to the evidence of when Kieran Dow played, and I don't know if it was in a conventional 10 last season, but when we went to Old Trafford, probably our best performance of the season, you know, should have come away there, maybe even with a win, but at least a draw. Dow chips in with a goal and an assist. Pookie scores and actually looks really lively because he's got someone threading balls for him.
00:24:50
Speaker
And it just feels like we need to start playing someone either as a conventional 10 behind Pookie or someone who's a wide 10, like a Dow, like a Campwell, like whoever it might be in an advanced position that can find the striker and can find a striker in a way that plays to Pookie strengths. And if we don't do that,
00:25:09
Speaker
I don't really see where the goals come from unless you've got players like Nunez or Sara running from deep. And then you're just wasting teaming, aren't you? Let's be honest. We've got a striker who's fully capable of scoring 25 goals again in the championship and hitting 100 goals for this club. And we know that will get us out of this division if we get him fit, firing, and this service. That has to be the priority. Smith knows that. He said that in post-match comments. I just think that
00:25:38
Speaker
He's almost like he thinks that crosses is going to be the answer. I just never, ever think that they will be. And the horrible alternative is that we then stick Hugel up there and see what happens. And he's not up to a season as a frontline striker in the championship or at the top end of the championship anyway. I don't agree with that last bit.
00:25:59
Speaker
What about Hugo? Well, I don't think he's a serious 46 game. Yeah, well, yeah, but yeah, you've got, again, it's about the culture of how you set up to play and whether or not you're, whether or not you're bought in because you're trying to get over the line and there are other things, there are other reasons why they didn't get promoted.
00:26:22
Speaker
But you didn't rip it up at Cardiff either, did you? I get your point. I think you should play as a two, but I don't want us playing two up front. Cardiff finished 18th because they got a terrible team and they had to basically get rid of everyone and have a fire sale to try and... They're on a complete rebuild, tear it down job with like 12 people going to watch them. So when it comes to like loan...
00:26:41
Speaker
loan situations. It's about minutes, it's about fitness, it's about trying to do the right things and keep yourself effectively match ready, match sharp for most of the season rather than necessarily. There are some loan spells like Tod, Fortuna, Tsutada, whatever, or Youngsters where you send them out to specifically try and get them more ready like James Madison for the next step.
00:27:04
Speaker
and then there's a case of you look your fourth choice here you may as well try and get as many minutes as you can somewhere else look if it works brilliant if it doesn't we're not exactly going to hold it against you that's might be the hugel situation going back to what you said before about if you're going to play a wide game then play 4-4-2
00:27:21
Speaker
and and and effectively play Hugh Golan, which which worked for two and a half games in the Premier League. You know, it was either in Pookie rather than Hugh Golan. But play four for two. If you want to play wide and you want to play kind of possession out into wide areas. So I wrote a long rambly rant of series of messages on Saturday night to a pal of mine who works in in football coaching. Obviously, you know, not like you and I pump without our badges. And I basically said that I don't have badges.
00:27:49
Speaker
But the main concern I have whilst also saying you've got to give mate games, even if we're bottom, you've got to give mate games until you press the Smith out button because so many tiny sliding doors moments could mean we could win the next three or four. But the biggest concern is that I cannot point to a single thing that has happened in any of the last
00:28:14
Speaker
four or five Premier League games where we were still relevant, you know, don't include the ones where everyone had switched off. The ones like the United Games, Brentford, etc. And also Cardiff, the Cardiff game on Saturday.
00:28:29
Speaker
And to be honest, the preseason games, I can't point to, I love that thing we do, where a Sheikah does this and Pookie does that, and then Sergeant runs in behind. Do you see what I mean? Whereas with- I do. No one's spoken vibe to tune into and learn to anticipate after repeated watchings of games. Yeah. So when the ball is fired- Nobody's vibrating on instinct.
00:28:50
Speaker
Yes, as soon as Steepy gets the ball, I'm looking at Pookie's run off the back shoulder. As soon as Onel has the ball, I'm trying to work out how much distance there is between the fallback and the byline because I know that he's going to try and do his next kind of football action when he's moved that fallback back because his role was very much down and run and run outwards towards the touchline and then dig in and create something.
00:29:16
Speaker
The thing is Smith has had long enough and this is another point that we need to bring up because whilst I think you do have to say to Smith that he hasn't been able to feel the single professional footballer that he's bought yet, there is those elements and there's plenty of them within the long-term Norwich family who effectively don't give him that benefit of doubt at all and say if you're a good coach and we were told you and particularly Shakespeare are,
00:29:40
Speaker
How have you had this many months with this with a bunch of players who we have seen putting good performances in both first and second flight and not been able to raise them up and make them better and it is it's a strong argument. Yes psychology is important but you can't it can't be the entire thing there has to be you have to be.
00:30:02
Speaker
sometimes as a coach because of injuries even if you do pick your squad even if you sign every player sometimes as a coach you've got to put find a way of making those square pegs go into those round holes and result in goals and results right and i just don't think we've
00:30:20
Speaker
that that is my biggest concern I would always I would always choose a draw on Saturday but we create the same chance four times than a win due to a fluke goal and there's still no pattern does that sound bonkers to you Adam? No I don't know that sounds bonkers at all but sorry Adam he asked you the question you go on mate um no no it doesn't um uh
00:30:44
Speaker
Yeah, I would probably say the same thing. I think the first month or even two months of the championship season, although you shouldn't completely write it off, I think it's been proven time and time again over the seasons that what happens in that first two or three months, in that first one or two months, isn't necessarily reflective of what will happen by the end of the season. Just look at Forest.
00:31:12
Speaker
last year for example. Actually one of the dreads I had and I think I wrote this in my along come Norwich preview was almost we'd get off to a too good of a start and then we and but there wasn't enough evidence there to maintain it and then we fall away and sort of by the end of the season with you know we've got nothing there. I think that
00:31:37
Speaker
Potentially for me would have been sort of a worse scenario at least with us if we do continue a slow start I mean, it's only been one game so I do see hope there both in terms of well if Smith did suddenly Manage to find a formula and turn it around then we can build momentum from there a little bit like what happened with Farka in in the first Championship win or even in the second. I mean, you know famously, you know
00:32:05
Speaker
He was struggling, wasn't he, after Darby away in that second season. In that championship. Yeah, go on.
00:32:17
Speaker
Well, I was just going to, I wanted to ask you the same question I asked Punt with regards to that transition from Cardiff into Wigan. What, what do you, what do you think he might do? Surely he's, I mean, he can't go same 11 because of Hanley, but aside from the obvious centre back change he has to make, surely he's going to do something else as well in that front kind of six to try and influence the result. Well, I just,
00:32:47
Speaker
I know you have to really cycle your players during friendlies, you have to test everyone, you have to see how far you can push them, yada yada. But I just sort of think that at the moment, for me, it's about the lack of communication that's there between players. And I don't think it would make any difference who got played where.
00:33:09
Speaker
because I don't think anyone's going to be talking to anyone else. Do you know about the competence model? You start with unconscious competence. No, incompetence. You start with incompetence. You start with incompetence and you start by not knowing how incompetent you are.
00:33:30
Speaker
Then you go to conscious incompetence where it's actually really painful because you know how incompetent you are. Then you move to conscious competence where you go, OK, all right, we're doing this. All right. And you but you still have to think, but you do well. And then the goal is unconscious competence where it just flows.
00:33:47
Speaker
And we are so, so low down that, you know, a year ago, I was thinking that I wish they just all went to some sort of stag do type bonding exercise or something, you know, maybe they could blindfold each other and fall backwards and do some trust exercises. I don't know. I don't care. But nobody is talking to anyone else. And that's why you're not getting
00:34:08
Speaker
that kind of thing where if you have like a work wife or a work husband, and you can basically communicate with only a glance, you would know that feeling of like, you don't need to be planning or putting any schemes in place, you just know and you just do. So something to do with that, what Adam mentioned, the long slow building of a building of understanding, I think, of styles of thoughts of a collective approach.
00:34:38
Speaker
One thing I was going to ask you guys today actually is what did you think of Smith coming out after the weekend before the start of the season? So after those friendlies in Scotland and saying that he knew his starting 11 already at that point for Cardiff away.
00:35:00
Speaker
I mean, I think there was an element of, I think he was just hamstrung by the players that he knew he was going to have available. And that's where I think Tom raises a good point around the change with Hanley, because I think what we've got to do might be the first time I've ever said Tom raises a good point. But it's the enforced absence of Hanley might then actually mean that we have to have a look at Jakob Sรถhnsen maybe playing centre back because it's going to be him or Jonathan Tompkinson. You know, I don't see anyone else that's going to be able to play there.
00:35:29
Speaker
given that Gibson seems to be pretty far away from any kind of match sharpness. And that means there has to be a change in midfield dynamic, doesn't there? Now, whether that's the industry and the energy of someone like Liam Gibbs, who might just be a real positive influence, because that's the thing that I didn't see against Cardiff. What I saw against Cardiff was a performance whereby
00:35:53
Speaker
Defensively, we looked for relatively sound. I'm not a massive fan of XG as a metric, but that hugely backed up the fact that we restricted Cardiff to basically nothing. But we were poor going forward. And I think if we can retain the good elements of what we did, because defensively, we did look really organized and really well drilled and just moved Cardiff into places where maybe they didn't want to be, and then we took the ball back off them. But where we were poor was I felt like it was getting the ball forward quickly enough.
00:36:23
Speaker
And actually, Lungi, he's quite considered, isn't he? He looks like a continental player where he'll look to play sideways and retain possession rather than maybe actually get it forward quickly. I don't think that's Smith's style. I think that's what he needs to address that issue in terms of he wants the ball into his front three quicker. Now, whether that's through a Nunez or a Sara or someone driving with the ball or moving it quicker, I think that's where we need to see Norwich progress now.
00:36:54
Speaker
Actually, one of the reasons I went to see Marcelino Nรบรฑez's final game in the stadium in Chile on Saturday and was literally just to watch him for 90 minutes. I mean, I didn't really take in a great deal of the other game. My eyes were pretty much focused on just his movements and what he was doing during the game.

Nunez's Potential Impact and Debut

00:37:20
Speaker
And one of the things that he did during that game quite a few times was get the ball, turn, and straight away play a pass down the wing. Feeding the two wide players in a, well, that they've actually played like four, two, three, one. So he was more sort of level.
00:37:48
Speaker
in the starting formation with those two wide players. But it would work in a 4-3-3. I've seen him do it there as well. So playing a very quick ball on the turn right into the channel for the wingers to run onto. And yeah, and that created some set-piece opportunities for Kotolo Ferry in that game. And yeah, I think, you know, so
00:38:13
Speaker
You know, when, when you're speaking about that there just then, you know, that suddenly popped into my head and I thought, Oh yeah. Well, you know, that is certainly something new years is, is pretty good at. So, um, yeah, it's, uh, it could be interesting to see if, if all it needs is like two, three players that actually can play the style that Smith wants to implement, uh, to turn this around.
00:38:40
Speaker
Well, it's okay then. So just to wrap up on New Year's for this evening, what would be your, and obviously a lot of our listeners follow you on Twitter and what have you, but what would be your overarching feeling that you think Norwich fans should take away from the signing? One, I've heard this evening,
00:39:00
Speaker
It could be a few weeks you think until he's genuinely up to speed even though he's been playing mainly because of the off the field side of things. Results might maybe force Dean Smith's hand to play him sooner than he'd like. Maybe have him on the bench on Saturday with the hope that he won't have to use him.
00:39:18
Speaker
Well, we've got this League Cup game coming up, haven't we, next week? Yeah, that seems like a likely place to start. I'm a bit like your shotless against Bournemouth last season. Yeah, but then that was also going to be my other point. That's going to be my other comparison. Fucking hell, don't say that.
00:39:33
Speaker
But if he scores two goals in a cup game, then maybe he's got a bit more experience. Well, he has got more experience than Jollis to be able to then utilize that and turn that into momentum. But yeah, other than those couple of things you already mentioned, you know, he's not Emmy. We get that. But do you think, do you think that he has got
00:39:59
Speaker
the enough of the ability to to solve that that kind of um supply line problem that we've got of getting from back to front in quick and creative ways i do yeah um you know i'm ultimately i'm gonna back this player but i've been you know banging on about for years here in chile i'm not i'm not gonna like shy away and suddenly say oh i'm not sure he's good enough now but he's joy he's joy Norwich i i
00:40:29
Speaker
I have total faith in him. My worry is that transfers, players joining new clubs, the way it kind of works out, there's so many factors involved. I mean, it's coming a bit of a cliche, but it's true though, you only have to look at the very top clubs who spend around a hundred million on a player.
00:40:55
Speaker
And then they're loaning them back to the club that they bought them from a year later or selling them for, you know, pittance a couple of years later to show, you know, even the best coaches, even the best scouts in the game, you know, don't, don't quite get it right. Or, or get it massively wrong in those cases I've just made. So.
00:41:23
Speaker
You know, I think that this is a very intelligent gamble, to be honest, by the club. I think for the price that we're getting him, for the potential that he has, I mean, he's played 10 times already for Chile. And that's a chilly side that where young players have struggled to break through into over the last few years because the country and certainly its national team are
00:41:52
Speaker
are kind of on a bit of a hangover from winning those two Cobra Americas in 2015, 2016 with their golden generation. They couldn't let go of that team for years until it was too late. And Nunez is one of those players that has broken through into the team and got regular minutes.
00:42:14
Speaker
so if you think of that in the in terms of ah he's done that over pretty much any other young Chilean player coming through that's a pretty big achievement in itself so all of the coaches that have worked with him always say the same things about him that you know how great he is physically in terms especially in terms of his engine
00:42:38
Speaker
about always say what a professional guy he is, what a nice guy is, what a humble guy is, and all of them who have worked with him also believe that he has the qualities to make it in Europe.

Nunez's Adaptability and Background Story

00:42:52
Speaker
Whether that's with Norwich City, we'll find out. I was interested, Adam, I know we're trying to wrap up on this player at the moment, but if he'd have signed for, say, a Brighton and Hove Albion or a Crystal Palace,
00:43:07
Speaker
Like, would you would you be absolutely raving about that as a signing? And is it are you being a little bit conservative? Because actually, all your eggs are now in one massive Norwich city shaped basket with, you know, one of your favorite players that you've seen domestically and, you know, your boyhood football club. Is there a little bit of nervousness? And actually, do you think that maybe because I've seen a couple of journalists kind of turn their eyes or raise their eyebrows and say, oh, Norwich, you know, championship movement wasn't necessarily sure that was
00:43:35
Speaker
the one for him and maybe he could have gone straight into kind of a European top flight club. Is that something that you could have seen him adapting to?
00:43:45
Speaker
Yeah, I think there probably is an element of that. I mean, I am sitting here now and like with everything I'm saying, I'm trying to check myself not to be sort of too overexcited because I don't want stuff to come back and haunt me. So I'm trying to, you know, put clauses in pretty much everything I say, where maybe, yeah, I wouldn't be doing that if he had signed for a Brighton, which I'm Brighton, in my opinion,
00:44:15
Speaker
are the kings of Scout in South America, pretty much for value in the last couple of years. I mean, Moises Castello, who they bought, is one of the biggest standout talents I've ever seen come through at 18 years old. I saw his debut in Ecuador. And as soon as, like within 15 minutes of that game, I thought, oh, that's a player heading for the top. That's how obvious it was.
00:44:45
Speaker
Yeah, you get that vibes about some players and obviously Brighton scouts were on that straight away. Another player similar to that, the Paraguayan that they've bought who could have a bit of a surprise in season, I think this year for them, Julio in season, he's another one that they've obviously
00:45:08
Speaker
just got their scouts into places that maybe other teams or bigger teams don't necessarily look and they've found great value for money and yeah I just hope that
00:45:23
Speaker
With Norwich, with this transfer, they've done the same. I mean, there was only probably two players that I'd recommend to Norwich, currently in Chile, who I'd feel would be ready to sort of make a contribution, and one of them was Marcelino Nunez. The other player, weirdly enough, within about... Well, it was the previous week actually, because Nunez signed for us this week, but yeah, last week the other player that I really rate in Chile,
00:45:51
Speaker
Victor Mendez, he went to CSAK in Moscow in Russia. Do you think we could have a crowd funder just in case he changes his mind? Because, you know, that sounds like a deal that could end quite quickly. Oh, yeah. Well, let's see how Nunez gets on first. If he goes well, then maybe, yeah, maybe let's start that crowd funder to get Mendez as well.
00:46:21
Speaker
Yeah, I think they would complement each other well, actually. But yeah, it's a fascinating story. He's a fascinating character. I mean, I'm sure a lot of our listeners have already seen the story that I put on Twitter where when he was just 13 years old, he was driving to training and
00:46:46
Speaker
And they with it, his father was driving to training. And yeah, and they saw two women at the side of the road struggling to replace a tire, a pinched tire. And yeah, they helped them out and they happened to be producers from a show called Extreme Makeover.
00:47:05
Speaker
and they were looking for people from poor backgrounds to do the houses up. They scouted their house out and found it was a perfect candidate and a perfect family to do it for.
00:47:23
Speaker
And yeah, and so, yeah, he was on TV at 13 years old and even then he was considered kind of a promising player in the country because even then the presenters asking him questions about, you know, what will you give your family if you make it? And he actually answered that question by saying love. I like him.
00:47:53
Speaker
so the presenter went over to him and hugged him and he was like not a car not a house so yeah he's already he seems like yeah i don't know him personally but literally everybody that you speak to here in Chile every story that you hear say that he's such a sweet guy humble guy and yeah and that
00:48:19
Speaker
That's the main thing for me. If it doesn't work out, don't get on his back. It's a hell of a move for him. That's a point. If he maybe has a slightly rocky start, are you going to be gunning down anyone who's given him grief online?
00:48:43
Speaker
And we do have a section of our fan base who like to criticize and publicly criticize on social media and immediately jump to throwing people under the bus and personally calling out players. Are you effectively going to go searching for his name and be correcting people and getting people off his back? No, I certainly won't go searching for his name.
00:49:07
Speaker
I think I think that's a quick road to insanity on Twitter if you if you start Go searching for arguments. I mean, I don't know about you guys but arguments come easily enough to be on Twitter without me going to search for So no, I suspect that I get some stick as soon as he Does something wrong in an orange but you know, I
00:49:34
Speaker
I'm trying to make it clear that I do think that we need to be patient with him. I mean, it'd be amazing if he can contribute right from the start, but, you know, he's going to need time realistically.
00:49:48
Speaker
I think you'll be fine, Adam, in so much as when you were, and obviously this is an audio podcast and our listeners can't see Edie's face, but when you were describing how much of a lovely, lovely boy that he was, Edie just got closer and closer to her camera. Like she was absolutely. Yeah. It was just lovely boy. Yeah. And I mean, you know, it was a little bit creepy how close you got to the camera at that point, but just think you're going to have his back now, just from what Adam has said.
00:50:16
Speaker
Yeah, I'm going to be like one of those old women during World of the Dead, at the front row with the umbrellas. Let's go on to some listening questions, please.
00:50:32
Speaker
You want some listening questions. All right. Well, let's start with Adam. You've probably seen it, but from Daniel Kelly. And he says, given that Adam is a Chilean football expert and we've just signed our first ever Chilean, what do you think is the biggest animal that you could cling film to a lamppost? And I'm going to just say that you can't use one of those industrial size like cling films where you can wrap it around and you have to do it all yourself. So there's no assistance. Like it is all you. Can I use a ladder?
00:51:01
Speaker
That's key, because when I was thinking about this question earlier, I did think of an animal, but then I need to know whether I can use a ladder or not, because it would be a draft. You can cling film it from the neck. All right. So it's pretty big. So you would obviously go for a big ant, but has kind of a narrow part to it. So a draft is what I came up with in the end. All right. Edie, have you got any advances on that?
00:51:31
Speaker
Well, I was thinking more like something with a really solid center of gravity, because providing you can kind of like catch it once, it's very hard for it to thrash around and loosen itself. So I was thinking more like a bear, a polar bear. Bloody hell! Don't fancy your chances there. You just have to stay behind the bear as long as you stay... But we're talking about with like supermarket cling film mate, like a polar bear.
00:52:00
Speaker
You just have a lot of a long enough roll and you can do it like a maypole at a distance. You need some serious girth on your lamp post as well. Well, I also think we should now start a crowd-funder to get Edie a lamp post and a trip to the Arctic and then we can all just strap a camera to her and watch it go on. Well, I know. Because this is going to be amazing. I don't think the cling film would perform well in those temperatures, so... So you can have some news with the polar bear. That's the one element of that plan that doesn't work here.
00:52:29
Speaker
Or if you got dropped into the jungle like in Lost and those polar bears turned up, then maybe. Yeah. Yeah. I didn't stay with it as long as the polar bears were there. Polar bears were early doors. Polar bears were early doors, mate. Series one? Yeah, series one or two. They couldn't really afford a whole polar bear, though, so they just hinted at it. And they never really explained it either. Like, it was just a bit weird. Well, that's just lost all over again. It's all those portals. Anyway, let's have a couple more questions before we wrap up. What was your animal?
00:52:58
Speaker
I haven't even thought of an animal. I thought maybe like a pig. He's not a Chilean football expert. I wasn't as ambitious as you guys. I maybe went with a pig because I thought I could just about wrestle it with one arm and then cling film it with the other. But giraffe is a good answer. You couldn't cling film me to the lamp post? I can try. No. Also, you get one of those really fat sleepy bears. A hibernating bear. Well, post-hibernation. You know when you get the fat bear season?
00:53:26
Speaker
There's some big ass bears. When does the fat bear season start? They do it on Twitter every year. Around about May. And then they just basically look at the biggest possible bears. It's all out there for the taking. Is it like the horsey seals where like the big boys kind of get on the on the dunes? All right. Yeah. I'm with you. Big, beautiful, independent bears that don't need no man.
00:53:54
Speaker
Stuart Wardrope asks, what one thing are you hoping would have changed on your return to Carrow Road for this season? But sadly, expect to be exactly the same. Tom Parsley starts off. Malcolm's Conservatism. It doesn't listen to this podcast, then? No, that's for old listening. Old listening's benefit. I would like there to be an expectation to win games. That's what I would really like. I'd like us
00:54:23
Speaker
in the not too distant future to turn up to Cara Road expecting to see a few goals in the right end and to expect to be walking out again full of joy rather than expect an ordeal. Edie? I would just like to pay tribute to the fact that we've had a fairly normal couple of months on Twitter from Norwich. I just don't think we should
00:54:51
Speaker
take enough time I don't think we take enough time to appreciate the fact that that happened it's been like an endless cavalcade of high octane insanity and the worst really that I've seen is is the use of jargon that they're tending to veer towards lots of lots of content they call it showing us their content they've got a walk in retail kiosk coming
00:55:20
Speaker
I've come off Twitter outside of just looking at listener questions again. Because the Cardiff game, or rather your actions to the Cardiff game just really depressed me. The reaction to it, the lack of patience with it,
00:55:37
Speaker
We've got a question about that. Annoyed me more than the result. What was the question on that? So it's from Twittakers, which is actually like an account which is exclusively in tribute to Michael Bailey's podcast. So I'm very surprised that the NCSC Twittakers account has asked us a question, but, you know, privileged that they now listen to us as well. And they've said, on a scale of one to Arsenal Fan TV, how much has Norwich Twitter overreacted this week?
00:56:07
Speaker
Don't they mean about overreacting to the arrival of a super special happy boy? I think it's how we've overreacted to the result. Yeah, I took it as that. Sorry, you know too much about branding to let this go, Edie. Are we going with a lovely boy or a happy boy?
00:56:30
Speaker
I like happy, lovely boy. You know, we've got to like really load that on. Okay, fine. Great big bushy beard, you see? That's where we need to be heading. Okay.
00:56:44
Speaker
answer the question now. Okay, who's gonna have a bushy beard? Sorry, Nunez. Just get Devere away from that. We're going down a rabbit hole we cannot possibly climb out of. Just answer the overreaction question. Right, so I think it was, I think if you put a microphone in front of those people and they'd had a couple of pints, you would have been able to record some snips as ridiculous as the ATV stuff, yeah. Just in terms of, it's one game and yes it's annoying and yes
00:57:12
Speaker
but he hasn't had any new players and yes he hasn't made anyone better but then he has brought Todd back into the fold and Todd does look really good and he does seem to have motivated players like Max who might not necessarily be motivated to go again in the championship right and I thought Max had a good game on Saturday
00:57:30
Speaker
and you know it is only the first game and we did have a chance to get in the lead early on and we did limit them a lot of chances and yes it's really annoying because we all wanted to just win three or four nil and on paper our squad is far better than them yes it's really really annoying but we see them as a fan base and it might be all football fan bases social media etc it might be but as a fan base in particular we seem to have completely lost the art of just going oh that's annoying we're lost isn't it anyway right let's see how we get on next week
00:57:57
Speaker
We just do not seem to be able to do that anymore. We have to just go, well, what's the reason? There must be a reason. What are we angry about the most? These are the six reasons I'm angry. The frustration for me is not being able to just to say that in an almost calm fashion.
00:58:14
Speaker
We know that there's players to come back. We know that Smith doesn't have a winning record yet. We know all of that. So I think there has been some overreaction to one result. Look, if we get to five or six games and there's still no pattern, the new lads have started and they don't look up to it, 100%, I will be losing my experiment the same as everyone. But I just think people need to chill out a bit after one game.
00:58:41
Speaker
Do you not think there are extenuating circumstances? Devil's avocado here. I'm not a post-game ranter. I don't see the point in it, but I can see how a disappointment is a very powerful human reaction and emotion. There's nothing more powerful than disappointment in terms of triggering emotional explosions. And the last half of that game was like somebody, like Jimmy Webb said, left a cake out in the rain. It was smeared all over the asphalt.
00:59:10
Speaker
And do you think that people would have been quite as history on it, had it not happened that way? Just saying, just wondering. It was really frustrating. And as I put on the social media before, I realised I really shouldn't tweet after games because I just say things that I think you should stay in my head. Unless we're wild and then it's fine.
00:59:38
Speaker
having to put up with shit housing from a team that you haven't heard of any of their players is more annoying and harder to take because you just think we should not be in this situation. You should not be able to keep kicking this ball away and wasting time because we should be doing that to you because look what's available to us. How have we not managed to shape that? So I think the way that they were behaving, Soyuz for example,
01:00:07
Speaker
very good shit housing. And I think that wound us. And also we saw as fans, we saw our players round up, it really got to them. I don't think we were very well prepared for the mental side of what we're going to have to deal with in the championship, which is if any team outside of the four or five that can probably play football if we were to get to our if we were to meet our potential, that
01:00:33
Speaker
There are only three or four teams really with the squads with the technical ability to play football the way we could play football.
01:00:38
Speaker
Most of the teams we play against, if they get a goal against us, it is going to be full on, slow the game down, little niggly tackles, kicking the ball away, taking ages over throw-ins, taking ages over free kicks. And it seemed to me like that was a completely novel concept to our squad. And they got really angry really quickly. We're still with like 25, 30 minutes left. They were getting really angry with the linesmen over free kicks, not going their way, throw-ins not going their way. And you think, lads,
01:01:06
Speaker
We've still got half an hour yet. Yes, it's annoying, but this is a standard part of the game. And if anything, it happens more in the championship than it does in the Premier League. Agree. Hard agree. Anyway, that's all the questions, I think. OK, so let's round up with an absolute cast iron guarantee of predictions for the weekend. We didn't do very well the first week. Edie, what is the score going to be on Saturday and give me one of the scores for one of the teams?
01:01:38
Speaker
On one hand, I want to say, oh, we can easy puppy. Let's do Wigan. Let's do them. But now I feel like it's going to be a draw. That's just my waters because I'm being tentative. I don't want to create any disappointment. OK, Adam, score and one of the scorers. You know, I've got a feeling our home form is going to be OK, Ashley.
01:02:03
Speaker
I think it's the away form, which is going to sort of be called into question over and over. Um, yeah, I'm going to go for, uh, a free near win. And, uh, yeah, and to stay on brand, uh, the last goal, uh, scored by substitute Marcelino Nunez. Oh, that'd be wonderful. Um, punt, you are, you are on, on, on, I acknowledge that you're here. Come on. Give us this, give us a score on a score.
01:02:33
Speaker
I'm going to go for a scrappy, but with glimpses of the performances that we want to see from Norwich, a scrappy one nil. And I think Josh Sargent might get one in off his arse a la Dean Coney against Aston Villa in 1989, I think it was.
01:02:51
Speaker
so many layers to that prediction. I think we drew a win. I think there'll be too much positivity and looking at, again, same mistakes I made with the Cardiff team, but looking at who we're going to be playing, where they're at, how badly their transfer policy seems to have gone, more players leaving that they'd rather wouldn't, etc.
01:03:12
Speaker
Surely, the same thing's not going to happen twice. And mentally, I think surely that our team are going to be better set up to capitalise on that. So I'm going to go for a 2-0, relatively comfortable result. And people will say, yeah, but it was only Wigan afterwards. And that will be the thing that's annoying. So we're not allowed to enjoy it, because no, it wasn't a hard enough team to beat.
01:03:39
Speaker
Edie, thank you so much for your big bushy beard, fat bear season, lovely boy, little weary team. I mean, just so many titles as always. I really appreciate spending time with you. Adam, no one else could have given us as much excitement about Nunez, and I appreciate you trying to keep the powder dry and not getting us too excited. But I think we can all tell, really, you think he's probably going to be the greatest player to ever pull on the yellow and green shirt.
01:04:02
Speaker
And punt, I acknowledge you exist. Everyone enjoy the game. We're going to be back at Carrow Road in our living room soon. Mind how you go.