Paddy's Pointers: Five observations from the Canaries' 2-1 Premier League defeat against Leeds

1. Madness

I predict a riot belted around Elland Road at the final whistle of a Premier League game between two relegation rivals that careered out of control, as the tension and drama escalated with each passing minute.

Riot? More like a footballing wake for Norwich City's dejected players who slumped to the turf at the end. Behind until the 91st minute, when Kenny McLean arrived on cue to slot Teemu Pukki’s cut back and silence the home hordes. Behind again three minutes or so later, when Raphinha was too strong for Brandon Williams, and Joe Gelhardt sneaked in behind City’s centre backs to rock this old stadium to its foundations.

Even then Illan Meslier foiled Pukki with a fine reaction stop, with Tim Krul in the Leeds penalty area. It was frantic, it was frenetic but ultimately it was another hefty shunt towards the Championship for the Canaries.

There was even a penalty award to Dean Smith’s side in that final quarter which was then over-turned on the guidance of the video assistant officials. You could not make it up.

But this was no hard luck story. Neither was another must not lose defeat to Brentford the previous weekend. When push has come to shove this season, Norwich are found wanting.

2. Lack of backbone

Win a fair proportion of your games against teams you reasonably expect to be fighting it out with down the wrong end of the Premier League, and you enhance your survival chances. A well worn mantra but true nonetheless. Particularly nowadays when the gap to the elite appears to widen with each passing season.

Norwich have picked up wins over Watford and Everton, plus an away point from Burnley, in their tussles against the current bottom five. That is it.

Much like the stuttering Bees, who earned a generous leg up at the Canaries’ expense at Carrow Road, this was a Leeds in freefall prior to kick-off. Six straight league defeats, no clean sheets in 15 league games, a worst defensive record even than the visitors.

Yet Jesse Marsch’s boys could have been out of sight by the interval. Rodrigo’s deflected goal gave them a slender lead but Krul’s goal had led a charmed life. City improved after the break. Perhaps Leeds retreated deeper as they sought to protect, although there was still plenty of counter-attacking bursts.

City looked to have salvaged a point, which would at least have kept Leeds in range, and given them something to cling onto over this extended upcoming break. But even that was beyond them.

For it to happen week in, week out cuts to the heart of the matter. There is a lack of quality. It is painfully evident. But maybe that lack of leadership and character is in question as well, to fall the wrong side so many times when it mattered.

In the past 15 league games, Norwich have drawn only one. That was against Crystal Palace at home. Not only are they unable to post the wins required, they appear incapable of grinding it out into the bargain.

3. What now?

Plenty of time between now and Brighton to lick those wounds. You can be sure Smith will not throw in the towel. There remains enough games and points to pull off an improbable escape. To label it ‘great’ from here would be to underplay the scale of the challenge.

Yes, both Smith and his assistant, Craig Shakespeare, have been involved in successful survival missions in other coaching outposts. But all the available evidence, the desperate numbers and the damning statistics paint a different picture. To come back from the manner of this latest defeat will take all Smith’s powers of man management and motivation.

The public messaging from here is likely to re-state this is not mission impossible. But privately, the reset for another Championship campaign needs to ramp up. That means settling on the parameters for an honest debrief of what has gone wrong this time around and how they respond.

Delia Smith reaffirmed her commitment to the football club on the eve of this painful defeat. There appears no appetite for a change at a top. That is also reflected by the key power brokers running the club on a daily basis. Smith himself had spoken about wanting to build something lasting, something sustainable.

That appears likely to include another tilt at coming back to the Premier League with a squad fit for purpose, under a head coach who is able to extract the most from the available resource which, under this model, will never be as rich or as plentiful as the vast majority of the rest of the top flight.

There is nothing to suggest the direction of travel is going to change. But how they strive once more to get to where they want to be is in need of revision and refinement.

4. Sad indictment

There are positives. They might not be visible in the aftermath of this late, late reverse. Off the pitch the club remains in a financially solvent, stable position.

They may not be able to compete financially with the Premier League. But if it is a Championship return they will certainly be one of the bigger hitters across a league packed with clubs struggling to make ends meet.

They have to maximise that relative muscle to build a squad Smith can meld into an effective fighting force. But within this group there are bright sparks. Young, fresh, raw talent like Jonathan Rowe who looks fearless at this level.

Another cameo almost brought a first Premier League goal, when his left footed strike cracked the underside of Meslier’s bar. But the fact that Smith had to turn to an 18-year-old academy recruit to turn the tide also underlined the current state of affairs.

With Josh Sargent again ineffective as an attacking force and no sign of Christos Tzolis there is going to be an inevitable focus on the recruitment deficit last summer.

But in a player like Rowe, they look to have unearthed a gem who can emerge as a key figure in the fightback.

5. Captain. My captain.

Norwich City hoped the Premier League would allow Grant Hanley to play, despite returning a positive Covid result on Saturday.

But as Smith confirmed afterwards, that was a non starter. Ben Gibson came back in alongside Ozan Kabak in an emergency coupling which was breached for Rodrigo’s opener, when Kabak’s knockdown was pounced on by Dan James, before Rodrigo slammed a deflected half-volley against Gibson’s heel to send it spinning beyond Tim Krul.

Although Smith also pointed out his belief Patrick Bamford proved an unwanted distraction to his centre backs, even if he was deemed technically not to be directly involved in the move.

Losing Hanley so close to such a mammoth, defining Premier League battle was a cruel blow. We will never know how crucial in the final analysis, given the madcap end to this contest.

But it evoked memories again of that heavily disrupted festive spell through injury and Covid-related illness that decimated Smith’s squad.

City did have two postponements granted by the Premier League, but Smith also felt that mid-December home defeat to his old club, Aston Villa, should never have taken place.

It is tempting to package Hanley’s omission in the same category. The UK government eased restrictions last month as part of a ‘Living with Covid’ plan. That included lifting the law requiring people to stay at home if you test positive.

Fresh guidance is expected next month, but the current government and public health advice remains people who test positive should look to self-isolate for a period of days.

On such grounds, one could hardly call the Premier League's stance on Hanley into question. With a near three week pause now until City resume at Brighton, City will hope the captain’s positive test result proves an isolated case within the dressing room.