‘No miracles’: Philippe Clement gets instant view of size of task at Norwich

When the ball came to Kenny McLean near the halfway line, few imagined what would unfold next, even with the goalkeeper caught in two minds and no-man’s land. This time however, in stark contrast to Tuesday’s heroics at Hampden Park, the self-proclaimed Mayor of Norwich was dispossessed by a hungry opponent and the home team’s fourth goal confirmed victory. McLean may have returned to Norfolk slightly the worse for wear, understandably, after scoring against Denmark from the centre circle to clinch Scotland’s place in the World Cup finals. But while his concession of possession to Demarai Gray on Saturday, leading to the perfect through ball for Jay Stansfield to round off this 4-1 win for Birmingham, epitomised Norwich’s back-foot performance at St Andrew’s, he is far from the main culprit of their extended plight near the foot of the Championship. Related: Championship: Coventry battle back to beat Baggies; Daka strike eases heat on Cifuentes With no victory, and only three points, in 12 games, the numbers do not make for happy reading. And fears that the club’s strategy is based on a ‘Moneyball’ approach to recruitment have placed Ben Knapper, the club’s sporting director, front and centre of the Norwich fans’ rage. The former performance and football analyst at Arsenal has already dismissed three managers since he arrived at Norwich two years ago this week, succeeding Stuart Webber. Philippe Clement, the former Rangers manager, took charge for the first time here, having pre-empted his first defeat with a claim that the players are not fit enough. Knapper also stated this publicly, while taking accountability, admitting that the summer’s pre-season, planned mainly by last season’s manager Johannes Hoff Thorup, who was then dismissed, and implemented by Liam Manning, the club’s first ever Norwich-born manager, had led to the recruitment of external performance analysts. Fans agree. Before the game one of them – Denise, from Norwich – said: “Hopefully they’ll hit the ground running and run for 90 minutes rather than stopping at 45. The previous manager tried to get the players onside by making training fun. Liam was a nice guy, did alright, but it was wrong place, wrong time, with a young team.” Keith Cocksedge, from Northampton, said: “We’ve been rubbish at home. We’ve had a few injuries but that might also be down to the training regime, or maybe the players themselves.” The dismissal of Manning, after only 17 games in charge, may have lanced the boil of vitriol for those supporters who were becoming so angry before the previous defeat by Leicester that players who normally travel to home games in their own cars arrived in a team bus for their own safety. They were still booed – and that was before kick-off. At least for this game, they focused more on actually supporting the team, only resorting to ‘we want Knapper out’ in the last minute. Norwich’s policy seems to have been to buy young and continental with a view to following the path lit up by Brentford, Brighton and Bournemouth. But this is easier said than done. There have been five permanent managers since Daniel Farke left four years ago with relegation from the Premier League pending. Clement vowed after this defeat to help make his new charges “the fittest team in the league” but like Jack Stacey, the right-back who delivered the cross from which Mathias Kvistgaarden, the £6.9m signing from Brøndby, scored his third goal in successive games to make it 2-1, fitness can come down to individual professionalism. “My opinion is, as a player, your body and your fitness should be 100% your responsibility,” Stacey said. “The guys at the club are there to help you if they can but everyone should look at themselves and ask if they’re fit or not. It probably shouldn’t be coming from outside sources.” Marvin Ducksch scored at either end of the first half, as Norwich defended nervously, either side of Stansfield’s first as Birmingham celebrated their 150th anniversary in the week that they announced remarkable plans for a new 62,000-capacity stadium to move to within a point of the playoff zone. “In the first half, we lacked intensity, duel power (they lost 87% of aerial duels in the first half), also structure and didn’t do defensively what we trained,” Clement, 51, who has won three top-flight titles in his native Belgium, said. “But we didn’t have much time training together and I know there are no miracles in football. “It’s necessary to make strides quickly but on the other side, every team with 10 players unavailable will struggle. I don’t like to make the comparison, but look at Manchester City last season, when they miss a few players.” His new team, winless at Carrow Road this season, now face Oxford United, five points above them in the 21st place that currently looks like nirvana to Norwich fans, and QPR at home. Clement was linked with glamorous clubs such as Ajax but was convinced by Knapper and Mark Attanasio, the majority shareholder who lifted Milwaukee Brewers baseball team’s horizons in America, that this long-term plan can be more gratifying. “It’s not because I’m a masochist or something,” he said. “It’s because of talks with people in the club and the owners, who have proved in other sports how to take a team from lower region to the top, and to have responsibility with building the project.” If Norwich are challenging towards the top end of the Championship in 18 months’ time, Clement will be rivalling McLean for the right to be known as the city’s next mayor.