Chris Goreham: I got it wrong over Norwich City this season 

It’s not a sentiment you often hear expressed around the world of football. The passionate, tribal nature of being a supporter tends to create an atmosphere that is full of heartfelt cast-iron certainty and short on nuance. The mood at Carrow Road is often more black and white than yellow and green.  

Norwich City’s recent goal bonanza has served to illustrate the grey areas that make the Championship so difficult to predict.  

It was Johannes Hoff Thorup who admitted he was wrong at full-time on Saturday. You don’t often hear a manager or head coach do that but then it’s rare that a boss can speak from the secure platform of having netted 10 goals in four days at home.  

“It’s only down to the coach that didn’t manage to find the best possible position for him.” That’s what Thorup said about Jack Stacey’s sparkling return to form.  

The right back had been on the bench for 10 straight Championship matches before being recalled for the trip to West Brom last Saturday.

He might be a defender but his front foot style means that, despite missing so many matches, he now has five assists this season. No player in the City squad has more. The determination to chase what looked like a lost cause and dig out a cutback from which Ante Crnac made it 2-1 against Luton Town typified what Stacey can bring to the team.  

Thorup wasn’t the only one ordering a humble pie from the food kiosks at the ground on Saturday.  

Canaries fans are rapidly becoming pro-Crnac after seeing him expertly dispatch three of the 10 goals this week. Patience appears to be paying off in the 20-year old who hadn’t originally looked like an adequate replacement for the injured Josh Sargent.  

Crnac’s double on Saturday was arguably not his most impressive contribution. At 2-2 with 10 minutes to go he found himself in the sort of position where most strikers would have been smelling a hat-trick.

Yet he was wise and unselfish enough just to roll the ball into the path of Emi Marcondes who slotted home a more simple opportunity for the ninth goal of the week.  

It's often said that the art of football punditry is to describe what’s going to happen before a game starts and then afterwards explain why it didn’t.  

So, in the spirit of holding hands up and admitting you were wrong, here’s my Canary mea culpa of the season so far.  

After watching Norwich City lose 1-0 at Swansea in September I wrote, in this very column, a thoughtful piece about why I was worried that Norwich would struggle for goals this season.   

Borja Sainz had spurned several opportunities to nick at least a point in Wales. There was no way that City were going to be able to replace the output of Gabriel Sara and Jonathan Rowe after their departures in the summer.  

Two and half months on and Norwich City have the top scorer in the football league and are the most prolific team in the Championship. I didn’t see Sainz’s sensational scoring run coming.  

Borja Sainz has been sensational for City so far this season (Image: Paul Chesterton/Focus Images Ltd)

His eight goals last season suggested promise but not that he would be doubling that before Christmas. It’s worth taking a step back and just appreciating his numbers. Saturday’s poacher’s goal against Luton Town takes him to 16 in 20 appearances this season.  

It’s a record that is comparable with Erling Haaland who has 17 in 19 so far. That includes two penalties while Sainz hasn’t taken any. Closer to home Teemu Pukki had 13 in his first 20 matches for the club in his storming 2018/19 campaign.

Grant Holt had scored 14 in 20 in the 2009/10 campaign when he ended up on 30 goals. That was in League One had also included two against non-league Paulton Rovers in the FA Cup but they all count.  

The most remarkable thing about Sainz’s scoring streak is that, unlike Holt, Haaland and Pukki, he’s not even a striker. If you want to compare like with like he’s now levelled Emi Buendia’s tally of Canary goals from 63 fewer games and has scored more this season than Onel Hernandez has in almost seven years with the club.  

This isn’t meant to talk anybody down. It’s just context to make sure that City fans appreciate quite how special this run of form actually is. It might not last but let’s just enjoy Borja Sainz for being Borja Sainz.  

I didn’t predict it but sometimes it’s good to be wrong.  

Hungry Emi? 

There’s been no shortage of entertainment at Carrow Road over the past week.  

As if the 10 Norwich City goals weren’t enough, their set-piece routines are becoming a spectacle in themselves.  

When Shane Duffy headed in to make it 3-1 against Plymouth it looked like a simple goal. A corner nodded home by a centre back is a tale as old as football itself.  

What really caught the eye was the elaborate way in which Emi Marcondes signalled where he was going to play the ball. He backed away from the corner flag before rubbing his tummy in exaggerated fashion. It was either a message to the team-mates waiting in the middle or a sign that the half-time oranges in the Carrow Road dressing rooms might have been on the turn.  

It looks like it was the former because further set-pieces have revealed Kenny McLean rubbing his thighs and Shane Duffy patting himself on the back.  

What does it all mean? Norwich have only scored two goals from set plays this season so, while the artistic impression is admirable, it needs a bit of work. It’s fair to say charades will be fun at the Canaries Christmas party this year.