The Paul Lambert success story at Norwich City continues unabated and the Canaries head to Loftus Road on Monday leading the charge of the three newly promoted clubs.

Overview

The Norwich City success story shows no sign of coming to an end just yet, and the start to Premiership life made by the Canaries continues to rankle with QPR supporters. This, understandably, seems to have perplexed Norwich fans, some of whom even took the time prior to the recent fixture between the two sides at Carrow Road, to pop onto the LoftforWords message board and ask what the problem was.

Rangers and Norwich were the top two in the Championship last season, but in the world of the paranoid football fan who believes every referee and media outlet is conspiring against their club it seemed to the Loftus Road faithful that the Canaries were given rather more than their fair share of praise for the achievement. The media and general public like Norwich; they like Delia and her pies, they like Stephen Fry and his anti-depressants, they like the Norfolk stereo-types and all those stats about how many season tickets they sell, they like the fact that the score goals in the 95th minute because it shows how spirited they are, they like that they have a pub footballer up front who’s taking the Premiership by storm and they like that they’re the first side since Man City a decade ago to achieve back to back promotions into the top flight. Lovely, lovely Norwich.

QPR meanwhile, they don’t seem so sure about. They don’t like Joey Barton and his tendency to stub cigars out in people’s eyes and Tweet pretentious nonsense, they don’t like Neil Warnock and that strange hands behind the head thing he does when yelling at the fourth official, they don’t like the way QPR bought the league title last season even though that’s not actually true, they don’t like that they still had to cheat to win the thing with the whole Ale Faurlin affair even though that’s not true either and so it goes on. Norwich had a victory parade for their second place finish while QPR didn’t bother despite winning the league – that perhaps contributed to both Sky and the BBC accidently declaring Norwich as the Championship champions in separate reports during the summer. Norwich’s director’s box looks like an episode of Countryfile, QPR’s director’s box has often looked like the front cover of Rich Idiots Monthly magazine.

And as we know Norwich are now doing significantly better in the Premiership than QPR. This despite QPR going out and buying proven Premiership players like Barton, Shaun Wright-Phillips, Luke Young, Anton Ferdinand and so on while Paul Lambert spent his summer assembling, and seemingly overpaying for, a sort of ‘Premiership-lite’ squad of the best the Football League had to offer. George Pilkington, Andrew Surman, James Vaughen, Steve Morrison, Ritchie De Laet and others didn’t exactly scream ‘top flight’ when they arrived but they have gelled into an enterprising and entertaining Premiership side while QPR have faltered of late.

But perhaps Norwich should tread carefully. QPR’s poor recent run started with a defeat at Carrow Road, a result that has almost become an annual event for the R’s. Prior to that it was the Hoops who lead the way of the three promoted clubs after a big win at Stoke and plenty of praise and plaudits were coming our way.

Norwich have done superbly so far but warning signs are there for the second half of the season. They’re not defending well – their recent 2-2 draw at Wolves could easily have been a 3-2 defeat with the Canaries coughing up several gilt edged chances in injury time at Molineux. On Saturday against a Fulham side that is notoriously bad on the road they could, and should, have been at least three goals down by half time before, to their credit, staging a typical late rally and equalising in injury time. They have managed a solitary away win so far, which is one more than they managed in their last Premiership season that ended with relegation but still not enough to guarantee them safety. Teams below them, ourselves included, are talking about significant strengthening during this transfer window while Lambert has been coy about his plans.

The Scot, however, doesn’t strike me as a manager that’s resting on his laurels. As we stand at the halfway stage of the season he’s the clear and obvious candidate for the division’s Manager of the Year award and if Norwich continue on this seemingly relentless upward curve the challenge in the not too distant future will be hanging on to him.

Manager

The perceived wisdom, often proffered by television pundits whose mate has just got the sack, is that clubs, boards and supporters are far too quick to turn on the manager. Alex Ferguson is an unbeatable example for them to use in such situations and whenever you listen to Chris Kamara after one of his Goals on Sunday regulars has just been sacked (again) he’ll always have you believe that a second Fergie dynasty would have surely resulted had they given Reidy/Robbo/Big Sam just another game or three. Presumably this is the misapprehension the Venky’s are currently labouring under at Blackburn.

Norwich’s sacking of Bryan Gunn just over two years ago was particularly early, just two games into the season, and particularly harsh given his standing in the game and at the club. Gunn, former Norwich goalkeeper and all round good guy, had done every single job there was to do at Carrow Road since hanging up his gloves and seemed a natural man to turn to when Glenn Roeder was sacked in early 2009. In one of the all time great football quotes Delia Smith said the Norwich manager must know “the Norfolk way” of doing things – saying that Roeder had been rather ruder and more abrupt with players, fans and board members than he really should have been. His results were shit as well.

Gunn couldn’t save the Canaries from relegation but was given the job permanently in the summer anyway. He spoke about steady rebuilding and consolidating in League One, and then saw his team beaten 7-1 in the first match of the season against Colchester. The result was swift and direct action – Gunn was sacked, despite subsequently presiding over a 4-0 win at Yeovil that Tuesday night, and replaced by the Colchester manager who’d inflicted that decimation Paul Lambert.

You’ll never find anybody in football with a bad word to say about Bryan Gunn. Northern the Elder used to tell me a story every so often about the QPR fans standing to a man in the away end at Carrow Road and applauding Gunn out onto the field of play for his first match after his daughter had died of leukaemia. Something QPR hating journalist and Norwich fan Mick Dennis neglects to mention when he whinges on about not being able to get a fucking cup of tea at Loftus Road on a cold day.

Ironically losing 7-1 at home on the opening day has turned out to be one of the best things that has ever happened to Norwich. Was it too soon? Was this any way to treat a club legend? The results since have spoken for themselves. Gunn’s plans for a season of consolidation were immediately torn up by Lambert who immediately set about promoting the Canaries as impressive 95 point champions. Had Norwich lost that game 2-1 or 1-0 Gunn may have stayed. Had he done so I very much doubt we’d have been playing Norwich in the Championship last season, never mind in the Premiership this. Their rise has been meteoric and shows no signs of slowing just yet – they’re ninth in the Premiership at the time of writing.

Paul Lambert should be a good manager. He’s Scottish (like all good managers and awful footballers are), he’s won everything there is to win in the game as a player including the European Cup, he’s played both at home and abroad and he has educated himself as a boss by starting at the bottom with the likes of Wycombe and Livingston. If you had to draw a managerial career blueprint his would be absolutely ideal to this point.

As a player Lambert was a strong, combative and yet classy central midfielder who won the European Cup with Dortmund after emerging through the ranks at St Mirren and making his name with Motherwell. He left Fir Park in 1996 and by the time he returned 12 months and the biggest prize in the club game later he was so vastly superior to anything else the SPL had to offer it was almost embarrassing. Lambert, one of only two current Premiership managers to lift the European Cup, helped to turn around nine years of Rangers dominance north of the border and re-assert Celtic as the top dogs with Martin O’Neil’s hand on the tiller. He reached the UEFA Cup final with Celtic too – no mean feat considering the day to day fixtures for Celtic brought them up against the likes of Bob Malcolm and Michael Duberry and their European run pitted them against Boavista, Stuttgart and Liverpool. That glittering club career seemed to weigh a little heavy on his shoulders when he moved into management. He won just twice as Livingston manager between August and February in his first season and resigned. Then at Wycombe he twice rebuilt the side, and went on a couple of memorable cup runs that saw them reach the semi final of the League Cup against Chelsea in 2007, but he couldn’t get them out of League One and the frustration of that saw him resign after a failed play off attempt in 2008. During his time there he used our old wild child Tommy Doherty in the same midfield role he himself used to perform in.

His next job was at Colchester in League One – another club that stuck with a manager after relegation only to then sack him a couple of months into the season which is always a sure fire path to failure. Lambert steadied the ship after Geraint Williams had left, and seemed to have built a side capable of winning promotion back to the Championship last year as Norwich found out to their cost on day one. His appointment at Carrow Road has seen the club rescued from the precipice and has really seen him cement his reputation as a manager. He’ll never go short of job offers after the work he’s done at Norwich, where he’s probably got a job for as long as he wants it.

Scouting Report

If QPR are to get their first win in ten attempts on Monday much will depend on who is selected at centre half and how they perform. Norwich are highly likely to come at the R’s with Grant Holt and Steve Morrison in attack and frankly, if they don’t, then Lambert has missed a real opportunity. QPR have struggled badly against both forwards over the past 18 months.

Last season at Loftus Road Holt won a penalty which Wes Hoolahan then missed, and at Carrow Road he got Matthew Connolly sent off with a typically muscular piece of play followed by the now trademark comic dive to earth under meagre contact. Morrison also gave Connolly a torrid time at Loftus Road while playing for Millwall and then in the return game at The Den pretty much ended Danny Shittu’s QPR career with a dominant display that ended with a goal in a 2-0 win and a red card for Shittu. Incidentally, with the 25 man squad rule suspended for January, Warnock could call on Big Danny tomorrow should he feel the need to bulk up the heart of his defence. Connolly’s willingness to continue to allow the ball to bounce in dangerous areas was on show against at Arsenal on Saturday and will be meat and drink to Norwich’s physical, hard working forward line if it’s repeated today.

Holt has seven goals from nine starts and nine sub appearances so far meaning he has scored in all four divisions of English football, proving there is still room for a battering ram forward in the modern game. Holt scored two in a recent 4-2 home success against Newcastle where all four goals came from headers – Norwich have 12 goals from headers in total this season, more than anybody else in the league, and could well profit again this Monday with QPR struggling for fit and in form centre backs. I’d definitely start with Clint Hill in the middle for this game.

But at the other end Norwich themselves concede a lot of goals. They’ve shipped 34 already in 19 matches this season and are yet to keep a clean sheet this season. In fact 0-0 is just about the most unlikely scoreline for this game – there has been at least one goal scored in every single Norwich game this season, and both teams have scored on all but three occasions.

Their points were restricted in the early matches – five from five games – mainly due to their worrying obsession with conceding penalties. They had a spot kick given against them in their first five league matches, equalling the league record, and four of them were scored. Perhaps repeatedly facing penalties explains the form of goalkeeper John Ruddy at Liverpool where he pulled off a series of unlikely saves to preserve a 1-1 draw.

I’d seen Ruddy before that game when Norwich played at home to a poor Sunderland side and he looked incredibly nervous from even the most basic back passes. He’s since conceded a terribly soft Yakubu goal at his near post against Blackburn. I know I’m setting myself up here for him to have some sort of Lev Yashin reborn moment against Rangers but I don’t rate him that highly and I think he’ll give us at least one chance in this game.

Ruddy was out suspended when I saw Norwich against West Brom earlier this season and Lambert went with nervous teenager Declan Rudd instead – he saved a penalty on his Premier League debut, but didn’t look at all assured as you would expect given the circumstances. Incidentally striker Aaron Wilbraham, signed just before we played there last January, once kept goal for MK Dons in a 2-1 win against Bradford and was the designated substitute goalkeeper against the Baggies.

Lambert clearly scouts his players well. When I saw Norwich against Sunderland Bennett looked really lively – the former Brighton winger combining in a dangerous, pacey right flank duo with Spurs loanee and long term QPR target Kyle Naughton. Armand Traore and Jamie Mackie should have the pace and work rate to deal with them but should we be left to rely on Taarabt or Hill or both out there this Saturday we could struggle. Anthony Pilkington was also a risk, moving up two divisions from Huddersfield while at the same time recovering from a broken leg. He’s also recovered from a horrendous missed chance at Old Trafford to go on and register three times since (four in total this season) and he looks a real find as well. The average age of the Norwich side against Sunderland was less than 25.

Pilkington has slotted into a diamond shaped midfield system favoured by Paul Lambert that QPR completely failed to cope with in both meetings last season – Norwich took four points from QPR, missed a penalty in the 0-0 draw at Loftus Road, and stopped Rangers from scoring in 180 minutes of football. We simply must deal with that set up, particularly the man at the pinnacle of the diamond – Wes Hoolahan played there against us last season and ran amok.

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QPRski added 08:25 - Jan 2 I think that all Rangers fans are frustrated that after our Chamionship title we are now 5 points adrift of Norwich and bottom of the promoted trio. Especially that we bought some "household names" and Nowich assembled "Premiership-lites" As your preview highlights we know exactly what to expect : Holt & Morisson in attack and their midfield diamond formation. However they are leaking goals and have no clean sheet. After recent positive performances, I hope that the midfield and attack gel and we manage to outscore Norwich. The key will be the attitude of the players but I am optimistic.

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