If you weren’t one of the Canary faithful that made the trip to Craven Cottage yesterday, I’m sure that by now you have seen Nelson Oliveira’s goal and the rather ‘passionate’ celebration that followed.
Jake Humphrey via his twitter account @mrjakehumphrey described it as ‘classless’ and added ‘If I was Daniel Farke that’d be his first & last ncfc game of the season.’
As you can imagine, Jake’s comments provoked a storm from the Canary Twitterati.
It was a bit strange for the first game of the season to see a player so apparently upset about not having started the game but I don’t think you can knock Nelson for that.
Having scored a fine goal, after taking Wes Hoolahan’s sublime pass down on his chest, Oliveira ripped his shirt off and ran over to Farke and pointed at his name on the back of the shirt. Farke tried to embrace him but Nelson was caught in the moment and pulled away before having to be dragged off by Josh Murphy as he continued to make his point to Farke.
The implication of all this was that Oliveira felt he should’ve started the game and that his goal underlined that fact.
For his part, Farke said afterwards that he had no problem with the celebration or with Nelson, telling the EDP
‘He is a Portuguese guy and very emotional and passionate. When I think back to my own career I was angry when I didn`t play and if I scored I would show my shirt to the coach and even throw it at his feet.
“I think it is quite normal. All the players should want to play 90 minutes in nearly 60 games, hopefully, but it is not possible. One of our greatest strengths is to have two of the best strikers in the league.’
So it would seem that Farke doesn’t have a problem with the fiery nature of Nelson’s celebrations and if he doesn’t, why should anyone else?
The only thing that I would say is that perhaps Nelson’s energies would’ve been better spent by running over to the City fans rather than the coach. Having said that, the away end looked like it was in raptures anyway, so no real harm done.
Jake Humphrey’s tweet was probably a knee jerk reaction and just his opinion – we all have one, don’t we?
It’s worth remembering what Farke pointed out after the game that we have two of the most effective strikers in the league and that yesterday, he decided that due to having some young lads in the side that he felt Cameron Jerome’s energy and work rate would suit this game better from the start with Oliveira better placed to come on when the game was stretched later on.
He gets paid to make these decisions and if that’s what he thinks, and it certainly seemed to work, then so be it.
Neither Jerome nor Oliveira could hope to play every game of a Championship season and both will be rested at times. Whenever I played football and was told I was starting as sub, I was disappointed, why should it be any different as a professional?
The important thing is what happened and what was said afterwards between all parties. Norwich are not going to sell Oliveira and he will need to establish himself in the new gaffer’s pecking order the same as every other player. I’m quite sure that Daniel Farke is fully aware of his abilities and will play him when he thinks it best suits the needs of the team.
Yes, it’s early in the season and being honest, Jerome didn’t do a lot in the 60 odd minutes he was on the pitch at Fulham but he and Oliveira are different types of striker and I think some City fans still struggle to understand this.
Horses for courses, as the old saying goes.
The bottom line here is that if Farke hasn’t got a problem with a passionate outburst after scoring a crucial goal. Then why should anyone else?
We can all have an opinion but his is the only one that counts.
OTBC