MW5 — Norwich (H) 1–3 Probably the clearest warning yet about the 4-4-2. Norwich kept finding too much space either side of the midfield two, with Musaba and Brooks especially able to attack the wide areas and get at our back line. We had a decent spell after Bamford’s equaliser, but Touré getting released through the middle just before half-time rather summed up how easy we were to open up. It's a real problem when we concede too much space out wide, then they can run straight through the middle of us too. Toure showed what a player early in his early years vs later years when Bamford has the same chance in the second half. Slimane with a nice back heel assist. The second half was worse because Norwich didn’t even need to chase it — they controlled the game and we never really built sustained pressure. Honestly, it felt like we gave up. The last 20min was academic. The recurring issue is structural: when the direct ball into the front two doesn’t stick, there’s a huge gap between attack and midfield and not enough protection behind it. It works well when everyone if fully up for it and fit, so it looked decent at times during the first half. Donnovon looked good again but he evidently tired. Kitching had a good debut despite the result,fully gets stuck in and could even have scored from the set peice with a non ref protected goalkeeper. It's a pretty obvious offside for their 3rd too. I'm happy for Brooksy to have a good return TL;DR: 4-4-2 looked stretched, Norwich exploited it, and for once the late chaos never came to save us.