DAVID FOX - NORWICH'S PASS MASTER

DAVID FOX - NORWICH'S PASS MASTER

We all have our favourite players and the reasons for our choices are many and varied. Football is, after all, a game of opinions. Often those players who achieve huge popularity amongst supporters are goalscorers; these are the men whose contributions can actually be measured in finite terms, hence the enormous esteem in which Grant Holt is currently held by Canaries fans. His record of 52 goals at a rate of more than one every other game in his City career so far is justifiable cause for his cult status and other Carrow Road favourites who have gained that mythical label of club ‘legend’ include the likes of Iwan Roberts, Ted MacDougall, Robert Fleck and John Deehan, or, if you want to go back further into the club’s history, Johnny Gavin, Jack Vinall or Terry Allcock.

It is easy, too, to admire heroic goalkeepers. I still remember with a kind of schoolboy awe the athletic brilliance of Kevin Keelan, the first Norwich ‘keeper I ever saw, and the likes of Bryan Gunn and Chris Woods are others who have earned enormous credit in the role.

Gutsy, tough defenders also capture supporters’ hearts. Duncan Forbes, the granite Scot, who anchored the City defence in the seventies and once suffered a collapsed lung in a League Cup quarter-final win at Highbury has always been a heroic figure in my eyes, along with Dave Stringer, the Yarmouth boy who not only played 499 times for the club but later, as manager, took them to fourth place in the top flight in 1988-89. More recently Dave Watson, Steve Bruce and Malky McKay have excited tremendous admiration for their defensive tenacity.

Though there have been many wonderful midfield players in the club’s past it is perhaps less easy to measure their particular contributions. Graham Paddon and Ian Crook are two who spring to my mind, the latter in particular for his superb passing, that priceless quality which can unlock opposition defences and create chances for the more glamorous goal grabbers.

In Paul Lambert’s current Norwich City side which has made what many consider to be an unexpectedly impressive impact on the Premier League, I believe there is one player whose enormous contribution has not been sufficiently recognised. That man is David Fox.

Fox was signed by Lambert from his previous club, Colchester United, in June 2010 just after Norwich had won promotion from League One. It is no surprise that the arch passer had found himself sidelined at Layer Road under the jurisdiction of Aidy ‘Long Ball’ Boothroyd.  I have to admit that at the time I knew little of Fox. I was aware that he had some ‘football pedigree’; I remember his father, Peter, keeping goal for Stoke City and I knew he had been a junior at Manchester United. I also had the dubious pleasure of seeing him curl a free-kick past the hapless Michael Theoklitos (not one of City’s finest goalkeepers) in that dreaded 7-1 defeat to Colchester in August 2009. However, his career had hardly been stellar and it was not a signing which particularly excited me  those eighteen months or so ago.

Nonetheless he was a Lambert signing and that alone should have been enough to make me, and indeed all City fans, rather more expectant than we perhaps were. At the time the manager said that he thought Fox would ‘benefit the team with his wide range of passing’ and I also seem to remember him saying that he could ‘manipulate the football’. As the side surged to a second successive promotion Fox cemented a berth in the starting line-up and his crucial contribution to the cause was never better exemplified than by the utterly sublime pass which set up Simeon Jackson’s tremendous headed winner to clinch promotion at Fratton Park in May 2011.

This season Lambert’s men have earned plaudits for any number of reasons, not the least of which is their magnificent team spirit, their willingness to ‘have a go’ at all times and their priceless capability of scoring goals despite not having the tightest of defences. As far as passing goes, however, it is promotion pals, Swansea City, who have caught the imagination of the nation’s pundits. However, it would be wrong to overlook the fact that Fox has played a huge part in the Canaries’ success and a slightly closer examination of the evidence bears this out.

To date Norwich have notched up 32 points, courtesy of a very tidy record of 8 wins, 8 draws and 8 losses. Fox has started in 16 of the team’s 24 fixtures, made 3 substitute appearances and in 5 games played no part. Of the 16 games he has started Lambert’s men have won 6, drawn 7 and lost just 3 (against Manchester United (A), Arsenal (H) and Tottenham (H)). They have also lost 3 (Chelsea (A), WBA (H) and Sunderland (A)) of the games in which he has not featured at all. To sum up, then, in the 16 games he has started the side have amassed 25 points, whilst in the 8 he has not begun they have taken just 7 points.

It would, of course, be foolish to suggest that it is simply a case of ‘leave out Fox at your peril’ and I have elsewhere recorded not only my huge admiration for the manager but also my complete trust in his decision making and selection. Lambert knows that it is a ‘squad game’ and that players occasionally need rest. He also has proved a master of picking teams and formations to suit the demands of a particular opposition.

That said, Norwich do seem to be a more effective attacking unit with David Fox pulling the strings. Back in September Lambert said of the Stoke born 28 year-old ‘He has always had an eye for a pass and is a terrific footballer. He sees things so quickly and has a great awareness of what’s going on around him..a marvellous talent’.  

Without underestimating the level of performance of other members of the side, and in particular the occasionally magical Wes Hoolahan, with David Fox on his game, as he showed in yesterday’s outstanding home win over Bolton, The Canaries pose a serious threat going forward whoever the opposition. Paul Lambert’s challenge as the season progresses will be to continue to pick midfield combinations which can combat the strengths of opponents, protect the back four and create goalscoring opportunities; his comments about Fox would suggest that he will be keen to include him as frequently as he feels able.