How long do we give him?

[canary-dave]

Although AN certainly has to take a measure of responsibility, I don't think sacking him would make any great difference. For me, the problem lies with the complacency of players who can perform well when things are going their way but fall apart completely when mistakes creep in. This was summed up well by Jerome:

"He’s going to come under scrutiny again because he’s managing a team that’s expected to get promoted,” said Jerome. “Ultimately he picks a team, he’s got a talented squad at his disposal and the 11 players on the pitch aren’t doing their jobs. The manager and his coaching staff go throughly through all our work in the week and in depth, tactical analysis on the opposition. We know how the opposition are going to play and we train that way in the week, we set up to combat that – and ultimately it’s simple mistakes and it’s costing us."

On Saturday it was Ruddy, Klose and Martin who made those mistakes and by then the game was lost, in spite of Naismith and Jerome getting a goal back. I agree completely with the comments about young players coming in now that there's little left to play for. The next 3 games should allow for that transition to give young players a chance. Pritchard picked up a knock at the end of the game that could well keep him out, so I'd expect to at least see Maddison on the bench. Tettey struggles with 3 games a week so Godfrey should at least be on the bench, if not starting. Efete may have to wait, but I'd like to see Bennett come in for Martin. With Mulumbu, Dorrans, Jarvis and Oliveira coming back to fitness, AN may at last have other options as well in the future, but increasingly the emphasis should be on bringing younger players in.

Great post Rick! If only you could put it in verse it would be perfect!

 

[Walsh.i.am]

First time I've heard the full Cam Jerome interview - far too angry to listen to anything NCFC related over the weekend. He certainly doesn't hold back. I hope it doesn't alienate his team mates - though after that ****ing shambles on Saturday, that's probably not possible! I reckon they are reintroduced to each other in the changing rooms before kick off, so they know who each other is.
http://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/...4916841?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it

Enjoyed watching the cricket international yesterday, well played Root and Woakes.
Nice to see and hear Calypso, rather than Collapso on Saturday!

 

[DUNCAN DONUTS]

We would be better off dropping Ruddy for an outfield player the guy is totally shot .

 

[carrowcanario]

We would be better off dropping Ruddy for an outfield player the guy is totally shot .

We'd be better off playing Ruddy as CB instead of Martin. Why he plays so much beats me.

Yes AN picks the team, but if they aren't doing their job why oh why does he keep picking them.

 

[RiverEndRick]

First time I've heard the full Cam Jerome interview - far too angry to listen to anything NCFC related over the weekend. He certainly doesn't hold back. I hope it doesn't alienate his team mates - though after that ****ing shambles on Saturday, that's probably not possible! I reckon they are reintroduced to each other in the changing rooms before kick off, so they know who each other is.
http://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/...4916841?utm_medium=twitter&utm_source=dlvr.it

Well, if there's anybody who has the right to criticize his team-mates it's Jerome. He never gives less than 100% on the pitch and in spite of his disappointing scoring rate in the PL, his overall rate for us is very good (33 goals in 76 league starts and 29 sub appearances). He also has scored 6 goals in his last 9 games. If only more of our players had his fighting spirit.

 

[Walsh.i.am]

Yes AN picks the team, but if they aren't doing their job why oh why does he keep picking them.

Don't forget it's totally the players fault for not "putting in the required shift" canario - not Alex Neil's for picking them week after week despite lousy, half-hearted (or less than half on occasion!) performances one match after another.
(No, I fail to fathom how some of our contributors can still, after the crap we've been through, apportion the blame solely with the players while the chimp / chump in charge (*delete as appropriate) walks away scot-free )

 

[RiverEndRick]

Yes AN picks the team, but if they aren't doing their job why oh why does he keep picking them.

That's a fair question, canario. In part, it's been limited by a lot of injuries of late, which has been disruptive, but that doesn't explain why he has persisted with Martin for so long. Howson, Tettey and Godfrey have been his only choices in CM of late and it's hard to throw a 19 year-old in when there is so much at stake. That no longer being the case, however, we should see more young players getting into the team. For me, AN's emphasis on developing young players has been his most redeeming feature and now is the time to push that further for the rest of the season.

 

[JM Fan]

Although AN certainly has to take a measure of responsibility, I don't think sacking him would make any great difference. For me, the problem lies with the complacency of players who can perform well when things are going their way but fall apart completely when mistakes creep in. This was summed up well by Jerome:

"He’s going to come under scrutiny again because he’s managing a team that’s expected to get promoted,” said Jerome. “Ultimately he picks a team, he’s got a talented squad at his disposal and the 11 players on the pitch aren’t doing their jobs. The manager and his coaching staff go throughly through all our work in the week and in depth, tactical analysis on the opposition. We know how the opposition are going to play and we train that way in the week, we set up to combat that – and ultimately it’s simple mistakes and it’s costing us."

On Saturday it was Ruddy, Klose and Martin who made those mistakes and by then the game was lost, in spite of Naismith and Jerome getting a goal back. I agree completely with the comments about young players coming in now that there's little left to play for. The next 3 games should allow for that transition to give young players a chance. Pritchard picked up a knock at the end of the game that could well keep him out, so I'd expect to at least see Maddison on the bench. Tettey struggles with 3 games a week so Godfrey should at least be on the bench, if not starting. Efete may have to wait, but I'd like to see Bennett come in for Martin. With Mulumbu, Dorrans, Jarvis and Oliveira coming back to fitness, AN may at last have other options as well in the future, but increasingly the emphasis should be on bringing younger players in.

Unfortunately Rick, AN seems so intransigent that I'd be quite surprised if he doesn't persist with Martin, after all he is the captain, despite most on here who wanted a change.
My thoughts on 'bringing younger players in' has been well documented previously, but until AN does ditch the likes of Martin etc, we are always leaving ourselves open to individual errors costing us goals.

That's a fair question, canario. In part, it's been limited by a lot of injuries of late, which has been disruptive, but that doesn't explain why he has persisted with Martin for so long. Howson, Tettey and Godfrey have been his only choices in CM of late and it's hard to throw a 19 year-old in when there is so much at stake. That no longer being the case, however, we should see more young players getting into the team. For me, AN's emphasis on developing young players has been his most redeeming feature and now is the time to push that further for the rest of the season.

Exactly!!

 

[General Melchett]

They had two good chances to start afresh. After the meek, without-a-whimper relegation last season, and once again after the calamitous, inexcusably bad run last autumn where we lost seven (7!?) out of nine.
I agree with this in principle, I'd have sacked him jan-Feb of the PL season, but I don't blame the board for sticking by him for a tilt at the championship, given his success in the championship in his maiden half season and the crowd response on the final day of the PL season.
That said he should definitely have gone before January so someone else could have had the window and half a season to rescue our promotion bid.
Everyone else inside and outside of the club has see his time is up - apart from the three amigos.
That is probably true now, but our mini revival before the binners had many thinking maybe he might turn it around
In his 27 months here, he's taken us from 7th in the championship to 8th in the same division, via a brilliant day at Wembley and a shockingly poor season in the top flight where he was too naive to correctly identify transfer targets or the board weren't supportive enough in procuring them.
I can't argue that we are generally a worse side now than then
So, let's have it right, in two and a quarter years he's taken us backwards Yup
With more of the same on offer ad nauseam because this pathetic self-financing model is no longer fit for purpose. This is why I'm really responding to this post. Whilst it would in some way be nice to get a billionaire backer to throw money at us as his little play thing. Until they arrive, self funding is far from pathetic and it is the only fit way to run a club.
Maybe I'm naive, but I believe self funding with the right people at the helm could enable us to stabilise in the PL. We were so close with Lamberts momentum and with the right person building like Swansea had/got we could have been established PL.
I thought people connected with football clubs aspire to growth, improvement, development etc?
Well, everyone in green and yellow would love to ...except, the 3 amigos, who yearn for a period of stagnation, treading water, going no ****ing where
I'm not sure that is what they yearn for, I do think however they lack the wit, guile and accumen to achieve much better.
That would be Delia 'dither in the doldrums' Smith
Michael 'nodding dog on the back parcel shelf' Wynn-Jones
and royalbarclayfan, who deems it appropriate to "cheer us all up" with some childish poems after every bloody pasting the team suffers.
I may agree with you more often than with RBF, but surely that is something of an unnecessary low blow, either you believe he does it to wind us up, in which case, your response gives him what he wants, or that his posts are inappropriate , but does that justify this post?
Whatever happened to the good old ethos of striving to be the best you can be?
I think they are, their idea of how to be that best just differs from ours! They are wrong by the way, clueless senile old lunatics that they are!
P.S. Our trials and tribs are nothing compared to Leyton Orient, so I thought I'd end this rant with a mention - and fingers crossed in their direction. [/QUOTE] Ditto, as footy fans its easy to get caught in the hear and now, the club is far from being in its worst position, even in my meagre 30 years as a fan. I'm frustrated too, we are not being managed well from the Board room downwards, but things could be worse, they might well be heading back there, but we're still bigger and better than the binners and we could be one manager away from another run at the PL.

Bah!

 

[JM Fan]

Great post General!!!

 

[General Melchett]

Has he been sacked yet?

Bah!

 

[royalbarclayfan]

Don't forget it's totally the players fault for not "putting in the required shift" canario - not Alex Neil's for picking them week after week despite lousy, half-hearted (or less than half on occasion!) performances one match after another.
(No, I fail to fathom how some of our contributors can still, after the crap we've been through, apportion the blame solely with the players while the chimp / chump in charge (*delete as appropriate) walks away scot-free )

I´ve not heard anyone blame the players solely, and that includes me, but there is no question that they are equally as culpable, if not more so, than the much battered A. Neil. I can´t fathom how some contributors lay the blame solely at A. Neil´s door, while failing to notice just how many of the players get away from most matches scotfree.

 

[carrowcanario]

I´ve not heard anyone blame the players solely, and that includes me, but there is no question that they are equally as culpable, if not more so, than the much battered A. Neil. I can´t fathom how some contributors lay the blame solely at A. Neil´s door, while failing to notice just how many of the players get away from most matches scotfree.

If AN is coaching them to do things they are not capable of doing or deploying tactics that they are not competent to execute then that is AN's fault and not the players and just for the record no one on this board has ever said it's just AN's fault.

 

[royalbarclayfan]

If AN is coaching them to do things they are not capable of doing or deploying tactics that they are not competent to execute then that is AN's fault and not the players and just for the record no one on this board has ever said it's just AN's fault.

Failing to mark opposing players at corners and free-kicks, failing to pass successfully to someone else in yellow, failing to get back and cover when you lose the ball, has nothing much to do with tactics. That sort of thing kids of 10 and 11 can do, without being told. And the majority of goals (incl. the first 4 against Wednesday) scored against us this year, have been down to one or more of the above failings.

Not an awful lot Neil can do about that, except keep on drumming it into them.

 

[carrowcanario]

Failing to mark opposing players at corners and free-kicks, failing to pass successfully to someone else in yellow, failing to get back and cover when you lose the ball, has nothing much to do with tactics. That sort of thing kids of 10 and 11 can do, without being told. And the majority of goals (incl. the first 4 against Wednesday) scored against us this year, have been down to one or more of the above failings.

Not an awful lot Neil can do about that, except keep on drumming it into them.

You're wrong, indeed AN is the only one that can do anything about it. If the reason that we are in our current position is because our players can't do what kids can do then he needs to stop picking them. But considering he's been coaching them for a couple of years now, you would have thought they should be able to do what a 10 or 11 year old can do. On the basis of your comments the natural conclusion is that he's a bad coach and a bad manager. Personally I don't think he's as bad as you're suggesting, but he is well out of his depth at Norwich.

 

[DUNCAN DONUTS]

Just pre ordered my NCFC top for next season I suggest you pant wetters do the same if you consider yourselves loyal supporters.
A snip at £79 plus p&p

 

[ThaiCanary]

Just pre ordered my NCFC top for next season I suggest you pant wetters do the same if you consider yourselves loyal supporters.
A snip at £79 plus p&p

Frikin' criminal

 

[royalbarclayfan]

You're wrong, indeed AN is the only one that can do anything about it. If the reason that we are in our current position is because our players can't do what kids can do then he needs to stop picking them.

but as I pointed out earlier in this thread, if he´s going to stop picking players for making mistakes and not doing their jobs properly, by the time he´s had three matches, he won´t have anyone left to pick except juniors, so he can´t can he. Although actually I´d love to see what our U-21´s could do, can´t be any worse than we´re seeing at the moment.

 

[carrowcanario]

but as I pointed out earlier in this thread, if he´s going to stop picking players for making mistakes and not doing their jobs properly, by the time he´s had three matches, he won´t have anyone left to pick except juniors, so he can´t can he. Although actually I´d love to see what our U-21´s could do, can´t be any worse than we´re seeing at the moment.

Still his fault as he's either signed most of them or extended their contracts. Anyway there are players on our books that he hasn't tried for whatever reason !

I'm not sure any manager could not pick a player that makes the odd mistake, but to continually pick players that continually make key mistakes i.e. Martin is for me another sign of bad management.

 

[RiverEndRick]

You're wrong, indeed AN is the only one that can do anything about it. If the reason that we are in our current position is because our players can't do what kids can do then he needs to stop picking them. But considering he's been coaching them for a couple of years now, you would have thought they should be able to do what a 10 or 11 year old can do. On the basis of your comments the natural conclusion is that he's a bad coach and a bad manager. Personally I don't think he's as bad as you're suggesting, but he is well out of his depth at Norwich.

It isn't a case that they 'can't' do those things, canario, because they can much of the time. It's more that they fail to do so in some games and that costs us big time. Jerome's comments show how much work goes into preparing the players for games, it's just that they fail to do what they 'can' do at times when it's needed most. They're professional footballers - they wouldn't be where they are if they didn't have the skills they have. IMO, it's more about attitude and concentration and those are problems which should be solved by being dropped. Hopefully, as our injured players return that will happen more often.