I was going to call it Lilly livers vs Lilywhites in view of our more recent performances ...but held myself back. This is so on the button from Dan O'Hagan: please log in to view this image Norwich City FC Subs McGovern (GK), Jerome, Wildschut, Pritchard, Franke, Phillips, Cantwell. Nothing to put dread into Alex Neil in our powder puff line up.
Glad your expectations aren't over the top Cromer! Choices limited by yet more injuries. I'd have gone for Wildschut over Wes, but the rest seems reasonable to me and it's good to see Pritchard on the bench. Franke has played as a DM, so could come on to support Reed if needed.
But as per the tweet above, Maddison, Wes and Vrancic in the starting eleven = lots of guile but zero graft. As soon as Preston win the ball our defence will take one hell of a battering
F*ck sake. Been in Bury St Edmunds for the Christmas fayre, and came back to see this. Crap result, looks like a bad performance again. Looks like Preston, like Barnsley, were unlucky. Is that 7 or 8 without a win? God, we are so bad. Maddison is the only player who does anything for us, and he's not going to hang around playing in this shower of sh*te team. "Daniel Farke's side lacked a cutting edge up front and have now failed to score more than one goal in their past nine games in all competitions." That's embarrassing.
Well, finally on the way home from the game and beginning to thaw out. Pretty rubbish game and I hope we don't see much more of Wes - his wayward pass led to the equaliser. Zimmerman and Hanley made some goal saving blocks.
Really glad I turned down tickets to this to go to Bury. It was freezing there. Can only imagine how frozen, miserable and bored the fans were sitting through that sh*t again.
Given that Vrancic and Reed were the only CMs available, the lack of a DM meant we had to play more cautiously and that suited Preston, who sat in then broke. Our best players on Whoscored were Maddison on 7.9, boosted by his excellent goal, and Hanley and Zimmerman with 7.6 and 7.5. The biggest disappointment was Oliveira on 6 and Murphy on 6.3. Wes scored 6.7 and was really our only other effective attacking player, IMO. Great to see Pritchard come on though and he and Wildschut played well from the bench.
I miss go to Brentford just before Xmas, as it's only £10 for me. Unless there's a dramatic improvement, I won't even bother getting tickets for the Ipswich game
Me and a couple of mates were talking about going to the Sheffield Wednesday game. I'm not sure how much they will be still up for going. Might get them all pulling out.
Is he actually fit? Plus, no one but Maddison plays a creative or forward ball. If he doesn't get the supply, and he's up there on his own. I don't think anyone's going to score anything.
Same for Jerome, but no one seems to take that into account when he plays. A few weeks ago most posters were saying that all Oliveira needed was a chance to show what a super striker he was, well he's had a chance and ????????????? I was told he was so much better and more prolific than Jerome. Can't see it myself.
I agree. Olivera is much the better striker. I don't dislike Jerome. He does a job. Him and Nelson are very, very different strikers. If we have to only play one, I'd rather Nelson. But the system and tactics don't work for either, or any other striker we would ever buy. No one gets the ball forward or into the box, or in behind. It's just side, side, back. No striker can do anything apart from a Messi, Ronaldo, Neymar. Drop deep, take on a whole team then score. That's the only type of striker who would work in this system, because Maddison is the only person who is offering anything in attack.
So maybe Jerome hasn't suddenly turned into a poor striker, maybe just maybe its down to team tactics. Personally I think Jerome works harder for the team and defends better from the front than Oliveira, but my point was more about the blind faith some posters, not necessarily you, have in a player that isn't always justified and how when someone who isn't available to play suddenly, becomes the one player that,s going to turn things round for us.