To achieve a playoff place, we need to find consistency and that is possible now with the players coming back from injury. At Hull, for the first time this season, Wagner was able to start his first choice attacking players: Sargent, Barnes, Rowe and Sainz. That made a big difference and it also means he has Fassnacht and Hernandez to bring on as well. Those two produced the winning goal at Hull. Given more games together the understanding will improve and that is at the heart of achieving the necessary consistency for improved results through the rest of the season. The midfield is also achieving some consistency and the defence has looked more solid as well with Gunn also playing well. Wagner now has to find the way to turn that into results. West Brom away was a disaster with Sainz being sent off after 33 minutes, yet we still only lost 1-0. Playing them at home now we need to turn that around.
The last strands I am holding on to are the return of the injured players as those above have said and my final hope is that Wagner may now begin to apply a more balanced approach to our playing style. We started the season with a fairly gung-ho attacking or counter attacking style which left us wildly exposed when we conceded possession. Wagner has since tried to sure up the defence somewhat successfully, which has has seen us go from conceding an average of 2 goals a game down to 1 goal a game, this has however impacted our attack. With the players back from injury now hopefully DW can find a balance between the two styles which sees us maintain a strong defence but adds a more flowing attack.
Yes, the players returning from injury are Wagner's last hope really. Sargent is especially the key, but also Hanley because he adds pace to the central defence. As you say, getting the balance right is another key.
Judging by what's been said countless times on various different threads, not just Wagner's last hope either!
Why would trying to find a better balance have to wait on getting those players back? Are the second choices in the squad that incompetent?
Like RER says Hanley provides pace in defence, which aids a higher line, we struggled for once doing this earlier in the season. Similarly up top Sargent helps facilitate a high press, something our other strikers aren’t as good at. Both of these should enable us to move our starting positions further up the pitch but we shall see
I think that does Ui Jo an injustice, Suffolk. Once he'd got fitter and more or less up to speed, he proved quite an able substitute for Sargent in that respect. But I lost count of the times he bust a gut to press one of the opposition rearguard, only to spread his arms out in despair when he realised he had no support. Teams play through our press pretty much at will, while, conversely, pressing us so effectively we continually have to resort to low percentage balls over their press. We see it time and again, irrespective of whether Sargent plays or not.
Ui Jo certainly improved as he got fitter but for the bulk of his games he was not an able substitute for Sargent. If he was pressing on his own then could you argue that this was not an intelligent press as we should go as a team, this could show either a lack of awareness to his team mates positions or failure to coach him in our press triggers.
You obviously still harbour hopes of getting in the top six whereas both Robbie and myself cannot see that we have any real chance. The next 6 games will be decisive as 4 are at home against teams in the promotion chasing group and the 2 away games are at Leeds and QPR. Leeds away is probably a step too far even in the minds of the most optimistic but even the most optimistic would accept we need at least 12 points from the remaining five to even stay in the chase. Personally I can see that, at best, we might get 7 or 8 points and that will seal our fate and hopefully the fate of Wagner leaving a new management team the rest of this season and the close season to prepare for the very crucial last season with parachute money.
I’ve got to hold on to something or else there’s no point watching the rest of the season if it’s a foregone conclusion
Sorry 1950, but if I'm not very much mistaken, this current season is our last with parachute payments. Clubs relegated from the EPL after just one season, only get two years of parachute payments. Our parachute next season has "Attanasio" printed on the silk canopy. [Edit] "Parachute payments are unique to the English game and currently see clubs relegated from the Premier League receive a percentage of the equally shared element of broadcasting rights each Premier League club receives. This percentage drops progressively over a three-year period – 55% in the first year, 45% in year two and, if the club was in the Premier League for more than one season before relegation, 20% in the third year." (Wikipedia; my emphasis)
In which case I don't have to revisit the accounts to realise that financially we are up to our necks in the brown stuff!! Explains why there was no forecast for next season in the released documents - only last seasons accounts and forecast for this season.
I fear that a lot of season ticket holders have already come to that conclusion about this season and next and can't justify spending the money to renew.
Jose Mourinho is available now as he has just been sacked by Roma, he has made 80 million pounds from getting sacked over his career!
Sara is featured in this video about 7 players too good for the Championship (number 6 if I remember correctly)
Ben Lee's analysis of the 1:2 win at Hull: https://www.pinkun.com/sport/norwic...ty-1-2-norwich-city-ben-lee-canaries-tactics/ Hasn't yet been posted on Ben's own website, so this is the EDP version.
Our village idiots got us a 10k fine for chanting during the Kings Lynn pre-season friendly https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/67982440
Is there a list anywhere of Championship players away at African cup? All I could find was this: https://www.skysports.com/football/...o-players-could-be-heading-to-the-ivory-coast but it is potential not actual
