I did think we We had a brand new No 1 Keeper who lasted 1 game, then had a chance to play again and turned up late for a cup game and missed the bus.
What’s your measure for being “good in possession”? Against Millwall we had c.59% and against Watford we had c.56%, so saying “keep possession” doesn’t add up with what we have seen In the last 20 years I think we played worse football than we have seen in the first few games under Dean Smith and Chris Hughton. Admittedly both of them the football deteriorated though, so I’m not saying you’re wrong. It’s not a good place to start. But it could get better as well as worse.
The difference with Manning is that he aims for possession in the opposition half rather than our own. That's harder, but too often last season we lost the ball in our own half and conceded soft goals. He identified that in our play and used it against us as Bristol City did the double over us. With 11 new players it's too early too predict how this season will go, but the defence has certainly improved and we, at last, have not only one but two DMs. We've had a glimpse of what the new attacking players can do but it's still early days. Boro will be a test and Blackburn after that before we really start to know how we get on from here.
That may be the aim, but it hasn't been the reality in either of the league games played so far. Quite the contrary in fact. If you look at the Action Zones in WhoScored's Match Reports for the two games, the percentages of play in the Millwall and Pompey defensive thirds were 23% and 20% respectively, as against 36% in Norwich's defensive third in both cases. "Opposition half" is not the same as "opposition defensive third", but an awful lot of the middle third play would have to be in the opposition half for anyone to claim that that's where we kept the game. And any such notion is completely scotched if you look at the average player positions. Against Millwall and Pompey, only 2 Norwich players, Sargent and Crnac, had average positions in advance of the half way line. Look at the Millwall and Pompey average positions in comparison.
It would be unreasonable to expect everything to click from the off with 11 new players coming in at different stages. If you split the 41-44% in the middle third in your figures, the split in halves becomes 44%-56% and 41%-59% which is not that far off for the opening games of the season, especially with 5 new players in the side. The loss of Forson to injury was another blow as Marcondes had to replace him. Another factor has been the disappointing form of Crnac so far. Hopefully he will improve as the season continues. The innovation of Diallo at WB has succeeded so far, but there must be further development to come as he adjusts and the same applies to Topić. Then there's Kvistgaarden yet to be fully involved as he will be an important player once match fit and fully adjusted to his new situation. The new defensive players have adjusted more quickly, partly as that was the first focus in preseason. Hopefully the midfield and attacking players will improve in the coming games, though the injury to Núñez is worrying. Here's Manning's say on the season so far: “We'll always chase perfection. What do we want to look like? What does the performance look like? But it takes time to get there. We're changing probably more than people realise, I think, behind the scenes in terms of culturally the aspects around how we play and what we're asking the lads to do. That's why I quite enjoyed some of the attacking elements (at Portsmouth). You want to take the shackles off, but at the same point, as coaches from the side, we want elements of control as well. It's finding that balance. But it's another experience which is only going to stand the group in good stead.” https://www.pinkun.com/sport/interv...ity-liam-manning-early-championship-progress/
