Its amazing to think at the beginning of this season, the upcoming fixture would have been deemed a vital 6 pointer for both sides. Now? both of us can afford to lose it and the ramifications will have little bearing on the relegation zone at all! And how about this. At the beginning of the season we were alternately both favourites to finish bottom. Now? You'd get odds well over 100/1 on either us finishing there. And As for Reality Vs Lawrenson? At this point he has Norwich predicted to have 20pts and a goal difference of -20, and Swansea on 18pts with a goal difference of -22, in 17th and 18th respectively. With accuracy like that, i hope he predicts a swansea win this weekend!
Its not just him, it's Garth Crooks as well. Take a look at his team of the week http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/16900433 The back five is made up of Man Utd and Wolves. The Wolves defence were 4v1 with the goal machine that is Zamora, while Evra and Ferdinand let in three goals. Giggs: Yes he played well, but he seems to have been included because he's Giggs not because he played well. Even Rooney's is a dubious entry, yes he scored two pens, but there were more worthy entrants. No mention what-so-ever for our make shift back four, or Pilks despite the national media raving about how well he played. No mention of Doyle who turned the Wolves/QPR game on its head and no mention of James McLean who won the game for Sunderland. I swear they all live in their own little worlds
theres a massive gap in the market for a football show like MOTD that gives more discussion and analysis to teams outside of the top six. I get pretty fed up of the oneline punditry that we get given each week. lineker 'norwich/swansea are doing well' shearer ' yes, its unexpected' lineker ' moving on...' great to sit through an hour of the show for that indepth analysis!
can't argue with rooney's inclusion, i thought he was excellent, but totally agree that the beeb's ridiculous bias towards certain clubs shines through.
Once again...Let's not take the mug too seriously. [video=youtube;ua9hYey-uHw]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ua9hYey-uHw[/video]
One of Lawro's more accurate predictions... [video=youtube;ufZRA5gyXhQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ufZRA5gyXhQ[/video] or not...
[video=youtube;wRnSnfiUI54]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wRnSnfiUI54[/video] The resemblance between Khan and Lawro is uncanny!
I think you're being a tad unfair. Lawrenson wasn't alone in predicting both teams to go straight back down. How many of us would have taken 17th at the start of the season? Some would do so now. Makes it all the sweeter to prove the pundits wrong. Whenever I watch MOTD they always give credit where it's due, and I'm not sure what else you're looking for. But from a swans point of view I rarely see any predictions on the Beeb or Sky that say we'll win. Again, nice to prove them wrong. You're right - the game isn't 'vital' to either team but it would be great to finish best of the promoted teams come May and we'll go above you if we win on Saturday I believe for the first time this season.
It's not The fact he predicted us to both go down, more His predictions seem so one-sided. Us canaries know he doesn't like us, and its great to see Him proven wrong I remember before we played Swansea at home footy focus was From carrow road, he was on the pitch with iwan Roberts and huw Jenkins, I'm sure he was biting his gums not to say something bad about us
I do agree- I don't think Lawrenson is consciously targeting us or anything, he's one of many to underrate. However, look at Chris Kamara's predictions on Sky and he's much more likely to give us a result and it seems he's right far more often than Lawrenson. It's like Lawrenson doesn't actually think through who's on good form etc, he just writes a prediction based on where everyone thought we'd be and hasn't really moved on. I think the vast majority of Norwich fans would completely disagree. We never get analysis about our team, barely even complimentary at times. The match on Saturday was the only one to get no replays and made it look quite even, but you only have to read some of the match reports online to realise Norwich dominated virtually from start to finish. Again, I don't think it's actively discriminating against us, I think they just assume the vast majority of their viewers don't want to hear about Norwich full stop
It's not The fact he predicted us to both go down, more His predictions seem so one-sided. Us canaries know he doesn't like us, and its great to see Him proven wrong I remember before we played Swansea at home footy focus was From carrow road, he was on the pitch with iwan Roberts and huw Jenkins, I'm sure he was biting his gums not to say something bad about us
CR: I was coming at it from a Swans perspective. Haven't noticed any under-coverage re the Canaries but I've heard you getting praise plenty of times. You're spot on about Kammy btw.
Fair enough- you probably get a bit better coverage because you've picked up some good shock wins like v Arsenal and Villa. Also, being Welsh I think you probably count as novelty factor so get a bit more! I'm happy with us being under the radar, tbh. But sometimes it does gripe when I watch MOTD and we're the only one where Lawrenson doesn't say a word and there are no replays or comments beyond "Norwich played well". Yes, it's a compliment, but for some reason it feels a little hollow
Although to be fair the best Swansea got on Match of the Day was Lawrenson and Shearer counting up to 22. Not dissing the play though. The passing movement for that goal was bloody impressive and really proved why Swansea deserve the Barcelona tag!
I've noticed that Norwich get the thin end of the stick as far as coverage and praise is concerned on MotD and I think you got it spot on with your post above. I sometimes wish that the Swans were a little more under the radar, particularly during the transfer period.
As much as it is annoying sometimes that Swansea get more praise than us, we have to remember that they are the first welsh team to be in the prem and to be fair they have done really well and the football they play at times is superb, you do wonder at times where they'd be if they had a world class striker in their side. That said i do feel we get slightly overlooked but at the end of the day no matter what praise or coverage we get it's where we finish that really matters. I think both us and swansea have been an inspiration to all those so called smaller teams in the championship what can be done with the right structure in place and most of all the right manager in charge. If Norwich and Swansea continue the season as we have so far then surely Rodgers and Lambert should be up for manager of the season. what they have both achieved on limited budgets and the football their respective teams play in nothing short of amazing!! I look forward to the game on saturday which will be contested by 2 teams that if they keep their managers will be main stays in the prem for a long time to come. As a Norwich fan I know we've been ahead of Swansea almost all season an d this is no moan about us as we've been superb but the way Swansea have played has been brilliant especially against the big teams. Sorry for the long winded post but in summary well done swansea and well done norwich 2 teams to be extremely proud of and 2 teams that hopefully have bucked the trend of having to spend big and play ugly football to survive, we've both played how our managers believe the game should be played without big time charlies but as a team. Bravo Lambert and Rodgers and long may both of them continue to be a success!!! Roll on Saturday in what should be a great game between 2 good prem sides who both sets of fans should be immensley proud of!!
Totally agree. Unfortunately the manager of the season will almost certainly go to Ferguson or Mancini...
