ignore the brain dead yorkie on this one. he's basing it on two games he saw which by the way, birmingham got four points from (against ipswich). i watched them a few times, only once in the flesh admittedly but they were similar to us under lambert. perhaps not quite as attacking but certainly flexible in style. played really good football against reading and west ham - totally destroyed the hammers until west ham started lumping it forward. i don't think we'll see too much change from lambert's style and options he used, though i doubt we'll see the diamond again. 4-5-1 most likely. the fact he only had zigic up front for some of the season meant he had no alternative but to play a bit more direct, but when he wasn't in the team they were great to watch and had plenty of width - should be great for pilks and benno
I agree that the diamond will probably feature less. I think it might be 4-4-2 at home and 4-2-3-1 away, but it will obviously depend on the opposition.
Excellent, as I thought we always looked more potent going forward when pilks and benno were playing - I'm sure both will give defenders a tough time this season with a year's PL experience behind them. Certainly won't be sorry to see the death of the diamond, as I felt it left us too expopsed at this level. It will be interesting to see if he utilises the same level of squad rotation as employed by his predecessor - I certainly hope not!!!!
I had the misfortune to see a couple of Birmingham games last year on the box and to be fair they were dull. However. I do think that you have to play to a format that suits what you have got and bearing in mind that he had a transfer embargo and couldn't change what he inherited, the style went with that squad. I expect as has been said above, that we will play in a broadly similar style as last year as we do have a lot more flair. We do need to tighten up at the back though and hopefully that will be an obvious conclusion from the season's videos.
That must have been the Ipswich games then Bushby because they played like Champions in all the others apparently.
Hughton was asked this question at the Press Conference. He said that he would go for an attacking free flowing style, but would look for good defensive play as well, particularly if the game dictated this. I got the impression that he felt that this was both the way our team was already set up, and also what Norwich fans look for. It seemed, by the twinkle in his eye, that he couldn't wait to begin. Or maybe he always has a twinkle.......
He does have that certain twinkle, GG, but he also has a quiet confidence that seems impressive. The indications are that he's a good man-manager which is critical for keeping the dressing room positivity the squad had last year.
I thought he was now Norwich manager and not Birminghams? He would have been interviewed and I'm sure Delia's eyes must have lit up when he said I'm going to play dire defensive crap like Birmingham. That must have got him the job. Funny how you haven't mentioned the attacking style he had at Newcastle!
redruth, yorkie has glossed over the fact hughton had to use alex mccleish's squad too! he wasn't able to bring in his own players and had to work with what he inherited which as we know, were not the most dynamic players ever. i've asked plenty of brum fans and they all loved the style and the way they played last season so best to ignore the daft comments he makes on this matter
In all fairness supers to hampy, They would have been lucky to get 1 point from us last season, at home we had them on ropes at st andrews and it was a late goal from a set piece to zigic what won them the game, and at ours we were all over them. Also you have to look at how easily they folded against blackpool in the playoffs? and secondly, I presume you feel that Bushby has an agenda for his comments, or is he allowed to state that he thought that birmingham were dire as well?
bushby based his assessment on one game, yorkie and yourself on two games. how about take into account the views of the birmingham fans who watched them every week? i watched them once in the flesh last season at upton park. i'm not lying when i say birmingham's first half display was as good as anything (other than man city) that i saw against norwich last season in the premier league. i guess they don't play like that every week but neither do they play like they did against ipswich every week. the birmingham fans loved the way their team approached every game last season and that's good enough for me.
just wondering if yorkie listened to hughton on five live last night? if he did, he'll have heard pat nevin wax lyrical about hughton, saying he masterminded a miracle at birmingham last year under the constraints he was under and that their style of play was often a joy to watch.
I expect CH to adopt a similar style of play to Lambert but without the constant tinkering of the team and formation. I expect Pilks and Benno to start more often, probably every home game I would have thought (if fit of course), the diamond to be binned (good for L1 and The Championship - not solid enough for the Prem) and us to go 4-5-1 on most away games with Howson/Butterfield dropping off Holt/Morison. Looking forward to it already !
I wonder how many teams will ditch 4-4-2 this season after Euro2012? I don't want to go down the road of who is our best striker etc but if we were to continue with that formation next season, who do you think would be the five in the middle, from the current squad of course? Who is the anchor man? Will we only have one anchor? Who supports the striker? Two wide men or rely on attacking full backs for that?
