First of all, I'd like to apologise to all Norwich City fans. I have visited Craven Cottage on two occasions as a fan and my record reads: P2 L2 F0 A11.
You have my word that I shall never go to that place ever again
Ok, now to the positives from yesterday:
Right, that's them out of the way. Now to the negatives:
The full backs, both of them were all over the place. Admittedly, we could make a case that they are our reserve full backs this season, but still, both were culpable for four of the five goals. Next up, the centre backs. Turner had a nightmare and Bennett wasn't much better, though without him the score would have been even worse. I'm going to put it down to a very bad day at the office. I've seen enough of both players to know they are good enough for this league and they certainly weren't helped by the constant mistakes by Martin and Tierney. Next up Ruddy - even Mr Reliable had a shaky game and his early mistake, at a time when we looked marginally the more controlled side gave the hosts a lift. Hardly to blame though he could have done better with the first goal. Who's next? Lets go for the central midfielders. Howson... did he play? Not sure. Johnson was ok to be fair and the only one to pester their creative players but his passing was awful. Our wide men played practically as full backs - our whole midfield was way too deep and at one point there was at least a 50 yard gap between our second furthest forward player and poor Grant Holt, who stood literally no chance yesterday and can't really be blamed for anything.
*HOLDING MIDFIELDER KLAXON*
I know I keep banging on about it and I'm beginning to bore myself, but its crucial we sign one or at the very least get Fox fit and stick him as the deepest midfielder. We have such a rigid shape to our side - its setup to be rigid for a reason - to stop the goals going in at the other end. We were too flat, too rigid, no flexibility at all and everyone was so deep. Simple balls over the top were enough to cause havoc. I have no problem with our new manager attempting to right the wrongs of last season but I don't think we have the players here to be setup that way. We have too many players who want to go forward. I'm a keen fan of 'playing to your strengths', something our former manager always did. We DO need to tighten up at the back but this should not be at the detriment of our strengths. One up front DOES work, but it doesn't work in the system we used yesterday. There was no depth, no vision, no creativity, no spark, no fight... these are all alarming issues to have but thankfully it is opening day and not March. We have time to re-assess and get things right.
Hughton is a good manager - I think the result yesterday came as a shock to him - I don't think many of us felt we would win the game, Fulham, as proved yesterday are an excellent side and one which we should look to emulate. They don't pay big money but they have a young and vibrant squad, one defensively sound but creative going forward. I really liked the balance they had and they only played one up front - just proves it works if used correctly.
Certainly no need for panic stations at this stage but a very disappointing result. Had we lost 2-0 it may not have had the same effect - for that we maybe should be thankful in a weird kind of way! Nobody was under any illusion that this year was going to be tough and this has only enhanced that. We have a chance to bounce back immediately next weekend and it will be very important to see how our players react to such a hiding. One thing I won't put up with is a lack of effort and one or two were definitely lacking in that area at Craven Cottage. But here is my bold prediction - both sides who lost their opening day game 5-0 will stay up. First day results are not a great barometer of where a team will finish, and we should know that better than most!
Keep the faith.
OTBC
You have my word that I shall never go to that place ever again
Ok, now to the positives from yesterday:
Right, that's them out of the way. Now to the negatives:
The full backs, both of them were all over the place. Admittedly, we could make a case that they are our reserve full backs this season, but still, both were culpable for four of the five goals. Next up, the centre backs. Turner had a nightmare and Bennett wasn't much better, though without him the score would have been even worse. I'm going to put it down to a very bad day at the office. I've seen enough of both players to know they are good enough for this league and they certainly weren't helped by the constant mistakes by Martin and Tierney. Next up Ruddy - even Mr Reliable had a shaky game and his early mistake, at a time when we looked marginally the more controlled side gave the hosts a lift. Hardly to blame though he could have done better with the first goal. Who's next? Lets go for the central midfielders. Howson... did he play? Not sure. Johnson was ok to be fair and the only one to pester their creative players but his passing was awful. Our wide men played practically as full backs - our whole midfield was way too deep and at one point there was at least a 50 yard gap between our second furthest forward player and poor Grant Holt, who stood literally no chance yesterday and can't really be blamed for anything.
*HOLDING MIDFIELDER KLAXON*
I know I keep banging on about it and I'm beginning to bore myself, but its crucial we sign one or at the very least get Fox fit and stick him as the deepest midfielder. We have such a rigid shape to our side - its setup to be rigid for a reason - to stop the goals going in at the other end. We were too flat, too rigid, no flexibility at all and everyone was so deep. Simple balls over the top were enough to cause havoc. I have no problem with our new manager attempting to right the wrongs of last season but I don't think we have the players here to be setup that way. We have too many players who want to go forward. I'm a keen fan of 'playing to your strengths', something our former manager always did. We DO need to tighten up at the back but this should not be at the detriment of our strengths. One up front DOES work, but it doesn't work in the system we used yesterday. There was no depth, no vision, no creativity, no spark, no fight... these are all alarming issues to have but thankfully it is opening day and not March. We have time to re-assess and get things right.
Hughton is a good manager - I think the result yesterday came as a shock to him - I don't think many of us felt we would win the game, Fulham, as proved yesterday are an excellent side and one which we should look to emulate. They don't pay big money but they have a young and vibrant squad, one defensively sound but creative going forward. I really liked the balance they had and they only played one up front - just proves it works if used correctly.
Certainly no need for panic stations at this stage but a very disappointing result. Had we lost 2-0 it may not have had the same effect - for that we maybe should be thankful in a weird kind of way! Nobody was under any illusion that this year was going to be tough and this has only enhanced that. We have a chance to bounce back immediately next weekend and it will be very important to see how our players react to such a hiding. One thing I won't put up with is a lack of effort and one or two were definitely lacking in that area at Craven Cottage. But here is my bold prediction - both sides who lost their opening day game 5-0 will stay up. First day results are not a great barometer of where a team will finish, and we should know that better than most!
Keep the faith.
OTBC
