No, I'm not about to take off my clothes and run across the hallowed turf whilst looking angry. Well, not unless people want me to... Instead, I'm referring to this. http://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/...ards_not_an_issue_for_chris_hughton_1_1643847 I disagree with Hughton over this. I don't think we are in teams faces enough. Now, nobody wants to see us picking up needless yellow and red cards, but I don't think we currently possess the same mean streak that we had under Lambert. This, for me, is one of the main concerns at the moment. We've got the players to get stuck in but I do think we need to start roughing up our opponents a bit more. Teams hated playing us last season because we were in their faces, hassling and niggling away. That's stopped this season and I think we need to get that tigerish capacity back into our team. I want to see Holt nibbling (not literally hopefully) at defenders legs, I want to see Johnson hack someone down and leave them in a pile of bones on the floor. I want to see Martin slide straight through a winger. We need to recapture our mean streak.
Supers you'll end up like us if you go with that approach, we currently have conceded more fouls than other team in the Prem. I get your idea but the reality would be more suspensions and injuries mate. Stick to what you do best and that is all out attacking, something you've toned down this season
Think I might need to agree with you. I saw on the LFC board earlier, them lot talking about Suarez (oddly enough) and how he does get kicked about in games BUT when teams do not rough him up he plays a blinder, Norwich City got a special mention in that bit - so yes, perhaps more "steel" and "bite" is required - certainly was needed last weekend
No! - I've not gone deluded but we really are top of the league! Only problem is it is not the premier league as we all know but we are top of the "fair play" league with only 2 yellows from 7 premier league games. I see Lambert & Villa are 2nd from bottom, so expect them to get a few bookings when they play us and hopefully a red or 2 Full table is as follows ⢠FAIR PLAY TABLE (yellow/red cards, points in brackets) Norwich City 2/0 (2) Fulham 4/0 (4) Arsenal 6/0 (6) Manchester City 6/0 (6) Reading 7/0 (7) Tottenham 6/1 (8) Sunderland 8/0 (8) Southampton 8/0 (8) WBA 8/1 (10) Manchester Utd 10/0 (10) Chelsea 10/0 (10) QPR 10/1 (12) Liverpool 10/2 (14) Wigan Athletic 12/1 (14) Newcastle Utd 14/0 (14) Everton 14/0 (14) Swansea City 12/2 (16) Stoke City 15/1 (17) Aston Villa 16/1 (18) West Ham 18/0 (18)
Might be a slightly different situation with your club. You seem to have a few players that just simply lose control of themselves and that is what did a hell of a lot of damage last season. You can get away with yellows to a point but the red's handed out to Ciise and the other idiot (who has now gone) were the real hard one's to swallow for you. I note Ciise has not been red carded yet this season, has he calmed down a bit? If yes, is it effecting his performance as he is not scoring much either?
Funny you should post a thread about this superman, I've just posted a thread about it aswell, great minds?
My mate is a scouser and he said last week that he doesn't want us relegated from the Prem as we are a soft touch and a good chance of 6 points a season. Trouble is by defending slightly deeper as we are doing means the early tackles are not going in.
there is a difference between being tough and being dirty, and we are neither at the moment! we need to be tough again.
Interesting that near the bottom of the table is Villa. Would be interesting to see the fair play table for while Hughton was manager of Newcastle and Birmingham.
talking of which, i had a quick gander at birmingham's early season results from last year and they had a pretty poor start under hughton, just two wins from their first 8 games i think it was. slow starters then... could it be the same with us?
As well as of course where we were in the fair play league last season under Lambert. It's quite nice to be top of this fair play league, a way of getting into the Europa league but I don't see us staying top for the whole season. But, agai, need to check the fair play league of Birmingham and Newcastle while they were being managed under Hughton (don't try and change the topic supers ).
I partly agree with you Supers. I would agree in terms of, i would like to see the players trying harder to get the ball back when we lose it. Closing down and hassling players leaving them little time on the ball to pick out quality passes. Inevitably this would lead to us getting more bookings, as players dive in or catch people. As for, roughing teams up, and being more physical, yes, to a certain degree, but in my experience only leads to lots of dangerous free kicks, Suspensions and injuries.
that's fair. i did exaggerate it a little, but the main point is about getting people in opposition faces quicker. its very noticeable that we aren't pressurising as quickly this season and we are paying for not winning the ball back early enough. i don't mean 'do a stoke' - i just want to see us more competitive - we give teams an easy ride in midfield in particular.
I certainly noticed it against chelsea on saturday. Our midfield was allowing Chelsea loads of time on the ball, and seemed at times afraid to just stick a boot in, or chase up there full backs. I realise that against the quality that chelsea had in their possesion and passing, it was going to be difficult to maintain constant hassling for the ball over 90 minutes, but there was a definate lack of any type of pressuring. Chelsea did the total opposite and would have at least one player on our player who had possesion within seconds. Do you think it might come down to fitness??
Um, er! Looking at the fair play table, where's the evidence that number of bookings relates in any way to League position?
Is there evidence surrounding this? It would be interesting to see if there is. I guess the Fair Play could reflect in favour of a successful team who are getting kicked rather than being kicked. But then again with the silly bookable offences nowadays like taking your shirt off after scoring (not one of our biggest contibutors at the moment obviously) or kicking the ball away meaning you could be sent off in a game without fouling the opposition, it wouldn't necessarily reflect on how you play the game.
My point was simply that the table as it stands gives no backing to the idea that our lowly League position is in any way related to our lack of bookings. What a comprehensive analysis of fair play standing/league position over the years would show I have no idea, but looking at the current table, the teams around us in the League are scattered up and down the fair play table, likewise the teams doing better in the League.
