Pretty much agree with your assessment of our new recruits and in reality, it's as much as we can expect IMO. The final piece of the jigsaw is CH sending the team out to win matches, rather than sedig them out and telling them 'not to lose!!!'
Ha! I know that you wont believe me, but I was just about to write exactly the same thing! That is a lot of money for a CB when we have 3 good ones at the club at the moment.
i do agree, and i know you aren't expecting spain, but take swansea as the prime example of what can be achieved, they still aren't much further down the road than we are in terms of what they can actually achieve and they've had a decade perfecting their style and to be quite honest, i find them no less boring to watch than ourselves. you can play a technical game of football more than one way. in fact, swansea can't even beat us! and they've noticed this and have added wilfred bony - this guy is NOT a 'carrabuh' type player. his control and technique is not the best but he offers them a different dimension and i bet he makes them a much better side. the issue i have with your way of thinking is that to play that way you have to be very patient and give license for errors. you also cannot build a team like that in one, two or even three transfer windows - it takes years and years to perfect that style, so how can you possibly know that we aren't trying to do that with a long term plan under a long term manager? remember, we started from a very unusual base. we were a league one side who got two promotions having been a lower end championship team for four years prior. we've had little money during that time, and never had a chance to concentrate on a focused style of play. it's almost been a case of 'firefighting' in each window. i'd argue this summer is the first time we've had a solid base to build upon and look at what is being achieved (and still might be). some very good continental players are being introduced, something you and i like, yet you seem somehow despondent. i don't get that at all. it all depends what floats your boat. controlled, possession football is easy on the eye but it's not always enjoyable. more direct, powerful drives from midfield and wing play, watching players use a trick or a bit of pace gets bums off seats, so there's obviously plenty of people who like that, i know i do.
Cricky Would rather spend that on an attacking midfielder, but it might be both Is this the "Rvw" effect?
i do wonder if there is any truth in the link to nick powell on loan from man utd. wouldn't be included in our 25 man squad, would cost nothing but a loan fee and give competition for wes, giving us more time to search and then afford our new play maker. i do think wes will benefit from having better movement from RvW (and hopefully hooper) ahead of him
I think signing a player of his a) calibre and b) nationality has shown Norwich to be more flexible in who they target/sign. This wouldn't have gone unnoticed by the likes of Fer and Toivonen when it comes to making a decision of their own, as it shows we're starting to spread the net more widely and incorporate European players into the squad, Lambert's way - young, British and ambitious to prove themselves at a higher level, worked for a couple of years, (Fox, Pilks, E. Bennett, etc) but could never last for ever. RvW shows real ambition, and other players and agents have already taken notice. I hereby declare these very exciting times at Caara Rud, bor!
Supers - couldn't agree more with your last sentence. You only have to watch the crowd at CR to see the level of expectation rise when one of the wiingers is racing down the wing and bearig down on goal.
i don't mind possession football and it certainly drives me mad when a team cannot hold on to the ball (like we struggled with last season and almost as much as players who can't use both feet) but continuous possession is mind numbingly boring. i always go back to a game swansea played in their first season - i think it was against villa at home and they had 80% possession in the first half and didn't have one touch in their opponents penalty area. what's the point?! the best way to play football is to have a mix of styles and abilities and that is what i have always called for. my hero was gascoigne - he had technical brilliance but he was as direct as they come. he could surge past players with either a trick or pace. that's what i love. maradona, messi. technical players but enormous pace and very direct. leroy fer is quick and direct with good technical ability. he's exactly the type of player we should be bringing in so i don't understand carrabuh's worries about him
sorry boots, where have you heard this? i know nothing of what is going on with fer but as far as i'm aware his agent said he will sign on friday at the earliest, so not sure why it matters if he signs today or not
I agree we could do with more passing on the floor with a more patient build up at times. But ideally you need a mix and play short or slightly longer depending on what is effective or required at the time. Teams who just play one way however good they maybe do get found out eventually. Even Barcelona to an extent have been caught out with no plan B. Hopefully with the new additions we are making it will allow us to play it on the deck more but I still think it is important to mix it up now and again. Also people always say they "want players who can pass" are "technically good" to play in the style of Spain etc. Well I would argue that while Spain's ability to pass a ball is undoubtedly outstanding and maybe a step up from other nations the one thing that makes them a cut above is their movement, not their passing. The reason the passing seems good is because the movement off the ball is better than anyone else. This provides the player with the ball more opportunities to pass and makes defending against it much harder. Even when they don't have the ball the press better than anyone else as well. So really it is their movement that is the huge difference not their ability to pass a ball 5 yards.
i totally agree tipsy. and it was noticeable that we ourselves pressed much higher up the pitch in our final two games last season. i maintain this was partly down to having trust in the keeper (ruddy). bunn did an excellent job but he required more protection than our england number 1 does. it may not have been a conscious thing to do but we definitely sat deeper with bunn in goal. earlier in the season, before ruddy was injured, apart from one or two games where we didn't play well, we pressed quite well. there were moans and groans about home draws with the likes of qpr and west ham but if you remember, we bossed both those games from start to finish, pressing high, and it was our lack of finishing off the chances - good chances we had - which meant we failed to win them.
Morning bors. So, it seems Alderwiereld is becoming more likely! Not a done deal by any means though. Also, I was reading the comments from PSV fans here and they seem to think Toivonen will leave in this window. Hard to say whether he'll come to us though.
Yes, I remember those games and weren't denied a win at Spurs by some inspired goalkeeping by Friedel?
Indeed our play did change when Bunn came in. Its a shame because really the way we played with him gave him less protection than if we carried on playing as we had previously with Ruddy.
This report is talking as if Fer is already signed, sealed and unveiled as a Norwich player http://pickourteam.com/premierleagu...eira-rijkaard-comparisons-inspire-fer/837551?
While we are recovering our memories, has anyone yet managed to remember this? Our players, our manager, playing with confidence and a little bit of help from the opposition. Do we want more of the same? Yes!
He has, all bar the shouting. The add on's are performance based, ie he has to make a certain amount of performances for us for Twente to get the add on's. We are also waiting on international clearance and more info about a knee operation he had last year, think it will be next week.
