Just watched the highlights on the 'League Show' and it was refreshing to see that all 3 goals resulted from brilliant strikes from outside the box. We were also getting occasional crosses into the box and Lafferty was inches away from connecting with one of the crosses. Overall a VERY pleasing all round performance and the home fans all seemed to go home happy. Let's hope for an equally exciting performance on Tuesday.
Great goals but a bit concerned at the lack of end product considering we played at home against 10 men effectively y for the entire match. Definitely a confidence boost although the subsequent announcement regarding the loss of fer tempered it a bit. All depends on whether we can replace him.
Norfolkbhoy - I don't know if you were at the game, but we created a lot and on another day, could easily have scored more. Out of the 20 or so shots on target, quite a few were very close. Wet Sham played against 10 men for an hour, but still managed to lose against 10 men!!!! Hmmm - I seem to remember we did exactly that against Hull last year.
We played against, and dominated, 10 men better than Wolves did last week and better than a lot of other teams have done in the past. Remember last year when we played 10 man Hull for most of the game? I can't remember the last time City had 3 long range shots on target in a game which shows a different attitude to the way we play. We put in a lot of crosses yesterday from a variety of angles and positions and whilst there was a shortage of quality it did show attacking intent. I won't get carried away but considerable progress on the entertainment value of last year. We were 3-0 up when Fer came on so he had little to do with the victory. I am sorry to see him go but with Howson to come back and O'Neill signed up I don't think we need panic over a replacement.
Absolutely spot on 1950. I mentioned last year's game against Hull on another thread. I could't believe how close Lafferty was at connecting with on of the crosses not long before he was substituted.
I know my post seems harsh after a comfy victory but I think my point was that all three of our goals were what I would consider 5% shots - if you score one in 20 them you are doing well. The concern I had was that whilst we dominated the game and put a lot of balls in we lacked a bit of quality and did not score a bread and butter goal. Plus we have used up bj and tetty's annual shot on target each!i expect a lot of bruises in row k if those two keep shooting from distance!
Top rate post 1950 - especially loved the last sentence!! I sit in row J and the ball didn't come near me once yesterday.
Hopefully the players will find it easier scoring at this level, no matter what criticism is directed at Adams he sets out the team to attack . Pretty sure after Johnson scored Hughton would have forced everyone to sit deep and defend for the rest of the match.
The Watford match has changed my view on formations. The 4-2-3-1 used with Lafferty on the left and Grabban up front was very clever and Lafferty in particular showed what an all round player he is. In the pre-season Adams played the same formation with Lafferty up front and Grabban on the right and that worked as well. IMO, this will be the primary formation and will make us very hard to read by the opposition. Grabban summed it up like this: “When we get over the halfway line, the manager gives us the freedom to rotate. When we’re more defensive, we have the shape. But in terms of when we go attacking, you can go wherever. If Laffs (Kyle Lafferty) wants to come in the middle, he can and I’ll drift out wide. We just try to rotate and cause problems with our movement. The gaffer asked him to do a job today out there on the wing and I thought he did very well. He created some chances and played with high energy, and you need that in this league. He caused a lot of problems.” Laffs also provided the key assist for Johnson's critical goal. I'm much encouraged.
It was almost 4-2-4 with the personnel we had on, Adams has got us up and running and i`m hoping to see lots more goals this year . The way the players can switch positions so easily must make us much less predictable, i think we may have seen the last of the diamond and Surman.
How mobile did we look? I know we've changed formations but I thought we looked awfully sluggish last week against Wolves, did we play a higher tempo game or was it a bit casual? I read somewhere that we appeared to be pressing a lot more, I haven't seen a Norwich team do that since the Liverpool game last season.
And who was manager for that match? One N. Adams I believe. We were the better team for a lot of that match as well.
As I have been saying for some time - give the bloke a fair crack of the whip before condemning him. A long long way to go but I saw promising signs on Saturday including workrate and closing down.
Exactly what I said to the fan sitting next to me on Saturday and looked much more like we wanted to win!!! Whilst NA was not my choice (and I haven't spoken to anyone who disagrees with that), he was probably the only one who would accept the constraints McNally and co laid down, he certainly brought the feel good factor back to CR and let's hope it continues tomorrow night.
