The sooner we stop playing 2 up top the better in my opinion. We just don't have the numbers in midfield to control things or to open up spaces when the defence are sat deep. O'neil has to start on Friday, I'd play either Johnson or Tettey alongside him, Howson as the CAM. For me our strikers are failing because we are using the wrong system. That's not to take away from how desperately unlucky we have been of late with keeper performances, every team tends to think keepers play well against them but Norwich really do seem to take the biscuit in this regard. There must be 10 games a season where the keeper makes 3 or more outstanding saves! It's just unbelievable! And 23, you always say how you should get to share your opinion yet every time someone mentions Grabban you jump down their throat then get all offended because we offer reasons why we don't rate him. My issue with him is that he offers very little to the team as a whole in the build up which is fair enough, he was brought here to score goals. But he isn't scoring. He is barely getting into the right areas by you own admission (He only had 1 chance this game, which he fluffed). I was listening to the RN commentary (And watching a stream) and they called out the fact that Grabban had been caught offside about 5 times, so I really don't know what you were getting at earlier when trying to defend him on that point. You realise the only reason we spend so much time pointing out Grabban's short comings is because you so vehemently defend him when ever his name comes up (And sometimes when it doesn't!). He is by no means the main issue, as I said, I think the formation is our problem and the only reason I can see for Adam's not wanting to play 4-5-1 is it'll be seen as negative and be associated with last seasons football, though that is ludicrous. Redmond has improved but he still isn't providing enough. Tettey and Johnson have both dropped from their early season form, Howson should be played as a CAM and not a CM, Martin needs to be moved to RB and Jos should be given an extended stay in the team. I'd also suggest giving Garrido a go in the team. Olsson has done nothing particularly wrong but Garrido does have a great cross and when we are spending a lot of time trying to break down teams, a good early cross can make the difference. Lots of areas need improving and most of them are issues that had been pointed out while we were winning games. Now we aren't and those issues are showing up more clearly.
You're absolutely spot on COTB and I think Grabban needs to be more composed in front of goal. I also agree that we're not incisive enough to play with 2 strikers and Howson needs to be playing in a more advanced role. Let's hope on Friday we can - a. Keep a clean sheet b. Only play one striker c. That their keeper doesn't have his best game of the season!
We're not one million miles away from winning these games. We saw earlier in the season that we are capable of putting the ball in the net, and hopefully if we can start doing that we can get back to the top again. I'm not sure about how we're doing at the other end, but we must be averaging less than one goal conceded per game and I think Michael Turner in particular deserves full credit for that. For me, and many others that leaves the problem of misfiring strikers as the main issue (although there's no reason why our midfielders should have stopped chipping in with goals); I think we should stick with one of Jerome or Grabban (Jerome IMO) and have the other on the bench with Hooper in a 4-2-3-1 formation with Tettey, Johnson, Elliott Bennett, Howson and Redmond (I'm sure Redmond will start creating the goals soon enough) in midfield.
I hope after O'Neils performance on Saturday that he is now ahead of Johnson. He showed good passing skills. We cannot go into games in this league with two DM's, neither of who have any passing ability.
