Has laferty not played more wide than central mostly so far? I would like to see a 442 with laff and jerome up top. Also Elliot Bennett in the team
Is Ofoe included in this equation? Considering how much we (MaNally) fleeced QPRcelona for Leroy Fer, I'd assume not, as we still have money in the bank from that deal plus Vadis-O-O has hardly played any meaningful minutes yet.
this current run of form is probably the most frustrating i can recall as a norwich city fan. we’ve been very naive in the way we’ve approached many of these games but even taking that into account we should be sitting on at least 33 points now, not 23. its been an enormous disappointment that we’ve not taken advantage of what is, in my opinion, an alarmingly weak division where there are no stand-out sides. on paper i still believe we should win this league. to my mind the major issue is with the system these players are asked to operate in. all our best football has come when we’ve played one up front and got bodies from midfield forward to support, yet adams then ignores that and tries two up front. lo-and-behold, our form suffers. we are so easy to read in a 4-4-2 whereas before we were more fluent across the pitch and played far, far more attractive football. up front, grabban and jerome is not a partnership - they look awkward together. is it wrong to pick on grabban? well, our strikers have missed a lot of chances (apart from hooper who has barely had a chance yet as he returns to fitness - please, please get fit soon). but there’s been some real sitters - from in particular grabban - who has been doing my head in since pretty much day one. we paid a lot of money for him in the summer and he’s not very good in all honesty. he’s not up to the standard that we require if we want to gain promotion and should not be starting games. jerome is certainly more talented which is why he’s played so much of his career at premier league level, but he has never really been a prolific goalscorer and perhaps that (plus the fact he cost half the price) gives him a little leeway. lafferty has more talent than grabban and jerome put together but his temperament is (and always has been) his downfall. he started the season on fire but he's not played once as a centre forward and after adams hauled him off at ipswich (correctly imo) he has never had a run of games or played well for us. adams has spent around £9m bringing in these three strikers and i think all three have an awful lot to prove and if none of them up their games considerably we can forget about automatic promotion this season. but please, neil, start picking a more suitable system for these players to operate in! you’re not helping things.
Jerome is not a 25 goal a season striker but currently our best finisher Hooper is always injured and yet to do anything of note since we signed him but on paper should be our best striker, i am not convinced he will be the guy to fire us to promotion, Grabban is a bread and butter Championship forward but plays wide for many of our games he is not Premiership class but will probably be our top scorer, Lafferty is a big number 9 that prefers to play out wide he loses his head every game picks up dumb bookings and has never looked like scoring so far. I would rather have Wolfswinkel back as these 4 are not good enough we slso have 3 new centre backs that can't get a game because Martin wants to play there. These are my main concerns and if we can't score or keep clean sheets it will be an uphill struggle.
to be fair to martin, i think he's actually played very well at centre back in the last few games. i personally want him at right back because he is stronger in that role than whittaker and stronger in that role than at centre back, but defensively i think we've been a tad unlucky that we seem to concede with the only real chance our opponents get each match! i think jerome has done about as well as i'd expected he would. he's bagged a few goals and generally been a handful, but he has absolutely no link up play with grabban. who is to blame for this? probably the manager because he should have spotted it doesn't work by now. it was worth a try initially but he cannot persist playing these two up front. i don't want to be harsh on any of our players but sadly grabban has no composure in front of goal, is horribly greedy at times and hugely unaware of his surroundings. you suggest he's not premier league class? i'd question if he's championship class to be honest. got league one written all over him to me. at first i thought he was just a bit rough around the edges but i now believe he is just a poor player. he started the season scoring goals, albeit a number of them were slightly fortuitous (doesn't matter though - they all count), but it quickly became clear that he is the weakest member of our starting eleven when he starts. i wasn't surprised to read a number of our fans wanting grabban dropped, even when he WAS netting! if adams does stick with this stale 4-4-2 then i'd honestly be tempted to try josh murphy up front ahead of grabban because i think his talent dwarfs grabban's and he'd add a different dimension by dropping into the hole. he'd make things happen. grabban basically does nothing.
hooper is by a country mile our best striker. i don't care what anyone says or how they try to use or warp stats to suggest otherwise. the sooner he gets himself fit and firing the better. we need him.
So you think Lafferty's contribution has been acceptable? Sorry to dazzle you with stats but if our fantastically gifted players in forward positions can't score then we will not get out of this division. I will hold judgement on Hooper until he get's a run of games but if by January Jerome or Grabban are in double figures and Hooper and Laffery are still on 0 i would rather our lg1 standard attacker that somehow managed to fluke 22 goals last term play in the side . Adams is no mug and knows considerably more about the game than you or I Supers and he picks the team . I back his team selection and support all of our players and he hasn't let me down. I would rather Adams manage the side than a think tank of internet armchair supporters thank you very much .
a few posts ago i typed: "lafferty has more talent than grabban and jerome put together but his temperament is (and always has been) his downfall. he started the season on fire but he's not played once as a centre forward and after adams hauled him off at ipswich (correctly imo) he has never had a run of games or played well for us." i think that covers lafferty fairly well and no, i wouldn't say his contribution has been sufficient for a player of his natural ability. i think he's been a big let down so far. but to be fair to him he hasn't played up front for a single minute this season so its a tad unfair to judge him on his goal ratio. but there is a buzz when he gets the ball - there's been glimpses but not enough. it seems clear you rate grabban. i personally don't and he wouldn't be anywhere near my first team. adams keeps picking him. if he gets us promoted he will be proven correct to keep faith in him. there will be no complaints from me! but then he keeps picking martin at centre back, something you strongly disagree with. it is possible to know about football without having been a professional footballer. i'm not saying you or i know more than neil adams about the game - i don't know him or his coaching level - but its a bit like ex players who say referees get things wrong because 'they haven't played the game'. its absolute rubbish. on many occasions, ex players prove they know very little about the game when you hear their punditry! and you don't need to have watched a great deal of football to see that grabban is, lets say, 'patchy'.
Another stat that has to be considered is can we keep a notoriously injury prone player on our books?, he was injured for much of last season and took ages to return to fitness. Here we are again waiting for Hooper to regain fitness and return to the team. This is a factor that can't be ignored as 25% of the season has passed by. There is no room for sentimentallity and i would rather have a player that can play nearly every game than an expensive drain on our resources. Owen was for my money the best finisher England ever produced but how many games did he miss out for Man u Real and Newcastle?. Saying Hooper is better than players that play week in week out will only wash for so long. I still maintain we should get a loan striker in because if Jerome gets injured we are screwed.
although his injury record is relatively poor since he joined (he was fine everywhere else), he still played 30+ games last season and the injury he sustained in the summer was a serious one. interestingly he has actually got back into the first team scene quicker than was expected by people at the club, so i think maybe he should get a little credit for that. as for the argument about rather having a player who is fit than one who is injured, well, obviously! except that's also like saying you'd rather have grabban than diego costa because he is currently injured. the statement was 'who is our best striker'. not 'who is our fittest striker'! though hooper is attractive - i think lafferty wins
Point taken re Martins continual selection at CB that was hypocritical of me to back all Adams selections then question why he puts a right back at centre back, annoyingly Bennet got injured and I'm sure he would've been starting alongside Turner . The odd thing was we bought 3 replacements in that position but the 2 spaniards don't seem to fit into Neil's plans at all and considering we keep letting in cheep goals I am surprised that hasn't been addressed by giving them a shot. We need goals and clean sheets to get out of this division and we need them consistently.
Firstly I have never or would ever boo the team however bad they were. Even in the darkest days under CH who I never made a point of covering my dislike for his football did I boo the team. Sit with my head in my hands shaking with frustration maybe, gritting my teeth till they bled maybe, but never booed. So DONT acuse me of that please. So to answer your question, I would pick Lafferty over Grabban because he brings more to the party. Yes his temperament is an issue as his ban yesterday suggests, but when he plays he gives 100%, do I think Grabban does the same, no. Yes it would be handy if he'd got a couple of goals along the way but he's been deployed primarily as a winger, which I think has been a mistake. His best performances this season have been for his country played a lone striker. At this time I'd play Lafferty and Hooper up top and see how that goes. I also think Hooper is our best striker/finisher out of the four mentioned and the more game time he gets the better for all it will soon be. Have I got it in for Grabban right now? Possibly it would look that way but I'll happily stand and clap his next goal like anyone else, and if he can start turning chances into goals I'll be thrilled, I just don't think it's likely from what I've seen so far. I think it's best we agree to disagree on him right now.
This from Gary Gowers shows Grabban was offside 3 times in the first half! http://norwichcity.myfootballwriter...emain-three-points-off-the-top-of-the-table/?
Most of the comments from Norwich fans are focusing on Martin as Cb bad didplays from Johnson and Whittacker and their continued inclusion. They highlighted the impact that O Neil made with his calm and acurate passing. Far from the witchhunt and singling out of just one player. Supers declaring that a player that bagged 22 goals last season is Lg1 standard at best just shows arrogance i'm afraid.
Not arrogance just not blinkered vision ? There are several players not pulling there weight right now, but non as consistent as he who shall no longer be named.
Even Grabban would have scored this one! [video]http://lockerdome.com/bbcsporf/6169461380096065/7094290816041236[/video]
Lafferty has been played as a LM/RM for most games and at least when he isn't scoring he contributes elsewhere on the pitch.
