A bit of common sense from the man! http://www.edp24.co.uk/sport/norwic..._norwich_city_in_the_premier_league_1_4391563
Very good. I am not one who single out Russell as the problem. The whole back four and the have been ridiculous, pretty much all season. That must be partly down to the players, and partly down to how they are being coached and what they do on the training pitch. They look like they have never encountered a skillful player or a set-piece before. I also Think Rudd had a bad game, and shew his inexperience. I wouldn't drop him, as he's been class. Worth keeping an eye on though, incase that becomes a constant. A game like that has to have some effect on a young inexperienced player. Hopefully it will a good one, and will kick him on and learn from it.
I'm sure JR and our goalkeeping coach will be working with him intensely to improve his performance before the Spurs game.
I agree - there were times on Saturday when the back four (five including Rudd) looked like they didn't know each other let alone trained together or played together. No-one know what to do when Bassong was pulled out wide to cover for the backpeddling Pinto, no-one knew how to zonal mark - it was like a bunch of players meeting for the first time with no idea what to do or how to do it. Part of me thinks that the constant "tinkering" is to blame for this. With no two line-ups ever the same, the personnel never play together as a team and that only leads to poor communication and poor decision making. Injuries and suspensions apart, and not withstanding the need to phase in Klose, Pinto and Naismith (and whoever else may join) surely Alex knows his "best team" by now and can send it out each week whatever the opposition ?[
I don't think AN does know his best X1. His constant tinkering proves this. Does anyone know if Bennett was injured or dropped?
Not that I'm saying it's not true but I think that would be his fourth or fifth kid. In fact I feel I like it was less than 9 months ago they had the last one.
I was going to start a new thread with this, but having seen this one - and your comment above, OCF, it's very appropriate here. Yet another column, this time from Melissa Rudd (no relation...I'm assuming !) http://www.edp24.co.uk/home/there_s_simply_no_case_for_norwich_city_s_defence_1_4391741?
I´d say Paddy Davitt is absolutely right ( for once) . Recriminations, looking for a scapegoat, and back-stabbing never has been the way forward, and it never will be. I just hope they can quickly turn the debacle into something positive, I´ve no doubt that Neil will be able to, but whether or not the players will, will be interesting to see. With regard to the game, it seemed to me that Pinto tried far too hard to make an impression, and at times, left Martin horribly exposed down our right hand defensive side. We certainly missed Tettey to do a bit of mopping up, and to have stuck Klose into that game after only a couple of training sessions would have been suicidal, so the choice was either Bennet or Martin at CB. Neil´s thinking was that Bennett would have been better against Benteke, while Martin was the better choice against Firmino, certainly makes sense to me, and for 60 minutes, it worked. The last 30 odd, will go over in history as 30 of the worst minutes we will ever play. So it can only go one way, as far as I can see.
I have absolutely no idea if it's true or if it came from a reliable source so if he had one only a short while ago then good reason to doubt it I saw that Neil's comments about Martin being better suited to dealing with the mobile Firmino were actually in reference to a question about Klose not starting, so I have not heard anything else at all on that front. Would seem strange that Bennett gets dropped completely, but then despite multiple accolades from fans I actually don't think Bennett has been all that good in the last month or so.
Hi Dave bor, Quote from Paddy's statement: "There were no signs of that after Wes Hoolahan’s early second half penalty put Norwich 3-1 ahead. Neil’s planning may have been hampered by the untimely absence of Alex Tettey, but the lack of protection his chosen midfield afforded a dazed defence thereafter deserves scrutiny." Not wishing to join in the criticism of last Saturday's defeat I held my counsel but Paddy has expressed my thoughts on the matter, particularly the manger's choice of midfield. I checked with the 12 fans who entered our competition to select the team and not one included Dorans but all 12 chose Howson, Tettey and JARVIS. That's right, all twelve chose Jarvis and not one chose Dorans ! My choice on hearing Tettey's indisposition would have been to reinstate Olson at LB and move Brady into the midfield, his natural position. He could then have covered the midfield, left back and assist the forwards when he could. To put it simply no team leading 3-1 should lose the advantage and to score 4 at home and lose beggars belief !!! I strongly believe our coaches need to concentrate on simple procedures. In my time we had a saying: If in doubt, kick it out. If you knock the stand down, don't worry, we will rebuild it. I watched Leicester on MotD and they unreservedly didn't hesitate to find touch or concede a corner. Elementary safe basic play.
