The 2019-2020 season.

I think it's only fair to point out that, like Maddison, Aarons, Lewis, Godfrey and Cantwell were all scouted and recruited prior to the arrival of DF and, with the possible exception of Aarons, prior to the arrival of SW (Aarons came from Luton and, as our earlier recruitment of Lewis would suggest, we had built up a good relationship with them well before). Since then our scouting and recruitment team have been completely revamped so are still in process of proving themselves when it comes to youth players. So far Idah is the only youngster of this new era to progress into the first team squad.

 

Three comments:
1. I can outdo you for verbosity any day Rob
2. Completely agree that Vrancic and Stiepermann are not at all like for like alternatives. Vrancic's game, even when playing in a more advanced role, is quite different from Stiepi's. When Vrancic replaces Stiepi, the pattern of the game changes (which sometimes, later in the game, is exactly what DF wants).
3. I don't think that Stiepermann is as "erratic" as you say. He does often take time to get up to speed in a game (something to do with his size?) but IMO the appearance of inconsistency arises because the passages of play revolving around him rely so heavily on others (usually at least 4 players) and if they go AWOL it breaks down. This is what happened against Liverpool with everyone initially having to focus so heavily on firefighting. Leitner replacing him was DF's acceptance that our usual Stiepi-centred play wasn't possible that evening, rather than DF accepting that Marco wasn't playing well.

 

Brilliant China!

 

He is clearly confused

 

Very true Robbie, but would Aarons, Lewis, Godfrey and Cantwell have been playing under AN or another manager/coach? Maddison didn't. DF went against the pundit wisdom 'you can't win anything with kids' and we won the Championship with those four heavily involved and Aarons and Lewis in the team of the season along with Pukki.

 

No, they almost certainly would not. But I wasn't querying what Cromer said about DF's coaching skills and willingness to invest faith in young players Rick, only the bit about talent spotting and recruitment in relation to the four he specifically mentioned.

 

I remember JM saying that AN wanted him to go back to Aberdeen at the start of 2017, but JM said that he wanted to stay and fight for his place. He was incredible for the Under 23s that season until AN went and then he moved into the first team squad.

 

Farkeball!

 

Has anyone seen Teemu Pukki's Wikipedia entry? It has a photo of him playing for one of his Finnish clubs sporting an incredible mop of curly blonde hair!!

 

Lawrenson's prediction:
I said Teemu Pukki would not hit 10 goals this season and he's already got four! I thought Norwich were poor defensively against Liverpool in their opening game of the season but if they play that kind of attacking football at home, they will win enough games to stay in the league, which will be an achievement.

They had a good result against Newcastle last week and you can see with the way they set up that it is about winning their home games and that's the right idea for a newly-promoted team.

Chelsea have actually played well, despite failing to win so far this season. But they haven't played well for long enough in games.

When you're in front, you have to stop the opposition from scoring and they haven't done that. I also don't think the team is set up right.

If you have N'Golo Kante, you have to play him in his best position and protect the defence.

Chelsea will dominate the ball far longer against Norwich than they have in their other games and that should be enough for them to win it.

Lawro's prediction: 1-2

Stefan's prediction: 1-3

 

Well, Lawro predicting us to lose is hardly a surprise, but at least he's had to eat some humble pie about Pukki's scoring. Chelsea fans seem to think that all they have to do is stop Pukki to stop us. Unfortunately Frank will know better - he picked us to finish 11th this season. Should be a good game.

 

Sorry, Robbie I should have separated 'very true' acknowledging your point before I went on to the new one about AN not playing them. I agree completely that they were signed under the previous regime. It's just a pity that AN didn't have the ability to develop their skills or the confidence to give them a chance.

 

I suppose he was at least gracious enough to mention his Pukki prediction starting to go awry after just two games. Chelsea may be correct in their assumption that all they need to do is stop Pukki - but can they be the first team this season to do that? There is the distinct possibility that in their attempt to do so they will let another player slip a goal in. As I said earlier this week, this game is more important to them than it is to us. Anything we glean from the top six is a bonus.

 

Good article by somebody who gets what we are about:

https://mg.co.za/article/2019-08-23-00-norwich-wont-back-down

His comparison with our 1992-3 team is very apt. We amazingly finished 3rd in the PL after being predicted to be relegated. As he says:

"‘I’d happily win 4-3 all season,” Mike Walker reasoned when he was quizzed on the volatility of his Norwich City side in 1993. “You get three points for 4-3, and only one for nil-nil.”

That axiom almost paid off big time as the Canaries came remarkably close to winning the maiden Premier League trophy. They were top of the pack in December and there were jitters in the establishment at the thought that the previously struggling club could pull off a Leicester City miracle — 20 years before we knew what that meant."

I felt similarities last season and our convincing win over Newcastle has awakened them again. It was all about 'playing without fear'. When we went 2-0 down in the opening game at Arsenal, Walker didn't mention 'damage limitation', instead he said 'keep at them' and we went on to win 4-2 leaving Highbury in shock. That season and the following one when we finished 4th in the PL were the best we've ever had. We just might be on to something similar this season. For an amusing look at the 92-93 season look down the page in this blog:

https://www.tifofootball.com/video/norwich-city-tactics-under-daniel-farke/

There's a drawing of Gunny celebrating and the title 'A Brief History of Norwich City's 1992-3 Season'. Well worth listening to.

 

As much my fault as your Rick, but a useful lesson in what a difference punctuation makes .
Re. Alex Neil, it's really a bit of a mystery, because developing young players was the strength that got him promoted from boss of the Hamilton Accies academy to managing the first team. One can only presume that the gulf between that and the Premier League (graphically illustrated by the inability of Tony Andreu to make the step up), convinced him that tried and tested was what was needed.

 

I’m not entirely sure this is fair on AN. At their age, players develop enormously quickly - just look at the leaps Cantwell has made this summer.

I strongly suspect that Aarons, Lewis etc simply weren’t good enough when AN was manager. What’s great about Farke is he seems to have managed to have timed exactly when these players are good enough to make the step up. Cantwell being the perfect example, and Aarons when he was given that first start. It’s not like Farke used many youth (Maddison aside) in his first season.

Let’s not forget AN did a fantastic job developing Nathan Redmond and the Murphy twins (and together with Farke seems to have got more out of them than since they left us), their fees ultimately keeping the club afloat for a bit.

I really doubt any of Aarons, Lewis and Cantwell were ready when AN was managing, other than maybe when he was right at the end of his stint (and it would have been too big a risk when trying to protect his job).

I am a bit biased though as I remain of the view that AN did a fantastic job, helped lay some of the foundations with our academy but suffered some of the hangover consequences of poor management before him which eventually brought him down. Farke continued that process and then was able to bring it all together last season.

 

For those with the time to scroll through tifofootball.com's videos, there is a brief but illuminating account of why Abramovich is seeking to end his mariage de convenance with Chelsea (with a divorce settlement, incidentally, of £3billion). I posted about this on the thread discussing Lampard's appointment. It also contains an allusion to Asimir Usmanov and his giving up on his campaign to take over Arsenal (with associated insight into why the Arsenal board and major shareholders were so determined to thwart Usmanov and his henchman Moshiri by selling to Kroenke instead). Moshiri, incidentally, is believed to have financed his takeover of Everton in part with funds provided by Usmanov. Like the Chelsea supporters who happily turned a blind eye to the origins of Abramovich's money, and the Arsenal supporters who fawned over Usmanov as their preferred owner, Everton supporters don't seem too worried by who exactly is paying their transfer bills.

(This should really be on the General Football thread but was prompted by Rick's posting a link to tifofootball.)

 

That's fair comment Rob. I was thinking about Maddison; quite forgot about the Murphy twins and Redmond