Match Day Thread Luton Town v Norwich City.Wed 2nd Dec ko 19.45 hrs

Krul is certainly a big loss, but had Pukki been playing, Luton would have been more reluctant to push as many players forward and Teemu would have given us goalscoring potential up front, which Stieperman has failed to do in the last two games. That's not his fault, he's just not a striker by any stretch of the imagination.

 

Looks like our defence is beginning to leak again after such encouraging set of results.

 

I think whoever takes over the Match thread duties is going to have a bumpy ride given the state of the squad currently.

That said im a sucker for punishment so ill knock one up if people want.

 

You seem to be the only one with brass balls so as soon as you post the thread you are in the hot seat .

Win or draw and you are up again .

If you beat Bure's 10 game unbeaten run you will achieve hero status amongst the Canary faithful .
Lose and you're fired .

 

On Saturday, Coventry exploited the weakness down our flanks, where Aarons and Sørensen received little help from Martin and Placheta ahead of them, a situation exacerbated by having Tettey at DM rather than Skipp. Whenever Aarons went forward, which was often, given the absence of Buendia and our depleted attack, Coventry simply dropped the ball in behind him, exposing Tettey's slowness to cover. Despite the near certainty that Luton would adopt similar tactics -- which they already had done successfully against us in the EFL Cup -- no adjustments were made to counter that threat. With so many first choice players missing, it's essential to make best use of what you have. How many of us think we did that yesterday?

 

Zonal marking works if everybody does their job. The blockers have to stop attackers running in, the tall defenders have to defend the six yard line and, most important of all, your GK has to evade his own blocker and attack any ball within eight yards of his goal line. Krul does that and will either punch the ball away, put the attacker off and/or clatter the attacker which means that attackers are distracted by having one eye on the ball and one eye on Krul, McGovern doesn't do that, which is one of his several weaknesses, meaning that attackers concentrate all their efforts on the ball and our defenders are jittery in defending it. I thought it was because he lacked height but was corrected on that theory on another thread. As for his international experience - without being unkind what was his competition for the place? I'm sorry but in my opinion he is technically the worst keeper we have had since a certain Australian gentleman. Having said all that I have my doubts as to whether a rough house side managed by Tony Pullis is a suitable introduction for Barden.

 

A reasonable assessment but looking at the bench what else did he have?

 

Not much, except what I suggested on the previous page: the option of 3 at the back with Sørensen and Aarons moving up as WBs either side of Skipp. That would be a more natural position for Sørensen and allow 3 CBs to deal with crosses and headers without taking away from attacking options.

 

As an advocate for a system based on 3 at the back I cannot argue against that but we were still left with the GK problem, the loss of all our striking options and the danger of being out gunned in midfield. Hopefully Pukki will be back for Saturday but how off a return are Hugill and Idah? How far off a return is Byram? What is it about players we get from West Ham?

 

I'm not sure that with the high number of enforced changes we've had recently that the best response is to make even more changes.

 

But does it mean making "more" changes? We have lost our first choice keeper, our first and second choice LFBs, our first and second choice LCMs and our first and second choice strikers. So we have had to find replacements in four positions. Second choice keeper leaves three other gaps to be filled, which we have done by shoe-horning a young midfielder in at LB, replacing Skipp with Tettey, moving Skipp to LCM, playing Stiepermann as a false 9 and adding Martin to attacking midfield. The result of this is that we are much weaker in both defence and attack; in defence because we have McGovern, Tettey and Sørensen instead of Krul, Skipp and Quintilla/Mumba, with the left side weakened further by less effective cover from Martin/Placheta; in attack because Pukki is not only our top scorer but the focus of our normal attacking play, and without him or Hugill on the shoulders of opposition defenders and in the box, we are rendered toothless.
There's nothing to be done about the attack apart from hoping that Pukki is fit enough to play at least some part, but defensively, as Rick points out, there is an alternative which keeps Skipp in his most effective role at DM and addresses that left side Achilles' heel by bringing the experienced Zimmermann into a back 3. This strengthens the flanks, particularly on the left with Gibson behind Sørensen, as well as providing extra cover in front of McGovern and extra height at set pieces. DF has often said they practice playing 3 at the back in training, and he often implements it late in games when we are trailing or defending a narrow lead. By now it shouldn't be such a big deal.

McGovern
Hanley, Zimmermann, Gibson
Aarons, Skipp, Sørensen
Buendia, Stiepermann/Vrancic, Placheta
Pukki/Stiepermann

 

My impression is that when we've changed to 3 at the back late in games we've become more effective all over the pitch. I'm not against Tettey, who has improved his play, but bringing Zimbo into a 3 at the back allows Sørensen and Skipp to play in their natural positions and Aarons to join the attack more, while also lessening the defensive burden on our wide players. I also think it would give us a much better chance of survival of we are promoted again.

 

If we were moving to 3 at the back this would be my preference:

McGovern
Zimbo Hanley Gibson
Aarons Placheta
Skipp Sorensen
Buendia Martin
Pukki
A 5-2-3 with over lapping wing backs. Skipp or Sorensen allowed to support the attack while the other fills in for the full back on their side. Buendia and Martin released of some of their defensive duties to support Pukki up top. Could swap Martin out for Vrancic or Stiepermann.
I thought I read when we signed Placheta that he had played LB before. Any one else recall that or am I making things up?