Look everybody, Duncan agrees with me about Hanley. And even about setting up 4:1:4:1 with Normann at DM I'm not sure I can take this!
Was it the charge of the heavy brigade where there was at least one man who was running out hammering pegs into the ground like they did in training and the Russians were trying to work out what they were doing?
A DM who does what Skipp did but is better on the ball would be an advance. We should also remember that Skipp was playing in a dominant team in the Championship rather than a newly promoted PL team against far more skillful players. For those who missed it earlier, here's PFA Scouting Report on Normann which clearly shows he's a progressive DM and not a box-to-box midfielder. https://totalfootballanalysis.com/a...020-21-scout-report-tactical-analysis-tactics
Klose is the last pre-Farke outfield player to depart, McGovern the remaining player from pre-Farke. So this is now entirely a Farke/Webber squad. Zimmerman joined slightly before Hanley, but the pair of them (and Gunn I guess) are the only survivors from Farke's first window.
Aston Oxborough with a decent loan: https://www.pinkun.com/sport/norwich-city/ncfc-keeper-seals-deadline-day-loan-deal-8286526
I think Webber has done well this window, its a shame Bendia went, but Webber has for me improved the team and squad inspite of the big loss. I feel optimistic that after this tough start we can actually push forward and survive. Bah!
Buendia, like Maddison, is a great player, but his departure paid for the arrival of Rashica, Gunn, Lees-Melou, Sargent, Gilmour and Tzolis as well as the formation and tactical tweaks we've seen so far, just as Madders' departure enabled the arrival of Buendia, Pukki, McLean, Rhodes and Krul and the movement from a 14th place finish to finish Champions. Our net outlay in effect is the cost of the loan deals for Williams, Normann and Kabak. The Gibson and Giannoulis deals came out of last year's budget. Much as I admired Emi, the 6 players who have come in from the money his departure provided and the last 3 loan deals have given us a real chance of survival without a huge financial gamble. Even wages of those 9 have been balanced by the departure of 12 players. That is a master-class in transfer dealings by Webber.
Good for him, I was starting to wonder where his future laid, with little mention of him in the last year or so
It had to do with the earlier posts about what Farke said about Normann: "We see lots of potential in Mathias and he's capable to play in several roles. He's quite versatile in the midfield positions." (Daniel Farke) Post #1707 this thread. And what Normann said "I like to be on the ball and try to dictate the game."
What may be confusing people is what DF means by "several roles" and "midfield positions". The scout report tactical analysis describes Normann as a 'progressive DM' rather than a Tettey-like anchor. He's said to have Skipp's covering ability against the ball but is a better passer than Oli (the tactical analysis details this). That makes sense when we're playing without an AM as the midfielders will have to progress the ball through the thirds to link up with the attacking players. https://totalfootballanalysis.com/a...020-21-scout-report-tactical-analysis-tactics
Oof now you’re testing the limits of my knowledge! The only thing I can remember is that the heavy brigade had great success, which partly encouraged the more famous charge….
Whatever happens, Webber has done a fantastic job. Although science can play a large part in the process through stats and so on, recruitment is always going to be partly an art that relies on instinct. A player gets a serious injury soon after joining, the collective doesn't work because the group has the talent but not the cohesion, etc etc. Norwich have been very lucky over the last three years to have a group of players who seem to get on very well, and the one player who probably had the greatest talent - Buendia - was a hard worker who didn't seem to have a massive ego. As we move up the food chain, it's more and more likely that we hit the kind of player who thinks he's a world above his team-mates, someone who could seriously damage the group harmony. I trust Farke not to let that happen, but history is full of teams that are great individually on paper, but just didn't gel as a group. At least it looks like the ride is going to be fun, I hope.
At the end of a window where we've spent far more than we ever have before, we still haven't spent more money on a player than we sold Josh Murphy to Cardiff, Jacob to Newcastle, or Pritchard to Huddersfield for...
