They did really well against Leicester. The press worked more often than not and we should have won the game. In the Villa game, the players didn't press as a group but as individuals too often and let's be clear, Villa were absolutely eexcellent.The passing, movement and finishing all clicked in to place for them. Sometimes that happens. We put some great crosses in at the beginning of the second half but just didn't have a forward to stick it away. Hopefully Bamford can help with that. The real worry is that we just haven't put in good performances over short turnarounds of games and this game comes around so quickly on the back of Leicester and Villa. I'm just hoping we get a bit of luck today for a change. If we somehow scrape a win and 3 points we can use it to build on.
How many can he realistically make with a paper thin squad without resorting to throwing some kids in who haven't received much game time, this match is to important to do that. No for me it's up to the senior players to step up to the plate and get to grips with the reality of the situation the club is in and the part they have played in it, a win and nothing less has got to be goal from this to put 5 points between us and the thugs after Toney put them to the sword.... if it's anything less then I would give the kids a run of games to prepare them for the championship, so over to you seniors show them your still capable of winning a game....haik Mary full of grace
Was just about to post something similar. Marsch is well known for making changes to freshen things up and prevent fatigue settling in. Unfortunately we have a small squad. It's a well written complaint on here about lazy journalism just spouting nonsense about the club but we are two games in to a new manager and some fans are jumping to conclusions already. Changing things around is not the act of a desperate man. Its just one of the things this coach likes to do.
There'll be 3 changes to Thursday's starting line up. You can call it rotation if you like but it's still trying to fix what clearly didn't work against Villa. Guess what as well...if we win there'll be no rotation for Wolves on Friday.
I thought villa were very good too, they definitely won the initial battle of team set-up, though its hard to mitigate for how sh*t we were individually. Marsch did at least get us on the front foot in the second half until the second goal killed us. Dug out this article i read on Marsch - for those interested in a tactical breakdown https://themastermindsite.com/2021/02/14/jesse-marsch-rb-salzburg-tactical-analysis/ As much as anything it highlights the issue i feared when he came, which is that for all it's a high energy game similar to bielsa's, there's a lot the team have to get right as a unit (at the same time) and it takes time to do this. Time we don't really have. JM says he's trying to not overload them by making too many changes, but they looked overloaded against Villa. Often the case that performances are very erratic when manager's change things. One of the Leipzig players said the problem there, was that the players there were used to playing posession football - and in many cases bought for playing possession football - certain players just slipped back into habits they know and are comfortable with. Leading to disjointed performances. Our players have the advantage of the similarity between bielsa and marsch in terms of high energy fast paced game - but there's still a lot to take in and everyone has to do it together. Norwich are not as organised off the ball as Villa, so hopefully we get some momentum. Play like we did against leicester we win, like villa we most likely lose.
I’m not digging the new manager out. I desperately want him to succeed. I just think it was the wrong time to change. It doesn’t give him much time to implement a new system on players that have pretty much played the same way for three years. Should have either brought him in before the window and get some players in he wanted or run with Bielsa to the end of the season.
I would damn well hope he's trying to fix what didn't work. what's the team then? So we can debate it's merits.
Fair points, i just think it was a judgement call. People are in one camp or another over it, but i can see both arguments. Some might call it panic and in an ideal world they would change manager in december - back then things weren't so desperate. Admitedly we had injuries and a very tough fixture list... but by end of feb we looked in complete dissarray. And we don't know everything going on behind the scenes.
Agreed. They’ve been used to man marking for three and a half years and are now told zonal marking is the way to go. It’s not like there’s an on/off switch for it. Probably takes a few weeks to implement a new system. Less time needed for top quality international players, but our squad has been built around the ‘whole is greater than the sum of its parts’ ideology, and most of our players are not outstanding individuals. Not Marsch’s fault he’s been thrown in at the deep end, but he has. Even though we’ve had some bad defeats against the very top teams, we’d have accumulated enough points to survive from the remaining games had we kept Bielsa. Absolutely crazy decision by the hierarchy to change managers at this stage of the season.
Stop it with the Bielsa krap. He never won anything but was a lovely man. Well good for him and his 24 million he took off us. Ninth place and relegation what an achievement.
