We've been picked apart all season when we've played a tikka takka short passing game, being blunted by the slow build-up against settled defences. The extra attacker (Dowell) made us dangerous up front and Burnley struggled to deal with the balls we got forward quickly. Rashica is finally looking the PL player we hoped he would be. Normann hasn't got back to his best, but his through ball assist for Pukki's goal was pure class. Two goals, 17 shots, 6 on target and a clean sheet looks pretty good to me.
Yep, though dare I say it I think we had 21 points with 10 games to play in 19/20…. *takes cover* Negativity aside, a great result today. Some players were a bit shaky and it was far from pretty, especially as we gave Burnley more possession in the first half than they had ever had in the Premier League before(!?!) However, one mistake from Byram aside, we looked really solid - Hanley was “superb” according to the commentator and Gibson was much improved (winning man of the match). I thought Dowell looked lively for the first time in the Premier League, Pukki as quality with his movement as ever and as others have said Rashica looked strong. McClean also had one of his best games in a while. All round encouraging. For as much as I am a Farke fan, I don’t think he would have been able to carve out that win, especially not in such a dominating way. At least it suggests we won’t be relegated with a whimper and we have something to build upon for the Championship. Also really good to see Tzolis getting an energetic and confident cameo, even if it was all to brief.
Last 7 matches: Man Utd away Newcastle home Aston Villa away West Ham home Leicester away Wolves away Spurs home Realistically: Man Utd are not playing consistently well so possible draw NU could be our best chance of a slender victory Aston V again possible draw WHUtd best result a draw Leicester probably lose Wolves another chance of a slender win Spurs can’t see anything but a hammering. These predictions are downhill with the wind behind them.
Difficult to predict when the 'on the beach' factor kicks in, but I'll settle for more points than last time and not finishing last. Not much to shout about but it would be an improvement over last time in the PL.
Yes, agree with this. While realistically the season just be basically over, we shouldn’t stop having targets so that next season we have momentum. Immediate target: get off the foot of the table.
I hope, and think there's a reasonable chance, that you'll beat Man U. Their players won't fight, not the way I saw your boys fight today. All the best.
Random stats: Giannoulis has started 9 Premier League games this season. Of the 5 against "bottom 14 teams", we have 7 points and 4 clean sheets. Suggests he offers a lot against non-elite opposite. Norwich have 3 points from the 17 games Gilmour has started this season. 18 points from the other 14 games.
We do not or should not be obliged to play Gilmour. It's so glaringly obvious that we are better without him
Smith's choice for MotM will surprise some: https://www.norfolklive.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/dean-smith-norwich-win-burnley-6933351
McLean can be a scapegoat for the fans, but yesterday I didn't see a single poster criticise him, either during or after the game. IMO, he had a good game because he was given a clear role and followed it. So instead of running around like a blue-arsed fly, trying to do everything and achieving very little, he did what he had been told to do, with PLM tasked to play further forward and link midfield and attack. Personally I always feel that McLean and PLM get in each other's way a lot of the time, and that distance between them really helped our performance. I am a little worried about Smith singling out McLean for praise, though, when other players were just as deserving. Although Smith claims he never reads social media, he must know that many fans have a negative view of McLean and I guess that is why he said what he did. But so often in football when things are going badly, we see a kind of war of attrition develop between manager and fans around one player, with the fans baying for the player to be dropped and the manager playing him again and again to prove himself right. I hope that isn't the case here.
When McLean plays well the team generally plays well. I wouldn't play Gilmor, other than a couple of decent games for Scotland he's done diddly squat. Smart move by Smith positives for virtually every other player to be found elsewhere
