The defence looked much stronger when Greaves moved to left back. I am not sure whether Vinagre is match fit or not but I was looking forward to seeing him play and in truth he looked all at sea, especially in the first half. Sadly the players playing in front of the full backs did little to double up and stem the flow in the first half. Lastly Ingram was booked in stoppage time for time wasting so I am certain 30 seconds would have been added which would explain why the ref did not blow for time when the five minutes of injury time had been clocked.
Maybe to says much about Connolly that he let himself get as fat as (if thats the case) Quote Rosenior. "Look, he's a moaner, he's a screamer, he's a shouter on the training pitch and he's horrible, but the players know he wants the best. "You've got to have different types of characters in the squad. We can't all be nice guys, we can't say the right things and do the right things because you won't get anywhere.
I'd copy and save that Ev'... you might be posting it again in the weeks ahead... save you typing it..
I’m away on holiday and didn’t see the game or hear any commentary other than what I’ve gleaned from the posts on here, which has been the usual mix of those saying how poor we were and others trying to offer a more balanced view. It sounds overall though, that we seem (as we have seen in the past with previous England teams) that we’re trying to accommodate all of our ‘better’ players into the team and are seemingly the worse for it? That may well be because we don’t have suitable alternatives in some of those positions yet, due to either injury or lack of fitness, or that we haven’t been able to bring them in yet but it is a concern. Hopefully, it is something that will be resolved over the next few weeks/games but by the sounds of things the level of performance yesterday was disappointing. Like everyone else on here, I want us to be successful and would love that to be under Rosenior but I’m somewhere in the middle ground of opinion. I do think we have some good players and I think the system has potential but I’m not sure we’ve got enough of the right players to execute it successfully yet.
the late goal was not offside because when the ball was kicked no Norwich player was in an offside position - however the main problem was that none of our defenders went to head the ball to clear it - Greaves isn't a ball winner in the air - watch the highlights video if you want any more evidence - every time the ball is crossed he fails to win the challenge - we need a Michael Dawson figure, someone when the ball is crossed you know will meet the header and clear the ball - we don't have that player and all teams have to do is pump the ball into the air into our penalty area and we have no one to stop them winning the ball - which is really poor - we've been crying out for a centre back for some time now and we still haven't got one as far as yesterday's result, I'm not sure what some people expected - Norwich away was always a difficult start - it's a pity we didn't hold out but we didn't - they're a top half team that beat us at their ground - we still haven't got to grips with playing out from the back and that creates unnecessary pressure and panic, which is a negative to our confidence but also gives the opposition a lift - we can't afford to keep giving the ball away constantly - Yesterday was frustrating but we just have to be patient, we're not a top six team but neither are we bottom six - Acun is still building and it's going to take a little time before some of the pieces fall into place - we don't have millions that will buy us a Premier League team immediately
It's pretty depressing to see the glee with which some post their 'the team's ****, the manager's ****, and I was right all along' stuff after just one game. Anyway, not sure if anyone has mentioned this, but the main reason the goal should have been disallowed was the clear foul on McLoughlin as the cross comes in. One of theirs shoves him over, both hands in on his back, and it's as Macca gets up that the ball deflects off him to the goal scorer. Of course none of that should be used to deny that we're completely doomed and Rosenior should be taken out the back and shot and replaced by the landlord of the Botanic or Ronnie Pickering.
I was. Said repeatedly that, as good a prospect as he is, there is no way he should be getting so many starts and as much playing time. And there's no way he should have stayed on as long today. As Amin also says above, he's a young kid who needs protecting and developing, not dropping in at the deep end like this. Traore out wide and Vaughan starting & staying on so long is just not right. People criticise Longman, but the output would have been no less and at least there'd have been some cover for the full back. We desperately need at least one, ideally two quality wide players in. -> It's hard to have consistent attacking output when your attacking players are consistently unavailable. As Kalman says, he's had all summer, and he actually had January too, and also 9 months to affect our attacking play. Rosenior's answer in the last window was to spunk the money on Malcolm (and to a lesser extent Connolly). That worked really well. Jury remains out.
People need to stop fixating on the legality around the goal they scored, the volume of chances they had in the first half alone is the cause for concern, not the time or nature of the goal that was eventually scored.
Ah but then they’d have to comment on how poor we were instead of moaning about a disputed goal and slagging off posters who say how poor we were
To be honest, we played them twice last year and they ran rings around us on both occasions. It was always a really tough first game, and they've gone completely under the radar despite adding that real Championship grit which is what they were lacking. Sara and McLean are top technicians at this level and they've got a top manager too. I can't believe nobody is talking about the Delap penalty at the start of the 2nd half, it was a clear trip and a stonewall pen.
They haven't gone under the radar at all, they've had an awful 6 months and quite rightly have been criticised by most media ahead of the season. Wagner is not a top manager, he's been awful everywhere he's been other than a purple patch with Huddersfield.
He did fine at Schalke and finished 12th. They've been relegated twice since he left and never got close to a 12th placed finish
