They were a bunch of dirty bastards who kicked lumps out of us but they were smart about it. We’re the most fouled team in the league but we also make the fewest tackles. Now, fewest tackles may suggest our holding midfielders and defenders are really good at reading the game in a way that doesn’t require tackling. Jones is good at reading the game defensively without diving into tackles. Greaves less so but still decent at intercepting the ball. But we don’t have the best defensive record in the league, far from it. So we’re the least aggressive team in the league but pretty bang average defensively. My mate who isn’t a City fan but was watching on Sky text me saying the team looked like it had one too many attackers in it. It was a basic 4-2-3-1 shape but both holding midfielders like to get forward and neither have the best defensive positioning and the advanced midfielders were all #10s and no natural wingers. Up top our starting striker went off because he’s made of glass and his replacement was a 37-year-old goal-poacher but who doesn’t have the legs to press or run in behind. We played decent football at times but the squad looks cobbled together and very unbalanced.
Norwich wouldn’t have let us score the goal Rowe scored first half because they would’ve just clattered our player 40 yards out, take the yellow card and regroup for the free-kick. That’s the difference between us and other teams in the Championship. We as a team only seem to get physical and aggressive if our lads think they’re hard-done by the refs. We get aggressive as a reaction; Norwich were aggressive from minute 1 because it was part of their game plan.
Reminded me of the old Ron Atkinson quote- “I never comment on referees and I aren’t going to start with that idiot.”
Not finishing our dinner. Conceding 2 a game. Something has to change soon. It feels like every counter is a golden chance and with Allsop I have zero confidence of him saving anything. I’m really questioning why we are going all in this year with an unbalanced and injured squad in one of the hardest championship seasons to go up when we could try bring in some talent to bed in for next year.
True. What was. especiallyn disappointng was that Norwich looked so poor, especially in comparison to their ides over the past few seasons.
You've pretty much nailed it with your take on Delap and coming up against 'Championship' centre backs!! This is the Championship!!.It has no sympathy for lightweights,it has poor refereeing,it has cloggers,it has big bastards mopping up balls at height from crosses(Toastie touched on it at half-time),it has decisions that sometimes defy ****ing common sense and logic... We're coming out of just about every game trying to blame referees(I admit their decisions are dire at times),Rosenior continues to beat the same drum that the ref did us,mistakes cost us but we played wonderfully. We had 45 minutes of relentless attack in the 2nd half,they get one sniff and bang it in the back of the net,game over bar a quality strike...It's time people wiped the moisture from their rose tinted glasses and owned up to the fact that our defending is abysmal at times!!!
Defence is the issue, gifting teams goals time after time. As an ex defender I can’t understand why LR can’t see this ? We have not been linked with any defenders this window Surely LR can’t be happy with the number of poor goals we give away, so why isn’t he using the window to fix an obvious problem?
Well that was frustrating. Looking on the positive side, at least we’ll probably sign a striker now. On the negative side, Lokilo is no more a Championship player than I am.
Thought reality bite us hard again tonight.. Goals win games and without them you cannot hide weaknesses.. End of chat. Allam’s GONE
We can’t have the funds to, more like one of Tufan, Traore, Twine or Carvalho will play the striker role, with one of Tufan, Traore, Twine or Carvalho playing the other striker role. The remaining two will battle it out for left and right wing. Probably see Slater and Doc playing out there a bit too.
Ok. I’m surprised some of this hasn’t been mentioned already but here goes: We took an age to get our first shot on target (over 50 mins). This is a serious problem. From minute 55ish, we played good, attacking football. That is simply not good enough at home. Time and time again we are too slow to get into the game. I now genuinely think Rosenior is delusional if he thinks that was good enough. It wasn’t. The fact that Sharp hardly got a touch says it all. Twine started well. But then rapidly went downhill. Those who say he had a great game - he did some good stuff, but made A LOT of mistakes. Yet it was still one of his best games for us. Again, says it all. There’s a lot of blame going on the defence. I don’t agree with it. They didn’t have that many clear cut chances and their second goal fell nicely. The attacking play is where we are at fault. I’ll say it again, it shouldn’t take more than half the game to get a shot on target. We are too slow. We play pretty football that is easy on the eye, but it lacks any threat. I think Evington said something like this earlier. We lack bravery and we really miss Delap/Philogene to take the game by the scruff of the neck.
