That was 100 minutes of my life wasted If this is what we have to look forward to for a few games while we wait for players to return, then gawd help us. I can see Bristol City beating us at the weekend
Saturday is a really big game now. I know the international break is coming up but we need to find a way to play with the players we have / are stuck with..and show some intent! It was so ponderous. Like a training game.
I think Connor has summed up my thoughts pretty well here. This is a long term project no point ripping things up for a few games with no guarantee of short term gain. https://www.youtube.com/live/jeJ9B30PnKA?si=8mMPTBLBRHMSmXHx
Agreed, Suffolk, but at the same time, some longer term issues are also emerging. Wednesday, like others before them, including 'Boro, clearly identified our left side as vulnerable. The weakness, unfortunately, originates largely with Borja Sainz, whose defensive contribution borders on zero. This in turn exposes Doyle, who is no Adam Drury. It obviously helps when our first choice midfield three are playing, but without them we have a real problem, exacerbated when, like today, steps are taken to neutralise Sainz who, each time he got the ball, immediately found two, sometimes three, markers in attendance. Borja has to expect that level of attention from now on and, together with Thorup, find a way to turn it to advantage; maybe he should give Emi Buendia a call and ask him how he dealt with much the same tactics!
WhoScored has Duffy as the highest rated City player (6.7), with Crnac and Marcondes tied in second place (6.5). One interesting observation: 60% of our shots came from key passes by Crnac. He's an intelligent player, and capable of exquisite touches, as in that early attack when he played Kellen Fisher in (another example, incidentally of Crnac getting himself into a good position to score, in this case were Fisher to pull the ball back rather than shooting at goal).
I fear the problems go far deeper than the injuries, Borja's defending and nobody giving Crnac a chance to shoot. Our porous defence has been exposed time and time again as we conceded 9 goals in the last 4 games. I fail to see what JHT has tried to do about it. He talks the talk, but it could have been 4 or 5 goals conceded last night. This is how Duffy saw it: "It's been difficult this week, but we cannot keep giving goals away. It's not about the squad or none of that - we gave really bad goals away, and that is the fact. We were dominating the game early on, but one ball from the halfway line, and we're one goal down. Then they swing a ball in, and it goes in. It's frustrating. We cannot really say that is down to a lack of squad - it's individual mistakes again, and it's cost us." I like what JHT is trying to do, but warm talk about the need for the players to absorb his tactics is stretching credulity after a full pre-season and 14 games plus 2 cup games. The injuries have exposed the vulnerability of recruiting so many young players (we had 5 players 20 or younger starting last night and it showed). The result was aimless passes straight to Wednesday's players time after time. There was no logical coherence about our tactics with or without the ball. I do hope JHT finds a way to sort it out, but the excuses are wearing very thin. Here's Gary Gowers' view: https://norwichcity.myfootballwriter.com/2024/11/06/hillsborough-horrors-as-citys-woes-increase/
We often moan about refs but that arsehole last night was one of the worst. Any clumsy tackles against us going forward were left to play on usually with Wednesday on the counter but their players were diving & getting free kicks in dangerous situations more often than not. Sainz has clearly been working on his hot head as he spent most of the match perplexed at all the decisions against him . No coincidence that we haven't won since Gunn got injured . The Kenny Nunez partnership in the middle was vital & not having an experienced back up for Sargent is killing us. The amount of key injuries is obviously our main concern rather than tactics or team selection. Giving Long a contract extension was maybe not the best bit of business ever , but not many decent keepers are happy to sign as back up i guess. Our year long home record is under real threat but hopefully they keep it going with a patched up side .
Just to further help visualise the depth of the injury/suspension issues we are facing: Red are injured or suspended Orange returning from injury/rushed in Age to the right of name. I don't know many teams that could deal with the shear amount of missing players we have, in some cases we have not only our first choice but second choice options injured.
As good as Doyle can be on the ball, I wonder if its time to give Chrisene a go. Doyle looks like a CB trying to play LB at the moment. Sainz is obviously being told to stay high with one of the midfield 3 tasked with helping defensively on the left site, the biggest issue with that at the moment is Marcondes and Schwartau and particularly strong defensively and Lungi is the central pivot.
Really? With an overall WhoScored Pass Success rate of 88%? Here are the PS percentages for all the starters: Long 92% Fisher 87% Duffy 93% Cordoba 93% Doyle 80% Marcondes 85% Sorensen 90% Schwartau 69% Gordon 91% Crnac 83% Sainz 87% Only one player with a rate below 80%? If you look at WhoScored's Match Report, it is Wednesday, not City, of whom they say "Lost possession often".
No it isn't. How long did it take for Farke to get his tactics embedded? Two pre-seasons, one full season, two cup competitions, and another four games.
Good chart, thanks But I just don’t get how year after year we seem to suffer these injury crisis scenarios
