Yep looked different class immediately his touch was good he will get us ticking time to get off my train in a mo I know I will feel down a bit tomorrow But what else to do ? Lad and I may go to see the swans
You have played Chelsea, Man City, Spurs, West Ham & Norwich, are unbeaten (while being bottom of the table) and you're questioning Harry tactics because you feel he never got certain aspects of the formation right? No manager gets tactics/formations right for every game, regardless of who they are, be that Fergie or Mourinho, so look at the overall picture and ask yourself how Hughes would have got on with them same fixtures? You're lucky to have Arry as manager and he will do everything possible to save you from relegation and make sure the players fight until the end so today was a good point and you're still in with a great chance of pulling survival off.
But if Taarabt had scored the penalty this thread would be titled ''Harry: Tactical genius''. It's a fine line I tell thee.
Well thank you all knowing one. Thank's for telling us how lucky we are and what our result means. All bow to the ORACLE that is Bruce Springsteen
Wouldn't change our gaffer for the world right now - but that doesn't mean him and his staff are perfect. No one is but they certainly ain't I'm afraid. The fact that we have no idea when it comes to attacking dead ball situations is a major miss on their part. What happened to planning and rehearsing the opportunities? What happened to contingencies? How comes we're still doing the same old direct pop business that ALWAYS means we instantly lose possession? (Pirate showed a stats table a few days ago that said that even the best free kick takers have a 3% chance of scoring. What chance us?) What do they all spend their time doing all week on the training ground? I hope with Samba around we'll start doing better with corners. Also, agree with Col. Norwich looking relatively safe-ish atm, we should've placed a lot more emphasis on attack from the get go. Second half of the second half showed what we can do if we try in terms of getting forward. Having said that 'Arry's certainly turned things round when it comes to heart, energy, and effort - and that defence of our's is looking solid atm, we won't be needing 8 defenders in most games till the end of the season. Would've enjoyed most of today's game if I wasn't screaming 'GOAL FOCUS' and words to that effect for the first hour. Good to see Zamora's looking a bit more interested than he was two or three months ago. Work in progress - but unless something gives, I fear we may be a tad late for our own funeral. Sorry.
Harold has definitely improved things. I'm just disappointed in today, because Norwich are the worst team I've seen this year (and man there is some crap around). Townsend, Jenas, Samba (although clearly a long way from fit), Traore (he's turned a corner), Fabio all good. Cesar, as ever, different class. Derry did his job, like Hill. Tarbs great start, then too deep. Thought Zamora did ok when he came on. SWP, Mackie hmmmm, Mbia off his game. Ben Haim, one great cross, but not convinced - first time I've seen him. What's up with Onouha? as usual not enough men in the box and lacked coherence in midfield...Jenas could be the answer.
Tarbs is 9/10 very poor at set pieces. I noticed his corners were either too short or too long. The odd free-kick brings a goal which can prove to be a match winner.
He's very poor. But that's not his fault. The fault lies with the Management continually allowing him to take them. Sparkless and COLIN were the same. Maybe they think he'll get the 'ump if he don't get to take 'em? Funnily enough I thought our routines on the corners and FK's today had a bit of direction in them. Okay it was simple stuff, IE hit it at Samba's head, but at least there was a method behind it. If it hits his head a bit more in the coming games then a lose ball here or there can be seized upon.
Sadly, I tend to agree. Today really was a 'must-win' game and we should have taken the points. I felt that once Norwich got over our early pressure they were happy to sit in the space between our two midfield banks and patiently work openings without to much fear of us getting at them. It changed when Zamora came on and we were able to pressure them a bit more but we didn't get enough bodies into the danger areas to make it tell. At the other end it was once again Hail Cesar, one exceptional reflex save from close range and a couple of other brilliant efforts kept us alive. All-in-all a bloody frustrating day...
We need to start taking risks and pushing players forward. If we play this system for the rest of the season,then we are as good as down...especially if Remy is out for 4 weeks
Goals win games and at the moment we look incapable of scoring. I wrote in another thread yesterday that this was a big test for Harry and his staff. IMO, they failed. We simply don't get enough players in the opposition box. For all our effort today we created very little. Just watched the match for a second time and its amazing how dysfunctional our attacking play is. No real threat. Still think that we are improving under Harry but not at sufficient speed. We simply can't score enough to keep us up. Devastated.
I was saying last night Derry and Mbia shouldn't have started the match and I was really expecting Granero there and Jenas showed he could be Derr'y partner today but nobody's perfect. we will win next game
Made a massive mistake in the line up, after 10 mins I was calling for Zamora, we wasted 55 mins to make the sub. Derry shouldnt have played either, he offers nothing going forward and Granero should have been in for him. Hes has to get Taarabt off set pieces, he cant even score penalties now. Again it was too soft. He should never take a set piece again for this club. How many Taarabt set pieces have we scored from this season? Have we even got 1 goal that wasnt from a penalty?
Yes col, you make a good point. We are at home. We need to win games. We are playing a team we should beat. So why are we being so negative and playing one up front? To me, playing one up front is like saying ............ "it's OK, we are not trying to beat you, we only want to draw today"
Col's op still trumps anything else said on this thread for me. A very frustrating day in which me and my daughter froze, whilst watching the **** that panned out before us. Within ten minutes I said to my mate.. 0-0. Norwich had set themselves up for a point. ( Hence the high fiving at the final whistle.) The onus was on Harry to get at them from the off. Get attacking quickly, and get LR rocking. He failed to do this. Instead what we got was reminiscent of a Sparky safety first, slow burn start. Which would all be well and good against the likes of City, Spurs and Chelsea which we have seen recently and with great results. But this was Norwich, who's defence with whom even the lowly Luton has recently breached. The Norwich defence contained a centre pairing of Turner and Bassong and a right and left back of Martin and Garrido. There for the taking. Yet we didn't put any pressure on them until the introduction of Zamora, when they had to earn their money. Until then they had a stroll in the park. There were many individual performances today, none either good or bad. They were ok. We just lacked cohesion as a team. The centre pairing of M'Bia and Derry worked as individuals as opposed to a unit, neither of them getting anywhere close to the oppositions box to do anything. Be it a telling pass or get a shot off. Even Bradley bloody Johnson managed to do this. Derry doesn't have the endeavour to go forward and do anything different. He does what it says on the tin. M'Bia is far too haphazard to be able to create anything either. We can't play these two with similar limitations together in our predicament. Nothing came from these two going forward and it ******s our progress on the break. They don't posses the ability to make an un-expected telling pass, which renders the opposition much too comfortable. Even if they did, Mackie would of ****ed it up anyway. Can this chap ever get the ball out of his feet? Or if he does can he not do so, so that the opposition can easily nick it off him? He seems to have the unique ability of trapping the ball farther than he can kick it. Oh, and as for the .. '' Harry can only pick what's available to him.'' He's just had a month, plus planning time to sort out the players he wanted. We all knew we needed an out and out striker, but seemingly not him. Loic 'Caspar the Ghost' Remy was not the answer.
Hi Nines. Managed to see Judo's mug on the TV looking exasperated at the saved penno. Your personal sunshade that is the Upper Loft just obscured yourself and the girl(s). A frustrating day.....
AFAIK Zamora is allegedly crocked with a permanent hip injury that needs an operation. He was in obvious pain after just thirty odd minutes, that's why Harry couldn't start him. Sending Cisse away assuming someone would be bought to replace him was in hindsight a mistake. Remy's crocked now as well and Bothroyd and Mackie are what they are. Not good, not good at all.
