Carrahbuh, not sure whether that's a pop at me, (my last comment) , but it's my belief that his remit was to "survive at any cost". Assuming he does that he will then have the backing of the board and the fans, plus a transfer kitty unparalleled in the history of NCFC. Why not wait and see what occurs if/when that happens? Fulham, Stoke and West Brom didn't become established Prem sides overnight - why the hell should we be any different?
Cromer - that is fair enough comment but it is only your belief (not exclusively I will admit) but unless you know for sure then defending what is happening on the pitch must be harder to justify. That is why I don't jump down the throat of other fans when they make negative comments or label them as idiots etc. If that is how they see things and are not happy then that's up to them. No one has to like it or dislike it To my mind you are probably correct, his remit was likely to have been survival, hence although I have been critical of what our games look like I am not ranting about the manager or the team yet. If next season is the same however I could easily see support for CH diminishing quite quickly and that would be a bit of a worry from both aspects as some stability would be useful for a few years. Indeed if the football remains poor then I would be less inclined to justify it on a more regular basis. We can tell ourselves this season that it's for the best because there is a big pot of gold waiting at the end of the rainbow - that's fair enough but is everyone who is saying this is presently okay going to be saying the same next March or the March after if it's still ugly? I think it's fair enough to say there are two camps for Norwich supporters at this time. 1. Those that want PL football at any cost, 2. Those that want to be entertained. By entertained I do not mean win - I mean entertained. Man Utd on Saturday as an example witnessed NO shots on target from City. As good as Man Utd are (although not that great on the day) a minimum of 1 shot should have been possible, shouldn't it? It might be a little unfair using that game as an example but the performances away are generally not that much better and I am starting to believe there is a fear of losing in the side - if that is true, where has that come from? When I suggest we are playing poorly, especially away from Carrow Road, what I am getting at is the lack of attacking and apparent ambition to take the game to the home side. Now this is where the Man Utd game is a good example. Norwich played well - at the back but sadly that is all it was, backs to the wall and this becomes less entertaining for some (many?) people. On the surface of it, Stoke appear to be suffering as a consequence of their play (to avoid defeat, and again more so at away games) and gates have recently seen quite a dramatic fall. Yes they are mid-table but the tide is turning on Tony Pulis. It's a matter of balance to get points and a style that is pleasing to the vast majority and not a task I envy any manager. We ultimately hope CH will succeed in doing this but if he doesn't then a fair percentage of fans are unlikely to put up with it forever.
It is an interesting debate between playing football to entertain or to survive but I think it has been accelerated by the huge contrasts in styles you seem to be playing from last season to this season. I remember last season and Norwich had scored more than any other team outside the top 6 at one point (I think that's roughly right) but this season you're hardly scoring and scraping results, but doing what is required to survive. Whatever style you play I hope Norwich are here next season as they are a team doing things the right way, using a tight core of hard working players, on minimal wage compared to the rest of the PL, that play for the badge, not like the money grabbing mercenaries at QPR. Considering what you have achieved (League 1 to Prem in consecutive seasons, and staying there!) it is a remarkable achievement. A few years ago in league 1, how many of you expected at this moment of time to be in the Prem, on the cusp of back to back survival? I can't see what supporters could possibly be complaining about personally and I hope you guys are in the Prem for a while yet.
what i don't understand is this notion that the football has been boring. what are you comparing it against? ok, it hasn't been as enthralling as the previous three years were, but its been a million times better than the six years - yes SIX YEARS - we had between 1995 and 2001. its also been a million times better than the dross served up between 2005 and 2009, and we are in a higher league than those years! people have ridiculously short memories and their expectations are way too high for a club of our stature. think about it - we were on an astonishing rollercoaster ride. we went from our lowest ebb to a great high in no time whatsoever. OF COURSE IT WAS EXCITING!!! are people really that stupid that they can't understand that something as remarkable as that eventually grinds to a halt? if we take the past twenty years, this has been one of the best seasons for the club. it could conceivably get a lot better still. there was always going to be a levelling out process and a manager like hughton is the perfect type to carry out work during that period, a period where stability is needed. don't get me wrong, i didn't want lambert to leave, but having seen what has happened with our club and his new employer this year, i'm bloody glad he left and we got hughton as i think we'd be right in the mix. i can't think of a safer pair of hands that we could have got in the summer. i'd compare him to martin jol (who he has of course worked with). his teams are always organised but they aren't always flamboyant. they can play good football on their day but the main thing is to be solid. they are difficult to beat but do have a few flair players dotted around who can make the difference going forward. we don't have that quality of player YET, but i'd guess this is the model (fulham or stoke or west brom) that our club is trying to follow. build from the back, slow but steady progress, year on year. if you want to watch brilliant football every week, why do you follow norwich? serious question! i know you support them because of location 99% of the time but if quality matters that much to you, norwich is not the club to watch and never really has been. try barcelona. a club like norwich are always going to find it difficult to play like that. i blame swansea for the ludicrous expectation level attributed by a few fans these days. they've seen a club similar to ourselves suddenly produce great football. except of course, they haven't 'suddenly' done this. its been years in the planning. and can anyone honestly say the football we played under lambert was 'beautiful'? more exciting certainly - we were very direct (not long ball but quick to get the ball forward) - because it was so gung ho, but that was because we conceded so many goals, we had to try and score more. hardly a great way for a club to move forwards and anyone who thinks it was doesn't really grasp how difficult this league is - last year we surprised many teams first half of the season - our results after christmas were poor and that was a bad sign. i think some fans are at a point where they need to decide whether they want our club to get better, cos if you do, we need to keep doing what we are doing right now. if that's not for you then i suggest you stop watching. i'll still be there...
I'm intrigued by this 'bigging up the opposition' criticism of Hughton. He does talk more about the team we're about to face, more than Lambert anyway, from whom we just got the 'really,really hard game' mantra, (even against Yeovil(h)). I have to say that I enjoy Hughton's pre and post match press interviews. I've learnt alot about tactics and the game from these, and,yes, watching the skilfull players we have come up against this season, with Hughton's comments have enhanced my overall enjoyment of the game; especially when we have proved able to neutralise their talent. I remember him mentioning Cazorla before that game, and seeing how Tettey and Johnsonr completely anonymised him.
I do get annoyed with this misconception that the only way to stay up is how we play at present. Its either stay up playing dull football or get relegated trying to score goals. How about staying up because we score more goals and have more attacking intention. Or getting relegated through a lack of goals scored. It is a complete nonsense that it is one or the other and this chronic lack of attacking intent is THE ONLY way we can possibly stay up. If everyone thinks we are just going to make this switch in the Summer to attack more I think they are going to be in for a shock. It is going to be very difficult to change the style because we are just about as basic as it comes.
I personally don't get this whole "gung ho" thing, I wouldn't say we were were we? Maybe in the last ten minutes when chasing a game, but I certainly don't recall us going hell for leather from the first whistle as some folk would have you believe. I don't remember anyone ever commenting on it at the time, in fact I remember some people begging for us to play the diamond more as we weren't looking attacking enough at various stages last season. It seems to have been a phrase conjured up at some point during this season in an attempt to create some kind of polar opposite with our style under Lambert. Whilst I admit Hootun does set us up differently, and certainly more defensively with better defenders available, I don't think we were ever particularly "gung ho" on too many occasions last year personally, more attack minded yes but not "gung ho".
Who exactly is labouring under this "misconception"? I haven't seen anyone saying that the only way to stay up is by playing this or that way. What I have seen are people saying that we are playing as we are because in CH judgement it maximises our chances of staying up given the players currently at his disposal. As regards the future, of course there will not be a "sudden switch", nor should there be. Lambert kept us up last season, but he left us without any real platform for building longer term (other than having a second season in this league). CH has started to address that deficiency. He is hardly the first manager to believe that sustained success is built first and foremost on sound defence; is that heretical in some way? It was a mark of NCFC's success in previous years, of Liverpool's great years even with the attacking talents of Dalglish, Keegan etc., it's a mark of MUFC's success over the last two decades, it was a mark of Arsenal's success even in the years of attacking brilliance with Henry, Bergkamp et.al., and so on and so on. There is no justification for saying that we are currently watching "Hughton football" and we'd better get used to it because that's all we can expect from now on. His team, playing in a certain way this season, is close to achieving the priority target set for him. But he was brought in to do a longer term job as well, and has begun shaping a sustainable top flight future for the club. We are in the very early stages of a long term process and reacting as though we are witnessing the end product is, as I've said previously, frankly ludicrous.
Agree with Robbie's post - Hughton is doing what he has to do with the people he has available and survival is the key this season and then mould, shape and move forward once solidarity is achieved. You build a house from the foundations up not the roof down and so it is with the team - build from the back - ensure a solid base and then look at ways of improvong the offensive option once we have a platform to build on. Some of the football recently has been turgid and uneasy of the eye (Nukes and Fulham at home in particular) but we got a point from both games and come May 19th those two points come be the difference between playing in the PL or playing in the Championship next year.
thank goodness there are still some fans out there who are using their loaf. top post robbie, nail very firmly banged on the head. honestly, i swear some fans, perhaps not on here but within our fan base, would like to see us go down, just to prove a point.
I don't think we will drastically change the way we play next year, but I do think Hughton will look to bring quality in the attacking roles which in itself will mean we hold more threat going forward and with more quality in midfield be able to hold on to the ball better. Building from the back is Hughton's style, and we can't afford to build a whole squad in one summer, so thats his priority. I wouldn't be surprised to see another centreback come in the summer though, Curtis Davies being the obvious target.
Prices being lower in the summer, and Birmingham still presumably struggling for money, it would certainly make sense.
How has Davies been playing this season? I know Brum are struggling, but don't know how his form has been. Whilst I do rate him on what I've seen before this year I can't see him shifting either Bassong or Turner if both are fit so I guess whether or not we go in for another CB depends on how Hootun thinks Ryan Bennett is progressing as I would hope by next season he'll be really developing into a quality player, good enough to rely on when injuries and suspensions take their toll.
There's been a lot of back patting on this thread, but that's an excellent point. We scored a lot of goals under Lambert, but it wasn't like we were winning every game 4-3 or something. I can, in fact, only think of one occasion where that was the case. And anyone who doesn't think we can play that way under Hughton clearly has a very short memory. Anyone remember Norwich 3, Man. City 4 in late December? That was an incredible game and was the perfect showcase of our attacking talents when they were most needed. See also, Swansea 3, Norwich 4 and Norwich 2, Everton 1. When we need, or, perhaps more poignantly, want to play with attacking intent, we can! It's just not always necessary! Hughton plays the opposition and the game itself, dare I say it, just like Lambert. A sign of very good management to me.
