Well, well, well! Who'd have funked it? The plaudits should rightfully be forthcoming after our victory over Manchester United on Saturday evening. Not only was it a great all-round performance by Norwich, it was a fair and thoroughly deserved result. We were the better team over the 90 minutes, no question. Everybody played well - there were no passengers. This City team is now really funktioning and go to prove that you can be defensively sound yet still pleasing on the eye. Players know their roles, they know if they move out of position, someone will fill in. It's settled, refreshingly settled after the chaotic team selections of last season. They are playing with a pleasing fluidity from back to front and proving that even when the shackles are in place defensively, they can still pass the ball neatly, not panic at the back, maintain their shape and concentration, be explosive on the counter and create excellent goal scoring opportunities. And although its taken longer than I had anticipated, everyone inside Carrow Road now seems to be 100% behind Chrissy Hughton. The Lambert hangover has well and truly dissipated. The team are beginning to get into a groove, and its a bloody good groove! Pulling in the same direction in the stands is important for our club. Early in the season there were inevitably going to be teething problems. Its very rare for a new manager to come in and everything click straight away, especially when there is a major change in philosophy being phased in and the previous incumbent being a hero to everyone. Most fans (and certainly the vast majority on here) gave leeway, despite the early heavy defeats. This may have been because in between those hammering's, encouraging signs were beginning to show fruition. I said before the season began that this season we would have to become a more solid unit defensively. Teams who have any longevity in the top flight are defensively sound as their main priority. Naturally I want to see goals flying in but I also want to see my team survive in this tough league. Hughton has impressed me more than I imagined he would - I knew about his calm manner and that bubbling under the surface would be the drive to be successful, but to sort out our very poor defence and turn it into one of the best in the league in just 12 games is astonishing. It may be a cliché to 'build from the back' but that was exactly what we needed to do this summer and is exactly what has happened. At the heart of this defensive success is John Ruddy. He has been excellent during his time at the club and was likewise yesterday - one of his saves from Young in the first half was absolutely world class. He saw it so late - I thought it was a goal. In front of him, Garrido is calm defensively and good going forward. Whittaker likewise, and he's getting better and better the fitter he gets, and when you consider that neither player cost us a penny in transfer fees, you have to credit the manager big time. Bassong and Turner, despite the odd wobble, have been revelations and together look a great pairing and a massive improvement on what we had before. The key to their form is communication. They are all on the same wavelength and they are constantly talking to one another. It's great to see - and having Johnson and Tettey protecting them makes it even better. Both were magnificent yesterday. With the exception of Johnson and Ruddy, all are Hughton signings. This guy is impressing me in the transfer market. Basically, what I'm trying to get at is that we look like a Premier League club. We look like we are here to stay. We look like a mid table side. I don't worry about us conceding goals anymore. Last season every game felt a bit like a cup final which I think was understandable for many reasons but mainly because of our attacking mentality making games open but also because of the previous two years exploits. This season they feel like league fixtures. I'm not daft enough to think all will be rosy from now on! We'll still concede goals - we'll still have games where we make mistakes and have knock-backs - but knowing that we don't have to fathom up two or three goals to win games is a great feeling and its remarkable that I felt pretty comfortable yesterday from the second we scored our fabulous goal that we could see the game out. Who'd have thought that six weeks ago? It's great to play those 5.30pm games - they are effectively our only evening games these days and it undoubtedly helps the atmosphere under the floodlights. I've been confident all season that we'd be safe come the end of the season but there is still a lot of work to do. If we can maintain this 5 point gap to the drop zone then I think we'll all be delighted. Player ratings: Ruddy 9 - two brilliant saves and strong command of his area Whittaker 8 - solid defensively, great bombing forward. Getting better Garrido 8 - great cross for the goal, dealt with Valencia competently Bassong 8 - calm and dependable and a strong voice in our back line. Impressive again Turner 9 - the new Michael 'Admiral' Nelson but with Premier League quality. Fearless Johnson 8 - great game, seemed to be everywhere and passing much better than last week Tettey 8 - like Johnson was everywhere, amazing drive and energy Hoolahan 8 - so much quality on the ball, instrumental in most of our good work going forward Pilkington 8 - quiet first half but fabulous headed goal pumped confidence through his veins. Had Rafael on toast last half hour Snodgrass 8 - cracking second half, makes things happen. Delivery much better than recent weeks Holt 8 - fantastic effort and hold up play - Ferdinand couldn't cope with him - could barely walk at the end. Only brilliant defending from Smalling prevented him featuring on the scoresheet Subs: Morison; Howson; Bennett all 6 - too late to make an impact though Howson should have scored - I'll put it down to be ring-rusty as he did well to get into that position. Hughton 8 - tactics spot on once again. Right changes made at the right times. Should rightfully be proud of his players. OTBC IHWT
its a far cry from the liverpool match, that's for sure! yet even in that match, the signs were there of improvement... i mean, liverpool scored with every single shot they had and all but one were from mistakes.
Good read Supers, however I must take issue with your rating of Hughton's tactics. Only 8 ? A performance and result like that against Manchester United is definitely a 10 in my book
Well, well, well! Who'd have funked it? It was me!!!! Forever the super optomist, I had us down for 2-2, but just before going into the ground stuck a tenner on 1-0, cool £90. I believe, Oh yes I believe!!!! Good article by the way.
I think the secret our our success is without a doubt Johnson and Tettey, who have been brilliant together.
It's not worthy of a thread, and I don't really know where to put it, but: I was really disappointed in the comments from Dion Dublin pre-game. He implied that the fans only really turn up to Carrow Road when we play the big teams. Surely in his time here he could have seen that wasn't the case?
Supers, I absolutely agree about that save from Young. Most of the papers either ignored it or mentioned it in passing, but it was genuinely world class. I was watching on TV here in Vietnam and I thought the guy had missed until I saw the replay. It wasn't just Ruddy getting his hand to the ball at all, but the fact that he also managed to direct it out from the goal. A wonderful stop. I'll also take this chance to say I was totally wrong about Whittaker. When we signed him, I was one of those who made grumpy noises about signing cast-offs from the Scottish League. His appearances so far suggest that I was very, very wrong.
Hope you havent spoke too soon Supers!! Is a long hard season, and we can all remember the season in which we last beat Man Utd. Just playing devils advocate slightly, as i realise you aluded to that we may not play like that every week. I only comment because on some of the forums I go on, just a few weeks ago some were calling for Hughtons head unbelievably, and commenting we will finish bottom by miles, so is right to be cautious that some City fans dont go to far the other way and start expecting Europe. But hey, dont mean to put a dampner on things, ive certainly enjoyed the moment this weekend and hope we carry on the good work against Everton.
Steady on JG, we're not QPR fans! Nah, I think we all realise we're in for a long, hard season, and realistically whilst the results against Arsenal and United are unexpected, you could argue that we should have beaten QPR, West Ham and maybe Reading too, so we're about where we should be. It's going to be a long hard season, but those two big results can hopefully return the fortress mentality to Carrow Road, and we can make it somewhere the big teams fear visiting. Stoke have been very good at that for several seasons, with their home form being a key to their mid-table security. Hopefully we can emulate that, their financial model, and not their footballing style!
Good point about Garrido's fitness, same can be said about Whittaker who looked good from the beginning but seems to be more confident going forward now. May be just down to lack of fitness before and not wanting to get caught out defensively. Thought Snodgrass had his best game helping out as well which I was worried about before compared to Elliot Bennett who I thought offered more assistance. A massive plus from the game I think is Pilks getting a goal, looks like it will help him get his mojo back as I think he is a player who needs to be confident to play his best.
probably should have given hughton a 10 to be fair but it was the players who won the game and they are in good form. i'll give hughton a 10 for match preperation and 8 for his in-game performance instead
I work in Manchester, oh what a great Monday morning, lots of congrtulations from city fans, yet to find a UTD fan!
my favourite conversation yesterday with a united 'fan' (if i can call him that), went something like this: me: "you not going to talk to me today?" him (in his norfolk accent): "come back when you've won 19 titles and 3 european cups" me: "you're a ****ing twat" him: [silence] on a side note, and i'm not totally sure if its true or not, but word is that pilkington is the very first player to EVER score against both manchester united AND fc united of manchester! if true, that's a hell of a stat
We do indeed face a very long, hard season and after some of more recent displays feel much more confident of our ability to do our utmost to stay there. The team spirit in every game is very much in evidence (unlike at QPR, where established players are complaining about recent signings only being there for the money!!!) and we have no players in our ranks who were household names prior to gracing the CR turf week in, week out - but boy has that changed over the last few weeks!!! Let's hope CH isn't tempted to bring in any players with big egos and demanding excessive salaries in January. IMO, we're over a third of the way to PL survival with just under a third of the games played and I'm sure if you offered any Canaries fan the thought of us being in this position at this time of the season, they would have 'snapped your hand off'!!! I'll be down the pub watching the Everton game on Sat and hope for another bit of 'Holt magic' as in the corresponding fixture last year.
Good post Supers - I agree wholeheartedly about the quality of AHughton's signings - all have impressed so far and it's good to see the difference that players such as Bassong, Garrido, Tettey and Snodgrass have made - even Turner has vastly improved over the calamity that was Liverpool and is now emerging as the solid defender we thought he would be. To me though, Whittaker is the one whose performances have given most assurance - coming in for Rusty isn't an easy thing, especially after a long lay-off but he has impressed from the off and his performances continue to get better - for a freebie he's an excellent signing. The defensive set-up is now solid and assured and gives us a firm base on which to build from, and the protection that Johnson and Tettey gives them can't be overlooked as well as giving Hoolahoops the chance to be creative without a major fear of being punished. Playing a settled eleven sems to be working as well - the team are gelling and working hard for each other - the depth of squad we have will also help when injuries, suspensions and "legginess" kick in. Spot on CH - making the good even better !
i think there is still tinkering to be done, especially against teams we need to beat, like reading, saints, villa etc. i think we need to open up a little more. we've sussed out a way of playing and even beating the best sides in the league but our bread and butter is going to be against the sides lower in the table. but its great that it only requires tinkering rather than wholesale changes. the hard work has been done over the past three months in my opinion. more subtle changes are now required to get us scoring more frequently. whether that be a new body brought in or a slight adaption personnel or formation wise we wait to see, but being solid and difficult to beat is a fantastic base on which to build. we'll need a little luck - hopefully we won't get too many injuries - but all the signs are very encouraging and our squad depth is as good as i can ever recall. we have some very good players waiting in the wings if anyone has a drop in form.
great post Supers on starting 11, touched on above, we've two away games in a week coming up, i wonder if we will see anything changes in personnel for those two games? i'd like to think we will go to southampton and have a go at them, maybe start with two strikers. either way, it's a very promising run - our best top flight run since 1993.
Which sounds marvellous - until you count how many top flight runs we've had in the last twenty years
