So all in all a good week for the Canaries. At the third time of asking, we collected three vital Premier League points and deservedly so against the Saints from the south coast. In front of a glorious sunny backdrop, an eventful and thoroughly entertaining 90 minutes of competitive, and at times controversial, football was dished up by two sides with similar recent backgrounds. Little over four years ago Southampton and Norwich took up the bottom two placings in League One! How times have changed and the sheer volume of money spent by both clubs this summer is an indication that both clubs are showing their fans that they are ambitious. Saints are still looking to find the ideal balance to their side, just as Norwich are. Both are work in progress. Norwich started brightly, passing the ball well and creating a few openings. It was a closely contested first half – the home side controlling the match but the visitors going closest to scoring when Lallana struck the outside of Ruddy’s post with a ripping volley. If they were aggrieved by that they certainly would have been by the handball by Johnson in the box earlier in the half. Everyone knew it was a penalty except two men – Howard Webb and his assistant. Very poor decision – lucky to get away with that one and who knows how the game may have panned out had it been given. Later in the half Norwich too were hard done by when Van Wolfswinkel nodded back across goal and the ball struck a Saints defender on both hands. On Match of the Day on Saturday night the pundits said it wasn’t a penalty – I can’t see why not! No, it was perhaps not as obvious a call as the Johnson one but the player still motioned both his hands to the ball. Just because it was going to hit the players chest is no reason to not give it. It should have been a penalty. Norwich pressed higher up the pitch in the second half, forcing Southampton to go longer than they wanted and it meant City had far more of the ball in their opponents half. It also disrupted the visitors positive start to the 2nd period. Southampton lacked spark up front with Lambert barely touching the ball while new signing Depp, sorry, Osvaldo also struggling to make an impact – he’ll be a good signing though. They seemed to miss the drive of both regular full backs, Nathaniel Clyne and the brilliant Luke Shaw, and City took full advantage down both flanks, with varying degrees of success. Snodgrass was his usual busy self but his final ball was poor. Redmond was excellent throughout but his decision making was hit and miss – this is to be expected in a young winger and people shouldn’t moan when he gets it wrong because he’ll get it right plenty of times too! The youngster fully deserved his match-winning goal and it was a stunning strike after a couple of neat step overs. Norwich were well on top at this stage and we then stood firm for the rest of the match, defending superbly at times. We were calm and measured, never panicked and broke at speed when the chance arose. We should have had the chance to extend the lead but Webb decided that Fonte’s assault on Snodgrass was a legitimate tackle! But never mind, the end result was a fair one. Having Bassong back makes such an enormous difference – it really cannot be understated – he is THAT important. He marshalled the whole team expertly and surprisingly didn’t show any sign of fatigue. But the best player on the park yesterday was Leroy Fer. He completely dominated the game and was ably assisted by Bradley Johnson who too had a very good game. Fer looks set to become our ‘midfield-Bassong’. He has everything – strength, power, touch, technique, vision – he passes beautifully, generally keeps it simple but also has a range to his passing a la David Fox. Compared to Wanyama who cost three times the amount it was almost laughable how easily Fer was able to win the ball from the Kenyan. Even ‘Spiderman’ Schneiderlin (for my money the best holding midfielder in the Premier League last season) was tamed by the big Dutchman. Overall I thought it was another very encouraging display. We deserved the win against a side who are very similar to ourselves at the moment. Both teams are still making adjustments and it was visible at the weekend that some tinkering and gelling still needs to take place, but we were organised and compact but also able to play neat football and control long periods of the match. We also had the long option available to us with Elmander, which will be important as a different option. I hope some of the people who have had worries about ‘more of the same’ are now able to see what changes have been made. They might not be the massive swathes of changes that one or two want but they are there and they will make us both more attacking and more exciting to watch. RvW’s movement is absolutely outstanding (if you get the chance, just sit and watch him for five minutes – he’s always one step ahead of the defenders) and once we get the midfield on his wavelength (which will happen) then he will get more chances and I trust him to take them more oftne than not. He works hard too, literally ran himself into the ground and is giving defenders a difficult time, despite not getting great chances in front of goal. I was disappointed to see Olsson wasn’t picked – maybe he had a niggle in training or was rested due to fitness issues but to be fair, Garrido had his best game since last season and got forward well, as did Whittaker who is getting better and better. Turner was solid alongside the superb Bassong. Ruddy’s injury last season was underestimated by some people. Bunn did well but having the big man back between the sticks has made a big difference. He didn’t have much to do but he is a calming influence and comes and more importantly GETS everything slung into the box. As stated above, Johnson did well, kept things simple but put his body on the line – every team needs players like that. Fer outstanding – I believe he had the highest pass completion rate of any player in the Premier League at the weekend, first time we’ve had a player do that since Bassong against Man Utd. Redmond exciting, gets bums off seats and makes things happen. Snodgrass iffy but still not fully fit in my opinion. Elmander held the ball well and has a lovely touch – he really is a classy player, and RvW ran his heart out, his movement will not go unnoticed for long. I think we are getting closer to solving some of our issues though some inevitably still remain. But there is so much to be positive about regards this current squad – we still have a few to come in but we have made some very good signings this summer and most importantly, every single one of those players seems to have good character too. They are good players but they are good fighters and this was a trait of our team when we came up, so its good to see that continue, even when the calibre of the player brought in is upped significantly. They worked so hard but they maintained their quality throughout. Plenty to be happy about but still plenty to build on and improve too. We look solid defensively which will be important and to be fair, we have done for a while now, while the extra pace and quality that’s been added to the side going forward is noticeable. The signs are good, no matter what some may say Ratings: Ruddy 7 Whittaker 7 Turner 7 Bassong 8 Garrido 7 Johnson 7 Fer 9 Snodgrass 5 Redmond 8 Elmander 7 Van Wolfswinkel 6 OTBC
Excellent summary Supers, one thing I don't understand is CH's explanation of Olsson missing from the squad for tactical reasons because he wanted to set up a more attacking side and saying that that meant Garrido rather than Olsson! I though Olsson was a very good attacking influence against Bury! Did I miss something?
Excellent summary supers - my only hope is that carabuh reads it, especially the highlightred paragraph!! I was really impressed with our overall display and Redmond will be one to watch and I'm sure he'll improve with coaching (have to say though , he does 'gets bums off seats' with his runs at oppposing defenders). I looked at th ebench on Sat and every one of them started most of our games last season when fit - shows how much CH has improved with his transfer dealings Looking forward to the Spurs game and hope oour internatioal players return unscathed.
didn't know he said that dave! bit weird - may have been to stop garrido thinking olsson will just step straight into his shoes. garrido strikes me as a confidence player and he had a good game at the weekend. may have been good man-management but i'm just guessing. i think olsson will be left back by mid october but he is definitely not 100% fit yet
there's a buzz that goes round the stadium when redmond gets the ball to feet. it's similar to when huckerby used to get the ball or eadie before him. it's great to have a player like that again but poor decision making will blight his game for a while, but that's the case with most young players. i'm very happy with what he's currently doing and i can't recall his marker (chambers) managing to tackle him once. he gave the poor full back a torrid time
what i hope some of the doubters see is that there was a need to go through what we did last season in order to lay the foundations for a better and more attacking team. building from the back may be a cliche to some but its very sound management in my opinion and when i said i could see what hughton was trying to do by solidifying the whole team into a more defensive mindset i meant it – now all our players know what they are doing defensively and are very compact and difficult to break down (especially at home) and by adding better quality into some of our weaker areas we suddenly look more threatening but have maintained the solidity. it's not rocket science - its quite basic management in terms of rationale - but its not easy to perfect or all clubs would be able to do it without too many problems. this manager was brought here for the long term so has to be given the long term to create the squad which can function correctly. god knows how many times i've said the word 'patience' on here but i'm not saying it just to be boring... it's because it is obvious, yet some seem to miss the point. we will not be the finished article this season - we are a long way off that, despite the large investment - but we have certainly improved a bit and as i also keep saying, 'progress will be painfully slow from here'. sad but true and some need to accept that
Very odd, CH must be stoned if he thinks including Garrido over Olsson makes for a more attacking team. Any ideas as to why he would think that?
like i said above, i think it could be a bit of man management in terms of getting the best out of garrido. could be wrong but to us, what hughton has said makes little sense if it isn't.
I can see what he means, if you have an attacking full back then you need to ensure that your midfield will cover that player - in other words play a less attack minded midfielder
good read supers having only seen motd and heard the second half commentary, i did however notice a couple of the replays and rvw was in shot - i noticed he was constantly moving in the box to get some space from the defender - impressive. like you say it will take time for our players to feed onto this.
I'm looking forward to seeing how the midfield/wingers (especially NR) start to look out for his runs away from defenders and feed him through balls into space. FEED THE WOLF AND HE WILL SCORE!!!
Most noticeable on Saturday was how Redmond got up and down the left side. We've all seen Pilks, Benno and especially Snoddy do it match after match when the oppo are in possession, but in previous games this season Redmond has been slow to help out defensively. Let's hope he continues in the same way - both attacking and helping out Garrido / Olsson and Bradders. Not being silly here, but he is looking like the best value for money transfer so far this summer - this year's Michu, anybody? Forgot to say excellent match report, Supers
IMO, he'll certainly be in contention if he continues in his current form/improves. I think his tracking back is better.
Excellent summary sums up exactly how I feel. I hope people are starting to see that vision for the future in this game. You can generally tell if we've played well if carabuhs not about. Great from city, lets tighten up those areas that need tightening and we will be a force to be reckoned with. We certainly seem to have mixed our players much more quickly than other sides that have bought a lot this summer. Tottenham still look like a bunch of individuals especially up front.
The spine of the team is now Ruddy, Bassong, Fer and Wolfy. I defy anyone to say that is not a distinct improvement on previous seasons - including our last
last season was always going to be difficult but when lambert was in charge he was cavalier in his approach because it was the most suitable way to progress as he wasn't going to be around for the long term. hughton is wanted for the long term and therefore is building a squad which can improve a little bit at a time or focus on certain areas first before targeting other areas. in many ways hughton's job is easier, as he has time on his side but lambert had nothing to lose, so maybe his job was easier? it does make me laugh and despair in equal measure at the cat-calls for the managers head every time a few fans see something they don't like but they really do need to start looking at the club as a project these days. so much was made of the initial 7-year plan and what it meant and it was absolutely brilliant that every single fan took it to heart, understood it and ran with it – yet now the plan has changed to something a little different some want everything to click straight away. i find that disappointing and is why myself and a number of others get frustrated with fans who aren't prepared to buy into the plan we currently are sticking to. its also why any calls for the manager to go are farcical. if we are losing every week and bottom of the league, then its more reasonable but that simply hasn't happened and it appears any concerns are more to do with style than anything else yet style is something that develops over a long period of time after foundations are put in place – which is exactly what has been happening.
It was a good performance against a decent Southampton side. If we play like that for the rest of the season, I think we'll all be happy and there's no way we'll go down.
HUUUUUGE mate absolutely love it. Can I just say, fer in the deeper role. Oh my goodness, it was beautiful to watch. 8 tackles, more than any other premier league player this weekend. Sublime!
