Despite our fine form in the league this year I still find myself listening to people moaning about things! Can people just be happy we are winning?!?! People moaning about Wes: Yeah he isnt in the best form but he is playing out of position and has just had what was first thought to be a serious injury! He is also one of the clubs most faithful servants so... come on, cut him some slack. Redmond: OK, this has settled in the last week or so as he has been getting assists, but surely people realised that he is young and obviously wont be amazing EVERY game. Iv no doubt he will become a very good player... but only if he is supported through periods of low form. Needless to say, henis another one who is thriving on playing in his best position (ie on the right), his crossing is far better from that side! Poor first halves: Yes we havent been great in the first half of a few games but does no-one else think this might be because other teams are flying out of the blocks against us, trying to get on top and then running out of steam because we have superior fitness? Hence our 2nd half batterings of a good few teams this year already! Conceding Goals: Personally, I couldnt care less about conceding goals as long as we are scoring more. Everyone complained about us not attacking last year, well conceding is the price you sometimes have to pay for more attacking football. Under Lambert it was the same... as long as we score more, who cares? The football is far better under Adams than it wasnlast year! We now have attacking intent! Yes some of the defending has been suspect for the goals we have conceded but we have now scored 😊 3+ goals in 5 of our 9 league games so far and 20 over all! Lets be happy with our winning / unbeaten form and accept that we will occasionally concede goals if we are trying to actually score every time we get the ball. I understand the moaning after the Shrewsbury game, that performance was unacceptable. But in the league, we've been outstanding! OTBC
As my old Ma used to say "If there's nothing to moan about,you will always find something" I am more than happy with our start,and can see 6 more points this week. Adams like Lambert was are both "attack" minded,and I for one love it. Last year was the worst football I have witnessed in 30 yrs at Carrow Rd. so it is now a pleasure to go,not a chore like it was last season. To all you moaners "get a life,smell the grass,enjoy it"
I guess it depends how you define moaning, I am v happy with the start, but there is great scope for improvement, which is lovely . The notion that we have been outstanding is stretching a point a wee bit far. We could very easily be on 14 points, Cardiff for wont of a little better finishing would have been out of sight at half time, as would Brentford. But they weren't and fine second half displays in those games means NCFC are top of the league. There are fine margins and all I see is people looking at the squad and seeing the possibility for much better form-and feck me, that is a good position to be in
So people aren't allowed to point out the areas where things can be improved and want their team to be better. Ok. Everything is perfect and we're going to walk the league. 4-4-2 with Wes on the wing makes perfect sense and we are the best first half team in the world.
Have to say - if city were playing the free flowing football we are hoping for, and blowing teams away week in/week out, then there would be no complaints from anyone. As it is, there appears to be a lack of balance at times and the odd lapse of concentration at the back resulting in goals. Yes we are top of the league and will hopefully stay there until May - but it cannot be said that everything is ticking along nicely as it is not. If NA can get the balance of the team right, we might just blow teams away with 'total' football, then I will be on the OP side
For me, it's the lack of balance. Yes, the defense was caught napping for Blackpool's goal, but no one has mentioned Hooiveld's amazing tackle to take the ball away from Miller when he was in on goal. He and Turner are forming a good partnership and as in other parts of the field this will improve as newer players settle in.
In one sense it's very hard to say things are not "ticking along nicely" we're scoring lots and only conceeding a few. I Think there's a lot of truth in the argument that teams are trying very hard against us and over extending themselves early on allowing us to punish them later on. However there are some concerns. Grabban for me is one, has he scored a clean strike yet? Wes out of position is another, play murphy out wide rather than Wes. Players have a preferred position for a reason, just look at redmond. Lastly I do have some concerns with the defence, I think our balance might be skewed a little too far towards attack and we're getting caught out. Mostly this hasn't been an issue as we have been able to score at will especially late on (what does that remind me of?) but against some of the better teams we may need a little more rigidity and use our pace and strength upfront to play more counter attacking. Generally though I'm very happy with the squad, the games, and Adams as manager. All seems to work better than I had expected and given that we have some great players in Howson, Hooper and Vadis who have largely not yet played. Pearce has been complaining about injuries, arguably we haven't played our strongest team yet.
bedford - It´s just human nature, however well things are perceived to be going there are always some who will find something to pick at, and in the same way, however badly things may sometimes appear to be going, there are always some who will find something positive to hang onto. I´m a case in point if you like, as regards the second of the two, despite all the moaning and groaning last season under Hughton, I just couldn´t believe that things could be as black as they were being painted, and so tried to grasp on to any straw of optimism that I could. Not just to be awkward or to try and irritate anyone, but because I did genuinely believe that things were better than many would have. In retrospect, it would seem that the majority were justified in their opinion, and I was wrong, I can live with that, no problem, as I´m sure those who may be a bit critical now, can do, as well. Certainly, despite our position, there are things that can always be improved, and it would be folly indeed, on Adams´s part to assume otherwise. I would almost guarantee that he´s not happy yet, and although he´s unlikely to voice any criticism publicly, behind closed doors is another matter entirely. In the same way as total unity regarding our ´miserable state´ last season, was unrealistic to expect, so too is total agreement on an ´outstanding´ start to this one.
I can't remember a start to a season with as many points on the board goals scored or plus GD.... This is how success is meausured in reality surely if we change the formular used by Adams we may be easier on the eye but less productive. Winning games by playing ugly effective football is fine by me .
I don't think constructive, mostly sensible criticism can be called moaning. I think everyone's is very, very happy with the result and our league position, but that shouldn't mean we can't point out where we think we're perhaps not making things as easy as we could have. We've not got a load of Canary Call-ers calling for Bassong to come back for example. As I said the other day, the moment you stop looking to improve you start to go backwards, but I'm convinced Adams isn't resting on his laurels and will continue to look for ways to improve the teams performance.
If I' being completely honest, from what I've seen of Grabban I don't rate him personally. I think he has a poor touch, his technique is suspect and as others have said he doesn't seem to be able to strike the ball cleanly. This is his level and I think he would really struggle in the top flight unless he shows a marked improvement this season. That said, he has scored 6 goals in his 9 games for us so I'm certainly not moaning about him or even arguing that he shouldn't be playing because in terms of his goalscoring at least he is banging them in and that is what he's paid and selected to do. I am mindful that he's had more than an element of fortune about most of his goals, but perhaps that's what we need - a lucky striker as opposed with someone bereft of any luck a la last season - and surely his confidence must be sky-high so as long as he stays fit and amongst the goals then I'd expect him to keep on starting, and you won't hear any argument from me
Redmond has assisted goals from the last few games and has not really been credited with his contribution either. I am sick to death with the Grabban debate the guy is a donkey that scores scruffy goals incidently Jerome fluffed a sitter even easier than Grabban's but no mention on here at all . If Hooper comes back and plays well by all means use him as the lone striker but in the cup he looked totally washed up and unmotivated . I just want us to succeed and at this level that is way more important than the style of play. Adams summed it up perfectly we are Workmanlike at the moment with a massive strength in character. People are frightened to score against us because they know it awakens the beast in our players and we destroy them in the final 20 mins . What our front 2 lack in skill they more than make up for in heart and desire to win something we were totally bereft of last season.
What I'd like to see is a player with Grabban's positional sense combined with Chrissie Martin's ability to strike the ball! That would be awesome! I don't think Grabban's bad, just not prolific!
Dave Grabban is prolific 2nd highest scorer with a 66% goals to games ratio the problem is he is not very good. I share the concerns about his ability and frankly amazed that 4 of his 6 goals were flukes only the headers were crips efforts..
My household got 2 canaries 1 called Roxy named by my 7 year old daughter 1 called Grabban named by me after the derby. Last night Grabban was found face down in the water bowl dead. Bloody ironic ..
6 in 9 is excellent Munky, the amount of chances needed to score those 6 makes it something less than prolific! If he were truly prolific he'd be well into double figures by now!
Reality check needed here. If Grabban was prolific,and put away a higher %.he would be playing Prem football
I really don't understand why Grabban is snatching at chances. He's got 6 goals in 9 games and should be full of confidence.
It's funny, we're used to strikers receiving half a chance a game for the last couple of seasons, so get worried when they aren't clinical enough to take a significant number of them. Now we're making several decent chances for each striker a game, we're still concerned about them missing, rather than having faith in the team that they'll create another, and in the striker to finish the next one. I'm probably one of the most guilty of this, so this isn't meant to sound "holier than anyone"! I've still got reservations about Grabban, but he is doing the business at this level, and as you say, if he had ruthless finishing to go with his pace, workrate, build-up play and positional sense, then he'd have gone to a top tier team for £15m+. I don't think my gripes are with Grabban so much as 4-4-2, and he's the player I'd perhaps drop/move in order to return to 4-2-3-1. An excellent option to have in the squad at this level though. On an unrelated note, anyone see that last night Murphy became our third highest scorer in all competitions so far this season?
