Match Day Thread Norwich v Bristol City

Woop woop

 

I watched the game and that was far from McClean’s fault (admittedly nor is it his skill). Byram was positionally wayward and didn’t have his best game after about 15 mins, plus because of the right footed thing he frequently turns the hard way or off the worse foot in the circumstances. The issue was also that Cantwell was drifting a lot so there was more space (not blaming him, it was one of his best games). And, clearly, it was Bristol’s stronger attacking wing - so what can you do? We are not 2009 Barcelona so opposition will target weaknesses.

 

We couldn't complain if it had ended in a draw. Very impressed at the way you fought back after going 2 goals down. Good luck for the rest of the season!

 

The Pukki flick & header was noteworthy

 

Yes, the speed of thinking was really impressive.

 

Only won because of Pukki's intelligence! Was it a quiz ? Only won because of Sergeant's head ! How did it get on his head ? I guess if he was invisible it couldn't be because someone put it there. Have you considered going on Canary call.

 

I'm really struggling with some of the comments I've heard today.

We've won 6 on the bounce. Weve just beaten one of the inform championship teams. We're 2nd 1 point behind top and 3 points clear of third and we've achieved this without a recognised LB or DM.

We've made good progress on attacking and defensive set pieces. We no longer only have to rely on Pukki for goals something many people were worried about at the start of the season. Pukki seems to have found his scoring boots.

Yes there's plenty to work on, but that's nor surprising at this point in the season, particularly when you take into account our injuries and the number of players added to the squad over the summer.

 

Don’t disagree. And I agree with your comment to Gozo.

I still think we are allowed to call shambolic defending “shambolic defending” when yet again we are huge architects of goals conceded and making games uncomfortable.

 

Bristol had only 4 shots on target (out of 11). Unlike Bentley, but for whom we would have scored 5 rather than 3 (the last Pukki chance, and Sinani), Krul had no serious save to make. Bristol's cumulative xG (Infogol) was 0.98 (compared to our 2.0), of which Conway's goal contributed 0.54. Their highest quality chance other than that was 0.8. They forced 8 corners, and several free kicks from dangerous positions, but scored from none. And all that was without us being able to field a dedicated LB, and with a makeshift defensive midfield. We deserved to win, and win we did. It may have been uncomfortable viewing, but in reality IMO it was less uncomfortable than is being made out. Credit to Bristol for making it a hard-fought contest.

 

I only saw the second half as I failed to wake up in time. It resembled a training game, attack v defence. They attacked, we won the ball back, gave it back to them to try again. And repeat. None of our rearguard are exempt from criticism.. Bristol, in all honesty, were not very good, but we contrived to make them appear better.

 

You missed the point. The point is that Sinani playing a hospital pass to Nunes, who then gets caught on the turn inside our own penalty box, is shambolic defending.

It’s only one instance, but it led to a goal and it was shambolic. So let’s call it that and not pretend with xG stats for the whole match that it should be overlooked and not criticised for shambolism.

 

There were about 6 or 7 sloppy passes In and around our half putting Bristol in on goal.

Krul Byram and McLean all guilty of it.

We won but it wasn't convincing

 

Agreed it was shambolic and probably careless but the ref should also have called a foul on Aarons if all things were perfect

 

How many points do we get for a convincing win again?

 

I agree, and just because we managed to win because of clinical finishing shouldn't gloss over the fact that we need to improve to stay in the promotion race and then if promoted, have some chance of survival.

Sinani should have cleared to ball and Núñez shouldn't have dallied in his own area. Neither of them played under Farke, so this isn't down to past play it out ideology. Núñez was excellent on the night other than that, including some excellent defending earlier, so I'm inclined to forgive that error. Hopefully both players will learn from it.

On the positive side, Núñez and Sara look to be genuine PL standard players with their one touch control and quick, incisive passing. They are a huge improvement over our midfield last season and that gives me hope. Sara looked a genuine number 10 when he came on and the same can be said about Ramsey, who he replaced. I also hope that Hayden will be that poised and effective DM we so badly need. Sørensen and Gibbs may get there in the future, but we need a PL quality one now. The other positive is the clinical finishing of Pukki and Sargent, which was so obviously missing in our opening 3 games. To have two strikers on top form is a real bonus.

 

Only 3. Point taken.

But it matters because Duncan is right - there were at least six occasions when one of our team made what could have been a suicide pass. If we want to finish in the top two, we can't afford to do that because we'll often get punished.

Having learned that Hanley was carrying a shoulder injury, I wonder if that partly explains why our defence seemed so nervous and error-ridden from the very first minute when Byram's awful pass should have led to a goal for the opposition.

 

Of course I'm thrilled with the win, I'm also aware that there is a huge gaping chasm between the Premier league and the Championship.

Nearly all of those stupid mistakes were punished last season at this level we are getting away with it .

Our inability to score last season assured relegation but even on the rare occasion we did get a goal we would slip on a banana skin and give away cheap penalties or pass it straight to the opposition fannying about in our own box.


Of course the winning run is good , but we keep making stupid defensive **** ups .

I believe we have enough to go up again but if we don't cut out the stupid mistakes every game we will be nailed to the floor of the table all season again which for me isn't progress.

I'm willing to put this one down to ten days without a game and rustiness.

 

Aarons also guilty. I have said on a previous match thread that this faffing around by Krul and defenders quite often breaks down and leads to totally unnecessary pressure on our goal. Leading three to one in the closing stages, put your boot through it Sinani.

 

In a sense, I think the players arguing for a foul are also as guilty of shambolic decision making at that time.

I completely agree it was a foul, but it was definitely arguable that Sinani was playing the advantage and therefore our team’s fault that they then failed to make it an advantage.

And in any event the refs have clearly been instructed to allow a little more physicality now, so even though it really should have classed as a foul in my book, if the ref has decided against it the players HAVE to play to the whistle, especially behind our box… That’s just further shambolic behaviour.

Now of course it is just an isolated incident and I know that happens, overall we were otherwise (and have been in other matches) defensively strong, but that doesn’t mean it’s invalid to criticise here. Especially as, as Duncan says, actually that casual and poor decision making is a feature of our game all too frequently - and let’s face it, played a huge part in our downfall in the last two Premier League seasons.

So of course I’m delighted we’ve won six in a row, long may it continue. But that’s not going to stop me criticising systemic issues like calamitous defending/decision making in our own half. That it’s systemic tells me it’s likely something the coaches need to be (and I’m sure are) working on.