Well, we don't have to play any of the current top four, and two of the teams going for Europe (Man U and Wolves) may beat us but are not very prolific in terms of goals. But this is Norwich and we may be able to rise to the challenge of shipping 17+ goals. On Sunday we play a team who have lost (I think) seven games in a row, so that's probably another four goals in our minus column at least.
Yeah, I don’t think it’s really about Farke to be honest. You cannot compare fixtures, but it’s about whether we believe in the team, and I just feel like they don’t have an identity, there’s a static structure defensively but no real structure to playing with the ball, I don’t get what we are doing or why. At least with Farke, it felt like there was a purpose and if only it actually clicked we would have a superb game. Admittedly, it only clicked against Brentford. With us now, it doesn’t even feel like there’s anything to click - we are just battling energetically for each phase of play, and you just know even after we have a good passage of play we will then do something really bad defensively and get punished. The refs do us no favours, but nor does trying to be defensive.
I think we were the better team in the second half in terms of drive and commitment, considering the players Chelsea have. We edged the stats that half and limited them to 6 shots. That shows some character and a good reorganisation by Smith at HT. Rashica was held back because of the Leeds game in 3 days where he could be a big factor.
Farke had a way of playing in the Championship and we had plenty of time to understand what he was trying to do. I’d disagree that he looked like he had a plan at the start of this season though. If we looked back at the MDTs from those first 10 games we were all questioning that I think, lumping balls forward aimlessly is all I remember. Smith had started to get a formula together and the team was starting to play some good stuff with Idah playing a prominent role, with him out for the season we are unfortunately back to square one. Hopefully Smith never tries 5 at the back again as we clearly cannot play that formation. I still think it is unfair to judge Smith as this is not his squad, I accept the football recently isn’t much better but it certainly isn’t worse than the start of the season as far as I am concerned. I’ll judge Smith next January.
I think it’s always risky to judge a performance by a second half. By then, we had nothing to lose and equally Chelsea were in cruise control. They were pretty comfortable all round. They could afford to take their foot off the gas. The day we come out of the blocks quickly and maintain it is the day I will think we are competing.
Look I don’t wholly disagree with you - part of the problem with Farke was that it was obvious he was trying to change the system somewhat against his personal instincts. He also had absolutely rotten luck with no pre-season, injuries and fitness issues. As I said above, while of course it’s difficult not to draw parallels, equally I don’t think it’s doing either manager justice by comparing them with each other. Visually, the football is definitely less attractive though. A conscious decision of course, to try to improve defensively. The one thing I would say is that in the director of football age, I am no longer convinced by the “not his squad yet” perspective - that was of course the case in bygone years, but some of that squad and identity creation has been taken away from the managers. Smith has to work with what he is given and it’s not like the squad isn’t large and flexible. Also, it’s not like he will be able to make loads of changes in the Summer…
I get your point Rob, but Chelsea were a bit rattled after we scored and certainly were not in cruise control. The third goal in the 90th minute finished that, but until then we were competitive against the Champions League winners. By comparison Watford lost 4-0 at Wolves and Leeds lost 3-0 at home against Villa. I thought we were in for a hammering when we conceded two goals early on but we hung on and then improved in the second half, much like we did against Liverpool. It's too late for this season, but I think Smith and Shakespeare have improved us. I liked Farke and what he wanted to achieve, but I just don't think Farkeball is possible in the PL for a self-funding club.
Gosh we were awful first half! I think Smith has the ability to change things around at half time and try something new when things are not going well. Something Farke was poor with was substitutes. I am fully resigned to us going down, but I have faith we will be there or there abouts next season.
Sorry, but if he hadn't put out that suicidal formation in the first half, there may have been no need for a good reorganisation. There is also the possibility that the supposed good reorganisation was just another random throw of the dice and he got lucky.
I don’t at all disagree that they were rattled, my point was really that you cannot rule out a foot off the gas mentality as playing part of our second half dominance. Of course, you have to capitalise (and we did with the penalty) and then that caused disruption, but that doesn’t alter the fact that it’s a dangerous thing to assume that just because we had a decent second 45 minutes against Chelsea that tells us all that much. There’s undoubtedly encouragement to be taken from it, but caveated, for the point I make. You’re also right that damage limitation is good too. But decent 45 mins and damage limitation won’t keep us up - we need multiple 90 minutes of dominance for that… and there’s no sign of it I’m afraid. I have to say I disagree on Farkeball not being possible. We gave it one attempt. The closest thing we came to it (though admittedly still a way off) was Lambert’s premier league season - I’m not going to include 92-94 as that was a world away from moneyball now. By contrast, we have tried structure defensive football under Hughton for two seasons, a sort of mid version under Neil and this one under Smith. The first Hughton season was the only success and it came at a cost for the fans, plus we had the benefit of riding high on the season before. I’m not saying Farkeball could be a success, I am more saying I haven’t seen sufficient evidence of any style being any more or less of a success for a self-funded club - the problem being the moneyball issue… And if that’s the case, I would rather see nice football that costs us than crap football that doesn’t save us.
Anyone else feel like we should just put Aarons on a crossing training regime and turn him into a winger. He is sooooo much better and more dangerous than Sargent going forward. He is quick, can dribble and scares the life out of fullbacks, when he goes forward. He is not a great out and out defender, but would have the energy and defensive nouce to track back and help. He is just missing crossing ability, but surely he could develop.
An interesting idea, especially as we now have Byram to be the full-back (as long as he avoids injury). I know people seem to think that Sargent has come good, but he's still really only had one good game (Watford), with a good half (Southampton) and his main positives are still his work-rate and his defensive qualities rather than adding much to the attack. He's way behind Pukki in speed of thinking upfront and I get the feeling Pukki is frustrated with Sargent (and the midfield in general) not seeing the runs he is making quickly enough. If we don't beat Leeds, we're down, so I'd be in favour of any experimentation, especially in midfield, which has been very poor this season.
In youth football Aarons was a winger. I mentioned something similar about shifting him forward a few weeks ago and I agree with your observations. Perhaps try Sargent in the role Idah was playing before he got injured?
I don't know if it's because the season has been so woeful but things have got a bit tense on here lately. I've decided I'm not making any more jokey or teasing comments and I'm just playing it straight in future, or at least as straight as I can manage. Whoops, a jokey comment!
It's coming to the end of a ****ty season after a ****ty couple of years with covid and now there's a ****ty war taking place in Europe too. I think people are getting frayed at the edges
