Well that was a bad day at the office! A dominant and incisive Sunderland performance but an equally lacklustre and naive one from ourselves. Its not often we can say 'Lambert got it wrong' but I think the diamond was a mistake last night. But that's as far as I'm going to go in terms of criticising the manager and his team. As I said - it was a bad day at the office. Everyone should just forget about that performance and move on. We can't play well every week and in the Premier League if you have an 'off day' you will be heavily punished. But there is really no need for panic. The time to panic would be if we lose four on the trot, or equally if we suddenly find ourselves four points above the drop zone. As it happens, we are one match closer to safety and maintained our comfortable 11 point cushion over the bottom three. I know its difficult not to get carried away with what we have achieved so far this season, but lets not take our eyes off the ultimate prize. Our aim at the start of the season was always 17th or above and it should still be the aim. The giddy heights of the top half are great, but there are some big and well established clubs which have trailed us for much of the season so far and its wrong to think that we can waltz into this tough division and finish above them. We currently sit 11th - did anyone really see us being there with just 15 games to go? Last night went to show how hard this division is. Campbell's goal was sublime - even I was applauding it, such was the quality of the strike. The 2nd goal, although preventable, was a fabulous piece of football from the hosts. In messrs Campbell, Gardner, McLean and the brilliant Sessegnon, Sunderland possessed the four best players on the pitch and their performances elevated their team way above ours on the night. But the fact remains, we are still a good side ourselves. We could blame the pitch, which was terrible by the way, we could blame the ref, who had a bit of a stinker, but in the end we were basically just beaten by a better team, with better players, and a manager who has got his team buzzing. There is no shame losing to Sunderland - they beat Man City a couple of weeks ago! And in O'Neill, they have 'the one that got away'. I can't be the only one wondering what could have been had our former chairman backed our then manager by signing Dean Windass... I very much doubt we would have suffered even a quarter of the traumas we have done in the past 15 years had O'Neill stuck around a bit longer! I got the feeling Lambert was a little overwhelmed by it all last night. I have no idea if that's true or not but it was the impression I got. He didn't seem his usual self and neither did his team. Some of the players seemed to lack effort and drive, they certainly lacked the quality last night. But as I said above, its difficult to have a go at the players because they have produced sterling effort after sterling effort this season - one poor performance and everyone jumps on their backs. Well, I won't. Let's hit straight back against Bolton on Saturday. Then last night will be consigned to the history books. OTBC ILWT
Let's be honest at the beginning of the season proberbly a fair few norwich fans would have expected to have seen a few more of those type of performances than we actually have done and so this has come at a bit of a suprise cos we barely have seen a bad performance this season. It certainly was a bad day at the office but hopefully we will bounce back with full effect on saturday in a very important game that we must win.
It´s actually amazing that we´ve got right through to February, and last night was only the second time (Man C. being the first) that we´ve looked completely outclassed, it happens, and it will happen again, but interestingly, after the Man. C game, we only lost one out of the next 10. That sort of form again will do nicely.
Agree with all the above,especially the "diamond". My other concern is with the full backs. Was Tierny fit? If so surely our 2 best full backs are Tierny and Naughton.I thought Martin was caught out again last night,and Naughton is still not comfortable at left back. That said Sunderland were up for it and O'Neil is showing what we lost , thanks to Chase
I all totally agree with your assessment Super. We were lacklustre and O'Neil won the battle with Lambert. I expect a couple of changes for Bolton. We lacked width and creativity. I thought he midfield was non existent. Hoolahan was having one of his give the ball away games and the others were anonymous. Holt and Morison were starved of any decent service and the back four were under pressure constantly and when they had the ball had few options. Sunderland were a totally transformed team compared to what we saw at CR. Played some excellent stuff so credit to them. We move on. OTBC!
Both crofts and Johnson played at the base of the diamond and they both looked hopeless. Had fox been there it may have been different. Also I don't know how many will agree with me but once Vaughan and howson are fully fit maybe we should keep holt and hoolahan solely for impact subs cos they give such a lift to the side when they come on. With morison Jackson and vaughan options for starts maybe that's a better option coming into this final 3rd of the season.
When everyone is fully fit, my dream team would be: Ruddy Naughton-Whitbread-Ward-Tierney Pilkington-Fox-Howson-Johnson-Surman Holt --- In last night's game, Lambert should be blamed for playing the diamond, for which crofts was unsuited against the pacy sunderland wings and midfield, he works well as a holding midfielder but if you watched closely, he ALWAYS drifted centrally, leaving the gaps to be exploited. Johnson and Surman were the only 2 "outfield" players actually helping with the defence! Well played Wilbraham, good physical effort for the team as always
I blame unfair the banning of SuperNorwich23 for our change in fortunes.................... I doubt you will win another game until he is re instated and i wouldn`t be surprised if a Tsunami is headed towards Asia soon...
I like this, it reminds of the good physical effort carlton palmer put it as a central midfield general for England
For me Lambert's biggest mistake last night wasn't starting with the diamond formation, it was taking until past the hour mark before making a change. It was clear from the off that it wasn't working and he should have ditched it after the second goal went in and made a couple of changes in personnel. Foxy should have come on to put his foot on the ball and calm it down a bit as our midfield weren't at the races at any point last night and I'd have brought on Pilks in place of Wes to try to give us a bit of width. Johnson was poor but I was amazed that Crofts lasted 90 minutes, I thought he was awful and out of position so many times it was ridiculous. We looked like a Championship side for the first timne this year, and fair play to Sunderland who were superb throughout. It was one of those games for Wes when try as he might things just didn't go for him, and the harder he tried the worse things got. Agreed that we need to get Tierney back and Naughton over to the right asap. He has been incredible this season, but Russell Martin has looked a bit out of sorts in recent weeks and I wonder if his stint as a cb is now taking it's toll on his ablilities as a rb. Ah well, it's just a blip and everyone is entitled to off days so there's certainly no panic here. Saturday is a huge game though, Bolton are bang on form at the moment since selling Cahill (three wins and a draw) so it will be a tough one for sure. We'll be seeing a very different starting line-up I believe and let's hope last night's game is forgotten about and we get back to playing the way we know we can
Did anyone else notice the state of the pitch? This is one of my pet hates in top flight football. We know we have winters, we know the temperature drops, we know there will be inclement weather. I guess the clubs know this as well. They are quite prepared to pay agents millions of pounds for nothing. They are prepared to pay players great sums of money. They are not evidently prepared to spend a great deal of money on the playing surface. That is the stage the these guys perform on. They need the best that is available. I understand the turf at the Millenium Stadium is changed regularly and the cost is obviously well worth it. I run long distance and I spend money on good trainers and the best socks as they are the bits that touch the ground and are far more important than anything else. Obviously less fortunate clubs cannot change their turf too often but any team in the Prem and receiving 43M ought to be able.
Can we have a thread with all banned folk on it and the reasons why? A little bit like heads on stakes in Elizabethan times!
I agree with literally everything yhou have written except the point about the wrong formation - no formation we could have played with the way our players played would of avoided the spanking we got anyway, having a 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 wouldn't have made that much difference.
DM, I disagree a bit with that. Crofts had a mare, he was constantly caught in possesion and I've seen Boats on Breydon water turn faster than him lastnight. He just had a bad game I guess but if we played 5 in midfield it would have stopped them playing out so much. Also, if we had Pilkington and Bennet on earlier to give us a bit of width in that midfield 5 with Morison or Holt up front I think it would have have been a better formation. We left our wing backs exposed, this happens playing a diamond formation, also with a diamond you rely heavily on your wingbacks pushing up to support your wingers and put crosses into the box. This then leaves you exposed to counter attacks as your wingback are too far up the field. We payed the price twice for this. The second goal was conceeded because the defence lost it's shape because they were rushing back to cover after loosing the ball.
