Did anyone else notice the state of the pitch? This is one of my pet hates in top flight football. Sorry bout that red. You'll have to blame that one on God. Lots of rain, frost and not much sunshine. God I hate that ......er.....God.
I have thought right from the first game of the season that our weak spot is in front of the back four, we just don't have a leader in that position. I hoped that Bradley would step up to the plate, but he hasn't, Crofts can't and Fox is a enigma in my opinion. He either has fantastic games or rubbish games, his passing on occasions is world class, then, he just can't find a team mate in a training game. Will Howson fill that gap? I really hope so, as I believe that's the reason why we ship so many goals. Saying all that is not meant to be a criticism of anyone in particular, everyone of the squad has had a influence in getting us where we are, some are better than others, but most of all they are a team, and these games happen. But should I feel the way I do today?? Not worried, but deflated and feeling low. I guess it's because of the recent run and I've become accustomed to us playing well and winning. I'm ready and looking forward to saturday and I know I shouldn't be saying this Mr Lambert, but expecting us to win. ILD OTBC
The pitch is an issue at the minute but not through lack of investment. Over the past 3/4 years there has been a 2 week period in the summer where concerts are on (same happening again this year). It really screws the pitch up and it has to be immediately re-laid, but the constant returfing doesnt seem to grow as well as it did previously when the groundsman would look after it all through the summer. Suppose it depends what the club wants to do. Take That/Oasis/Colplay etc must be worth millions to the club so I suppose we have to grin and bear it.
Very disappointing performance and I agree with most of the comments above. In our position we cannot afford for the entire midfield to have an off night. I thought that Johnson had a shocker, both Crofts and Surman were anonymous and Hoolahoop looked disinterested, particularly in the first half. I can't understand playing a RB at LB as this seemed to reduce Naughton's attacking and removed the opportunity of putting crosses in for the H + M partnership. I think the lack of crosses was a theme of the night - we had a number of chances to put the ball into the box from free kicks and corners and instead of playing to our strenths decided to play short with predicatably poor consequences. I agree that the diamond did not work with the personnel used although I thought that we did improve once Pilks and Bennet came on. I am very gald that we Howson in the wings as I think that the midfield need to have a collective kick up the backside and some pressure for places. I don't know why but our lads seemed very slow and lethargic on a cold night in the tundra of Wearside. I felt that we didn't control the ball at all well and I don't remember seeing so many stray passes bouncing around (even though the match was played on a dreadful pitch) and good players miscontrolling the ball. Still one bad game against a pretty decent side should not have everyone pressing the panic button, three points against Bolton and we will have a further cushion from the bottom clubs. As previously stated no damage done after our worst performance of the season so could be worse!
What did surprise me though was Lambert. I have become used to him prowling up and won the touchline, barking out instructions and being highly animated throughout both halves of football. I saw some shots of him and he seemed a bit, well err quiet. Not sure why that was but he didn't seem his usual self? Did anyone else think that?
Yes, I did, perhaps he wasn't well ? What I also noticed was all of those empty seats, only 34.476 in a huge stadium like that with all the noise seeming to eminate from Canary fans too. And I thought that the northeast was supposed to be a 'hotbed' for football ! Can we swap grounds please ?
Mr I can't put my trousers and pants on in the right order will be after you soon. Actually, I don't think Howson will fill that spot he's not that sort of player, we need a yaya toure type of player, or maybe someone a bit better than him.
why would i be after him? i agree with ILD's post. our main problem has been the midfield not protecting the defence - thats what i've been saying all season. i'm not too sure what your problem is longsight... (agree howson won't play there - he is an attacking midfielder and will probably play in behind the strikers)
I felt the game missed Fox. When we got the ball we couldn't do anything with it and lost it fairly quickly. Fox's passing is brilliant and that perhaps could have changed things. A quick statistic. Last night was only the third time under Lambert where we have lost by more than two goals in the league. The other two being Swansea and Man City.
i'm a big fox fan. in my opinion, whenever he plays well, norwich play well. he dictates the play, he makes sure we pass the ball rather than the more direct approach taken last night (that may have had something to do with the pitch but sunderland didn't seem to have any problems). i like him in the deep midfield position. people get confused - he's not the holding player even though he is often the deepest midfielder. he is there to control the rest of the team and orchestrate the play. i think he's our best passer of a ball since ian crook, which is some praise indeed. he'd be first on the team sheet for me but of course i totally understand that lambert often feels we need a bit more grit in the middle against certain teams. he must have thought that last night but unfortunately it didn't work. if we'd played pilks and bennett last night instead of hoolahan and surman/crofts i think we'd have had a better balance - we could have prevented their full backs getting forward and we could have had a better outlet going forward rather than lumping it up front. our full backs would also have had more support. easy with hindsight of course...
This time next month this will be our strongest line up and to see us to safety till the end of the season... Ruddy Naughton Whitbread Bennett Tierney Bennett Fox Surman Pilkington Howson Morison Steer, Martin, Ayala, Johnson, Hoolahan, Holt, Vaughan. Good creativity, wingers have obviously been a massive boost to us when play and we have real impact players to boost the side to come off the bench! Also rumour has it we have paid £3.5mil raising to £5.5mil with add ons for ryan bennett. would this be a new club record cos of the add ons and would it go down as £5.5mil as i know the current is at £3.5mil?
Hopefully it was just an off day, I don't think a lot of the players actually looked bothered there was no sense of emergency. Our midfield was dreadful Johnson had a mare lost the ball constantly took too much time to pass the ball, Croft's disappeared nowhere to be seen would make a great phantom, Surman had a shocker people whinge about Fox's tackling apart from from one challenge Surman looked scared to run in gave up then Wes didn't look bothered at times, no short corners. Three of these players were in the midfield against West Brom at Carrow Road back in September and didn't work well as a unit. They're all great players but last night though wasn't satisfactory. Also on the subject of Martin O'Neill I couldn't give a flying **** about him being an ex Norwich player and Manager or being Lamberts boss at Celtic, we gave him too much respect last night this is business we have no time for sentiment. Now let's move on to Saturday.
i like it but i'd worry the middle of the park looks a little lightweight. not sure surman could play alongside fox without an enforcer. also i think we signed bennett for £3.2m, £600k of which goes to grimsby town. as i understand it, thats the entire fee including add ons but i suppose it could be a bit out. it definitely isn't £5.5m and we haven't broken our own club record on this deal
Yeah I heard 2.6 mil plus 600k to Grimsby but then there was a link saying about the other amount. Maybe Johnson instead of surman to give that bit of steel in the middle.
surman has had a good season so its difficult to drop him! lambert has many selection headaches to come...
