Ok this was a very difficult result to take. The opportunity to turn things round was spurned. I won't rehash the reasons which will doubtless be discussed ad nauseum on other threads. We will know whether we have a chance of staying up by the end of February, and this will depend on a lot of people earning their inflated salaries and taking some responsibility. Warnock - cannot do his traditional paranoia act and blame the rest of the world - he has to settle on a way of playing with whatever personnel he has, explain it clearly to the players, and get them to perform. If SWP can play so well yesterday, why not like that 80% of the time? That's what the managers job is, surely. The players - **** me it's not too much to ask to look where you pass the ball is it, even if you are on 'only' £20k a week. Play every game as if an international call up, or more likely your next big money contract, depends upon it. Talk to each other and develop some understanding of how your colleagues play. Follow whatever instructions you are given Tony and Amit - show leadership - this is your investment, you have to decide pretty quick whether you can live with going back down. A little less Mr Nice Guy - give Warnock some clear short term targets. Actually pretty sure this is done already. I still don't think changing managers makes much sense, but there are other choices than Hughes and Curbishley. Benitez, Hiddink and Zola (kept West Ham up) all twiddling their thumbs at the moment. A final word on Norwich - I have avoided cross board threads because I really do hate this club and have done so for years, and it's not just because of 76. It's a visceral, illogical thing. So the only thing that cheers me up is the knowledge that, even if we do fail this year ( and i still expect us to stay up)we will be back stronger and better prepared the year after. Norwich meanwhile are still far from safe this year and are certain to go down next year - they have no cash, mickey mouse ownership and a manager who is desperate for a big club move, probably in the summer. You R's!!!!!!!!
Some very sound (if a little obvious) points there mate. I am beginning to question whether NW has the tactical nous to keep us up. I'm getting a bit fed up with him if I'm honest.
Good point about SWP. I don't think it's deliberate, but he plays his best when he has something to prove. Yesterday, he was dropped after the Arsenal match, and looked sensational. Similarly, when we played his old club, ManCity, he was outstanding. NW could be a little less respectful of these new players to get the best from them. Similarly Barton left himself wide open yesterday to be duped (as I think he was) and wrongly given a red card - he should stop these personal vendetta's and get on with playing and being Captain.
Cheers Col, I'll try and be more original next time! Seriously, on NW, I think you are right. He's turning back into the snarling nasty sarcastic specimen that I hated at Sheffield Utd, and that I thought had gone. Why? He can't take the pressure and this is his default mode - he was under pressure at Utd so that's what we saw. Perhaps, like Keegan at England, the Prem is a step too far. Hope we are wrong......
Sorry mate...I did sound a bit patronising there....not intended!! I fear that the Prem is a step too far tbh. Problem is.....conventional thinking would have us give him at least till the end of Feb, but by then, if we haven't picked up at least another 12 points or so, we will be ****ed!!
The way we've been playing lately, I'm not so sure NW has the players on side anymore. I'm confident any half decent manager could turn our fortunes around immediately, because I still think we have a good enough team. With the right tactics we should be further up the table.
we've just not had the rub of the green yet in recent matches & sure & hope things will turn in our favour, should go back to playing 2 strikers at home i know mackie was out there but didn't really support heider & his first touch was awful. why can't we play like we did against city ok we lost but took the game to them & was outstanding.
Agree with everything here. The one other area of responsibility where people could step up to the mark is our crowd. All the atmosphere was provided by Norwich yesterday and TBH we have never got anywhere near the match winning noise we produced against the scum. Admittedly bank holiday games are always difficult and yesterday's crowd seemed to be largely made up of overseas visitors and young families but we are letting ourselves down at present with our lack of vocal support at home.
I made this point on another thread - there seems to be some delusional thinking that as long as we carry on doing what we're doing we'll be alright and the next win is just around the corner....8 games later and we are in the mire, no doubt. I 100% appreciate everything NW has done but it's only sensible in any organisation to have a plan B if things are going awry with no sign of improvement and TF et al will be remiss if they're not thinking of a date by which things have had to improve. my main issue is NW's ability at this level. We know he had handcuffs on until late in the summer but if you compare our current squad to Norwich & Swansea as a reasonable benchmark of our progress then we should not be as far adrift of them in both points and apparent cohesion. I think our squad is already stronger which suggests some coaching / management issues. It would be harsh but this is a harsh business and for TF it is all about staying up - I agree now is prob a bad time to change as we would waste some of the window but by early Feb I think a decision has to be made as to whether NW can keep us up - that is the one and only thing that should be on the boards mind
Agreed - I think TF may pencil the Blackburn match on 11 Feb into his diary to assess how NW is doing - If we buy/borrow well now, I firmly believe NW will remain in his job
