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canary-dave said:
He did well in Portugal too, scoring 28 in 55, but I suppose they are weak too and nothing to do with being frozen out by a jealous and selfish Snodgrass?
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Portugal is is one of those leagues that lacks depth. Beyond Porto, Benfica and Sporting the quality drops off and is again more technical less physical in my opinion. So his goal scoring was often against weak opposition. Much like Larson in Scotland. I think that generally padded his record. Maybe in a better team that was able to give him plenty of chances he could have made it in the PL, but I don't think he was physically up to it, nor mentally it seems.

Bah!
 
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JM Fan said:
It's taken AN quite a while to realise that playing Basil is bringing more rewards than a misfiring CJ. I appreciate that they have totally different qualities, but only someone as arrogant as AN would leave the player who's most likely to score goals on the bench for a player who offers more to the team!!! <doh>
I've been to a few of the 'youff' games this season and Morris has always impressed, as he did when our under 18s won the FA Youth Cup, but as you say, he can't even get on for a few minutes.
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I think you're being pretty unfair to Neil here. CJ scored some goals at the start of the season and more than 20 2 years ago. He was more of a proven championship striker than Nelson who didn't pull up goal scoring trees at Forest. So couple that with his work rate and playing CJ who was one of the better players during our poor run hardly seems totally unreasonable. Only hindsight of Nelson's goals recently makes the decision look slightly poor. Nelson is playing and scoring in a team that is coming away from it's lowest ebb (Fingers firmly crossed!) whereas CJ was struggling but working hard in a struggling poor side that was sliding. Was CJ part of the reason for the slide? I'm not sure, but Nelson certanly seems more able and likely to take a chance than CJ at the moment.

Bah!
 
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General Melchett said:
I think you're being pretty unfair to Neil here. CJ scored some goals at the start of the season and more than 20 2 years ago. He was more of a proven championship striker than Nelson who didn't pull up goal scoring trees at Forest. So couple that with his work rate and playing CJ who was one of the better players during our poor run hardly seems totally unreasonable. Only hindsight of Nelson's goals recently makes the decision look slightly poor. Nelson is playing and scoring in a team that is coming away from it's lowest ebb (Fingers firmly crossed!) whereas CJ was struggling but working hard in a struggling poor side that was sliding. Was CJ part of the reason for the slide? I'm not sure, but Nelson certanly seems more able and likely to take a chance than CJ at the moment. Bah!
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I agree GM. Jerome scored 6 goals in our first 11 matches and then in retrospect seemed to lose form over the next few games along with others in the team. Jerome scored 21 goals last time in the Championship and started as if that looked likely again. Oliveira was a relatively unknown factor still at that stage and when he first came in against QPR he didn't exactly hit the ground running, though we only had 10 men. He scored in the Brentford rout and then again against Villa as things improved before games in which we had 2 more red cards and struggled as a result. Both he and the team have improved together and IMO, AN got it about right. Against Saints, CJ did well to force the penalty and then cleverly drew van Dijk out of position to make room for Naismith's headed goal with Yoshida tied up marking Lafferty at the far post.
 
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General Melchett said:
Maybe in a better team that was able to give him plenty of chances he could have made it in the PL, but I don't think he was physically up to it, nor mentally it seems.
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Hughton played him in a sort of isolated, Grant Holt role. He (RvW) was frequently the only Norwich player in the opposing half. I'm not knocking CH or trying to defend RvW, but if you splash out on a 'marquee', club-record signing, it usually pays to see what his strengths are - and build the team around them, as far as possible.
Hughton didn't do that, so by the time AN got to the club, RvW hadd already been written off.
If he follows our fortunes from Holland, he'll know exactly how Lafferty is feeling :(
 
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RiverEndRick said:
I agree GM. Jerome scored 6 goals in our first 11 matches and then in retrospect seemed to lose form over the next few games along with others in the team.
Jerome scored 21 goals last time in the Championship and started as if that looked likely again. Oliveira was a relatively unknown factor still at that stage and when he first came in against QPR he didn't exactly hit the ground running, though we only had 10 men. He scored in the Brentford rout and then again against Villa as things improved before games in which we had 2 more red cards and struggled as a result. Both he and the team have improved together and IMO, AN got it about right. Against Saints, CJ did well to force the penalty and then cleverly drew van Dijk out of position to make room for Naismith's headed goal with Yoshida tied up marking Lafferty at the far post.
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Also Jerome brings much more to the team than Oliveria in other areas. It's a bit like Howson, it's not that often that people say Howson had a great game, but we are definatly a poorer side when he doesn't play. I just wish AN would stop f**king about trying to turn Howson into a DM and play him as an AM, where he's best.
 
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Don't agree. IMO Howson's best position is as a box-to-box CM carrying play forward to the attacking players and creating overloads in the opposing defence, while also tracking back when the ball is lost, which he also does excellently. There is a case for playing him as an AM in difficult away games, but I'd much rather see Hoolahan, Naismith or Pritchard as AM in most of our games. In any case, we only have two fit CMs at the moment, so AN is hardly going to move him to AM. I can't ever remember Howson being played as a DM. Tettey, Mulumbu and Thompson are our DMs.
 
Talk about fickle fans, when we can't afford to buy players fans moan that we pay too high wages, when a target won't come to us, fans moan that we should meet their wage demands! <doh>
 
Canos to Leeds? He would certainly be better off there as they are in the play-offs chase. We would need to recoup all of the £2.5m we paid if not more money wasted
 
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MORE midfielders - "According to Independent.ie, Norwich had scouts watching Forrester in action during Peterborough’s 4-1 FA Cup third round defeat away at Chelsea last weekend.Alex Neil wants to add to his midfield options and he’s also keeping tabs on Fulham’s highly-rated playmaker Tom Cairney ahead of a potential move this month, while Amiens’ Guessouma Fofana has also been linked."
I give up!!! <doh>
 
JM Fan said:
MORE midfielders - "According to Independent.ie, Norwich had scouts watching Forrester in action during Peterborough’s 4-1 FA Cup third round defeat away at Chelsea last weekend.Alex Neil wants to add to his midfield options and he’s also keeping tabs on Fulham’s highly-rated playmaker Tom Cairney ahead of a potential move this month, while Amiens’ Guessouma Fofana has also been linked."
I give up!!! <doh>
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They were probably watching Diego Costa to replace Lafferty! <ok>
 
General Melchett said:
Portugal is is one of those leagues that lacks depth. Beyond Porto, Benfica and Sporting the quality drops off and is again more technical less physical in my opinion. So his goal scoring was often against weak opposition. Much like Larson in Scotland. I think that generally padded his record. Maybe in a better team that was able to give him plenty of chances he could have made it in the PL, but I don't think he was physically up to it, nor mentally it seems.

Bah!
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Would that be the same Henrik Larsson who won two titles in Spain was man of the match in the Barcelona Champions league win coming off the bench with two assists and also got a PL winners medal whilst on loan at Man U? The same flat track bully who got to the World Cup semis with Sweden? I take your point about Scotland having a weak league but Larsson was an exceptional player.
 
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Norfolkbhoy said:
Would that be the same Henrik Larsson who won two titles in Spain was man of the match in the Barcelona Champions league win coming off the bench with two assists and also got a PL winners medal whilst on loan at Man U? The same flat track bully who got to the World Cup semis with Sweden? I take your point about Scotland having a weak league but Larsson was an exceptional player.
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I think there are some who have decided not to like RvW no matter what. He was picked to play while carrying a potential career threatening injury for several matches in a team where he was deliberately starved of service!
 
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