So we have now lost three on the trot, but not overly concerned. Let's review these; Leicester - we played a "weakened side" (still an issue for me) and they played really well and deserved to win. Man utd. - great performance but ultimately lost to the current Champions as we could not hold out for the last few minutes. Stoke - always difficult against them but again we concede via defensive lapse. Some points for me raised from this game; 1 - Why change from a team that played well against Man U? Some will say tactics, which I accept, but they did not work. 2 - From a tactical point of view playing 4 5 1 cries out for Steve Morison. Lambert changed to 4 4 2 during the game 3 - Why on earth put in a player who is not match fit in against Stoke? 4 - Why bring in Russell Martin (not having a go at all here)? For me, should have been Naughton at RB and Drury at LB. 5 - Defensive lapse (again!) so we now have the record for conceeding in consecutive away games in the Premier league. Now I again state I am not having a go here. It is that I just am a bit perplexed by some decisions that have been made over these games. Although we have done really well this seaon, I for one am not saying we are safe until we are. Saying that, it would need a monumental disaster to happen. If we assume we do stay up, to avoid second season syndrome and consolidate we need to look at the following; Look at the defense. something not quite right there. Hopefully the new lad may improve the situation. I still think another keeper at least for competition. Are we lacking creative midfield option? Is this Howson? Matt Philips would be a useful addition Need to add to the strike force? Rodriguez and/or Rhodes? Thoughts?
1) Good question. I guess if we had tried pass rather than hoof the starting XI might have worked. 2) Would of made no difference. Holt had no service but did well to win so many fouls. 3) Puzzling indeed. Maybe trying to hard to spring a surprise? In hindsight, it should have been Fox. 4) Again, good question, although it wouldn't have made a difference. Rusty is a decent player though, and did nothing wrong yesterday. 5) Yes, but overall we defended excellently that game.
I wouldnt be overly concerned tbh, if we lose at home to wigan on sunday then i will be! To be fair, weve played man u at home and nearly got a point and stoke away which is a hard place to go and get any points so im not suprised that weve ended up with nil points after these 2 games. I expected a blip and hoping it will come to a HOLT this weekend and basically secure our premiership football for a second year. As for improvements, we need a LB and a RB, a fox type player, and a striker in the summer atleast. Im more than happy with central defence especially with the addition of ryan bennett.
I'd have to say Ruddy was to blame. He shouldn't get beaten aot his near post regardless of how well hit the shot is. Ward actually did well to pull out of the challenge because if he'd made any contact at all Etherington would have gone over, Stoke get a pen and Ward sees red.
Let's move on from this result: Stoke are notoriously difficult to beat, due to their physicality and boring play, it was so dull to watch I switched off the stream and listened to Radio Norfolk, made it more interesting Man Utd, Champions, what did you honestly expect? We played brilliantly and were denied a win by one of the true all time greats, Ryan Giggs, who has been breaking fans hearts for decades! Leicester is the result that annoys me, but I accept that we underperformed. A lot of criticism should be laid at Morison's "vanishing act", idk whether its an injury, lambert punishing him, attitude problem, shagged Tierney's bird, confidence low, but part of the reason we are stuggling, is that Holt is the only striker capable of scoring goals atm, Jackson and Wilbraham are all effort, but don't exactly inspire confidence among the fans. Part of our success earlier was Morison breaking down the central defence throughout the first two-thirds of the match, and Holt coming on to take advantage of his hard work. This is the reason why we are underperforming, because Morison isn't playing. What do you think?
He should of saved it to be honest, (Or given how good he is and was that game, I would have expected him to) but the defence shouldn't have let Etherington in in the first place.
Goldeneye - "A lot of criticism should be laid at Morison's "vanishing act", idk whether its an injury, lambert punishing him, attitude problem, shagged Tierney's bird, confidence low, but part of the reason we are stuggling, is that Holt is the only striker capable of scoring goals atm, Jackson and Wilbraham are all effort, but don't exactly inspire confidence among the fans. Part of our success earlier was Morison breaking down the central defence throughout the first two-thirds of the match, and Holt coming on to take advantage of his hard work." For me, that paragraph sums up exactly what is wrong with the team at the moment and I've every confidence that PL will be doing everthing in his power to rectify that before Wigan arrive on Sunday. It would be good if the midfield could get amongst the goals again. I don't think the team formation was wrong - maybe a bit too soon for Howson, but as others have said - "let's put it behind us and look forward, not back!!!'
Re. Howson, he played 75 minutes before being substituted, and I think people do the manager an injustice if they think he would have let him play if he hadn't been ready. Rather than "not match fit", you could say "short of match experience in the Premier League", which is as good a reason as I can think of for putting him in the side. I'd say he performed creditably in the circumstances and we certainly didn't lose through having him on the park. A fit and up-to-speed Howson could be crucial to us over the final weeks of the season. A question for those who think Ruddy should have saved Etherington's shot: should he also have saved Giggs' ?
I think Giggs' goal is an unfair goal to compare with, Robbie. With the goal from Giggs, Ruddy had no real chance to get over and get himself in the correct position. Whereas, the goal yesterday, he had more time to position himself correctly, but got his angles wrong. I have always been a huge defender of Ruddy, even in the very early days when half of Norwich fans were comparing him with Forster, so I am not having a go at him. I think if you ask Ruddy if he was happy with his positioning, he would say no.
Yep, we shouldn't have had to defend that throw-in, but once we had to, Ward should of done a lot, lot better.
Whatever Is up with Morison, he has scored enough goals in the first half of the season not to warrant being a bench warmer I'd like to see him play some part against wigan And please start with David fox
Regardless of what you think of Morison I think Goldeneye has a very valid point. He was unsettling defenders left, right and centre for a time earlier in the season and despite laziness being aimed in his direction he was running the channels very well too. If there is one thing a central defender hates doing it is marshalling a striker out onto the wing. More often than not this created space for others to exploit. I know there are those that think that a striker should stay in the box at all times but it just doesn't work like that I'm afraid! Now I have to say, I think Jackson has been doing a similarly good job in recent weeks but as some others have already mentioned I just don't see him carrying the same goal threat at the moment - hopefully he will go on a scoring blitz like he did at the tail end of last year but i'm not holding my breath! Morison's goals are crucial to our ongoing success until a suitable or improved striker becomes available to us. The troubles he has been having relate to the type of chances he gets - In my opinion I think Morison's biggest problem is that he is an instinct player - if give him time to think and he fluffs his lines
I must admit to being completely unconcerned at this so called "Loss of form" .The reasons for this insuciance ,are as Ian Dury might have said,three. 1.Leicester. Now I know this is point of contention but,forwhatever reason,the boss decided that the FA Cup had a lower priority,that is the one thing that I think all factions agree on. 2.Man U. Won ten away out of thirteen and just beat Spurs by a bigger margin than they did us.They really can turn it on when they have to and we were 90 seconds awaty from a draw.Not in my opinion the sign of a team in a slump. 3. Stoke. A home form team,only lost four out of fourteen.This was a horrible game to watch,maybe the worst of the season but in truth it was a mistake by Ruddy following on one by Ward.Apart from the goal and the save from Crouch what else did they do.Could easily have been a 0-0. Finally with eleven to play we are 13 points clear of five teams who,with the possible exception of Blackburn look out for the count.I think that if we didnt take another point this season we would finish 16th.Hands up who wouldn't have taken that when we kicked off against the Pie Eaters.
We didn't "under" perform against Swansea or Man U, but did against Sunderland, Leicester and Stoke! Personally I don't think it's anything to do with Morison either way, it was tactical in all of those games. I got heavily criticised for my comments about Morison and the way he and the team played against Leicester! When the criticism gets as volatile and aggressive as it did, then I though it's time time to step back and have a look at the way I see things. I did that, and tried to explain to some individuals why I see things the way I do, I hope they tried to understand? I don't want to go raking all that up again, but, I still believe that I had validity in what I wrote. If we put the game against Man U over and above the FA Cup, and played accordingly, to gain points and ensure against relegation, then we aren't any further forward now than we were then, and I still don't understand or agree with it. As Surgeryman says; I not having a go, I trust Paul Lambert to put it right, it is a huge learnIng curve after all, but one or two things that have happened leaves me a bit confused. ILD OTBC
I can't understand why everyone is starting to panic over 2 losses. There are posters on here that didn't think we'd get anything from the Swansea, Man Utd and Stoke games and wanted them out of the way so we could get on with the job of ensuring survival starting with the game against Wigan. We got 3 points at Swansea (the tactics were spot on), as already mentioned 90 seconds away from a point against Man Utd (tactics sound) and could have had a point against Stoke (tactics didn't work). That's still a better haul then a lot of people were predicting. As for the Leicester game, we just didn't perform. There is no conspiracy theory, it happens from time to time.
