Striker needed?

[Superman wears Grant Holt pyjamas in bed]

I think i said that Birmingham was set up first of all not to lose, and that made a pretty dire game to watch. sounds as though he has started the same with you guys, not saying its wrong but we have seen first hand how Who-ton sets up his sides.

Just out of interest, how do you think you will do with a little more defensive style rather than your style from last year where you really gave it a go and proved successful at it? do you think the strikers will prove as deadly with the lesser amount of chances that will come you way?

birmingham only had the 5th best defence last season didn't they, yet also scored the third most. you've read way too much into your clubs two games with them. the games i watched were open and free flowing and reminded me of norwich last season to be honest. its only natural that he will try to shore up our back line because it was our weakest area last year - so far he's done that and its encouraging but you can't read much into friendlies.

we won't be more defensive - what we will be is more organised defensively. lambert was a genius but he set us up to win at all costs, no matter who it was against. that worked wonders much of the time but was also quite naive. we never quite got the balance between attack and defence correct and hopefully hughton can find that balance. i've been banging on for the best part of a year (people must get bored of it) that we need a quality defensive midfielder because he will address the balance issue and allow both the defence and more creative midfielders to focus purely on their jobs better but we're still waiting for that man to come through the door. this is probably why we've struggled to score so far because the central midfielders have played too deep to cover the back line. nothing wrong with that and its worked so far but you certainly lose out in attacking positions.

get that holding player and i'll feel confident we can finish as high as we did last year. without him i think we'll be bottom 6. the good thing is though that we have such quality in wide areas so creating chances is not going to be a problem.

 

[JM Fan]

Just out of interest, how do you think you will do with a little more defensive style rather than your style from last year where you really gave it a go and proved successful at it? do you think the strikers will prove as deadly with the lesser amount of chances that will come you way?

Good post JWM. I would be quite happy with not scoring as many goals, just so long as we sometimes score more than our opponents and win enough games to preserve our PL status. Yes, at times last season our football was great to watch with the onus on attack, but I'm confirdent that we can stay up.

 

[Resurgam]

When he was in charge at Newcastle, I don't remember him being too defensive and boring then. I may be wrong though.

 

[Superman wears Grant Holt pyjamas in bed]

When he was in charge at Newcastle, I don't remember him being too defensive and boring then. I may be wrong though.

that's cos he wasn't

 

[stilljaroldcanary]

birmingham only had the 5th best defence last season didn't they, yet also scored the third most. you've read way too much into your clubs two games with them. the games i watched were open and free flowing and reminded me of norwich last season to be honest. its only natural that he will try to shore up our back line because it was our weakest area last year - so far he's done that and its encouraging but you can't read much into friendlies.

we won't be more defensive - what we will be is more organised defensively. lambert was a genius but he set us up to win at all costs, no matter who it was against. that worked wonders much of the time but was also quite naive. we never quite got the balance between attack and defence correct and hopefully hughton can find that balance. i've been banging on for the best part of a year (people must get bored of it) that we need a quality defensive midfielder because he will address the balance issue and allow both the defence and more creative midfielders to focus purely on their jobs better but we're still waiting for that man to come through the door. this is probably why we've struggled to score so far because the central midfielders have played too deep to cover the back line. nothing wrong with that and its worked so far but you certainly lose out in attacking positions.

get that holding player and i'll feel confident we can finish as high as we did last year. without him i think we'll be bottom 6. the good thing is though that we have such quality in wide areas so creating chances is not going to be a problem.

Dead right supers all this carp about Ajax hoofball, I thought they were as good as a top 6 PL team and if he sets us out to get draws against them we will do very well as we know we can mix it with the rest!!

 

[Resurgam]

that's cos he wasn't

So it would be a reasonable assumption that that was because of the players he had at his disposal, would it not?

Have we got the players for him to play 'sexy' football?

Have we got a block on him buying any players like he had at Birmingham?

He could only work with what he had, and perhaps that is one of the reasons why Birningham came across as defensive.

 

[Guru of Ipswich]

birmingham only had the 5th best defence last season didn't they, yet also scored the third most. you've read way too much into your clubs two games with them. the games i watched were open and free flowing and reminded me of norwich last season to be honest. its only natural that he will try to shore up our back line because it was our weakest area last year - so far he's done that and its encouraging but you can't read much into friendlies.

we won't be more defensive - what we will be is more organised defensively. lambert was a genius but he set us up to win at all costs, no matter who it was against. that worked wonders much of the time but was also quite naive. we never quite got the balance between attack and defence correct and hopefully hughton can find that balance. i've been banging on for the best part of a year (people must get bored of it) that we need a quality defensive midfielder because he will address the balance issue and allow both the defence and more creative midfielders to focus purely on their jobs better but we're still waiting for that man to come through the door. this is probably why we've struggled to score so far because the central midfielders have played too deep to cover the back line. nothing wrong with that and its worked so far but you certainly lose out in attacking positions.

get that holding player and i'll feel confident we can finish as high as we did last year. without him i think we'll be bottom 6. the good thing is though that we have such quality in wide areas so creating chances is not going to be a problem.

from an outsiders point of view, i would say you need to bolster your defence if he is going down that style with ayala going (although i presume you have a recall option) to offer that stability in defence so you can soak the pressure up. You definately have the wide men to cause problems that was shown last season, but if they get caught playing too deep then you are causing big problems for yourself at the attacking end of the pitch. I presume you will be playing with one striker up top, do you think that Fat Boy, Morison or Vaughan are capable to take that perhaps one chance that might fall their way consistently enough?

 

[Superman wears Grant Holt pyjamas in bed]

So it would be a reasonable assumption that that was because of the players he had at his disposal, would it not?

Have we got the players for him to play 'sexy' football?

Have we got a block on him buying any players like he had at Birmingham?

He could only work with what he had, and perhaps that is one of the reasons why Birningham came across as defensive.

we won't be insanely beautiful like spain and we won't be dire like stoke - we'll play effective football, interchangeable tactics and continue to be a threat to every team we play against. if we win a few more games 1-0 rather than 2-1 i doubt many will be bothered. we certainly won't be boring - we don't have the players at the club to be boring - they are all too exciting to watch.

 

[Superman wears Grant Holt pyjamas in bed]

from an outsiders point of view, i would say you need to bolster your defence if he is going down that style with ayala going (although i presume you have a recall option) to offer that stability in defence so you can soak the pressure up. You definately have the wide men to cause problems that was shown last season, but if they get caught playing too deep then you are causing big problems for yourself at the attacking end of the pitch. I presume you will be playing with one striker up top, do you think that Fat Boy, Morison or Vaughan are capable to take that perhaps one chance that might fall their way consistently enough?

well holt and morison scored 27 between them last year and vaughan has 4 in 4 pre-season. i actually think we'll create even more chances this season than last because i think we'll have more of the ball in games and we have the creativity in midfield and wide areas to do that. our midfield options are expansive but i think we'll mix between 1 up top and 2 up top depending on who we are playing. i personally loved the way lambert approached games but i was realistic enough to know that we couldn't go on like that. all the teams who have established themselves in the premier league have been defensively sound - we now need to take that next step.

 

[Guru of Ipswich]

When he was in charge at Newcastle, I don't remember him being too defensive and boring then. I may be wrong though.

wasn't he the one who brought Andy Carroll in to newcastle's regular starting line up and played quite a long ball game with him spearheading the attack?

 

[Superman wears Grant Holt pyjamas in bed]

wasn't he the one who brought Andy Carroll in to newcastle's regular starting line up and played quite a long ball game with him spearheading the attack?

newcastle never played long ball

what they did is exactly what lambert did with norwich! get the ball down, move it quickly through short passing in midfield, get it in wide areas using wingers and over lapping full backs and get decent balls in the box.

that's not long ball football; that's not barca-style tika-taka football; its called direct, attacking football and its been the reason norwich have been so successful the past three years. more of the same please!

 

[carrabuh]

pre-season is all about adjusting the balance of the team, as well as fitness levels obviously. there is nothing wrong with our strikers. in fact, its quite pleasing to see how we've tightened up so quickly at the back. we won't know where we stand until the season is a month or two old but i have no concerns whatsoever about our forward line. as i've long said, if the right striker comes along and he's priced accordingly then snap him up, but its not mega urgent and that rule applies to every position on the park. what we have got now is incredible depth to our midfield but as 1950 mentions, still no quality holding player. it will give our attacking players more freedom to express themselves once that player is signed.

nothing to worry about as long as we get him. if we don't get him, its irrelevant if we sign another forward as we'll have the same issues we do now! some people look and see we haven't scored that many goals - that isn't down to finishing, its too simplistic a view. its down to supply line.

A supply line affected by a rigid attitude to defending perhaps.

Is this going to go down well if it is Hughtons way forward?

Personally I think he's just planning to use it when it matters as a rigid team would basically go against those intrinsic values of the team built over the last 3 years.

Although I didn't like the all too direct football of Lambert at times, he did encourage a fluid movement and bravery of players.

 

[Superman wears Grant Holt pyjamas in bed]

A supply line affected by a rigid attitude to defending perhaps.

Is this going to go down well if it is Hughtons way forward?

Personally I think he's just planning to use it when it matters as a rigid team would basically go against those intrinsic values of the team built over the last 3 years.

Although I didn't like the all too direct football of Lambert at times, he did encourage a fluid movement and bravery of players.

agree with this. personally, i don't think we'll see a huge difference in approach but i think we'll set up to be more defensive against the better teams.

 

[JM Fan]

i think we'll set up to be more defensive against the better teams.

I do hope that is how CH will choose his teams, as I think PL was quite poor in his team selection for the home game against Liverpool last season. We can't hope to survive a second season simply by outscoring the opposition - we need to concede less goals and hopefully will 'gift' our opponents fewer goal scoring chances.

 

[carrabuh]

I do hope that is how CH will choose his teams, as I think PL was quite poor in his team selection for the home game against Liverpool last season. We can't hope to survive a second season simply by outscoring the opposition - we need to concede less goals and hopefully will 'gift' our opponents fewer goal scoring chances.

Yeah, don't really go along with this, Premiership defences are pretty poor and our best attribute is scoring goals. I think it could be a dangerous game if our whole philosophy changes. I don't think we gifted neccesarily goals regularly to the opposition through errors, I think Lambert accepted (as well as the players) that if we played his way the opposition were going to have chances because of it.

 

[stilljaroldcanary]

Yeah, don't really go along with this, Premiership defences are pretty poor and our best attribute is scoring goals. I think it could be a dangerous game if our whole philosophy changes. I don't think we gifted neccesarily goals regularly to the opposition through errors, I think Lambert accepted (as well as the players) that if we played his way the opposition were going to have chances because of it.

with our midfield options and Holty up front with Snoddy behind him I think we will still be as threatening up front as last year just think we will add to that by being a little less leaky at the back, think Hughtun will get some good shut outs, we have the best keeper in the leauge if has to work less he will get cleansheets, I believe Holty will always score and stuff all those Morro doubters he will as well