The 2019-2020 season.

Yes, he wasn't even on my teamsheet any more OCF. Hope it works out for him.

 

Me too!

 

A comment was made on MotD that "Norwich are the best rock bottom team I've ever seen". That indicates the potential for turning our season around. Our record over the last 7 matches is 3-2-2. Two of those were cup matches but both were away against difficult teams without Pukki and other top players. If we can now keep that momentum going and continue to pick up points we do have the potential to move up the table in the remaining games. It's a big ask and indeed would be something of a miracle if we pull it off but it is still possible.

 

Yes Zog, you are right, "we've done it for years" -- and kept finding ourselves having to do it again, and again, and ..... Doesn't it make sense to ask why, having "attacked our way out of the Championship", we find ourselves back there one season later? Again, and again, and .....!

 

It’s a fair question you ask robbie and well worth debating. For me, though, the style of play is what gets 25k fans into the stadium every home match, sell out season tickets and 2k+ to most away games. I think the style of football is more important now, for clubs outside the top six because realistically “doing a Leicester” is nigh on impossible (and people forget requires quite a bit of cash too). For most clubs, silverware is out of reach. So better to compete for enjoyment (which still includes winning, mind, but is not the be all and end all).

 

I wonder if it is better coaching for defending free kicks etc that we have needed for a while.

 

Well surely if we have as been said "attacked our way out of the Championship" for years then it's a successful strategy. Has there ever been a team that has defended their way out of the championship ?

The implication in the statement of course is that once we've got to the PL we've always continued with the same strategy and consequently always failed to stay up. Unfortunately this isn't supported by the facts I defy anyone to make a case that with tried to stay in the PL under Hughton by over focusing on attacking football. Under Lambert we finished 12th in our first year in the PL playing attacking football of course he left and we got relegated, playing ?, yes you've got it negative football under Hughton. Under Neil we hardly "attacked our way out of the Championship" indeed we scrapped our way out through the play offs and damaged the club financially under the management of Neil who was clearly out of his depth and incompetence at board room level.

I would say that we've always overachieved when the team and club have been managed effectively Lambert / McNally & Farke / Webber.

Last year we over-achieved and got promoted unexpectedly ahead of planned and have despite some significant injury issues, particularly at CB, performed pretty well in most games, although those games have not always resulted in the point's, that perhaps our performances deserved. I've lost count of the number of times pundits have said we've deserved more from games than we've got, even Alan Shearer said we fully deserved to get something from the Spurs game. Over the years, all promoted teams would have struggled with our resources & injuries and many would have fared at lot worst than us. It was Danny Murphy that said "Norwich are the best rock bottom team I've ever seen" and although I'm biased I tend to agree with him.

Our form guide over the last 4 games, when we've played with 2 recognised centre backs puts us in 16th and over 6 games in 17th, who knows where we would have been if we'd had 2 recognised CB's available all season. Considering we were never expecting to be in the PL nor were we prepared to be in it this year and with our injuries we've done pretty well. Really some of our so called fans need to get a grip.

 

It isn't always true that we've "found ourselves back down a year later". Lambert's team survived primarily through attacking and Hughton's team survived, just, in his first season then went down a year later after adopting a more defensive approach. Neil's team started out attacking, then went down after adopting a more defensive approach. Defensive football has its limits.

Our biggest problem has been the injuries at CB and the lack of a settled pairing, often only having one CB fit. Since this situation has eased, we've improved overall and are picking up points. Handley and Zimmerman are developing a partnership as had Zimmerman and Godfrey before his suspension. Byram has also improved us defensively without sacrificing attacking support. It did take DF some time to adjust the tactical balance to deal with that weakened position but he has done so now to better effect. We took a risk playing Vrančic and Trybull at Burnley, but it worked by allowing us to take the initiative and dominate possession in the first half, then manage the game in the second half.

Edit: This was written before seeing canario's post.

 

One of the few negatives in the Burnley game was the loss of a clean sheet to an avoidable goal, as David Freezer says:

"From Jamal Lewis being the wrong side of Aaron Lennon, to Tom Trybull's wayward clearance, Vrancic's poor header and Rupp's rather half-hearted block - it may have been a decent finish by Erik Pieters but it was totally and utterly avoidable".

It was the exception rather than the rule, but Burnley did create other chances from midfield defensive weaknesses at times and this is what needs addressing. Freezer thinks that Tettey will be back against Newcastle and I agree. The other question is who will play beside him after Vrančic's performance at Burnley, that 'poor header' excepted.

https://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/burnley-1-norwich-2-six-things-1-6483854

 

Vrancic should start every game.
He is pure class

 

When have I ever advocated "defensive football" Rick? You know as well as I do that we concede too many goals. It's a problem we need to address if we are to have any realistic chance of surviving in the EPL, and that's going to be as true the season after next as it is this season. And please can those who think better defending involves being boringly "defensive" tell me which of the sixteen teams in the EPL who have conceded ten or more fewer goals than us this season, they would describe as "boringly defensive". I can't think of any, so why do people keep on insisting that we couldn't defend better without becoming "boring"?

 

Agreed - “defending better’ also means stop giving the ball way needlessly in dangerous positions in our own half.

 

Defending as a unit and positioning (especially at set pieces) I think is what we need work on especially

 

I was referring to Hughton and Neil turning over defensive as they tried to survive in the PL. Like you, I think we lacked balance early in the season but DF has responded to that as I said: "It did take DF some time to adjust the tactical balance to deal with that weakened position but he has done so now to better effect." The 'weakness' was the improvised CB position and we didn't do enough to support that. Now we have
two CBs playing and still have a better balance which has produced better performances and results recently.

 

The trouble is you keep advocating that we need to be more defensive / defend better but never explain what you mean by that or how changes would effect our overall play. I and others on here have accept(ed) that we need(ed) to get better a defending set pieces and need to eliminate silly mistakes. To some extent our defensive problems have been caused / made worse by a CB injuries, which I think every one on here would accept. What do you think we need to do to improve defensively ?

 

Was it really a case of DF being slow to adjust or was it a case of CB injuries meaning he didn't have players with the necessary attributes to make the changes he wanted to make. Truth is for a significant part of the season to a large extent his options have been limited unless he made wholesale changes to the way we have played.

 

He did restrain the FBs from bombing forward as much and kept a defensive core shape more effectively, which improved our ability to cope when the ball was lost. That improved further once we had two CBs available again. The difference shows, without diminishing our attacking abilities.

 

Yes I can see that to some extent. I think he did this once it became clear that other options weren't working. I think he was also helped by Byram stepping up a level.

 

Byram has stepped up but I still wish we would see Lewis there again, his running was a great attacking option. I think Byram could play as part of 3 CBs allowing Aarons and Lewis more license to go forward, Cantwell and Buendia could roam in behind Pukki and spread wide when they need to, we could then potentially play two deep CMs I.e Vrancic and Rupp/McLean/Leitner instead of Tettey. Not that Tettey has been bad at all, it would just provide more passing range from midfield. Duda and Hernandez could rotate in for Cantwell and Buendia as impact subs, or if we are chasing the game Drmic could come in and play alongside Pukki.