This times 1000. It's what I've been saying for some time now. We're lacking in any structure or definable style. We're incoherent and we can't play to our strengths because we don't have any. Last season we did well because we played some gritty, unpleasant football at times. Now, we don't even have that to fall back on. So you can add to your list, Carrabuh: Set pieces Headers Target man Hoofball Strength Height Admittedly, they all differ from your list in that they broadly considered not so desirable (set pieces perhaps aside), but the fact is we now have nothing. We can't even play like a Pulis side, which is a proven way of staying in this league whether people like it or not, let alone like an attractive side
Well I still think you lot will stay up (hopefully not at the expense of Hull though) i think Cardiff Palace and hopefully Sunderland Good luck after Saturday lads!
I think we'll just about hobble over the line too. Almost certainly with a bit of luck either in the injury department or other teams getting decisions against them. But it won't be pretty at this rate. That reminds me, the other thing we were reasonable at last season was defending, which helped us a lot. Now we are hopeless in that department. If we actually manage to get good at something, at this stage I don't really care what, then we should be just about OK. Hull will be fine, though a weaker end to the campaign. I reckon you'll be 15th. Decent signing in Jelavic. Need to keep Huddlestone fit too.
When did we last score from a corner or non-direct free-kick? Fer away at Newcastle? In the second half of last season nearly all our goals came from set pieces, it was nearly one every other game. I don't understand why that's changed. We've still got Turner and Bassong going forward for them, and generally Snodgrass putting the delivery in. Kei Kamara wasn't bad in the air, nor Holt, but I'd have thought Fer and RvW compensate. I'm digressing, last season we generally kept things tight at the back and could knick a goal with set pieces. Now we're doing neither, and those skills haven't been replaced by more attractive ones, they've simply evaporated.
I know he very briefly hinted at the poor entertainment factor in terms of our football this season, but the main thing I took from McNally's recent interview was that as long as we aren't relegated, he doesn't care what sort of football we play.
This thought just occurred to me. It's money isn't it? That is what has changed this last twenty years since the inception of The Premiership. In the old days getting relegated was a bit of a pain.You took a bit of stick from The Binners and just got on with life in Division Two playing Luton and York for a while. Today it's a financial disaster and just like any other business who will do anything to stop going bust we will do anything to get those points on the board.The promotion of football as a business has been an unmitigated disaster.It has made millionaires of mediocre players and in so doing it has ripped the soul out of the game.Sorry give me a wet February afternoon at Kenilworth Road standing on the terraces.
Afternoon carrabuh, Firstly, just to put your mind at rest, certainly I care about how we play, but right now, I care an awful lot more about picking up points and wins to get us up the table, and it doesn´t bother me in the slightest how we do it, as long as we do it. If we were sitting in the top half of the table 20 pts or so away from the relegation spots, then yes, I would expect us to at least try and play entertaining football, and be frustrated if we didn´t, but we´re not, we´re in a dogfight, and we have to dig out as many points as we can. I know I don´t use my well-earned cash to sit in the stands every 14 days to watch, and I´m sure for those who do, it must be agonising at times, and I sympathise, but I dare say even they could more easily accept what they´re watching, if we picked up a few results. My argument is, that the fact that we´re not, is not solely down to Hughton, his tactics, or his team selection. There are other factors too, I know you are unwilling to accept that we´ve been hit any worse than others in the injury dept. but we´ve by no means got either the biggest or the best squad in the division, and injuries have hit hard. Also some players, notably Bassong, Snodgrass, Martin and Ruddy, are playing well below the level they did last year, when Hughton was also here, it´s not as if he appeared suddenly last summer, and everyone´s form then plummeted. I also question the general feeling on here, that a new manager would help solve our problems, I don´t necessarily think it would, and no, I haven´t got any facts to back up my opinion, it´s just a gut feeling, but it needn´t be any less valid just because of that. Anyway, I didn´t realise we weren´t allowed to voice an opinion on here, unless it was backed up by ´carrabuh-approved´ facts. I´m not claiming that my opinion is right, and everyone else is wrong, I never have done and I never will, but I´m certainly not going to apologise for having one, nor am I going to change it. So as on previous occasions in the past, we´ll have to agree to disagree on this one. and, OTBC
Pace Passing Flair Goals Tackles Skill Comebacks Chasing Counter attacks Dribbling Determination Drive Movement Winning Upsets Last gasp Possession Moves Link up The 2009-10 Championship-winning side, Newcastle United, displayed all these in abundance. They ran away with the title with the following record: Played 46, Won 30, Drawn 12, Lost 4, Goals for 90, Goals against 35, GD 55, Points 102. Please can someone remind me who managed this highly entertaining and successful team?
Can't remember the figures, but that looks like Keevin Keegan to me. Am I right? I'm all for bringing up suggested replacements Robbie, but Keegan hasn't managed for 6 years
Completely irrelevant. Hughton's Newcastle may have played good football, but Hughton's Norwich don't offer anything. You know that Robbie. Why have you bothered to bring this up?
Why is it irrelevant, Hucks. If you say the problem is CH, then surely his management record is relevant. In over 40 years as a yellow, I can't remember as many injuries as we've had this season, but that seems to count for nothing. IMO, if we change the management team now, we go back to square one with a huge dent in our transfer budget. Take a look at teams like Wolves and Blackburn who've gone down that route. It isn't a pretty sight! I agree with David McNally and the board - let's talk about management change when we look like ending up in the relegation zone, not when we are 3 points away from 10th place.
It's been so bad that every area has under performing players you can't say we're strong in any particular area, defensively I'm reasonably happy with Ollson but his hardly been flawless, midfield wise Tettey, Fer and Howson when played as trio have been effective at times and then there is Gary Hooper.
For two reasons. Firstly, to draw attention to the falseness and nasty small-mindedness of carrabuh's dismissal of Chris Hughton as a football manager in his OP; and secondly to make the point that it is far too simplistic to attribute all the shortcomings and problems to CH's cluelessness. Anyone with a degree of interest in the truth will recognise that there is a serious and interesting question here, about why the man who did so well in his short time as manager of Newcastle, and who also did a pretty good job under difficult circumstances in his year at Birmingham, has manifestly struggled to reproduce a similar brand of football in the year and a half he has been at Norwich. Before anybody suggests that the answer is simply that Chris Hughton is just a Championship-level manager out of his depth in the Premier League, let me point out that he managed his Newcastle team successfully enough in the Premier League for the best part of half a season (11th in the table when he was replaced), and that if there is reason to dismiss Chris Hughton's credentials for managing in the Premier League, there is equal, if not even more, reason to dismiss, Paul Lambert's. (If you'd like an illustration of this, see my response yesterday to Cromercanary's ill-considered post about Hughton's win ratios.)
Personally, I can't wait for the match on Saturday. Sure we're going to be nervous but I really think the lads will be passionately up for it and will do it. The atmosphere will be electric. I obviously hope the game is entertaining according to some elements from the original list above but, I tell you - I'll be floating back to Hertfordshire even if it's a 1-0 win with a scrappy own goal. Let's show our love for the team & shout/sing our support until the final whistle - that's what the team needs from us.
Does Chris Hughton do the things I mentioned then with this City team. Besides I severely doubt the football was that good with Andy Carroll, I was curious and looked at their goals and the football is really no diffrent to Allardyce with Carrol getting on the end of everything. And besides, he's done none of the entertaining at our club (we cannot smash long balls upfield like he could at Newcastle if thats what interests you), or would you rather not talk about it because it doesn't bother you how we play?
Getting wins and points are far more important than how we play at this moment in time, because then not only would we begin to climb to a more secure part of the league, where confidence would then hopefully improve, which would then automatically make entertaining more likely, but we´d also stand a chance of keeping hold of our manager, which surely is more beneficial than having an upheaval at this time of the season.
But we are not getting wins and points or being entertaining. What is your defence built upon, that we are two points clear of the bottom 3 and playing awful football that nobody wants to watch and on a slide much like last seasons except starting from a much lower position. Fantastic.
Sorry if I´ve got to explain it carrabuh - I didnt say we were winning or getting points, I said that winning and getting points is what is important at this particular time, not how we play.
