At the game today, in the last 20 minutes or so a lot of fans around me were saying that the Norwich players were tired. I found this very confusing? We made several changes from our mid-week game against Tottenham. I think the number stated was 10 changes (as KIO corrected me ). A week to recover is long enough. Stoke are to a team who playing also gathered floor, looking to out-pass the opposition while trying to keep possession; they played the long ball a lot, this doesn't take a lot of energy to defend. You're not chasing the ball about like you would be with a passing team.another example is our substitutions who played in much the same way as the rest of the team. They're not going to be as tired as the rest of the team, surely? One of the major changes since Hughton has come in is that we've become far more defensive and not looking to score loads of goals, as we did last season. It was rather clear, to me, that we were playing defensively for the last 20 minutes or so: kicking the ball clear, rather than playing the ball up field; when we we had freekicks, the majority of our players were behind the ball; we played the ball into the corner often, not putting our players into the centre of the penalty area (note Holt). I can see why people felt our players were tired but in my opinion it was purely down to us playing defensively.
Total bollocks we made ten changes for the Spurs game, no-one was tired FFS, totally professional performance today. Hughton is a fantastic coach and we're very lucky to have him
I really dont buy in to resting players for a prem match,its bollox.I f a player cant play two matches a week,which is rare and lets not forget these guys are supposed to be athletes then there is something wrong
This BTW Wonky, I wasn't poo-pooing your post I've just cracked open my sixth can of Bud and I think the drink is starting to talk, hic
No worries, you correcting me proves my point even further and shows that the people around me really are stupid pricks and I'm not being brought down to their level. On the fourth bud myself although I feel that will be it for me. Got to watch my alcohol levels since my seizures started.
Players looked fine today, I was impressed at the energy levels of the defending at the death. Johnson in particular was gunning everywhere.
That was just the type of match last season we would have cracked and conceded late on. Just goe's to show what a difference Tettey and Bassong have made to the team.
The first sign of tiredness is when concentration goes. I didn't see any indication that anyone lost concentration at any time in the game, and especially not in the last period when we were defending with exceptional discipline despite losing Turner and Garrido. But I don't agree that fit players (which ours are) don't need to be rested. The really demanding thing is not the running about, but maintaining concentration for 90+ minutes.
I can't really claim any proper input as I didn't go but from what I was hearing the downturn was related to the enforced substitutions and Stoke throwing more men forward (not to mention the ball).
Snoddy has really picked up again. Presumably his ankle knock has cleared up. He put in a great shift defensively as well. I expected Etherington to have an impact when he came on, but Bennett and Snodgrass between them didn't give him a sniff. And what about Whittaker? Thing I like about him is his awareness of what's on ahead of him. Played some excellent balls forward.
We certainly weren't tired but we certainly did defend deep but with the likes of CR_UCH (his O had fallen off), Walters and Jones on the pitch and Stokes intention of trying to hit them from any part of the pitch, we tried to shut up shop on the edge of our box. And they didn't score so we did. It was more or less forced on us.
Etherington did have quite an impact......on Bassongs shins i believe ? Dirty so & so he was a bit lucky not to walk imo.
