Leaderboard

I’m not going to preach ala Lakey, but we didn’t spend huge sums in the summer, but those who we did go after and didn’t sign weren’t exactly enamoured with coming here. As our learning from Naismith he never wanted to come here and we had to pay way over the odds for absolutely no improvement to our squad by adding him! We kept a very good talented set of youngsters only 8 games into their premiership experience and we’ve lost key players to injury. Even with a full squad it was always going to be a battle to avoid going down, we’re still in that battle. Unlike some on here the realists knew a top 10 was never going to happen and for the delude few who said anything is possible and we could finish higher than top 10, reality bites. Time to just accept, we don’t have to like it, as ambitious people shouldn’t be satisfied but push for better, but everyone really needs to acknowledge we’re a bottom six club at best and hope we can find enough points to finish above three other teams. Ranting about not spending won’t help now, the hope is that another Godfrey and Cantwell can step forward to take their chance, Idah & Famewo might be the next two! Off the back of a great season last year, we’re now financially more sound, we have filled the under 23 with lots more quality for the future, our training facility is far better now and the short term future is solid, be thankful and enjoy the season.

Could you please tell me how often he gives the ball away? What is his pass completion rate? What on earth do you think his job is? He screens the defence like nobody else we've got, forces the opposition back, wins headers, intercepts the ball & when he wins it back passes to a player who has the skills necessary to get our attack going again. Unless we can afford £20m + he's the best we're likely to have. His injury record lately is my biggest concern, but when he's on the pitch he's a huge influence on our play.

I said last season he was the glue that held the defence together. Much more to his game than just shot stopping and goal kicking. Vastly underated.

Looking at the goals yesterday again (painful as it was) I realised a number of them may have been prevented if Krul was between the posts. Not because he would have necessarily saved them , but more that he would have nagged the two CB’s to pick up - only speculation of course, but we seemed to miss him as much for his experience and communication with a young CB in Godfrey and a makeshift CB in Amadou !!!

Seems like an attempt to pick up blokes by the looks of it

You have to ask yourself why nobody has snapped Rodwell up on a free? I’d rather continue to follow our clear model and give Famewo a chance, and slot Amadou where I really think we’ll see him at his best, but each to their own.

Nobody is seeing Tettey as the new messiah. Just a player that can sit in there and protect that defence far better than anyone else we have at our disposal at the moment

Why do you set yourself up against the whole board and then expect a reasoned debate. We don't fall for the propaganda you claim we do. You're not some kind of great leader with all and sundry against him. We are not meekly content with anything. And I doubt we see the manager as a rabbit in the headlights. If you want a contribution - what about an opinion that the injuries have made a difference. An idea that perhaps playing Tettey and McLean gave us much more protection than Leitner and McLean. Not having 2 walking wounded in the back four might also have helped. I have a observation through reading your posts that you don't like the way we play. You didn't like it early last season and certainly not the season before. I think you tolerated it when we were winning because it would have been churlish not to.

Also, I'm not sure a striker is a priority unless one of the current ones gets injured between now and January. Drmic isn't getting much game time as it is. The priority has to be the defence. I doubt we'll see Klose fully fit this season so a centre back to replace him is a must.

Is that Jamal injured, wink wink?

Why has Big Vince made a second account?

It can be done welly quick:- https://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/apr/30/chinese-construction-firm-erects-57-storey-skyscraper-in-19-days

Interesting stuff, aren't you going to tell us what you had for breakfast or what your favourite car is?

Would have been helpful to Beardo to post it then. It can be navigated from here... https://beta.companieshouse.gov.uk/company/00154044/filing-history?page=1 Go to.. Annual Return (made up to 11th October 2013)

Good job i have access to it Nutty as your link does not work. 😜 There are a few substantial shareholdings which i wonder six years on might have changed ? A few examples being Archant 5,000 (0.57%) RG Carter 7,500(1.22%) The Company running The Pleasure Beach now owned by Albert Jones son of Jimmy 23,278 ( 3.78%). Interesting that the original Supporters Trust set up in the late 50's still own 10,219 shares (1.66%) and are controlled by Peter Sharman.

On this one I have 25 shares.There was an update in 2015 which showed the changes only.

Pete, why bother, a not particularly good Newcastle did a number on man u, we may well do the same, we may not. Watford are beatable, doesn't mean we will or wont. Your post is miserablist speculation at best. I reckon most supporters knew ,even before this season started, that it'd be tough going, what's new. Nothing in your post. As boblozo says... 'cheer up' , life is more fun with a sunny disposition.

A quick look at Companies House and a search for Norwich City Football Club and a squint on the 2013 Annual Return shows no shareholding in the name of Graham Paddons Beard 😉

Completely agree. However I would say that any hopes I held of a decent (top 10) finish has been curtailed by the appalling injury situation. But, never forget, football really is a funny old game. There've been some really odd results & performances across the division this season already, & I suspect there'll be a lot more to come. A bit of luck & a few decent results could change everything. It's going to be a test of character as much as anything - & this applies to the fans as well.

I'd make the international break 6 weeks instead of 2.

https://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city/canaries-left-back-withdraws-from-international-squad-1-6309895 Good liasion between the club and NI FA. 😀

Leitner acts as the quarterback of the side, and will constantly roam from CM to offer a short option to feet which he will then turn over quickly. It's a vital part of making the way we play a success and being very good at it is why he was meant to be such a big deal before he lost his way (I am however not defending his performance against Villa, they were all crap) Kenny McLean is more of a box-to-box midfielder but with a definite preference for facing forwards than back- and when Mo was injured for a large part of last year, he was the one that became the CM 'creator'. The essential facts of the two playing together are that one will wander off wide to dictate play and one will spur forward the second we look like we have a break on; that leaves a lot of room for PL attackers to work in and Farke could scream until he's blau in the face, they won't sit in front of the defence naturally or effectively for a whole game. We all know what the fix is here. We can only afford one of these players to start, alongside one of Amadou, Tettey or Trybull so they can take territorial responsibility for the middle of the pitch- we also know at the moment we don't have that option due to the silly injury crisis. It's going to come down to whether or not those players come back in time to stop the bleed before it becomes terminal.

If Hanley is fit I'd bring him in for McLean with Amadou moving into midfield. I'd also be tempted to switch Roberts for Stieperman with Cantwell moving into the central area.

👍🏻 yep

Yeah, I don't get this anti Tettey thing either. Especially not with regards to his passing. He, when playing reasonably regularly a couple seasons back, actually had the best pass completion rate out of any of our other players. So to say he can't pass doesn't make sense. He doesn't try the Hollywood passes. He keeps them short and accurate which is exactly what we need from someone in his position.

Me too!

This was not meant as a specific criticism of Leitner (although he did not have a good game on Saturday in some other games he has played very well) more to point out that their chances were coming from a very specific source as a result of them sticking a man directly on him and harrying him all game long and getting probably unexpected levels of success from it. I honestly think it led to at least 10 decent chances at goal for them, if not more. I suppose it goes back to the "should we change how we play" debate because to my mind once it happened 3 or 4 times (which it had before they scored their second goal if not more time than that) the team should be adapting and realising that this was happening. I'm not talking about lumping it long but surely someone needs to have the leadership qualities to realise that playing it short to him 30 yards from our own goal was causing us problems.

It's not the number it's the positions those missing players occupy that matters. We now have one CB & he's been playing with an injury. We are playing our 3rd choice goalie. We are missing our most proven & powerful DM, our alternative (although less powerful) DM , & our most dynamic forward, one who would give us a genuine attacking alternative. DM is an enormously important position in our system as we need the FBs to get forward whenever possible. I said last season that the thing about the PL was the sheer strength & athleticism of the players. I watched some of the Palace v West Ham game on MOTD & just about all the players had that about them - with skill to match - & they were expected to be among the strugglers this season. I still think we can play exquisite football of such brilliance that it will blow any team apart. But we need players like Alex to complement Todd, Emi, Teemu, Mo & the others to stop the opposition doing just as they please first. The loss of Zimmerman, Tettey, Klose, Onel is huge. We could probably cope with one being missing, to lose them all is incredibly unlucky & an insurmountable problem. All we can do in the present circumstances is fight like hell to limit the damage & scrap for whatever points we can get. We didn't do that on Saturday. Now is the time for Daniel to show his mettle & inspire some courage in his depleted squad.

I don't see those issues as tactical or something we're not being drilled correctly on. It's simply that we have a small, inexperienced team. To play Farke's style of football you have to be technically gifted as a bare minimum. This squad has been largely built on a shoestring so we've sacrificed physicality and experience for players who first and foremost fit our philosophy. We have some tall players but they aren't quick or that strong and some fast players who are weak and inconsistent, much of our team is also out injured. I would argue there's very little Farke can do on the training pitch to stem the flow of these types of goals. We're not yet at a place where we can afford players who are physically and technically good enough so we are where we are. It's not fun and this was my main fear coming into this season that we'd be dominated physically and in the air but it is what it is and we have to get on with it. Kenny McLean, a physically average, attacking midfielder currently being deployed in a holding midfield role is our best header of the ball in the team at the moment. That says it all really, no amount of careful coaching can fix that problem

I stop taking posts seriously when the poster starts to compare football with “any other business”

That’s very true, that’s why I’m all for giving Famewo the chance and move Amadou into his strongest position, as I said elsewhere that’s what I’ve liked about Farke he hasn’t tried too much to fit round pegs into square holes, he’ll give players a chance whatever their age. I’m all for playing the strongest players in their first position and playing weaker players in the team than move a player and leave the team weaker.

Assuming Amadou was brought in to play CDM we were without our first three choices in that position. This must impact the rest of the team. And to be honest Emi and Todd looked stronger and more robust than out two CDM's yesterday.

I think its obvious that missing first choice central defenders and first choice central defensive midfield players makes a massive negative difference. I think others play this down because for whatever reason, it suits them.

You don't think Mings handling it on the goaline twice warrants a penalty then? Under the current rules, his arms were outside his body and he handled it as it bounced up from him sliding, preventing a clear goalscoring opportunity for our players. He then stretched out on the floor and it hit him on the hands again. Accidental no doubt, but under the current rules, it was a pen for both instances. The Buendia one maybe I got wrong, I saw it a few times and it looked like the player went through the back of him whilst winning the ball, which would normally be a free kick, but I'm not going to die on that hill as it wasn't clear enough on the replays and commentators didn't mention it. The handball was clear as daylight though.

https://news.sky.com/story/greta-thunberg-pokes-fun-at-trolls-with-greta-thunberg-helpline-11820854 Greta Thunberg ✔ @GretaThunberg Hang in there! Help is available

After at least 2 of the goals the ref delayed kick off presumably for checks. Which brings me to something else I didn't understand. 4 second half goals (including delays to kick off), 6 second half substitutions, 2 delays for onfield treatment, but just 3 mins added time. Now i know the result wouldn't have changed, and I was pleased it was over, but does anyone really know how added time is calculated?

Thing is @Parma Ham's gone mouldy is that there is a solid cohort of posters on here who have never bought into the philosophy. They went quiet when the team was winning but are back now with a vengence. They really do want to go back to old school English values because that is what they grew up with, and what they understand.

Godfrey just went from £50m player to unable to defend. Part of the model is offering chances to younger players sooner, trusting them for longer and allowing for their education on the job. It is something to be proud of, to support and get behind. It is not cost-free however. Parma

Nice philosophical interpretation of the game.....But yesterday, I just thought we were absolute sh!t......

This is what we are, how we play and what has brought us success. The methodology is a long term blue print with Auxerre-Ajax-Barcelona projections. We are at Auxerre stage. Change - whilst easy to demand - won’t bring success in the medium or long term because it is not what the model is built on. We have made the most of limited resources and if it was so easy everyone would do it. Holland of the 70’s had a wonderful total football model - probably the best single philosophy ever - but even that can be countered, neutered and ‘spoilt’ by teams set up to stop it. Holland, Ajax and Barcelona are still built on it to this day however, so it is endearing and considered beneficial over a long enough period. We have achieved incredible success on limited resources to be in this position and it would be utterly foolish to abandon what got us here, or even tweak it much. We will over perform our budget and parameters with a clear, understood pattern of play and philosophy that allows us to compete (sometimes) with those of much higher resources. The alternative is to buy slightly worse players than everyone else and try to battle on heart, wanting it, being up for it and not making so many mistakes. Some of you will have spotted - over 60 years of watching England - that some of these last sentences are foolish platitudes, spouted by cheap media offering simple answers to deeper problems that they either don’t understand or don’t wish to confront. It was always success that was going to stress the new model. We are not just playing our own moves. The standard of the opposition, their quality, high physicality, their analytical and tactical assessments and their respect for our game has gone up several levels. Parma

We are not over reliant on it, it is the way we play. We simply need to get back to doing it better. Having a good CB pairing with a real defensive midfielder in front of them will help.

If people don't like the way the club is run go and support another one, there are plenty to choose from.

The title is very sexist language, so I'll ignore it thanks. To tell people to "grow a pair of balls" implies a mental weakness tied to gender. Delia has never wavered through 23 years of football club ownership, riding the bad times like a wave and succeeding where so often men fail. Its an incredible achievement for her to be at the helm of a professional club for so long, how many owners have a longer tenure? She has managed that without needing to grow testicles, because mental toughness is not linked to gender or sexual organs.