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Peanuts

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Everything posted by Peanuts

  1. Genuinely giggling to myself at this. Hanley has many fine qualities no doubt, but a ball playing centre back he ain't. His passing range consists of a few feet sideways or row Z, with not a lot in between. As to Ryan Bennett, we reportedly paid £3.2 million for him back in 2012, which still makes him more expensive than most of our current squad. And it's not like transfer fees have been going down in the last 8 years either. Puts into perspective the wonders that have been worked on such a shoe string budget these last couple of years.
  2. It was one of those games where it felt pretty dismal watching from the stands but in the cold light of day the stats showed we dominated the game with more possession, more chances, higher xG etc. not to mention three points and a clean sheet, so difficult to complain too much. I thought Bournemouth were very well organised defensively and seemed happy to park the bus and let us play in front of them leading to a lot of frustrating side to side, back to the keeper stuff from us. This only got worse once they were down to ten men. Things opened up a bit when it was 10 v 10 and we hit the panic button a few times dropping deeper and deeper, but other than Wilson missing the ball from 6 yards I don't remember them really looking like scoring. As you say we've had plenty of games this season where we've played lovely football and lost so maybe it was about time we managed a scrappy one nil win.
  3. For all his natural attributes and technical ability, Ben's lack of experience as a defender has been exposed a few times this season. Of course not having a regular partner earlier in the season hasn't helped, but I think he looked far better against a lower standard of opposition last season when his athleticism and technique could compensate for sometimes poor positioning or decision making. He still has a lot of potential for improvement though and would benefit from an experienced head like Klose or dare I say it Hanley alongside him.
  4. Krul aside, those players are all young and inexperienced and their value reflects their potential as much as their current level. It's also probably fair to say they would all look better with more experienced teammates around them.
  5. Agree with all of the above and would also add that perhaps under Farke's system Tettey has been given more freedom and confidence to play creatively than under previous managers.
  6. I suppose it's possible they signed Amadou as cover for DM and CB with a hope that he could push Tettey and ultimately take over from him. However at the time I think most people saw Amadou as the DM upgrade we desperately needed and after time to get used to the EPL would have expected him to feature as a regular starter in his preferred position.
  7. I think this is also why we have looked a bit more solid now we have a fit Hanley at the back. Despite his technical shortcomings he has bags of experience, including in the premier league.
  8. That's a bit like saying Grant Hanley is the same type of player as Virgil Van Dijk though Wanyama has proven ability at the highest level whereas Amadou is someone with the potential to step up and therefore much more of a Norwich signing. I expect if we were going to make a signing like Wanyama we'd have done it in the Summer instead of Amadou. As I said earlier I don't think it will happen, but agree with those who say he could be a fantastic player for us.
  9. As great a player as Tettey is for this club, there's something wrong if Amadou can't get in the team ahead of him or at least give him a break over Christmas. Tettey was knackered in the second half last night and in a couple of games recently his fatigue and lack of pace has been exposed. Perhaps Amadou is not fully fit or maybe there's some issue behind the scenes and he doesn't want to stay.
  10. Fantastic talent and the last few games he's seemed stronger on the ball and more confident taking players on. Just because nobody else really has, I'll chip in with some criticism: he tends to sulk when things don't go his way and can spend far too long rolling around on the floor when the play has moved on. You could also question why if his stats are so good he isn't having more of an impact on results. But I'm nitpicking, he's a wonderful player and a joy to watch. As someone said above you really have to see him live to appreciate his technique and work rate.
  11. Can't see us being able to meet Wanyama's wage demands or compete with other PL clubs who would be interested. I'd have given my right nut to have signed him in the Summer though.
  12. Very interesting comments from the IFAB man there. It does seem odd that the EPL were one of the last big competitions to introduce VAR and yet seem to have gotten it so horribly wrong. Does anyone have statistics for VAR reviews in the EPL this season? In this interview the same IFAB guy says they average 1 review every 3 matches, surely we're way ahead of that this season?
  13. Just watched the Souness clip and while yes his suggestion would give an advantage to the attacker and lead to more goals it doesn't address the fundamental issue which is that the VAR technology is not accurate at the distances it's being used to determine given the speed of play and frame rate of the video.
  14. And now Sheffield Utd have a goal disallowed for a toenail offside. Shame.
  15. According to the EPL website the two VAR officials were Dave Peacock and Stevland Morris.
  16. I've always felt Trybull can be a bit anonymous. When he's playing well he does the simple stuff and is neat and tidy, but ideally you want a player who does all that but also offers something more. Vrancic has a good range of passing and is a goal threat from distance but he can be a bit lightweight and drifts in and out of games. Certainly today he was fantastic and he had some great performances last season, eg. Elland Road where he dominated. He does need a solid DM alongside him though. With both him and Buendia in the team you've got two quality playmakers and it really gives the opposition something to think about.
  17. It's become a complete farce and whoever is responsible for how VAR is implemented needs to take a step back and apply a bit of common sense. In the good old days before VAR would this have been one of those terrible decisions we needed technology to overturn? Would Mourinho have been complaining the goal was offside and demanding the introduction of video referees to make the game better? No, of course not. You don't need to watch something a hundred times from twenty different angles and project lines from different body parts to within a few millimetres to make an offside call. Just watch it once and if it's not obvious you give the benefit of the doubt to the attacking side. Simple. Maybe they could even have a screen by the pitch so the referee could do it themselves?
  18. Thanks Ricardo. One of those where you'd have taken a point before the game but after that performance I felt we deserved more. Don't know what more needs to be said about VAR but I'd rather go back to grumbling about inconsistent refereeing and getting outraged watching replays later than this nonsense where you don't know where you stand during the game.
  19. Farke is a very conservative manager as witnessed last season when he was reluctant to rest or rotate players if things were going well and it's the same with his substitutions - he rarely makes changes unless forced by injury or we're chasing the game and there's nothing left to lose. It's probably also true that he doesn't have a lot of faith in his bench to change the game (Hernandez the exception IMO) and if he felt he had a bit more quality there he might be more inclined to make proactive changes sooner.
  20. The fantastic PR job Webber has done and the massive over-achievement of last season have perhaps masked the fact that the club has gone backwards in terms of squad quality and financial might. You can argue about whether this is due to Delia's penny pinching or "sins of the past" but it's undeniable that we haven't spent as much money and the quality of our squad is poorer overall than in previous promotions (take Tettey for example, at 34, twice relegated and even with his dodgy knees he's still one of our best players). The plan was always to build from the ground up with lower league gems, misfits and youth players, developing them to have an impact for us before moving them on for a profit, rinsing and repeating, hopefully building the quality of the squad up over a couple of seasons in order to secure promotion and then strengthen again to compete in the premier league. The achievement of last season can't be overstated and not just because we'd found gems like Pukki and Buendia, but the squad were so much more than the sum of their parts. Last season too we were competing with clubs with rich owners who'd spent millions on proven players and yet our rag tag bunch of free transfers, misfits and youth players won the Championship convincingly playing some really beautiful football. The minute we secured promotion Webber was out doing the rounds with the media lowering expectations ("lowest budget in the league") and I am sure that whilst everyone would love us to stay up he and the board were fully expecting us to come straight down. Whether that's a lack of ambition or financial necessity, again people can argue about. Personally I'm somewhere in the middle. I support the model and recognise that given the reality of our financial situation it's a necessity. It's also nothing new either, we've always been a selling club the difference is now we are putting more resources into developing talent and committing to giving young players more opportunity in the first team. That said, if we go down this season it's perfectly reasonable to ask whether there was a failure of recruitment in the Summer given that clearly more money was available (eg. £15m for the French guy).
  21. Last week had to be the worst yet with Butler spending most of the show eulogising over Martin Peters who he clearly had never met, seen play or even knew much about. I turned over to 5 Live and learned more about Peters death in a 10 second bulletin than I had from 10 minutes of Butler boring on about him. It was embarrassing and cringeworthy. I don't know what Butler's background is (not journalism, surely) but he comes across as some sort of poundshop Alan Partridge.
  22. A lot of these people just don't see it as racism I think. Their attitude is he's black so I called him an effing black so and so and if he was Welsh I'd have called him an effing Welsh so and so, if he was ginger an effing ginger so and so, etc. They would say they aren't really racist and it's just part of letting off steam at a football match, hence why they don't abuse their own black players. So to answer your question, both stupid and selective.
  23. Watched both games on the telly today and thought Utd and Spurs were both poor. Thought the Son red was a bit harsh and the Chelsea defender's reaction was disgraceful, but if it helps us I won't complain!
  24. Tottenham now defending short corners "the Norwich way" too. Bring on next Saturday
  25. If that's what he said then that's a fair comment but the atmosphere in the stands reflects the performance on the pitch, not the other way around.
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