Salopian

It''s surely too early to say. If we play with one striker than the candidates could have a pecking order, but if we play with two...? We also have to give Mbokani and the new Laffterty time to settle down, and for Jerome and Grabban to demonstrate that they are up to Prem level.

The pass to Dorrans was unfortunate, in that the midfielder was moving away, which may have been difficult to predict and have an element of bad luck. The other, to Whittaker, was under-hit, and of greater concern to me. The Liverpool winger had the beating of Whittaker virtually all game, and you could argue that Martin would have done better to "hoof" it, even if it came back fairly soon. In the Liverpool goal Ings was on-side when the ball was passed but had gained an important yard by the time it arrived. I don''t know whether it was Martin''s ball to deal with, or Whittaker''s, but we ultimately went one down because neither of our players was quick enough in thought or action.

Given our generous defence, currently about third worst in goals conceded, the question is can we score sufficient to neutralise what we give away? If we play as we did against Bournemouth in the second half, a draw is possible, and if we become better at converting chances then a win is not inconceivable. Most likely score? - 1-1

With some luck, we might manage 15th, but I suspect it could be 17th or worse.

I think that there is doubt on this one. When the ball struck his hand he was in the process of throwing himself out or line, and was not even looking. Slow motion replays can be misleading. The ball was thrown at him from about 15 yards, and at about 60 m.p..h, and in this situation your only concern is your safety. There is not time to make a decision, position your hand and also jump out of the way. In a sense he was lucky even to make contact.

Of course we wish him well while he is a Norwich player, and any perceived lack he may have could be due our particular formation and set up, rather than deficiency on his part. But at least two managers now have felt unable to use him, given their method of attack, and significantly no other team approached CR this summer with interest in signing him, as far as we know. From the few occasions I have seen him he is a wholehearted and committed player, but seemingly an all round player with no outstanding strengths to his game , whether shooting, heading or crossing. With our other forwards fit and available, I cannot see him getting many games, but if he does come on to the pitch, I''m sure that we shall all support him.

Eventually, yes, when he shows that he thinks as much about the team as himself.

It would take something to cheer up supporters who feel that the club failed to deal with three main areas - CB, RB and LB despite knowing the problems since last season. We need a confidence booster - a good win against Bournemouth would be a good start, and an early return by Lumumbu. Two or three clean sheets in succession could also be useful.

I hope so, but it take all Neil''s powers of persuasion and encouragement. We have potentially the leakiest defence in the division, with the majority of goals conceded due to defensive errors. We have strikers who are not striking. The midfield and defence can''t keep us afloat on their own. The hopes? - that Mulumbu will show us why he is highly regarded, that his fellow countryman Mbocky will get up to speed quickly, and our midfielders, including Wes, will quickly learn how to feed him. -that Brady will show us what he can do further forward, with Olsson supporting him, and Redders continues with his renaissance. -that defenders manage to concentrate and follow instructions. In these cases we can survive, if AN produces good tactics and can inspire the team to confidence. We can''t afford another collective "no turn Up" like that at Southampton, or it could be a slippery slope.

We have strengthened the midfield over the summer, and to a lesser extent the strike force, but we have made very little improvement to a defence which has leaked goals since the first game of the season - five games without a clean sheet, and conceding almost two per match. Olsson is soon to return, but we shall still be vulnerable down the centre, even with Tettey/Mulumbu guarding, and especially down our right. So far Wisdom seems to reflect our existing players - very good going forward, but a little suspect defensively. We are vulnerable in the centre of the back four. Seb is not entirely convincing and Russell is prone to be out of position. Worse, the cover is almost bare, and Ryan Bennett doesn''t seem as good as we thought he was going to be. We may have to convert someone into an emergency CB. We didn''t spend so much, nett, as our rivals, and I fear that we could suffer for it.

I can answer one or two of the questions: 1) Transfer policy. Allegedly the manager makes the decision and McN does the negotiating, unless the target visits CR. So the targets are the manager''s. 2) Why sell Bradley? Because he is not quite PL standard, and we find ourselves with so many central midfielders that he was not really going to get many games, (- the reason that Andreu, Vardis and the Murphy lads are out on loan.) Bradley is a whole-hearted and committed player, but leave aside his goals and his contribution is fairly limited.) 3) Why so many loans? This is partly a reflection of the lending club - they want the player to be available in the future, perhaps after developing further. For us it is surely that they are cheaper, usually, than buying, and we can send them back if things do not work out. I think that the Prudence policy makes too little provision for expensive purchase, and after RvW it may be right. 4) Why won''t they come? Our wage structure is low by PL standards, Norwich is remote from the bright lights, our future uncertain. Will that do? 5) Poor communication. Other clubs and agent like to give away news of our interest, to provoke other clubs, but we have always tried to keep quiet what we are doing to avoid other clubs scuppering our chances. If we are told in advance, then journalists and other clubs will know. In fairness to AN, when asked a question he has regularly indicated interest and dismissed nonsense.

He has the pace and strength of Jerome and Grabban, but he seems to be better at heading (- not difficult!), and from the video the goals he scored were often deft and with good touch. How much of an improvement he will be on the other two, time will tell, but as the only goal scored by a striker so far was one by RvW, perhaps it will not be difficult to be better.

Is his role to advise on loans in and out, or is it merely to facilitate loans once the decision is made by others? There will obviously be phone contacts, paper work involving the FA, etc., and possibly arranging reception and advice for incoming loans. Is this a full time job? If the situation is blurred, it should be sorted out at once, but I can''t see that it could be reduced from what I have suggested. Should it be enhanced, should he be promoted to a wider remit? I don''t know. We shall probably never know how much influence he had in the signing of Jarvis, which seems to have been a consolation for not signing any other players. It has the marks of AN upon it - emphasis on wide players, and perhaps there was regret at having let the Murphy brothers go for the whole year, but how far Adams was involved we shall problem never know. Likewise in the Wisdom signing, but at that point Adams had only recently taken up the post.

The feeling in this area is that Afobe, if he remains fit, will do enough to lift a not very good Wolves team to the upper part of the Championship. Whether he could do the same in the Premiership in a different team, we shall probably never know. To argue about the right price for him is an uncertain process.

With all due respect to Redders, Johnson had played very little this season, and when he did was not particularly impressive. It is already noticeable that pundits and journalists have reduced confidence in our ability to survive this season. Our squad have had a good spirit, remember Wembley?, but will this be enough in the Premiership? I must admit that my own confidence has been reduced.

I would like to think so, but he has not had much success in staunching a leaking defence recently. Can he somehow make players concentrate, keep shape, avoid rash tackles, etc.? I am concerned about this, that we could be the soft touch where other teams seek to improve their goal differences, He could do a Hughton and bolster the defence with an extra man or two, but that would weaken our ability to score goals. We all hope that he will succeed, but he has been "dealt a difficult hand" by our failure to recruit one or two more very good players. If he succeeds, then he will have demonstrated his ability.

It''s tempting to call for a clear out, but it is clear that they looked/inquired in the cases of many players, so they obviously worked through a list of recommendations. They also made bids, in a few cases more than one, for a number of players. All this is from other clubs and from journalists. I have no doubt that they looked, and in the case of the Italian CB seemed to have gone to some trouble. Why then have we finished so disappointingly? 1) Prudence - were not willing to pay the very high prices demand by other clubs or wages by players. 2) Other clubs were unwilling to sell - by the end of the window they did not want to part with important players whom they would not have time to replace, or were rivals to us. 3) There are indications that a few players chose not to come to us, whether because of our wage structure, lack of ambition, geographical remoteness, or other factors. We had agreement with their club, but the players turned us down. Which of these factors were more important or more common, I do not know, although to judge from the past Prudence dictated that we had among the lowest average wages in the Premiership.

On balance, while surprised, my own conclusion is that it is probably good business for all concerned. He is likely to make a greater impact in the Championship, and is far more likely to play regularly. With all the central midfielders we have, he was not going to have much time on the pitch. For Derby, the fact that they were prepared to stump up almost twice what we paid for Dorrans suggests that he should fit in with their structures. For the Canaries, while he did very well for us last season, he has to be regarded as a borderline Championship/Premiership player occupying one of the 25 places in the squad. His contribution as a midfielder was in scoring goals, and creativity was not his strong point. He was committed and ran and ran, and made a big contribution, and we owe him thanks for that.

Failure is perhaps too strong a word, but it certainly is disappointing. We have weaknesses in our team, and apart from Mbokani potentially we have done very little to improve them. I''m sure that we tried, but there were some signs that players did not want to uproot to Norwich, with wage levels low for the Premiership probably and because players were unsure of our ambition, and also signs that other clubs would not sell, in some cases because we did not meet their valuations. So I have a suspicion that although we had identified some good targets, and worked hard to achieve them, Prudence got the better of us. Perhaps we are still reeling from the waste of money which brought RvW. So well done in signing Lumumbu, Dorrans and Brady, but otherwise a great disappointment because of a failure to do anything significant about our weak areas.

There is some justification in the concern. We have not yet kept a clean sheet, and many of the goals conceded have been from defensive errors and absences. I am disappointed that we have not signed a strong CB, but comforted by the thought that Olsson and Mulumbu should be playing soon. The immediate concern is the fact that opponents find our fullbacks easy to get past, and while Olsson will improve things on the left, we hope, I am not yet convinced by Wisdom as a defender on the right.

Grabban is the type of striker which the manager likes - quick and strong, and causing trouble for defenders. We saw this in the first weeks after AN arrived. It took some time before the manager saw that Jerome was a slightly better option when it comes to scoring goals. Now Grabban has committed the unpardonable sin, of rejecting managerial authority. So is there a way back for him? Is he chastened by the discipline, and willing to knuckle down? The fact that the club did not immediately rule the player persona non grata, and take a reasonable fee from Bournemouth, suggests either that they wish to punish him, even if it costs £5m in transfer fees and and a million of so in wages, or they feel that he could be redeemed and make a contribution this season. AN did talk Seb back into the squad, and perhaps it is felt that Grabban could follow a similar path. I have my doubts about what contribution Grabban can make in the Premiership, but as we have evidently found it difficult to sign effective strikers at reasonable prices, perhaps the further opportunity for the striker does have some sense.

It would not be difficult to imagine Johnson going: He will probably not get many starts this season, barring injuries - ahead of him are Dorrans, Howson, O''Neil, Tettey, Lumumbu, Vadis, and he has already missed enough chances this season to suggest that the greatly improved shooting of last year seems to have left him temporarily. He has been excellent, with commitment and running, in the Championship, but he is arguably slightly out of his depth in the Premiership.

The manager seemed very disappointed, even shocked, at the performance on Sunday. We lack skilled players in every position, and any success will come from a collective effort and contribution. Clearly, these were lacking on Sunday. In previous games we had produced plenty of chances, but on Sunday hardly any, even before Whittaker''s idiocy. My first concern is that in five games the only goal from a striker was RvW''s, and he seems unlikely to play a sole striker role. The second concern is the lack of pace and concentration in our defence. We have not yet met any high-scoring teams, and I shudder to think what could happen.

Confidence is a strange but important factor, and I think that RvW''s experience - injury problems on first arrival, followed by a team that did not serve him very well - I clearly remember several occasions when crosses reached him but behind him, with little power to be generated must have gone some way to destroy his self confidence. Little seemed to correct the situation at St. Etienne. His goal at Rotherham was well taken - a difficult height and curling, and that seemed to work wonders for him. He seemed to be popping up everywhere afterwards. With Grabban a doubt RvW could gain more time on the pitch, and, who knows, score some goals and become something like the striker we had heard about.

Not sure if Toffolo will be trusted in what is an important game, and I think that Brady could continue there for one more game, which would allow both Dorrans and Howson to play. ( I still think that Howson is the more complete footballer, and perhaps should be captain.) Olsson is not quite ready, but ought to be playing after a further week if his game on Friday caused no bad reaction. Then AN will have a difficult selection problem. I would always want to accommodate Howson, so either he or Dorrans could play wide left.