Christoph Stiepermann

They did the same thing with Rowett and Zola a few years ago and it went predictably horrible for them. It's not just about upgrading a manager or going for broke, it's the effect on a group of players that sacking a manager they respect will have on them. Typically when managers who are liked by their group of players and are obviously unfairly sacked it doesn't usually go well for their 'bigger name' replacement.

Playing out from the back is something I've been banging on about for the past few weeks. One thing I noticed is that we started the season mixing it up a lot more because we seemed to have more confidence in our ability to win second balls with the players we had fit at the time and now we have this habit of going full on crab mode with the ball because we're under a bit more pressure. I've never said to completely stop playing out from the back, we should still attempt it more often than not but we need to give the opposition more to think about and play more direct at times when they press us. I don't like the idea of doing something every time regardless of what the opposition do and our back 4 really should be experienced enough and have enough game intelligence to know when to play out and when not to. There is a quality issue there with our defenders which means that we can't play out quickly and move the opposition out of shape with our passing so we almost have to dither on the ball and make them think we're going to make a mistake so they run out of position to open space but the trouble is we often do make that mistake. That's fine in theory but I think there's a time for it in games and it's not every bloody time and we need to be smarter about when we attempt it and sometimes recognize when we're being overwhelmed and are putting ourselves at unnecessary risk. I don't think Wagner's the type of manager who would force our players to robotically do the same thing over and over again regardless of what is happening in the game, I think it's more our defenders falling back into what feels comfortable for them and not wanting to risk a turnover by over looking after the ball when they feel under pressure and I think we need to be a bit smarter with our build up and play a bit more pragmatically at times.

In terms of points and position about where I was expecting us to be. We've scored more goals than I thought we would but also let in a whole lot more as well. We've been so inconsistent so far though and I think that's what's throwing people off. We've had games where we look too good for this level and games where we look like we'd be in a relegation fight so it's made it really hard to make judgement. I expected us to be solid and consistent this year if a bit unspectacular but we've been all over the place. I'm confident in saying that we won't finish top 2 or get relegated but as we don't have a sort of baseline performance to go off of we could just as easily finish anywhere between those two extremes from what I've seen so far. We have an entertaining way of playing that causes the opposition problems but it only really works when we have most of our first choice fit and in decent form. Rowe is brilliant and I never saw that coming. Spingett has impressed me recent too, he's another one that I expected nothing from this year. We have some really good young players but they're so young that they're still inconsistent. I've always rated Sargent but as a Championship level player. He should have been starting over Pukki more last year. Aarons was always professional but was playing well within himself last year. Stacy is a worse footballer but gives his all and that has translated into us being much better than we were last year at RB. Dunno what happened to Krul but he just seemed to lose his sharpness and agility last year, might be that his bad injury has finally caught up with him. Agree 100% with your last 3 points. Feels like a weird season so far and it's still hard to make judgement 10 games in taking into account our usual injury woes and given how inconsistent we've been. I'm not unhappy but not thrilled either.

I know nothing about him but we know how highly our owners think of Webber so I'd say there's a fairly good chance that Knapper will have similar ideas and ways of doing things so I don't see much changing really. Webber has made some poor decisions on transfers but when you look at the finances he has to work he pretty much has to perform miracles to give us any chance of success. If you look at recent years we've had 100m+ in TV money come in, Attanasio has put a decent wedge in already, we've sold players for 10's of millions, shed a load of high earners and could only spend 1m this summer and the rest had to be on frees. I know we've been paying agent fees/wages/signing on fees etc so I'm not trying to say that we literally only spent 1m but when you look at the disparity between money in and money out it shows what a difficult job it is for a SD here with our financial situation. Good luck Knapper, you're gonna need it!

We have too many players who are either too young or fundamentally flawed and we try to play a style of football too complicated and too high level for the quality we have. By this point I'm just sick of us trying to be too clever or different for the sake of different. Just get the f****** basics right and keep it simple. We got away with it for a few years because we had the Buendia-Pukki link up but we don't have that anymore and we're making it harder for ourselves than it needs to be.

People can throw whatever stats they want at me, stats that are more than likely not recorded from teams at Championship level, to say that passing out from the back leads to better...whatever..chance creation/retaining possession/defensive stats etc. But we, at the level we find ourselves at now are not good enough to play that way at consistent enough level to not regularly give good chances away. Play out from the back sometimes, sure, when it's the right time to do so, but not all the time. We're not Man City, we're not even Leicester or Burnley and it's causing us more problems than any benefit we're getting out of it. Get the basics right before you worry about anything too intricate and demanding on the level of players we have.

One thing's for sure if we lose tonight Wagner is going to get pelters for that lineup. I'm reserving judgement because maybe there are fitness issues or he's seen something I haven't but I don't think anyone would have picked that team. Forshaw is a solid call but I've seen nothing from Springett to suggest that he's ready this season and Hwang is a tidy player but just offers no threat that I can see. Hopefully I'm made to look like an idiot when the final whistle goes.

From his point of view he was never going to get a sniff with Pukki in his way while he was here and from this season onwards we have Sargent that we've invested 8m in and Idah who we'd given a 5 year contract to. Better to be getting a handful of sub appearnces for Chelsea than doing the same for us. As for why he didn't get a chance here? The same really. When Pukki was fit he started and we'd invested so much into the other two that we pretty much had to give them every opportunity. We were also always fighting for promotion or against relegation and he was probably not seen as ready by that point. Also let's not forget that however highly rated Matos is, Idah was just as highly rated at his age, the 'next Ibrahimovic' etc and I'm guessing that after all the work and patience we put into Idah we wanted to give him the chance to pay it back.

There were loads of games like that in our last promotion season but people have really selective memories and seem to be under the impression that every game in that season was like the Huddersfield 7-0 when in reality most games were like what we saw yesterday. Birmingham missed a good chance but that happens in every game at this level, it was about as comfortable of a win as you could hope for even if we didn't blow them away with scintillating football or create loads of clear chances.

Rowe's a good lad, doesn't take a lot of effort but most players don't bother interacting with fans and for those kids who he interacted with at the end and the girl he gave the shirt to it will mean a lot to them

2 up top doesn't work unless you have really hard working strikers like Sargent or someone clever who drops deep like Barnes, playing Hwang and Idah up top is stupid as they don't work well together or offer enough help for the midfield so for me we do some variety of 451, I'd go with Gunn Stacey Duffy Gibson Dimi McLean Forshaw Sainz Sara Rowe Idah I think we can get away with Duffy and Gibson with the extra protection Forshaw offers so long as neither of them have a complete howler again and I'm hesitant to throw Batth in right away or Warner in a game where the crowd might turn if things don't go our way. I'd rather Sainz starts even if it's only for 30 minutes instead of coming on late because it's so important for us to get the first goal in a game like this, we don't want to have to break Birmingham down if they get one early and sit back, I'd like to start Onel but he's just so badly out of form right now and Placheta's better as a sub. Sara pushed further forward to play where he's dangerous and having both Sara and Sainz forward will hopefully give Rowe more space to play in as teams have started doubling up on him.

Duffy has had games like that all throughout his career. maybe not always in terms of scoreline but in looking absolutely hopeless in a game out of the blue, plus he's known for dropping clangers in games and giving the ball away in stupid areas. If he was at his best all the time he'd have played hundreds of PL games for a mid table team all throughout his career. Gibson's the same, he's good in most games but then all of a sudden he'll run out one match and looks like he's never played football before. I'd say Hanley's capable of the inconsistency as well but maybe not to the same degree which is why we'll have these games when we suddenly look hopeless at defending if one or more of them is having one of their off days. The way we play doesn't help though as none of them are natural ball playing CB's. They can do it 95% of the time but the 5% of the time they can't we always end up giving away easy chances and goals. I wish we'd still play the ball out but only when we're certain that it's the right time and when the defender can see a pass that might lead to something, otherwise just give it straight to Sara on the turn or a FB to run with, Idah really should win long balls as well because I've seen plenty of players just bounce off him in a physical battle and he's 6"3. I didn't get to see Warner last night, I'm hoping he's another Godfrey/Omobamidele and is much more of a natural ball playing CB and it would be a nice bonus if he has some pace and can defend as well. I've not seen much of Batth to suggest he's comfortable playing out either so if we're hellbent on the slow side to side playing out style we do as often as possible then it would help to have one natural ball playing CB in there and maybe Warner can play that role alongside one of the others. Still early days for him though but I would be tempted to play him alongside Gibson again v Birmingham.

Teams have been doubling up on Rowe now and giving him a lot of attention and as Sara plays so deep we don't really have any attackers who are a threat in our build up. If Sainz starts on the other wing and proves a good player it means teams will have to divert some focus away from Rowe freeing him up and vice versa which will help us in attack. I don't know how Sainz is without the ball and obviously Rowe isn't great at that side even if he works hard so it might mean we open up a bit as well but it's nice to have more than one threat so teams can't double up on one player. Fassnatch is a decent player but he plays more like a wide striker and doesn't do much in build up, Onel is badly out of form and you can usually let Placheta do what he wants because he's got no final ball so for us it'll be good to have two quality wide players. I'd be tempted to go back to either the dreaded 433 or a 4231 with Forshaw, McLean holding and Sara behind Rowe, Idah and Sainz

In terms of personality and connection with the fans he was just the perfect manager for us. He's also a good man manager, manages games well in terms of tactical tweaks and subs and is exceptional at bringing through young players. But for us with our budgetary limitations either being a self funded club under Delia and Michael or what's likely to be a mostly self funded club but still financially inferior to PL and top Championship clubs under Attanasio I just don't think his style of football would ever give us a hope of surviving in the PL should we ever get there. Possession based, patient, passing football on our budget is never, ever going to work beyond the Championship in the era we find ourselves in. If you're one of those fans who was happy to at best yo-yo between brilliant Championship seasons and humiliating and morale destroying PL seasons or more likely on average over a longer period being a upper Championship side who challenges for promotion playing good football then you have every right to mourn losing Farke. But I personally and I suspect many others would like to see us have a chance of surviving for a few years in the PL, maybe getting lucky with a few signings and doing a Brighton for a bit and competing for a League or FA cup but Farke's style of football is totally incompatible with that aspiration when considering our financial situation. I know things are worse now but there was a clear ceiling to what he could achieve with us due to our ownership situation and as that is extremely unlikely to change so I'd rather we went with coaches who played a more realistic style of football given our budget that would give us a better chance of surviving our first season in the PL should we get promoted again. I'm not saying that Wagner's football is the answer either btw because you can pick plenty of holes in that, but we know for certain now after a long period under Farke that it absolutely will not work above the Championship with him and I'd rather we tried a different approach even if it means some short or mid term suffering while we find the right coach and the right mix of players that might be able to achieve something special in spite of our financial limitations.

The style of play is good and difficult for teams to cope with when it works but to work it needs every player on their game and for our attackers or Sara to produce moments of magic. We play a high risk game and if players aren't doing their jobs then we can look really vulnerable and we always rely on some clever play to progress the ball or someone using pace and skill and again if a player is off form or having a bad game it all falls apart structurally. A few of the players are tired, some are off form and I think losing Barnes and Sargent has had a negative effect on morale so it's a mix of both. I'm not ready to call time on Wagner yet but given our new reality of having a mid to upper Championship quality squad I really hope that next time we ditch the idea of us trying to be different or too clever and just find a coach who sets up his teams to do the basics well and be good in both boxes and get the fundamentals drilled in before we worry too much about anything fancy while getting the players motivated and hopefully the sporting director can build a team that compliments each other and can work to more than the sum of their parts. You can accomplish a lot in the Championship with that approach. Not long ball or playing like a Hughton team, i'd still want us to play decent football but anything fancier should be the consideration after we get the team well organised, all the players know their jobs and we're good in both boxes as a foundation to build on. My worry is that when Wagner goes we're going to go back to a possession based coach to try to recreate the Farke era but he won't be quite as good and we're not going to find that Pukki/Buendia combination that gave us so much success and every season will be as dour and frustrating as Farke's first year here where we struggle to score, our CB's touch the ball more than any other player and we let in a shed load of easy soft goals.

This has quickly turned from one of those games into pretty pathetic

There's plenty of space to run into but Rowe's off form and Fassnatch isn't that type of player. I'd swap one with Placheta at half time and have him run at them. Not sure what's going on with the strikers though, Idah is so passive, hesitant and lacking in confidence and Hwang while capeable of some tidy touches but is just no threat whatsoever.

I had the same issue weirdly what worked was clicking the open in mini player button then watching from that. Although saying that 2-0 down now so maybe don't bother

Has to be said that even though Leicester have a lot of good players to work with I was really impressed with them tactically. They always had a pass on, their playing out from the back was superb and extremely inventive, when most teams start passing out a lot of players take it as a cue to have a quick breather but their players were always moving around the field and showing for the ball. They always seemed to have overloads when attacking and their movement caused problems for our man marking system. I often criticize teams who try to play possession football below the top of the PL because clubs tend to be implement it through coaches who are acolytes of Pep's 2008 Barca team and play the same way, a little too slow, a little too robotic and cautious and pass for pass sake and too reliant on technical quality to create something from nothing. It's hard to make that work unless you have a much better team than the opposition or like us under Farke you have a couple of players that force the opposition to sit deep. But Maresca's Leicester look like a mini version of what Pep's been doing at Man City for the past few seasons which is quite different to what he did in the past and his football is now played at a faster pace with more back and forwards instead of side to side passing with quick transitions and little innovations like having the FB's come inside more to act as extra midfielders and a GK who is used to play long passes for deeper runners. Fundamentally it's still the same but he's adapted it a bit for the athleticism and frenetic pace of English football and has come up with some clever innovations to counter being pressed and hit on the break. I was particularly impressed by how they played out from the back, I'm not tactically literate enough to explain exactly how they did it but while every player engaging with that phase of play instead of taking a rest helped, their positioning and movement from their cm's meant that they always had options and their striker dropping so deep for GK's meant that they had an option to play a straight pass into him when we did mark all their defenders and it left us exposed. We eventually wised up to that straight ball to Ihernacho but knowing that the pass to him was always on meant that we were always out of position and exposed from all their GK's and our players were confused by when they should press and in what areas. Again it's with the caveat of the fact that they have better players than every other team in this league but I've not been that impressed by a visiting team on a tactical level since Wagner's Huddersfield rocked up and taught us a lesson in 2017.

I'm really getting bored of this now. I said to myself after the first few games that we look really good but there's a clear first 11 and a couple of injuries would really hurt us. Then wouldn't you know it just a few games into the season we've lost two key players to long term injuries already and that they both play up top is equally as frustrating. We look really light with strikers right now, Idah will be a good player when he's in his mid to late 20's and develops his game but he's not ready yet and while Hwang is supposedly a decent all round player he hasn't got any particular attribute that will cause defenses problems. Still think we should've tried to get Moore and could've used him as an option for games when we're not playing well as Championship defenders just can't deal with his aerial ability, just whip in crosses or win corners and there's a decent chance the ball goes in the back of the net with him.

With Sargent out, Rowe and Sara probably having their worst games in a Norwich shirt and a few players losing their heads and making stupid decisions this was a tough ask really. I think with the effort we showed in the first half if our best players were on their game this would have been a different story but in the end it turned out to be hugely frustrating. My only disappointment really is how we completely threw in the towel after the second, you have to at least give the fans something even if the game is over but we just stopped running.

So many players having a howler. Is this Sara's worst game for us? Stupid from Fassnatch as well

We've only had one poor performance this year and were robbed at Southampton. Plus we had to play Southampton when they were still confident and still had Nathan Tella in their side. Rotherham was one of those games, they happen so I don't think overall we're in a bad place. A win tonight is a tough ask but draw and we'll still be on 2 ppg, the teams above us have had great starts but there's no way any of them are going to be able to sustain that and will slip up eventually. If they do maintain their form all season we'll end up with 3 teams on well over 100 points at the end of the season which just isn't going to happen

Martin will be gone if they lose this. i will never ever understand that style of playing out at the back where you do it slowly, walk on the ball and don't have players move infront of the defence. it's fine if teams are sitting back against you but against a hard working pressing team it's suicidal unless you're a top class team. We have some nervy moments under Wagner but generally we try to play out quickly and players offer options so there's a purpose to it and if pressed we go long, Martin's Southampton are playing that idealistic Man City-lite way and it's not doing them any favours.

In terms of quality we're not one of the best sides in the league anymore so we're going to have periods where the opposition get on top of us and I'd rather we defended in numbers and didn't mess around tippy tappying it around at the back when the option isn't on if defending a 1-0 lead. Hoofball is smashing it high and long at every opportunity and hoping the ball breaks for you, we play a lot more long passes now but that's a good thing and it makes us less predictable in attack and means we don't always put ourselves under unnecessary pressure when we're playing out but we're not a hoofball team. Besides we still mostly tried to play out, just not every single time when the option wasn't on and I don't know why anyone would have a problem with that, after the last few years I'm sick of us giving the ball away in dangerous areas and conceding soft goals. In terms of defending deep Stoke obviously got a rocket from AN and came out a different team in the second half. For us the ball wasn't sticking up top, Idah and Barnes didn't have great games and Rowe always tires early into the second half so we had to stick men behind the ball to defend our lead, it's also a completely normal thing to do and committing too many men forward when you're ahead is quite naive and would have likely lead to Stoke getting an equalizer. If you watch PL teams for example they all stick 11 men behind the ball when they're under pressure, it's a sign of good management that players are working just as hard in defence as they are in attack and leaving gaps when the opposition are having a good spell that they can easily play through when you're 1-0 up would be extremely naive. Wagner's not perfect, I dread it every time he makes subs for example but overall we look a decent side this year after having spent very little money and losing some key players plus the players are working extremely hard for him and we seem to have a stronger mentality than we've had for a while. When this style of football clicks for us it's very exciting to watch when we're in attack and without the ball it's refreshing to see a Norwich team that actually puts in tackles, tracks runners, wins second balls and gets back in numbers to work hard defensively.