Christoph Stiepermann

I do alternate weekends and thursday and friday off the other week and all these dates have fallen on my days off. Perfect! Now just up to us to get there and win the games 😆

Wonder how much money companies are going to be paying for adverts to be shown around a Man City v Man Utd cup final and how many eyes around the world will be watching compared to a Man City v Coventry final. The technology is flawed. Someone has to actually pick what frame they decide the ball leaves the players foot and as we've seen in a screenshot above sometimes the lines are drawn over the defenders foot and on the absolute tip of the attacking players boot. It can be manipulated to suit a desired outcome, it isn't just a case of being on or offside as there is still error involved and it's funny to me how it always seems to favour the bigger clubs or the more desirable outcome for broadcasters. Referee's aren't biased in general and there isn't some grand conspiracy against certain clubs. But with how much money flows in and out of football and the potential for big companies to lose or gain money or exposure based on tight decisions I think it would be very naive to assume that there isn't some fixing going on with tight disputable decisions in big games when there's money on the line for some powerful and influential people and companies.

Forgot I was watching ITV for a while I thought it was a direct stream from MUTV. Biased and patronizing rubbish.

I'm still struggling to work out how it's offside if the lines are level? If it's that you see slightly more of one colour than the other along the edge then who decides what millisecond that the ball left the players foot? There needs to be a state between on and off called level and offside should only be called if the lines arent touching. Offside means OFF side, level is level and if there's cm's in it then who cares it's not going to affect the chance quality.

Absolutely sickening

They played some good stuff but I bet they really come unstuck against teams who sit in and defend or are more physical which is why they are where they are. Passing football can look wonderful when it works but against certain types of teams you can find it really hard to create chances and if you're not on your game it's easy for teams to intercept and break on you quickly. Say what you want about our style of football under Wagner but I'd argue that there isn't really one type of team that we generally struggle against. We're usually the architects of our own downfall and when we're really on it we can get the better of any type of team. For those wondering what Manning could do with these players? Probably not a lot because our defenders aren't comfortable enough on the ball or mobile enough to play like Bristol did yesterday so the style of play wouldn't work. Duffy and Gibson playing like their CB's did yesterday? Gives me the shudders thinking about it.

Neither Hull nor Coventry can afford to lose another game. If Hull win 2 and draw one we only need one more point and we'd still finish above them, we're pretty much there. Tough game today but we're still in a brilliant position.

Chelsea. Every Chelsea fan I know used to support a different team and switched to them. There's just so much about them I dislike from being the start of football finances getting out of control so they could buy titles under a Russian gangster to how they are with referees. Some of their most famous players have been complete pr4ts, when the camera pans around their stadium there's just such a plastic look about the crowd, it's in a posh trendy part of London which is one thing to dislike but they also have a thug element going back decades. Can't stand the accent from the area, we never beat them, they play in blue etc I could go on. Brighton also have a really smug fanbase full of plastics who were nowhere to be seen when they were struggling. Bournemouth and Watford have really rubbed me the wrong way in recent years as they've both been really dirty teams whenever we've played them. West Ham annoy me using a taxpayer funded stadium and all that rubbish for years about playing 'the West Ham way' but whenever they've had a bit of success they've been more than happy to watch their team play games like they're 4 levels below the opposition including against us when one of their players would be worth our entire first 11. I don't hate any of these clubs except Chelsea I just don't like them much. Liverpool/Man Utd etc I don't really like either but everyone dislikes them so no point going into that.

I think the only justification Knapper would have for sacking him is that he doesn't play the style of football that Knapper wants. Personally I enjoy watching Wagner's team play and as a rule I don't enjoy possession football, it's a complete dead end in the PL and unless you have a couple of special players to create something from nothing it's really bloody boring and frustrating to watch. There's also something to be said for keeping some stability and building on what we have. We've had a lot of disruption the last few summers and I think it would be better to stick with most of the same squad and same head coach now that the players know each others game. I honestly think a lot of our issues in the last 3 seasons have been because of the high turnover of players and the lack of cohesion they had. If we stay down I'd keep Wagner and try to keep most of the squad together, we'd have to sell and release a couple but then Knapper can hopefully show his worth and find us a few gems to replace whoever leaves.

He's been unbelievable since moving to the right. He's too good for this division in any position he plays in but I really like him where he's playing right now. We were warned when he signed that he wasn't the Buendia replacement and that he was more of a deep lying midfielder but with his stats this season and how he's been performing on the right he's been every bit as good as Buendia was. Buendia was amazing but he also had the perfect striker for him infront of him, Sara just does it himself. If we don't go up and he gets sold I'd be really disappointed with anything less than 30m.

5 more points will probably do it so after that win we can even afford to draw one of our home games and still probably get 6th. Hull and Coventry have got a much tougher last few games than us and PNE and Boro are out of it now. It's ours to lose.

Unless it's in the 93rd minute and we're 3-0 up I couldn't bring myself to do it, I'd be too annoyed regardless of how good the goal was

True to an extent but you can see what type of player he is from his appearances and highlights for other clubs. He's a 6 yard box poacher with a good free kick and links play with short passes. Nothing wrong with that of course in the right system but watching him he doesn't have any pace at all, never tries to carry it, doesn't run and press defenders or hold it up in the air and doesn't play off the shoulder. Those attributes are all what Sargent brings and what is so vital to making Wagners system work. We'd probably be fine with one of those strikers who can't score for toffee but had some of the attributes Sargent has then others could chip in but from what I've seen of SVH he's totally the wrong type of striker for the way we play.

SVH doesn't have any pace or mobility and can't run with the ball which is what we'd miss with Sargent out. I honestly have no idea what Aboh's like as a player but if he can run and chase things and has a bit of ball carrying ability then he has to start or we'll just be penned in defending all game.

The annoying thing is we've shown we can defend in some games, Ipswich and Southampton at home are two examples off the top of my head but so often we go to sleep in the seemingly less important games and really like to conceed simple goals from corners or crosses where marking is the issue which is a mentality thing more than a skill thing. Saying that though Sheff Wednesday are a big side, we're pretty physically capeable by this leagues standards but a lot of their players towered over ours at corners and we only really had 3 tall and strong players on the pitch at that time v about 5 or 6 in their team so corners were going to be an issue. The problem last night was the substitutions that allowed them to pin us back and build pressure so they got enough corners to make a couple count. If we had more pace and movement available up top we wouldn't have been defending as much and probably wouldn't have conceded 2. I feel a bit for Wagner because Sargent coming off must have been a fitness issue and then he lost Gibbs but we had no experienced mobile players available up top on the bench so situations like this are on the people running the club less than Wagner because the squad is woefully thin.

Gonna be a tough game tonight, their form in the last 10 games is mid table and they're a well drilled hard working team with something to fight for. The fact that they like to keep possession and play in front of teams sometimes could help us because we've shown we're better in games against teams who play that way with our counter pressing but their manager is clever and I think he'll set them up to press us high and attack quickly. Cold windy night up north against a decent team infront of 30'000 fans just after we've put a mammoth shift in to beat Ipswich means while I would love 3 points I think we'll draw tonight because it's going to be a tough game. What we do tonight will say a lot about the mentality and fitness of our players and how much we want promotion.

Quietest ground I've ever been to was Portman Road when I went with a few friends to watch Coventry play there and it was like a library. Carrow Road has been very quiet before, one other away ground I've been to at Reading watching us was completely dead but that game was something else at Ipswich you could hear a pin drop aside from the odd bit of booing. I was on the opposite stand and you could hear Lambert shouting at the players it was that quiet. They've perked up a bit because they've suddenly got money and are doing well at the moment but their support is pretty shocking when the chips are down, attendances proved that as did my experience watching them play a big team in L1 because it's not like they were playing Wycombe or Fleetwood so I'm gonna take that as the standard atmosphere they got before things turned around for them. No surprise that when they realized they weren't going to have it their way on Saturday that they got really quiet and gave up. Mentally weak.

I see this one being a draw, just something about playing a relegation threatened team away from home so soon after a huge win and result that screams damp squib to me. I think though if we win both our home games and draw every away game we should make the top 6 and if we don't on 76 points we can count ourselves really unlucky and Coventry would have had to go on a hell of a run (including their recent form) to beat us. If they get over 76 points they would have won 8 and drawn 2/won 9 out of 11 fixtures between match 35 and the end of the season and if they do that then tbh we'd have just been really unlucky to miss out.

The 4 points we've taken off them this season could be huge in the race for the auto's. Imagine if they lose out by a few points? I think they will btw Leicester will get their act together and Leeds will win the league and we can laugh for being the main reason they didn't go up. We'll also likely face them in the play offs and we've got them beat mentally. Our problem is we can't deal with pace and players with good dribbling ability running at us and they don't have that in their team so no reason why we won't do them in the play offs. The dry run for that has ended in our favour and that was with a severely weakened team at their place and without Rowe in this fixture. If we're near full strength in the play offs we'll beat them over two legs no problem.

That pen gets given if you're away to Chelsea or Man Utd or if someone like Hooper is reffing but it wasn't really a foul their player just stops dead, forces the contact then falls over. Plus they should have had a player sent of for bringing down Sargent so if you want to say it's borderline then we're even. Not many chances so far but there's more goals in this and it's not over yet but we're doing well. Lots of poor final balls and misplaced passes but that's top be expected in a game like this. I just hope we don't sit back and invite them on second half, we need to keep the pressure up and try to score again

It's hard to choose because do you look at a player for their form when they were at their best or over a longer period of time? An example would be Bassong in his first season here was the best CB I've seen play for us but his form fell off a cliff after that so while 2012/13 Bassong would get in our best team over the last 20 or so years it's hard to make a case for putting him in that side for his performances after that season. I'm struggling with this one tbh and I have a lot less players to choose from than most on here as I started supporting the season we lost the play off final. I'm going to pick players based on the peak of their form playing for us instead of longer term and performances or how good they went on to be at other clubs and performances in the PL will trump performances at lower levels. Krul Martin Bassong Mackay Drury Buendia Howson Tettey Huckerby Pukki Holt Players like Skipp, Maddison, Wes, Gary Holt, Johnson, Ruddy, Green, Ashton etc unlucky to be left out but none of them either played for us in the PL, were really much good in the top flight or one of the players in the team were better at their absolute peak. Hardest choices were definitely GK and midfield. Krul in the PL was unbelievably good, fullbacks were tricky as I don't think we've had one in my memory that's been really good in the top flight, Drury arguably covering for Hucks, RB was hard to find anyone outstanding but Martin was solid in 2011/12. With midfield you could pick 10 players unlucky to miss out that one was hard but for different reasons, Tettey might raise an eyebrow but for me in 2012/13 he was the best DM I've seen play for us in the PL. Pukki has to be there and close between Holt and Ashton but Holt brought more to our overall play and team mentality.

Unrealistic model to follow. Their owner is a fan who also has access to hundreds of millions that he can blow on his favorite team. Tony Bloom is like the equivalent of Delia and Michael if they were both billionaires and unfortunately that is a very rare occurrence and as far as I'm aware there isn't a Norwich fan out there who has that type of money to spend. Yes Brighton made a large profit this year but it was after years of losses and if Bloom got a couple of head coach appointments wrong he could very easily still be owning a Championship club with huge debt being penalized by FFP rules and no way to bail them out of it. Plus they got promoted and survived for a couple of years under Hughton playing a style of football that has worked for a few other clubs that a lot of fans look at enviously but one that they would never accept at our club. Brighton might now be the model club to follow but to get where they are they had to rely on massive investment from their owner and their fans accepted pragmatic football for a while until they were in a position to change it. We won't ever be able to spend hundreds of millions to get there and a large proportion of our fans will never accept anything other than attacking football so it's a pointless comparison.

Physically he's every bit a PL player, he reminds me of Matty Cash in that he's an incredible athlete who can get up and down the pitch all day with pace and has really good ball carrying ability. What lets him down sometimes is his 1v1 defending and final ball obviously but if he were better at those two things he'd be a regular in the PL for a good team. He's not even really bad at those two things either he's got a decent amount of assists this season and players don't get round him that often but that's why he's playing in the Championship despite being really good in so many aspects. Hell of a signing to be fair though and if we do go up RB wouldn't be one of the areas where we'd immediately need an upgrade.

Teams have caused them problems recently by sitting in and springing at them quickly on the counter kinda similar to what Plymouth tried to do to us yesterday. We've shown we can do that well before, we caused Leeds some problems playing that way and were unlucky not to get a result in that game. I think if we go for that approach we could get a good result but if we go in and try to play them at their own game we will probably get picked off but either way I'm leaning towards a 2-2 draw

I got my prediction spot on though, looks like we did start to slip on that banana skin but stayed on our feet 🤣