Jump to content

Christoph Stiepermann

Members
  • Content Count

    2,028
  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Posts posted by Christoph Stiepermann


  1. Always hard to say after an international break, we've been superb at home but who knows if we still have the rhythm and momentum after 2 weeks off. Bit of a potential banana skin game this playing a lower side in poor form at home before a couple of huge games but I think we'll win 2-1 despite it being an uncomfortable afternoon with Plymouth scoring first, it just has that kinda feel about it for me. 


  2. I'd want and fancy us against Ipswich in the semi's. Their fans would be a bag of nerves at their place which would transmit to the team and we're exceptional at CR so I think we'd have a really good chance of beating them. I do think honestly though they're a bit better than us on their day and in a one off game at a neutral ground I think they might have the edge so i don't want them in the finals. My assessment of them v us is just me being realistic I'm not soft on them in anyway, both teams are good in attack and shaky at the back and I'd say if we hadn't had injury crisis after crisis all season our goals for would be pretty similar to theirs but I think they're tighter defensively than we are giving them a bit of an edge. 

    Then if WBA can beat Southampton to face us in the finals we'll find ourselves in with a really good chance. So for me I actually think we'd be better off finishing 6th than 5th if it means avoiding Southampton over 2 legs. Hopefully Leeds keep up their form too because I don't fancy facing them in any play off game. 


  3. 1 minute ago, Kathy said:

    Worth his weight in gold imho. Tough, master of ****housery, in the refs ear, winds defenders up, subtle fouls in the box enabling space for others. I sometimes think his contributions are overlooked.

    I agree and not only that he allows Sargent to do his best work. I can kind of understand why some fans don't rate him, he is very slow now because his legs have gone, he's not a natural finisher, can't carry the ball at all and doesn't anticipate receiving the ball well in the box but we're always worse when he doesn't play, his movement is the main reason why our build up play is so dangerous and he plays intelligent passes so I do get frustrated when people criticize him because you need players like him in the team. 

    • Like 2

  4. 30 minutes ago, Branston Pickle said:

    How about ourselves - I’ve seen us look dreadful several times, few away sides have been as bad as  our “performance” in that game against Colchester. 

    To be fair that was genuinely the worst performance from any team I've ever seen at CR and I can't think of much that comes close, it was such a surreal day. They didn't even have to be particularly good to beat us and 4 or 5 of our players looked like they'd been picked out of the crowd and never played football before. It's sad to say but yeah I think we were the ones to put in the worst performance of any team that has played at CR in my memory. 

    • Like 3

  5. 15 minutes ago, Indy_Bones said:

    That RvW was a genuinely good striker, who Hughton totalled mis-used, and pretty much destroyed him as a player.

    In the right system, with the correct supply (like how we focused on getting the right balls to Pukki), he'd easily have been a 15+ goal a season striker, we did the exact opposite of that, and instead asked him to play a role he was unfamiliar with and unsuited to - both physically and mentally...

    I disagree, I think Hughton did totally misuse him but he was a very average striker who was never going to get the time and space he got in Holland/Portugal in the PL, both leagues are relatively easy to score in. I think in the right set up he'd score in the Championship but he just didn't have the nous to get that half a yard of space in the PL and his finishing was often far too weak and erratic even when the ball did fall to him, he offered nothing in our build up play and didn't move like Pukki so I don't think the problem was that we didn't pass to him. I think he was much more of a Rhodes type flukey poacher than an intelligent Pukki that failed because he was misused. I look at his highlights reel and before he joined us and apart from a couple of good long range finishes that he could have scored for any team you don't get those chances in the PL even if you play for Man City. 

    • Like 1

  6. 13 hours ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

    Full of woe is me, it was just a joke, i was treated too harshly etc. Not one word about how it made the guy who was filmed feel about being mocked and filmed without consent to be laughed at. If he's that insecure about his weight then he can go on a diet or just learn to accept who he is, the guy who he was mocking can't do anything about his condition and if he thinks it's okay to mock someone like that then I say the fat jokes are fair game. Fat useless ****. 


  7. Didn't see the game as I was working, just watched it back. The officiating was a joke. I saw the replay of the Sainz incident but when you see the context around it of how they we're hacking us down freely with no punishment I understand why he got wound up especially after feeling Howson's studs on his thigh. I'm wondering if when they look at the appeal they take that kind of context into account or if they just look at the incident in isolation. If the ref already had no control over the game that type of thing can happen, if he actually used any force or connected with Howson it would have been unacceptable regardless but it was a weak little flick that he pulled back from a split second later and barely grazed him and tbh it looked more like he was just kicking the air in frustration and not actually aiming a kick at Howson


  8. Similar to watching us last time albeit even worse. Sheff Utd aren't that bad but like our last two PL teams they've been beaten mentally by this point and are just going through the motions. The thing is though the top teams in the PL are always going to be several levels above promoted teams, the issue for clubs like us are how rich/good Forest/Bournemouth/Brentford etc are that make it so difficult to pick up any points so when you face a top team you're already down and out and in damage control and they'll just ruthlessly tear you apart if they're in the mood. 

    • Like 1

  9. He's realistically not going to run down how contract at play off chasing Coventry to sign on similar wages for play off chasing Norwich, if he's running his contract down it's because he knows he can get a better offer somewhere else. He's a good player at this level but not amazing and we're going to have to cut the wage bill next year so I don't see us going for in-demand out of contract players. 

    Realistically though Championship clubs can't afford to sign each others players anymore unless you're one of the newly relegated teams so the only way to get a player proven in the Championship who has played there recently is by signing players out of contract or after they've been promoted and are considered second choice. Tbh I think we have too many players whose levels vary from looking real quality to pretty hopeless from game to game and even minute to minute in some cases and we could do with a few more steady, consistent, proven players next year so I do hope we're looking at players within that bracket but I don't see O'Hare being someone we could attract. 


  10. @Parma Ham's gone mouldy Does everyone in professional football think along these lines and think in terms of a plusvalenza outcome when setting up a team and when signing players consider "weapons" extremely valuable or is this just something you've learned from the specific clubs you've worked at? What I mean is are there managers and sporting directors who just think better players=better results and don't take the same approach to setting up teams and signing players and do you think the important people at our club would understand and agree with your posts if they read them? Or do you think they'd rubbish them and think no we just need better players all over the pitch and that football isn't that complicated?

    I know you've often said that coaches look for certain things and when talking about Wagner you've referenced your own posts when talking about your interpretation of what you see he's trying to do so you've alluded to the fact that people at our club do think in these terms but I'm just wondering if this is the widely accepted way of thinking within football that you're educating us on or if it's more of a niche way of thinking that you've picked up from working in Italy? We don't know much about Knapper obviously by this point and I know we have budgetary restrictions but in the past looking at some of our signings we often seem to go for neat and tidy players who don't have one outstanding attribute and don't really cause the opposition many problems and if the people in charge of our transfers thought about football like you do I don't see the sense in a lot of those signings. 

     

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 2

  11. When everyone's fit and motivated and our players are in form I really enjoy watching us under Wagner. It's 100mph, our play is unpredictable and quite inventive, we seem to often run teams off the ball and are really good at winning it back and overall we cause teams a lot of problems. 

    But we're so inconstant and as soon as a couple of key players are missing it all falls apart. I can't help but think the fast intense style doesn't help with injuries either. I can live with the odd substitutions because I think they're made more around injury prevention and managing fitness as opposed to influencing games and no manager is perfect but it's the lack of consistency and our lower energy levels when playing poorer teams away from home that get on my nerves. If you have a squad of experienced players the one thing you should be able to count on is consistency game to game. The defensive lapses are also a concern but I think they're more personnel issues having such an unsettled defence and attack minded fullbacks. 

    I think in some alternate reality where we had really good luck win injuries this year and we're able to rouse ourselves more for games like Rotherham/Blackburn/QPR away he'd have us right in the mix for automatics but that isn't the case and we haven't been lucky with injuries for years. For me the conversation is still the same as it was a few weeks ago. He stays the season, if he gets us up he keeps his job, if he doesn't we bring a new man in. I like Wagner and I love the style of play when it works but it feels like we're always treading water and it could fall apart at any time and he doesn't have a backup plan when it does. 


  12. We've not really had much success at all with players we've signed for around ~ 10 million. I think only 2 from memory have been any good Klose and Sargent. 

    If you're paying around £10m for a player he's going to be known to every club in world football and as we usually only signed them when we're in the PL there's usually a good reason why other clubs have passed over them or why they're not worth £20m which is a standard fee for a decent PL player. We always do better overall when we go for lesser known gambles. You get the odd Franke or Marshall but that's more than worth the risk to find a Buendia or Pukki. 

    Next time we go up we should try to sign fewer players who are worth more or just continue trying to find cheaper players who might surprise us. We've had very little success and wasted a lot of money at that 8-12m range 


  13. Always liked Nunez because he tries things and doesn't get discouraged when a few passes don't come off. You need a player like him in the team or you become too predictable.

    The trouble is after his great start last season and up until the start of 2024 almost every one of his through balls and long passes seemed to be nearly but not quite right. He's really improved recently though and more often than not those killer passes are getting through now. He's also capable of keeping us ticking over well because he actually understands that the idea is pass AND move so he's always offering an option and his work off the ball is improving.

    He was a bit of an unknown quantity at first and teams were wary of us and stood off us a bit so he had time and space to do his thing. Then teams figured out we weren't up to much last year and started really getting at us and Nunez in particular started getting closed down and ran off the ball often. But he seems to have adapted to this league now and he suits the role we're asking for him at the moment. I just hope it's not just a run of good form and that he can maintain these levels for the rest of the season. 

    • Like 2
    • Thanks 1

  14. The only real difference between this and previous Championship seasons is that I'd argue the 3 relegated teams are the 3 strongest who have even come down as a whole. You normally get one who blows the league away but all three are a cut above this division and it's going to lead to a higher than usual total for the auto's and a lower than usual total for survival.

    Next season is going to give us and everyone else in this division a real opportunity. If Leicester, Leeds and Southampton go up, Burnley, Sheff Utd and Luton come down and Ipswich lose McKenna then it's anyone's game next year because I don't think the quality at the top of the league will be as strong. Few if's and but's there but it's a very likely scenario. 

    • Like 1

  15. If we're going to have goal music I'd much rather it be the Samba. Unless we score a really important goal the noise dies down quite quickly without goal music as we've found out in the past and all the other songs we've tried don't get people going in the same way. We've used that song mostly for the last 25 odd years and it works for us, no need to fix what isn't broken. 

    • Like 1

  16. There's a lot about what we do now under Wagner that would actually translate quite well to PL football. The quick transitions, a few players who can run with the ball, athletic fullbacks who can get up and down the pitch all game, a threat from set pieces and a big striker who can hold the ball up. 

    But unfortunately our defence is still miles off and is at best average for Championship level so we'd ship goals for fun in the PL. Some of it is structural and some of it is individual quality but if we did go up and kept most of the same personnel our strengths wouldn't count for much when we'd concede so many goals. If we do go up I'd spend everything we have on 2 quality CB's and a big upgrade on Nunez/McLean and just hope everyone stays fit instead of the scattergun approach we'went for last time. We could obviously do with upgrades in other positions but for me it's clear where our weakness is and if we could keep the ball out of our own net enough I think we'd have enough threat on the break and from set pieces to score goals. We'd still probably be the weakest team in the league but if we're smart about how we approach it and get our share of luck you never know. 

    There's still a long way to go and Leeds/Southampton/Scum would be a hell of a hurdle to overcome in the play offs if we even make them so I'm not getting ahead of myself but it's nice to be thinking along these lines again. 

    • Like 2

  17. This type of appointment tends to either go brilliantly or completely t!t5 up. I think we need to take that gamble though, with the budget we'll have from next season and our focus on youth we need a really good head coach to compete for promotion so I'd rather we take the gamble than go for someone who is more known and experienced but you know what you're getting.

    The last two times we appointed someone who had never been a head coach at any level or with any age group it went very badly wrong for us and that was usually the case for other clubs at the time but assistant managers making the step up have had a lot more success in recent years as the role has changed to more emphasize a defined playing style and player development over tactical adaption and man management. 

    The age thing is a bit of a concern though and he's going to have to prove himself to the squad as we have a lot of experienced pro's now. It went unreported at the time and we didn't find out until months later but Farke had a hard time of it when he first came here getting the senior pro's onside and had to ship them out to make his mark on the squad. If we do appoint this guy even if it eventually goes well things might be quite rocky at the start. 

    • Like 2

  18. Hanley didn't look up to scratch to me today, it's not his fault as he's been out a long time with a bad injury and hasn't had much game time, infact he was supposed to be out till March so he's done well but he was poor today. 

    Gibson can play the ball out but he wasn't as his best either so with QPR pressing us well on a small pitch we looked pretty hopeless playing out today. 

    Wagner is not going to change how he plays and if we get a new coach in the summer you can guarantee he'll want to pass out from the back too so this area has got to be looked at in the summer. Most people who complain about playing out from the back are more concerned with our ability to do it as opposed to the idea of it, we need better ball playing CB's in the summer. Gibson and Batth will likely be let go and I think one of Hanley or Duffy should go too depending on Hanley's recovery and we need 3 cb's in who are comfortable with the ball at their feet or we're just going to keep causing ourselves issues. 

    • Like 2

  19. I can't be the only one who thinks "female" is really cringe. It's like saying the neighbors 'felines 'are sh**ing in my yard or I was attacked by a rouge 'canine'. You are aware that 'they' are just people and fans like us right? 'They' aren't a different bloody species. 

    The poor atmosphere at the ground has nothing to do with a higher percentage of 'females' .You know, those others who should be at home cleaning instead of sitting in the stands. It's because the home form has been awful for the last 2 and a half years and that we know our team isn't good enough for the PL even if we did go up. But go ahead, find the easy target, it's all those bloody 'females' fault 😆

     

    • Like 1
×
×
  • Create New...