Jump to content

Christoph Stiepermann

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Content Count

    2,055

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    2

Posts posted by Christoph Stiepermann

  1. Posted

    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. 

    • Like 3

  2. Posted

    Think people are being a little bit harsh with our second half performance. We definitely dropped off but some of that was Stoke being fired up and they have a few decent players. We were also defending a narrow lead and if not for a fortunate bounce between Rowe and the Stoke player making the ball fall to Stacey it looked every bit to be one of those afternoons where we just couldn't squeeze the ball in the back of the net. 

    Yeah we didn't dominate them second half and we lost a lot of ground in general but we defended well and I can't recall Gunn having a difficult save to make really. I said to myself after about 30 minutes when we'd been all over them but couldn't create a clear chance that this is gonna finish 0-0 or 0-1 to Stoke, it just felt like one of those games and I think we did really well to get ourselves in front and then hang onto that lead. Playing well isn't always just about having lots of possession and creating lots of chances, we're not good enough to dominate any team in this league for 90+ minutes so there will be spells when the opposition get on top and I thought our workrate and some of our last ditch defending (especially from Duffy) was excellent. 

  5. Posted

    I'd stop supporting the club if they took over us. Their government's human rights record is disgusting and I have absolutely no respect for their twisted interpretation of their religion that justifies it in their minds. Most likely they don't bother to justify it to themselves anyway, it's just a means to avoid being critisised and widely condemned in how they exert control over their population and keep themselves in positions of extreme wealth and power. People always tip toe around it worried that they'll be accused of being at best culturally insensitive or at worst a racist, but for me there's no moral equivalence between insulting a powerful institutions interpretation of their religion and executing LGBT+ people or being complicit in the slaughter of migrant workers alongside all the other cr4p they get away with, let them get away with evil because you don't want to offend them...not even slightly comparable. Appeasement gets you nowhere.

    I used to quite like Newcastle but the way they've embraced Saudi money has really tainted my opinion of them. 

    • Like 8
    • Thanks 3

  6. Posted

    21 for me which is crazy. Football has changed so much in that time both in terms of finances and how the game is played. I was watching Norwich V Everton from our PL season under Worthington recently, the whole game is up on some Everton channel and it looks like a lower Championship game with the odd moment of quality, both of our recent relegation teams would absolutely slaughter both of those teams as football at the highest level has changed so much tactically, physically and in pace and intensity. But English football was so much more fun to watch and so unpredictable back then , it was of a lower quality but imo it was so much more fun to watch. Games are so physical and so tactical now that it's ruined a lot of the excitement. I'm not a fan who gets excited by bits of individual skill or clever neat passages of play, I like end to end excitement and chances on goal, players expressing themselves and showing passion and commitment, footballers are so placid and robotic nowadays in general and I can't help but think we've lost something in the pursuit of better tactics. 

    First game was the win v Stockport at home before the play off season, sat in the old south Stand and was hooked from that moment. As a kid I actually went on a really long spell of only watching us win at CR , saw the 4-0 v Grimsby the first game of the next season as well, can't remember who my first loss was against but i remember being devastated. 

    • Like 2

  7. Posted · Edited by Christoph Stiepermann

    I'm just asking this question because I am beyond clueless when it comes to finances and how large businesses operate which is why I never contribute to related threads. If we are sitting on a decent surplus of funds and don't do anything with it for a while would it be subject to any kind of tax if left for a season? Clubs tend to spend at least as much as they earn and I know a lot of that is trying to get as strong a team out as possible but is it also because if you sit on a large surplus for a while you'll lose some of it? It makes good sense to always have a surplus I guess, like with ourselves individually say never going below x amount in your bank account but when talking tens of millions and in a business account do you get penalized for having such a large profit in your account just sitting there for a long period of time?

    To those who know about things like this, this might be the dumbest thing they've ever heard but I'm asking anyway out of curiosity because I'm completely ignorant about things like this. Even if we have a massive wage bill, payed loads in agent fees, signing on fees and gave our new signings good contracts the numbers don't quite add up to me with what we've done this summer if we never had the money to spend more than the 1m on Fassnacht. It seems to me that either our wage bill is astronomical, Pukki and the players we let go weren't on that much, we've given our free transfers 30k a week plus or we're sitting on a wedge of cash and haven't done anything with it. 

  9. Posted

    I find a morbid fascination watching clubs panic buy while spending huge amounts of money. As a Norwich fan it's usually quite dull (which is a good thing in terms of how we're run) but if we are linked with players a lot on deadline day it can alleviate some boredom checking this website every now and again to see if anythings happened. 

    If there were lots of rumors about our star players though I'd be hating it. Even if we don't sign anyone today keeping Sara is a big win. I have no idea why lower PL clubs haven't come in for him, he scores goals from nothing and is a set piece specialist, that's so valuable. But I'm delighted he's staying. 

  11. Posted

    Losing your main striker who's in great form 4 games into a season is an utter catastrophe. I know we're all pretty numb to this now  due to our injury problems in the last few years but ffs this is grim. Imagine if we lost Holt or Pukki for months 4 games into those promotion seasons, we wouldn't have gone up automatically in those seasons. Feels like we can't catch a break right now and every time one of our key players gets tackled I get really nervous. We have a clear first 11 and those players are vital to making our style of play work so any injury is devastating to us but there are 4 players who we can't do without for me (Sara, Rowe, Barnes and Sargent) and to lose one already is such a kick in the teeth. 

     

    • Like 5

  13. Posted

    22 minutes ago, Branston Pickle said:

    Happy that we are giving some of the guys a rest - I’d not read too much into it.  I feel a bit for Duffy as he doesn’t get a break, showing we do need another cb.

    I don't have the stats to hand but I'd be surprised if his running stats weren't around the lowest in our team. He's a clever defender so doesn't need to sprint often and Gibson is usually the one who carries the ball forward. I'm more worried about Idah and Sara to be honest as our forwards and center mids get through a hell of a lot of running every game. 

  14. Posted

    Can't risk Idah or Barnes for me now so I'd go with Placheta up front with Nunez just behind him. Not ideal but we get through a lot of running in games, particularly the forwards and Barnes is 33 while Idah has had injury problems, it's just not worth it for the second round of the league cup. Same team as ZLF for me. 

    • Like 1

  15. Posted

    14 minutes ago, GodlyOtsemobor said:

    Edworthy Fleming Mackay Drury

    Whittaker, Bassong, Turner and Garrido were excellent in Hughton's first season. Bassong and Turner in that season were the best CB pairing I've ever seen play for us in my 23 years of supporting the club. I know it was dour to watch at times but we were rock solid at the back and that was in the PL.

    The back 4 you listed were excellent as well but it was at a lower level. 

     

  16. Posted

    Barnes has never had a lick of pace so he's still going to be very useful for another 2-3 years so long as he doesn't pick up an injury. I love him already, he's everything we've missed since Holt left, he makes everyone around him better, the opposition dread facing him, he gives everything, massively improves morale in the team, he's good in our build up, the ball sticks to him and as a bonus he can score goals. For me Sargent and Rowe wouldn't have played as well and scored as many as they have this season without him in the team.

    I like Duffy too but he's the archtypical Norwich defender in that he has a clanger in him so he makes me nervous at times. It's a trade off though, if he didn't have a mistake in him he'd have played his whole career in the PL and wouldn't be with us now, you've just gotta hope those rushes of blood to the head don't cost us too often. He's another leader though and I have no doubt he's played a big part in turning the teams mentality around. 

    • Like 2

  17. Posted

    That goal was Holt-esque. I really hope it's not serious. If he's gonna be out for a couple of months we need a striker in on loan, I don't want Barnes playing further forward he's perfect in the role he's playing now and Idah has a history of injuries so if a top PL club wanted to give a promising young striker some game time they might get it here. Fingers crossed though it's just a couple of weeks tops. 

    • Like 1

  21. Posted

    Others have alluded to it before but it's because when we spend 'big' by our standards it's on players who are all known to similar sized clubs who have more money than us and the reason they're on the cheap side for PL signings is because they've been scouted and deemed not good enough for our competitors. 

    I think we're honestly better off carrying on trying to sign cheaper gambles whenever we reach the PL and trying to be more creative. Go for flawed players with potential who suit the system and strong characters who want to play for us over much more expensive players who are only 5-10% better and probably feel like we owe them something for coming here. Our best PL season in my lifetime was our PL season with Lambert where we spent 1-3m on players from lower leagues but they were all good characters who fit the managers way of playing, I know you can't do that anymore as L1 players now cost much more but it's just an example. 

    If we go up this year, try to sign the same type of players we would if we were in the Championship except use the extra financial strength to get our top, first choice targets. 

    • Like 2

  22. Posted

    5 hours ago, benchwarmer said:

    Why do we think death is a greater punishment than decades in prison without hope of release?  I know which I'd choose.

    I agree. The only issue I have with this when talking about the worst and most abhorrent offenders is that once you get accustomed to it life in prison in this country can be pretty comfortable and I think for people like her there should be a more severe form of incarceration where amenities and entertainment are much more restricted, the cells are much more basic, outside communication is forbidden etc. I get the human rights argument against this but there has to be a point with people like her or say for example Ian Watkins where these protections are simply too good for them and the life they live in prison is too comfortable and not enough of a punishment for the crimes they committed. 

    I'm not advocating for anything completely inhumane or any form or torture but I don't think the life she'll be living in prison will be a proportional punishment for the crimes she committed. Even in a category A prison there are less privileges but it's not as awful as you'd imagine, here's an interesting quote I found 

    "According to a survey undertaken by the Ministry of Justice in 2014, a large proportion of category A prisoners don’t even see their sentence as a punishment. In HMP Frankland, just under two thirds of inmates said that they felt punished. The same was reported at HMP Full Sutton, and in HMP Belmarsh, one of the UK’s most notorious high-security prisons, 1 in 3 said they didn’t feel punished when incarcerated there"

    I think for the vast majority of offenders rehabilitation should be the priority. But for people like her I think a different and much more punitive approach is needed, not the death penalty, but a harsher form of imprisonment. A homeless person is probably a lot worse off than she will be and would love some of the amenities that she'll be getting. 

     

  23. Posted

    I completely understand that the whole model revolves around attracting good young players by promising that we'll allow them to move on after we develop them but this is not the right time. The 'right offer' might come along but it's the worst time possible for us to sell a key player. We've only just turned around the negativity and against all odds look like we have a promotion capable team again. Can you imagine how demoralized everyone including the players would be if we sold Sargent? It would kill our season before it even started. I don't think Sargent is a world beater but he's absolutely perfect for how we want to play and can score goals at this level and we're not going to replace him for the percentage we'd be willing to spend of any up front fee we'd receive. The damage it would do to the club wouldn't be worth it. It would tell everyone including the players that we're not that bothered about trying to go up this year and so the likes of Sara and Gunn might start talking to their agents to get a move before it turns toxic again. 

    It wouldn't be the catastrophe the selling Buendia after getting promotion was (although selling Sara would equal that in my view) but it would kill all the momentum we've built up and would severely effect our chances of going up. I'm just talking hypothetically here, I don't buy the paper talk but after supporting this club for 20 years I'm conditioned to expect the worst when stories like this come out and I'm just dying for the window to close. 

     

    • Like 3

  24. Posted

    Sara MOTM for me for the 3rd league game in a row and he's had some stiff competition from Rowe and Sargent in that time. Barnes and McLean deserve a mention as well, both have been superb this season. I wouldn't sell Sara for any price that any team would be willing to pay, he's the heartbeat of our team and can score and create goals from nothing, that is invaluable. Not to mention how selling him would completely demoralize the players and fans and kill all the momentum we've built up and the positivity around the club. Losing him isn't worth 20m or possibly even 30m when another promotion push looks to be on the table. 

    Losing Sargent would also be a massive blow and we couldn't replace what he does for any fee we'd be willing to pay, again I couldn't see any club paying more than 20m for him and I don't think we could get an adequate replacement for the percentage of that fee that we'd be willing to spend. This feels like a pivotal 11 days for the club, lower PL clubs are going to start to panic buy soon and we might be tempted with offers. I wouldn't sell either of them for any price. Keep them and I think with our history of usually getting over the line in a promotion push we might do something special again this year, lose one of them and I could see the momentum we've built up and positive atmosphere quickly fade and find ourselves going backwards. I know we're a selling club and I understand the model but this would just be the worst possible time to sell any of our key players. 

    • Like 1

  25. Posted · Edited by Christoph Stiepermann

    This is exactly the style of football I've always wanted at Norwich and what I hoped we were going to get when we appointed Webber. With hindsight I now obviously wouldn't trade the Farke years but I prefer this type of football to the slow possession stuff and as a bonus I think it'll serve us better in the PL if we get promoted again. We still knock it around well and play short passes in clever patterns but we're also so much more aggressive and organised off the ball, we play at a high intensity so we out work teams, we chase teams down, put in tackles and on the ball we have some strength so we  can hold onto it now under pressure and have some players who can run with the ball and beat a man. Not every player needs to be technically excellent at one touch pass and move either so we can have some big lads who help us defend and give us a threat from set pieces

    No style of football is perfect otherwise every team would play one way, we're always going to look vulnerable when teams beat our press but this is the style of football that I personally prefer and it's why i stuck with Wagner even though we were terrible under him last season because what he's known for is how I want us to play. I'm so happy it's finally clicking 

    • Like 1
×
×
  • Create New...