a1canary

Well, yes, don''t get me wrong, no-one is happy about it but the players have to move on from it and so do the fans. I think the psychological blow to Derby of letting those two goals in in injury time v Birmingham is huge and they look lightweight without Martin. Clearly ''Boro and Bournemouth and Watford need to not win a couple but that will happen starting Saturday when Boro go to Bournemouth and a couple of games later when Boro go to Watford.

In fact, i''m just as encouraged as i''ve ever been since AN came in and got us winning. There''s a lot of silly posts on here saying how terrible the result was, complaining about the manager (really!) but reality is if Ruddy hadn''t had an abberation or if Jerome had just stood between Ruddy and Hendrick then all would be rosy. For this game we needed a repeat of the Wolves and Ippo games and we so nearly got it. But here''s a revelation that some people need to understand, and here it is...  we are NOT, i''m afraid, going to win all the rest of our games, and neither are the opposition. So folk will have to get used to a couple of adverse results here and there. But for one thing, our opening goal was absolutely sublime football that if Arsenal had scored we''d be watching on all our TV screens for the rest of the next week. I''m confident AN has a plan for every game and every opponent, and i''m so impressed with how we are playing. So much so that even if we end up in the play offs i''d be confident. As it is i''m also confident that other teams are going to have games like we had yesterday so we still have a great chance of a top two finish. OTBC 

Rotherham 1 Bournemouth 5Bournemouth 1 Norwich 2 Huddersfield 1 Wolves 4Norwich 2 Wolves 0 Watford 4 Bolton 3Watford 0 Norwich 3 Ipswich 4 Birmingham 2Norwich # Ipswich #   I really shouldn''t be doing this...

It''s tough on the strikers because all of them deserve a place but only two can realistically play. At home especially I like the Grabban Hooper combo and it''s also great being able to bring Jerome off the bench. He won''t like it but some players have a really great impact off the bench and he certainly does! I would go with as Pabs but with Hoops for Jerome.

It was Scholes trademark to hit goals like that from outside the D, so you can''t say there isn''t similarity, or that Brad hasn''t just hit one like this. BUT, yes, guilty as charged! Bo**ocks, let''s get carried away, why not, we don''t get many opportunities! And this is about more than one goal, i think we all feel that something else a whole lot more exciting could be brewing at FCR. Tell me you can''t feel it... :)

Ok, so not quite on the same level, and top 2 of these top 5 are from another planet, but the other 3 are strikingly similar to yesterday. He could do a lot worse than model himself on Scholes, if he doesn''t already! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uzvKfNOkhjI

Who said Viera/Toure were holding midfielders? I just said VOO has the look of them when he plays and from what most are saying here he is that kind of player as well in terms of being a dynamic and generally attacking midfield player. However, with Dorrans now in the team, Andreu, Howson, Hoolahan there really isn''t a space for him in that part of the pitch so my sense was that AN may be thinking of him in a deeper role (which Pelegrini uses Toure for a lot). Otherwise why bother involving him in the squad at all? My other sense is that we are going to have to do without Tettey for certain games between now and May, so AN will need to be and of course is thinking about how we play withouth Tettey, as he was doing last night for the starting 11. Let''s just see how things pan out. Of course you want to play players in their favoured position but equally you mustn''t as a manager be afraid to try slightly different roles for players, and very often in doing that you find they are better suited to a role other than the one they have played before. Witness Hoolahan being considered a left sided midfielder when he arrived.

[quote user="PurpleCanary"]They do say confession is good for the soul. So I am man enough to hold my hand up and admit I was entirely right about Alex Neil from the outset.[/quote] Wow. Respect Purps. That took guts, coming out and admitting that. Well done. ;)

Well, no two players are the same, but i disagree completely with your assertion that he would be a "terrible holding midfielder". Johnson, Tettey, Vadis are all the kind of midfielders who could be molded to play the holding role, hell we''ve even seen AN prepared to put a RB in that role so he certainly won''t have problem doing it with someone who is by trade a powerful central midfielder. Pellegrini does the same with Toure moving him from a holding role to an AM role, often WITHIN games.  As for seeing "no evidence that the manager is keen to bring Vadis in to the team" AN taking him to Blackburn is not evidence for you? 

[quote user="RUDOLPH HUCKER"]''That was a party political broadcast on behalf of the David McNally party.'' ;-)[/quote] Abso-bl**dy-lutely Rudolph. And for which i make no apology! Far too many fans have no concept of how lucky we have been to have him in charge of our club and not Massimo Cellini, Vincent Tan, etc... even Fernandes who while has had good intentions knew absolutely NOTHING about running a football club when he took over and made endless terrible decisions. I don''t care how rich you are, that doesn''t give you the right to just ''learn on the job'' and make it up as you go along with a football club. Oh, hang on....

Anyone else feel this guy will have a role to play in the next few months? We''ve seen how important Tettey has become to our defensive solidity but his position is constantly in doubt because of his knee or his bookings. Similarly Johonson although his fitness is far less of an issue. As such i can only see Vadis being the genuine, like for like stand in for Tettey. What little we saw of him before he got crocked i was really encouraged by. He has that wonderful languid style where he can get form box to box quickly with huge powerful strides - in the kind of vein of a Viera or a Toure. Easy/lazy to make those sort of comparisons and not for a moment meant to suggest he''s as good as them, just the in terms of his manner on the pitch. Seems that AN may be thinking this as he seems keen to get him in the squad.

Credit for holding your hands up. But it''d be better if people just recognised how difficult it is to pick a manager these days and put themselves in McNally''s shoes. How would we like the responsibility of finding a new manager, what would we do, what choices would we make? Unless you''re a world club like Madrid or Chelsea or Citeh or Barca, where you just pick from the very best proven managers, it''s almost a lottery. Yes you have to do your due dilligence, but in the end you can only pick from what''s available and half the time you''re on a hiding to nothing because you don''t know if what''s available isn''t all going to be a poor choice for your club. In the end you make your choice with the best of intentions for the club (provided you''re not influenced my some insane megalomaniac owner like Tan or the lunatic at Leeds). I''ve seen someone on here say that McNally "finally" did some proper work in order to find AN, which assumes that AN was an available and appropriate choice when we made the Adams appointment. Which of course he wasn''t. People criticise McNally for the Adams and Houghton appointments but you won''t find me criticising any appointment McNally has made. I have always said and maintain that Hughton was a GOOD appointment because the absolute number 1 priority for the future of our club was to stay up in his first season and give us a piece of the new TV deal at that time. That changed our club and gave us something that would help us develop even in the event of relegation. Countless managers are good for clubs initially and then things turn sour, in fact that happens with every club most of the time. McNally made mistakes, i will recognise that, (as everyone in every walk of life does) but he has only ever made them whilst doing what he thought was best for the club, and the VAST majority of the things he has done have been absolutely right and often transformational for NCFC.  He has brought this club up by the boostraps from just another provincial little club among the masses in the middle leagues, to be a bigger, more established, more highly regarded club than it has ever been, at the top end of the English football pyramid and of which we can all be proud. So for me people need to recognise two things: 1.that McNally is the main reason and the main catalyst for this tranformation 2. the reality that we have no divine right to be right at the top table and that we will constantly be fighting it out with clubs like Boro, Leicester, Derby, Forest, Wolves, Palace around the top two leagues.  

...and i don''t mean the obvious ones like Neil''s is better! Or even that under Neil we look more solid, less likely to concede and more incisive...All this much is obvious. What i''m intrigued by is WHY, what are we doing differently when we''re talking about exactly the same players? We started like a house on fire after all, confidence flowing, then the wheels came off completely and Neyul looked clueless about getting us back on track. All this seems to suggest he failed to implement some pretty basic things that Neil has corrected quite early on to do with how and when you attack or defend and the moments the players choose to attack or to just keep the posession. Is it really as simple as that? What else has AN done? Interested to hear thoughts on this...

I can''t see Dorrans going straight in - because he presumably isn''t 100% match fit and also i think it sends the wrong message to the midfield players (all of them) who performed so well vs Wolves. If they carry out their tasks and duties to the letter, as AN keeps talking about, and we win and keep a clean sheet, there really is no justification in dropping them unless you are going for a significant change of system. And it seems to me like he likes this 4-1-4-1 system so can''t see him changing that either. The only thing i see that will bring about a starting change is if we don''t play Tettey because of his fitness and supposed inability to play twice in a week. But i think that change will happen midweek next week.

Rus has been a bit up and down this season but what you always get from him is leadership in defence which is absolutely critical in any back four. You do need a shouter who is constantly looking along the line, keeping the defence positioned properly and reading the play. RM does a lot of that and actually for that reason i''d much rather he concentrate on that than on being captain as well. I think your captain can be a shouter and good ones often are - not in a bad way but in a ''making themselves heard'' sense, because a good captain ought to be communicating with the rest of the team pretty regularly and helping to carry the managers instruction on to the pitch. Sure there are examples of the ''lead by example'' passive type captain and those can work but for me, especially in the Championship and in lesser prem sides that aren''t blessed with 11 superstars, i like to see a pro-active captain. The best recent example at CR, well, i don''t need to say do i!

You went along Nutty? Interesting re McGrandles. Whose position in the current team is he most suited to? Tettey''s, Howson''s? Is he left or right footed?

I recommend the highlights from this game if anyone hasn''t seen them. What a goal that first one is - Murphy to Murphy on the counter, finishing all along the ground right in to the corner from a good 25yds. Quality finish and a significant win. You do wonder how some of these kids of ours are going to break in to the first team - it''s almost as if the Murphies play best when they''re both in the side and it''s hard to see that happening. Still, they must be close - wouldn''t be surprised to see one of them on the bench v Watford.

What gets to me is people who still don''t give him credit or level old criticisms at him when he has clearly improved his game and is peforming so well. Leeds fans would never recognise him. Suggest you look at these, based on complete offensive and defensive stats. BJ has higher avg overall rating so far this season by some margin, and, based on the stats, a significantly higher rating than AT in the Wolves game. BJ is rated 26th in the whole league, the second highest placed Norwich player behind Redmond at 10, vs 65th for AT. http://www.whoscored.com/Players/12490/Show/Bradley-Johnson http://www.whoscored.com/Players/9342/Show/Alexander-Tettey  

Brighton, you are blaming him for goals conceded when we''ve conceded lots and lots of goals this season that can be attributed to any player you care to mention. I will defend that ''orchestrated'' comment because he believed we''d win that game and he had a key role in both our goals AND was a key figure in keeping them out when we were down to 10.  And as for Charlton, directly involved in goals that put us two up while it was TETTEY who screwed up to let them in for their first goal. Funny how you don''t mention that! Tettey has yet to show since he has been here that he can string together a full or even half a season of really consistent performances before he burns out. Then you''re having a go for him missing chances when his goals for record this season clearly show that he has improved on conversions immeasurably. Yet you''re still saying he''s missing too many eventhough he already has 8 goals from midfield. Fact is, if he was going to shut you up he''d be scoring hight teens (which is not beyond him this season) and then tbh if he doesn''t go up with us he will get poached off us by a premier league team. I don''t see you slagging Grabban for missing chances and he has missed some absolute sitters this season, as in fact has Jerome come to that. And they''re strikers.  

[quote user="Brighton Yellow"]I did not say he was up to much in away games, simply stating that the vast majority og his goals this term have been scored at home this season which may encourage home fans to value him more than fans who see only away, or home and away games. Its hard to have a reasoned discussion on here if people twist what i say everytime. Anyway, i am off to buy an EDP now and admire Bradley''s cracking barnet. It really does work well with this years kit... [/quote] Lol re the barnet. It''s really not such a twist though is it if you''re going to point out that he has scored 7 out of 8 goals at home and that his ''value'' away from home is not what it is at home. He scored on of the goals of the season away at Reading and as my links show, he basically orchestrated recent away wins over Bournemouth and Charlton, without obviously diminishing the team and other player''s roles in those games. But my real point is the guy is absolutely in the thick of the action nearly all the time. People may scoff at this but i''d even go as far as to say he has take part of Hoolahan''s creative role. In previous seasons, much of what we did that was good went through him. Now Hools is a bit of a squad player, it''s Bradders through which so much of our good forward play goes. Not all of it of course but in Hool''s absence we have needed to share the creative burden around and BJ has taken on a big part of that. Not just in assists but in the build up play to an assist and a goal. Charlton being a classic example.

[quote user="Brighton Yellow"]Here’s another potentially interesting point for those who disagree with my opinion, Bradley Johnson has scored 7 of his 8 goals at Carrow Road this season. How many of you posting within this thread attend any away games?   Could our differing opinions be stemming from the range of matches we have seen him play in? A home victory can appear very different to an away performance. For the record I have only missed a handful of home and away matches in the last 6-7 years. [/quote] You can learn a lot today Brighton. Here''s your homework from Lesson 2. WATCH Bournemouth away - probably the result of the season so far: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCDEp3tQcXo And here are your learning points from lesson two: Johnson wins corner from which we equalise. Johnson sets up Jerome for winner. Johson''s not much use away from home. There''s a trick one in there. Can you spot it?

[quote user="Brighton Yellow"]Here’s another potentially interesting point for those who disagree with my opinion, Bradley Johnson has scored 7 of his 8 goals at Carrow Road this season. How many of you posting within this thread attend any away games?   Could our differing opinions be stemming from the range of matches we have seen him play in? A home victory can appear very different to an away performance. For the record I have only missed a handful of home and away matches in the last 6-7 years. [/quote] Yeah, he''s not up to much in away games. WATCH very carefully Brighton: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpaFcofq6go

[quote user="nutty nigel"]I don''t get this Brighton. It seems to me you value Tetteys strengths more than Johnsons. In fact in an earlier post you seem to suggest that one of Johnsons strengths is actually a weakness? The only way that would really work would be if each team took turns with the ball having 50% possession each. Then Tetteys superior passing stats would put Johnson in the shade. But like it or not football is as much about winning the ball as keeping it. So Johnsons superiority in tackling and intercepting are of great value to the team too. Its a bit of a chicken and egg conundrum trying to work out which player was more important to the team yesterday. But for me Johnsons goal wins it for him. One thing is for sure though. If Tettey also had Johnsons strengths or vice versa neither would be playing for Norwich.[/quote] I agree Nutty. I will never understand why football fans so often develop this almost pathalogical refusal to recognise a player''s abilities or achievements, or indeed their progress. Johnson has been totally immense this season and is now TODAY a more complete midfield player than he has ever been. So that means please ignore previous seasons, the player is PROGRESSING and IMPROVING season on season. Although him and Snodgrass were probably the only players to come out of last season with any credit too. Ok, in the past you have probably seen more effort than skill but he is way way more composed on the ball now, he carries more of a goal threat, he DOES break up play just has he has always done, he has a really important role in the team as regards assists and setting attacking moves up and then there is consistency - never injured, churns out game after game after game in a way that Tettey himself admits he can''t do.   How can people ignore the role he has had in our games this season? Against Huddersfield when we were still all over the place in terms of form, he made sure we one that game. Against Charlton he did the same - set up both our first two goal by winning the ball in midfield. Absolutely hands down, PoTS, no argument, no contest. Of course however, with our fans refusing to see him as anything more than a hard charging midfield henchman, that much deserved award is far from in the bag for him, despite the yards he has put in for this club since the day he walked through the door, and the quality and outcomes he is now showing.  

But think is Reggie, how "out of position" is it really to play a fast attacking left full back 10 yards up the pitch? All you really do in doing that is take some (not all) of his defensive responsibilities off him and ask him to concentrate a bit more on getting to the by line and getting good ball in to the box. Which he already does.

...with Garrido at LB. Yes/no?  At least while we''re having this midfield ''crisis''.  Possible option i''d have thought.