a1canary

[quote user="ricardo"]They all fail in the end.[/quote] Unless their name is Ferguson. And possibly Mourinho!

Just sayin   ;)

Nothing strange about this. If How''s on comes in it''s either Johnson or Tettey that have to give way. You can make a case for both either of them IMO so it''s a flip of the coin. For me, Johnson has the better engine and has shown he can play pretty much all the time. Tettey however has a history of tiring as the gamea pile up so right to give him a breather IMO. I do wonder though about both Howson and Hooly in a 4 man midfield. In a 5 including VOO I''d be interested to see. I guess tho at home to Rotherham Adams thinks it''s worth the risk to play with the extra attacking flair and to have those two and the two strikers on the basis that Rotherham will sit back.

Theres''s also a distinct sense of deja vu in this discussion from the Lambert era. Then too it was essentially our tactics to change from the diamond at some point in the second half if the game was scoreless or if we were behind. Then too, if we hadn''t managed to get in front in the first half of the game it was usually because Wes was either off his game or being sat on, or because the opposition had successfully exploited the vulnerability on our flanks when playing a diamond or with 3 in the middle. Or any combination of the above! I don''t think any of this is bad and i think it''s no coincidence that Adams is doing this having watched Lambert''s Norwich sides so many time at close quarters from the commentary box!! I''d much rather have a side that can switch between playing style than one that can only play one way. It will inevitably lead to plenty of armchair fans saying we should have switched sooner, later, played one way from the start rather than half way through the game.... and so on. But it''s much more fun and also, more importantly, much more likely to get us a result based on NCFC experiences to date!

Well, to be fair, we''re invested in Loza and we have to give the guy a chance to find out if he can make the step up. And he doesn''t cost much in wages! Somewhat different scenario with Becchio and RvW - decision already taken that it was best for them to move on. The thing about Loza is that we don''t know yet, so yes, i agree, it is a bit unfair to write them off before they''ve had a full opportunity in the first team! But if GJP already thinks he knows and is happy to make that call, that''s up to him i guess! I certainly haven''t seen enough of him to judge just yet.  

But the other ''problem'' we have with that miggins is that Johnson and Tettey are not very effective without one another. We''ve seen that a lot in the past. I think if we had to take one of them out it would be Tettey just because Johnson is that much more combative for me. But on balance for me, if we''re going to play Wes and Howson it has to be in a five man midfield otherwise there are just going to be too many holes and the defence too exposed.  I''d put Wes in the hole and Murphy left with Jerome the man up.

[quote user="GJP"]Loza isn''t good enough. [/quote]   I''d edit that to say "Loza isn''t quite ready" but even then i''d obviously yield to NA''s view on that. It seems more likely that he''ll go on loan which would indicate that he''s not ready for a regular place on the bench for 1st team games just yet. Maybe. But just saying "he''s not good enough", based on zero evidence by way of Championship games is silly. Is Murphy good enough? When does a young academy player like that become good enough? Murphy was in the exact position Loza was 6 months or so back. Was he good enough then? You have to blend them in to first team action carefully and gradually and then you start to find out if they''re going to be good enough. I would say we still don''t know with Murphy but he has certainly earnt the right to continue being given game time to show if he is.

Re Hooper I don''t think it''s too indicative that he didn''t do much in the cup and in an even more inconsequential development game. He needs to get up to fitness and i also get the feeling he''s maybe a bit like Holt i.e. needs to be in a real blood and thunder competitive game before he reaches his level. Make no mistake, he is a goal scorer and a fully fit Hooper, for me, would have a better conversion rate than Grabban. Grabban has done good, i like his attitude and application, but Hooper is going to be the more clinical. I also think Grabban and Jerome as a partnership are both a bit selfish - which is generally a good thing in a striker - but as a result are like two individuals playing together. You don''t see them looking for each other much or working together much. I can see Jerome and Hooper being a better partnership potentially.

It''s a tricky one. Whatever you do there''s a compromise. Wes is best in the hole, that is unarguable, but when we play him it does mean using full backs and Redmond for our wingplay and of course using Wes''s own creativity to feed the forwards through the middle. Sometimes this works very well, sometimes it doesn''t which is why Adams likes to use Murphy as the plan B, pushing Redmond out and really stretching the opposition down the flanks as the game enters the final stages. For some reason, he opted for plan C last night. Maybe he was trying something different and giving Howson a chance but it was too late also. I think he thought Wes was playing well and didn''t deserve to be subbed and thought the players on the pitch were the best option to unlock their defence and so stuck with them until the very end. But all of that is with hindsight and i don''t blame him for any of those decisions. They are the decisions he is there to make and he''ll win some and lose some.

90% certain i heard CG say on the radio last night that he can''t

I''m not talking about the past. Mistakes were made but show me a club where mistakes haven''t been made. What is much more important is that these are learnt from and not repeated. Anyone who STILL wants to punish them for the Grant/Reader/Gun era is cutting off their nose to spite their face and is also failing to recognise the value of lessons learnt.

...and as LDC says, he always wants to be front and centre at Cardiff, ahead of the manager, and that is just a recipe for disaster. And yet he''s now talking about selling Cardiff and about buying other clubs in Europe! Way to show your commitment to Cardiff, after coming in and changing the club colours - i''d be camping out on the pitch in protest day and night by now if someone came in to Norwich and did what he has done. Yet some fans seem to just shrug their shoulders and think he hasn''t done much wrong. Ask what he has done right. He thew enough money at the club to make the step from play offs to promotion, giving them one (bad) season in the premier league. Apart from that he has made the club a laughing stock, messed around staff and managers, appointed work experience kids to scout player, interferred with transfer policy, ditched the club colours, mouthed off in the media constantly, and is now talking about selling up and bringing his particular brand of ownership to another poor club in Europe. I''m sure most fans would be delighted for him to sell up but that isn''t great to have a club being passed from owner to owner without ever knowing who you''re going to get next. It''s a mess and one i fear we could find ourselves in one day. At least we can enjoy the here and now at NCFC, knowing that despite our own season of turmoil and relegation, we''ve (McNally mostly) has managed to steady the ship impressively, in part because of sensible decisions in previous years. Long may that continue. I just hope it''s very long!

Ok, looks like i''ll have to try harder here! What about this one? Russell Slade isn''t even in post yet and he already wants him to be at Cardiff as long as Wenger has been at Arsenal. Let''s see how that goes shall we!! http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29411719  

Are you serious splutcho? Tells you all you need to know about what sort of owner he is and how little he knows about football and running a football club. It scares me to think fans can''t clock a nightmare owner when they see one.  He thinks he can throw £50m of his personal fortune at a manager and that guarantees survival. Nothing of the other aspects of what making a club work and be successful involves. What did we spend the year we came up? Swansea, Southampton? QPR probably spent more than £50m and went down. He knows FA and the idea that fans would welcome or accept an owner like that at Carrow Road after M&D have moved on is a pretty scary one.   

"£50m to buy players so that we don''t get relegated. We spent more money than Hull and Palace and we got relegated. "People will say we got relegated because I quarrelled with him, but I didn''t. "He didn''t talk to me for a few months. I arranged to meet up with him, it was nothing personal, but he refused to meet me," Tan continued. "Of course, all the pundits in Cardiff, they love him because he got Cardiff up after 51 years. "They only think the manager got us up. They never think about the owner giving him money, that''s not important. "Maybe they should meet a poor owner then they would know. Try to get promoted without any money, then they would know." http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/29423869   What a horrible little sh[t he is. Delia becomes more god like by the season, just by NOT being a total tosspot like the vast majority of owners!

[quote user="thegali"]I would like to see Lafferty and Hooper up front for tonights game. [/quote] This. No need to risk Jerome. Sure he''s red hot and would probably win us the game, but equally, he could get crocked by a cr*p challenge or something. We need him for league games and Hooper needs game time. Lafferty has done absolutely nothing wrong and would probably have scored plenty as well if he had been playing where Grabban was at the start of the season, so would like to see him given a central role.

Hmm, on second thoughts, i''ll correct my back four to include Cuellar as opposed to Martin just so that we have almost an entirely Spanish back line! Should help with communiciation. Whitts will just have to go on a quick Spanish crash course! 

I can settle this, thanks to our Cardiff friend with his pictures from the game. Consider where Tettey cross the ball from, then look at this: https://www.flickr.com/photos/joncandy/15040046130/ If Turner''s not there, that ball goes all across the goal

[quote user="ReadingCanary"]To be fair Grabban should be on the same number of goals were it not for Turner''s steal ![/quote] That wasn''t a steal, Grabban missed it! If Turner wasn''t there it either would have gone past the far post or off one of the Cardiff players. It was really fizzed across by Tettey so it was a pretty decent piece of anticipation for a big central defender!

This could be virtually anything but i guess i''d favour a mix of the new signings and injury returners, along lines of...   ----------DR/MB---------- SW-----IM----RM------JG EB-----JH----VOO-----JM ---------KL--GH----------

Agreed MP, Johnno didn''t disgrace himself at all in the PL, and now he is proving how good he is in the championship. I''ve said before on here that people don''t realise how much he does for the team, defensively in the midfield engine room but also going forward. He has been at the centre of many of our goal scoring moves so far this season and again today set Martin up beautifully for his assist to CJ. I''m really keen to see VOO but it''s hard to know who to drop to get him in.

I was going to mention that stat - 24 shots but today it took on avg 6 of those attempts to get one on target. Clearly the team have been drilled to shoot and be much more attack minded which is great, really great. Let''s just see if we can''t get a few more on target. I think we need Hooper back pretty sharpish because he is a natural finisher and I think he could get hatfulls in this side. Him and Jerome could be an absolutely lethal combo.

http://ichef.bbci.co.uk/onesport/cps/400/media/images/77718000/jpg/_77718996_wenger_lambert_reuters.jpg

This was only posted a couple of weeks ago, presumably as a tribute. Really nice HD compilation, good music and enough to get very excited about what we might be about to see from the man. Take a look: Vadis Odjidja ► We will miss you ● ᴴᴰ: http://youtu.be/8YvhpBRKQwA

[quote user="Boss Drum"] We ought to be trying to play a slick passing game rather than relying on punting the ball up to a big striker.[/quote] Do you actually think that''s how we''re playing?