Bovril
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Posts posted by Bovril
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It's ok - some might be judging it on last year's kit, which is unfair as last season's kit was the best in literally decades for myself.
As others have said, the keepers kits are good.
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We desperately lacked leadership, physicality, and 'know-how' in this league. All 3 signings would provide these traits at different ratio levels, and all three on free transfers. Happy with all three signings and early as well. Good business.
As others have said above though, we really need a marquee DM and No. 10 if we want to think about promotion though.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I6Ss0p2Oiro
Good Tifo (The Athletic) video here on what went wrong for Leicester - 6min long.
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41 minutes ago, Greavsy said:Some grounds don't even have screen for replays / var lines to be shown.
I believe Anfield and old Trafford are in this category. Not sure about other clubs, but its not just the smaller ones.
No need for VAR reviews there...
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2 hours ago, Tetteys Jig said:I somewhat agree. There’s clearly some very serviceable players at this level or we wouldn’t be a point off the playoffs despite everything.
For all the flack Gibbo and Hanley get, rightly or wrongly, it was clear as day to see what was missing in the Boro drubbing.
It boils down to 4 areas we are in transition with:
Goalkeeper: Angus has just about claimed the no. 1 spot from Krul so there’s a bit of a “changing of the guard” whilst he finds out what works with him and his ever changing defence which brings me to:
Defence: Again, the consistent Gibbo/Hanley axis is now finished. Hanley will do well to ever be the same player again with this current injury and Gibbo hasn’t really found his best form since that promotion season, perhaps due to inconsistent minutes and defensive shapes.
Big Andy whilst a huge talent is still fairly raw but hopefully comes out of this season and a good full pre season an elite championship defender. He can use the summer to nail down that defensive partnership with either Gibbo or A.N. Other.
The full backs, similar to Liverpools, I feel like Dimi needs to be in a side on the front foot where he does his best work. Currently with the centre back pairing unsettled and lack of a pure DM, Dimis defensive frailties are exposed. Max on the right is perhaps a more rounded player so less troubled by this but tbh it’s at a point where he’s stagnated for 2 years now (other than some solid experience) and he needs to move on if he has ambitions as lofty as his clear potential deserves. Bali Mumba is such an obvious replacement that now is the time to cash in (assuming we stay down and potentially even if we went up). McAllum has the traits required to be decent enough and is still young, but like Big Andy, he’s still raw and needs more experience to make better decisions under pressure. I’m not fully convinced by him but would say he’s more rounded and has more potential than Dimi. Byram for all his positives probably needs to either go in summer or take a huge wage cut. I’d be pretty happy with the latter tbf as when he does play he’s our best full back. Just he can’t be relied on.
Midfield: The Hayden deal was probably the least successful of the year thanks to his injuries. It’s left us completely exposed and while Kenny did a reasonable job stepping in, it’s not his natural position and it has at times shown. Now he’s out too, that area of the pitch is an absolute train wreck. Sorenson flatters to deceive and probably isn’t helped by us having to make full use of his versatility too often. For me, this probably remains the key area.
Further forward, Sara has been an excellent presence recently but probably doesn’t fill the massive Emi/Wes/Maddison void that remains. He’s more of an 8. Cantwell was possibly the biggest let down this season as this was finally the year he could have made that AM magician slot his own. Dowell gave it a good go but he’s limited. As for the wide men, we don’t seem to have an idea at all what we are doing tactically which hampers the likes of Tzolis/Onel/Whoever plays there. Brings me on to the forwards.
Forward: A huge changing of the guard situation here. Pukki is such a different style of striker to Sargent and Idah that we completely need to revamp our style. No longer can we tiki taka it about in tight spaces to then send Pukki in with a through ball. Idah and Sargent are more a target man type of threat. They’d possibly suit us going to a more robust 4-4-2 system which may not be as pleasing on the eye but would be more effective. See Everton home last season for Idahs best game for us and the tactics we employed that day. That for me should be the benchmark.
Conclusion: Given the need to change to a more physical/direct attacking approach, we need to shift the formation to either 4-4-2 or 5-3-2 wing backs. The 4-4-2 needs to find 4 guys on the sides that can put the hard yards in with the 2 in the middle being deeper lying. I’d argue we potentially need to look at using someone more defensively solid than Kenny next to Sara in the middle if we went this way.
Personally, I feel it’s time to go to 5-3-2. This enables us to bring the best out of our attacking full backs, give Sara or Gibbs or possibly both an opportunity to get further forward and not be as exposed. Sadly, this leaves us thin on the ground of who actually plays in that back 3. Andy can play any of the 3 slots, Gibbo in a settled back line could be effective but he’s not the most reliable. with Hanley more or less done, we need realistically at least 2 new centre backs. At least one of these needs to be an experienced personality as well.
Ideally, I’d go:
Gunn
Sorenson/New guy, Big Andy, Gibbo/New guy
Onel/Mumba, Dimi/McAllum
Gibbs/Maclean, New Guy, Sara
Sargent/Idah/New guy
Theres a decent chunk of players I’ve not even mentioned. Nunez for all his talent, I’m not sure what he is. Perhaps he’s stays and challenges Gibbs/Kenny for a slot as mezzala in the middle?Tzolis is a busted flush, Marquinhos probably not the right type of player for the new system, Hayden a crock, Krul probably finished and deserves better than being our clear back up for his twighlight years but if he’s okay with less pay then I’d happily keep him about. There’s also the youth. Rowe, Springett, Kamara, perhaps Martin, Tompkinson, Aboh could surprise us with a solid pre season?
For all Webbers recent decline in popularity, his whole schtick was around the long term security of the club and a huge part of that is the youth system. This has to start bearing fruit now with both some solid finances coming in from sales and from some good, solid talent actually finding its way to the pitch and being at the very least up for mid table championship standard with an occasional wonderkid come through that can be the difference for us.
For me, summer needs to be a clear out of the bloated squad, setting Aarons free and a few careful but shrewd purchases rather than overhaul. Particularly, a new centre back and defensive mid have to work or we are going nowhere fast.
Agree with a lot of this. I think we have to go 5-3-2. Unfortunately that means a lot of new players are needed. They don't have to be world-beaters but grafters in the Paul Lambert era mold. We also need a true leader, either in that 'New Guy' slot in the centre of midfielder or a Grant Holt esque striker or preferably both.
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Wasn't Terry's first ever professional game for Chelsea, against us? After he had a rape case thrown out against him? I wonder if Delia played a part in blocking that request from 'Dean and Shakey'?
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Defensively in this league we've been fine all season. No team has hammered us score-line wise (as reflected by our goal difference) and the only team who looked miles better than us was Burnley at home. We could play the U18's at the back and still stand a chance. It's the attacking play that is the huge issue.
Idah, Tzolis, Nunez, Marquinhos all nowhere near good enough for the top end of this league which is alarming.
Pukki is way-off it and is going so no point starting him. Sargent runs and runs and is trying his hardest but needs to play up top by himself as everyone else knows.
We either need a true No. 10 or a half-decent winger to compete right at the top. Onel, Sara, Sargent can all play a part.
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Webber (perhaps correctly) saw that we simply couldn't survive in the Premier League playing a neat-passing game with the finances we had avalible to recruit the necessary talent.
So Farke's 2nd season in the EPL, Webber tried to recruit a more pragmatic style of player which led to Farke's sacking and Smith's appointment. It was worth a try but spectaculary failed on many fronts.
As a result we now have a completely mixed squad of 'passing' style footballers and more 'pragmatic' style footballers which has led us to our current problems where there is neither one nor the other. We can't play possession based as we don't have the No.10 to create and we can't play pragmatic whilst we play Pukki (and the crowd want to see the former rather than later style in any case).
It's a real problem. Financially, we cannot survive in the EPL playing possession-based, we simply can't afford to recruit the players to do so on our budget. Therefore, the only way to try and stay up is to play Brentford-esque, for that we need a focal point and target man ala a Grant Holt or Ivan Toney.
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I haven't renewed.
The hour before each home game I kid myself into thinking 'maybe I should' and then the following 90 minutes confirms my decision. It's an awful lot of money to pay for what has literally turned into a weekend chore. You simply cannot play passing football without a No. 10.
The support yesterday was superb.
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Turkish media are even worse than the British Tabloids for accuracy. It'll be completely made up and based only on the fact he's scored a few goals and doesn't want to be here next season.
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40 minutes ago, BroadstairsR said:So onto Brighton. Come on the Mariners then?
That's if you support the underdogs.
That Arena stadium looks magnificent to my eyes. Where did the money come from for that when we've spent years pontificating over the expense of replacing just one stand, and an outdated embarrassment of a stand come to that?
Brighton were homeless and rock bottom not that many years ago.
Did American Express pay for it all? Where did that link-up come from?
Let's hope that Atanasio shows similar enterprise. The Silicon Valley Bank Stand perhaps?
5 mins. Game over?
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The difference between now and Farke (it's the same build out of the back tactic) is the midfield.
Everyone knows Gibson, and especially Hanley, are not good enough with the ball to feel comfortable under pressure - compare this to the Burnley centre-backs at Carrow Road who dribbled past our press at times. However, it's the midfield that was the difference.
Previously Hanley could just play a simple pass to Skipp or Buendia under pressure, and they would take responsbility to beat the press, either through a half-turn or quick pass further up the field. They had the technical ability to do that. We no longer have a true DM or No.10 to pop the ball too and hence Hanley looks for Aarons and Gibson for Gianni instead.
We have two Number 8's (Mclean and Sara) and a lost Nunez who if plays, needs to play on the wing ahead of Aarons and not centrally where he gets physically outmuscled offensively and defensively. We need a 6 and 10 to play possession football.
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I've been given the name of the Sunderland fan who provided help. Anyone know who to pass his details to? maybe @Feedthewolfcan help if I DM the fan's contact details?
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Story on their forum here.
Norwich fan in and out of consciousness with Police around him (waiting for Ambulance). Sunderland fan, medically trained, stopped and advised Police to check the Norwich fan's pockets, where they found EpiPen's, which the Sunderland fan duly injected into his leg and the fan came round.
Well done to that Sunderland fan.
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It is on Now Sports if anyone see this late. Scroll right to the bottom under ‘Bonus streams’.
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Simply can’t do it with Hanley. It’s not his game at all.
Whereas their No. 36 Jordan showed exactly how to play it. He was confident on the ball, able to bring it out, and if needed take it past someone.
Hanley is a very good old-school defender who is brilliant at making blocks but sadly the game has moved on.
Krul and Hanley have served us well, but time to move on if we want to play this style.
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17 minutes ago, Petriix said:Kenny seemed particularly drawn to the baby after getting off the bus. It reminded me of when my kids were small and old people always seemed to want to touch them. I suspected that they were somehow trying to absorb some of the youthful energy. I wonder if that's why he played so well? It could become a thing.
It sounds like you can hear 'Uncle Kenny' from a child's voice. Might be his family.
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He was an awful signing based on footballing ability, but he hasn't kicked up a stink or caused a bad dressing room (quite the opposite by all reports) during his time here. So he has that credit in his bank, but yeah, won't be here after the summer you imagine.
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They are in a similar position to us, only have more issues financially off the pitch. Joao Pedro is out for 6 weeks, leaving their only player to fear to be Ismailla Sarr.
Sarr however has a big problem with consistency/attitude, only really utilising his talent when he wants - unfortunately he usually decides that time to be against us, such as when he tore us apart in the reverse fixture.
Right now they have injuries, and a shambolic defence, we need to target Troost-Ekong if he plays as he has a massive error in him every game.
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As mentioned his best role is suited to that played by Buendia. I really feel Nunez and Aarons could form a decent partnership down that side. His stamina is good, he'd be able to track back when needed and he could feed Aarons onto his overlapping runs (now he has permission to pass the half-way line) or he cut inside to find Pukki, ala Buendia.
To compensate this, play Mclean on the left with Mccallum to help the later out defensively and also give us an aerial outball. Mclean has already shown he is competent as a left-back, and can also often find Pukki's runs.
It's who you play in the middle of the park which is the issue for us...
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Nothing to see here. Ignore the click-bait rubbish.
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Gunn
Aarons Omobamidele Hanley Mccallum
Gibbs Hayden
Nunez Sara Mclean
Pukki
Subs: Cantwell & Sargent on for Sara and Pukki
- Pukki and Sargent do not naturally link up with one another
- Nunez and Sara would link up better with Pukki
- Mclean offers Mccallum protection and gives us an aerial outball on the left
- Instruct Aarons to attack and form a Buendia like partnership with Nunez
- If building from the back, get Hanley/Omo to find Gibbs to play on the half-turn before progressing.
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Autos' have gone. It's a lottery for play-offs, so it really doesn't matter who comes in. I'd personally avoid the care-taker approach, Adams will a few, get the job full-time and then we're back to square one once we solidify a Top-half finish.
The next appointment is huge. I've yet to see a name that inspires me/that 70%+ of the fans have agreed on.
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I'd rather have his wife.
Our 23/24 home kit
in Main Discussion - Norwich City
Posted
That hasn't been in practice for years now although there is lobbying from the top clubs to bring it back.
I don't see why they can't alternate the home/away kit releases each year, so each kit still lasts for 2 cycles but the club can realise a new kit each summer still.
23/24 = New home kit
24/25 = New away kit
25/26 = New home kit
etc...