Cantiaci Canary

I'm starting to conclude that (like we heard about Maddison, Emi and Godfrey) the Club has outgrown the head coach. He has worked wonders to get us to a superior position to where we were when he first arrived but he's hit his ceiling. Like Brighton with Potter ... it's time to move on.

Shocking to set up so negatively that we all know that 0.0 is the only positive result possible BUT come in 3-0 down at HALF TIME! I fear that Farke's truly lost it. He's chopped and changed already this season and we're still so far off it.

He'll return in January I expect ... he's a luxury player for a club in our situation.

I think Farke may do a Wagner and concede that it's not working and return to the continent at some point. If not then I think it would take something like 15 to 20 back to back defeats this season for Webber to pull the trigger.

Where did it go wrong? Quite simply ... we made half an effort to adapt Farkeball after the previous relegation but have then forgotten the lesson learned. Farkeball only works in the top tier with elite players. We can't afford them. We need to be bigger, faster and nastier but we can't bring ourselves to evolve down that avenue.

"Paddington Bear stare" I loved that - thank you! Yes, agree with everything you outlined above. We are too nice and look more like a lower league team arriving for their big day out in the 3rd round of the FA Cup. Does it emenate from the paternal, kindly and genial Farke? Does it come from building a squad of 'good characters' and a no d*ckhead policy? Does it come from the culture of the region - gentle, sleepy and bucolic? I genuinely don't know.

Yep, absolutely this. What I don't get is that Farke and Webber appeared to have learned that after the previous relegation and yet we've STILL got a midfield of technically good, easy on the eye, box to boxers. This, sadly, is the cost of Farkeball. We needed to buy at least two neanderthals but bought zero. If you look through every Premier League starting they have at least one big, mean, grim Suffocator In Chief .... Normann ain't that. A club with our budget can only survive by being a lot grittier, nastier and disliked.

I'm honestly at the point now where I don't think it matters. There isn't an untried formation that will unlock our brilliance. There isn't an untried player who will glue everything together. Quite simply ..... Farkeball doesn't work in the Premier League unless you spend like Man City can. There's a reason Watford and Bournemouth BOTH took SIX points off us LAST season! When we come up against teams with equivalently talented squads (let alone better ones!) Farkeball doesn't work. Our passing game gets disrupted and we struggle to create the 'gift wrapped' chances Pukki relies on. We also can't boss possession and that equates to more chances created for more lethal forwards - and we've always looked leaky at the back under Farke. For me, the only hope Farke has left is to have a major philosophical rethink but I suspect that he can't / won't do this and that we don't have a diverse enough range of players (e.g multiple DMs of Premier League standard) to shake it up enough. Farke would do well at a top German side with a generous budget to throw around.

I honestly think that it is too easy to turn a blind eye / apply common sense when it's a decision that would favour an unfashionable team in one breath but then apply the strict letter of the law when it comes to penalising that same type of side in the next breath ... seen it happen too many times. E.g why was Cantwell's goal offside when Hause's today wasn't?

I think a bit of both ... Our squad was head and shoulders better than everyone outside Bournemouth, Watford and Brentford but crucially our STYLE (Farkeball) although moderated to be more conservative, worked a treat. The problem is ..... Farkeball doesn't work in the Prem without ManC level players and we don't have Skipp (or an equivalent) to be as effectively conservative!

For me, the fascinating thing about last season was that we tried so hard to change from an all out offensive / dominate possession team into a more conservative / game management team - because we were adapting from the lessons learned from relegation. However ..... this season we don't have Skipp but haven't replaced him AT ALL. I fully expected two new defensively obsessed warriors to be hired this summer but instead we got box to boxers and we look as lightweight and naive as 2019. How has this happened???

Honest question but did the credibility of the Webberlution ever hang on surviving this season? I think we're hoping to stick in the Prem as a long term objective - potentially after numerous yo yos ... or however many it takes. Obviously the fewer the better. Without a billionaire the aim is to live in the top 26. We can't invest enough to become a nailed on Prem side. Despite breaking our spending records we STILL have one of the least talented squads in the division - many Prem fans outside of Norfolk, and journos, would say the actual least! TBF I think the club have been a lot quieter on this recently because it is controversial. Whether stomaching that sort of existence is a fantasy or not is the biggest question and I'm starting to think that it's not feasible. Losing so often is more painful than the joy of winning promotion endlessly.

There is a great deal of sense in this ... heartbreakingly

In response to the OP I would say ... 1. Money. It is a HIGHLY competitive league - with the money we invest (we broke all our spending records on players that cost half the price of what most teams spend on individuals) we have to have everything whirring perfectly to stand a chance. e.g Lambert's top flight season with us. Wilder's 1st top flight season with the Blades. Brentford this season it seems. Currently we are FAR from a well oiled, intensely drilled team with high confidence that's greater than the sum of its fairly modest parts. We have to be PERFECT! Honestly, how many of our players would the fans of Palace, Newcastle, Watford, Soton, Brighton, Wolves swap for theirs? One or two??? None??? We need to finish ABOVE THREE of them to survive (and the Bees)!!! 2. Style. Unless you spend proper money (like Villa and Leeds) you cannot play attractive football and survive. A club like ours needs to be big, strong and resolute or face being blown away by the top teams who pass and move better than us or stamped on and bullied by the rest. There's a reason Burnley, Palace, Soton, Stoke, Watford etc surprised people by surviving so long. They are / were tough and gritty.

Sad to say it but the scent of death, that eventually smoked off the shoulders of Hughton and Worthy, is beginning to snake around Farke's ankles. I think this is the beginning of the end for him and his staff, I really do. The players look shot of confidence and belief. He's already rejigging formations and line ups. Pointing the finger at critics in the media, fanbase and a player has already been ticked off. The only hope I have is that a better gelled team will have enough to shift the rudder but I'm starting to concede that whilst Farke has mastered putting tier 2 opponents to bed by dominating possession he hasn't adapted enough to give us a chance against tier 1 sides who are stronger, faster, fitter, taller and cleverer. He's also been crippled by us not replacing the stars of last season with an attacking midfielder capable of feeding our only goalscorer and a DM of any sort ... Normann isn't a pure DM (despite the script that the club got him to regurgitate when he arrived!). It'll be fascinating to see how much rope Webber gives him. No points after 10 played? No wins by November? Relegation confirmed? Not this season however bleak it gets?