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Beefy is a legend

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Posts posted by Beefy is a legend


  1. 3 hours ago, Chelm Canary said:

    The Alison incident suddenly chucking the ball when he was yards outside the box was laughable. 

    Mike Dean wanted things to go to plan and that was a bigger club getting the decisions. 

    A smaller club has less people to moan so best do what is expected. 

    I was good friends a while back with the brother of a referee named Michael Ryan. He ref'd a game I went to at Bramall Lane in Feb 2003.

    In that game Norwich won 1-0 and he sent off two Blades players. There was carnage in the home stands towards him. My friend told me that afterwards, instead of being in the post-match lounge, referee Ryan was escorted by Police to his car promptly after full-time and immediately left.

    It's pretty unfair to accuse refs of conscious bias towards home teams. 

     


  2. 2 hours ago, kirku said:

    Russia already invaded eastern Ukraine in 2014.

    Russia is entirely capable and willing to use both tactical and strategic nuclear weapons, alongside its very capable conventional military - so it is extremely unlikely that anyone would seek to invade Russia.

    The main fear at the moment is a far broader Russian attack, swiftly moving on Kyiv from the mobilised forces in Belarus to the north and potentially from Crimea to the south.

    Put it this way, Farke would be "far too close for comfort" if he'd taken over at Dynamo Kyiv, exponentially more so than he is at FK Krasnodar.

    Literally not a chance that anyone is invading, or militarily attacking Russia in its own territory. The nuclear deterrent is very effective in relation to that.


  3. 18 hours ago, Jimmy Raggatip said:

    we need Brentford to beat Newcastle, Burnley and Watford, we don't need to suck other teams in, just need to get that sweet 17th spot! I think its folly to think we can get above Brentford, but they will be a big candidate for 2nd season syndrome

    The reality is we need to look after ourselves and get to about 35pts. If we do that the other results are largely irrelevant. That points tally will get us in and around 17th. 

    I still think that will be beyond us. Palace is a significant game because if we don't win that we will have 16 or 17 points after 25 games and we will surely be back at the foot of the table. If we can find a win then that will offset the likely defeats to come v Citeh and Liverpool and keep us close to 17th. 

    But like others have said, at least we are in the conversation now. And if we go down in a close run thing, that isn't half as embarrassing as finishing bottom without even troubling the rest of the league.


  4. 13 hours ago, AJ said:

    I can't see us getting over 30 points. I struggle to see us getting over 25 unless we can prove Watford wasn't a fluke and we can actually compete. I'd feel more confident if Newcastle hadn't been taken over but can't see them not signing another player or two before the end of the month

     

    I'm inclined to agree. We have 4 huge home games v Brentford, Burnley, Newcastle and Palace. Even if we do really well and take say 9 points from those, we still need another 10 points to get to 35. You really are scratching around as to how we do that. 

    We probably will have to win one of the games at Leeds, Brighton or Southampton. Then maybe we can beat Spurs on the last day particularly if they don't have a great deal to play for. We are going to have to pull out a couple of superb wins from somewhere, that's for sure. 

    There is a hell of a lot of work to do and I'm particularly concerned about Newcastle. They are going to add 3 or 4 quality players and they have a pretty nice run of fixtures coming up. 

    • Like 1

  5. 1 hour ago, Midlands Yellow said:

    You give the crowd at Carrow Road commitment and something to get excited about then they will back you to the final whistle. 

    Exactly. I may think we are down, but every single time I get to the Carra I will still sing, support and hope that the players give the crowd something to hold on to. Every game is still a chance to win, to prove people wrong, and just because I think our season is done doesn't mean we can't win any single game in isolation, and I will still support the side to the hilt. I never go after individuals by chant, I never boo. 

    At the moment, irrespective of results, what the players actually need to do is provide a level of performance that enables the crowd to get involved in the game.

    Because playing like we did against Arsenal, the most supportive crowd in the world isn't going to produce much positivity.


  6. 3 hours ago, Nuff Said said:

    “we can’t compete in the Premier League”

     

    “we are like a small kid whos dad holds him at arms length whilst we swing punches without hitting.”

     

    “other teams and fans laugh at us, and that’s embarrassing”

     

    “we've blown the money, lost the soul of the club and I fear we are at the start of a long decline”

     

    “Relegation is 95% nailed on”

     

    “We've been found out on all levels”

     

    “At the moment the team is miles of being competitive”

     

    “we could very easily be 2 leagues lower in 4 years time”

     

    “We will end up the championship”

     

    “And when our league position is back where it was 5 years ago”

     

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    Edit: before anyone points it out, I agree our goal difference effectively makes it four points.

    The league table is what it is. A 3 point gap isn't a problem albeit there are games in hand to be concerned with too.

    But it's the reality of the level of our performance. Teams with -34 goal difference after 19 games don't stay up. Teams with 8 goals in 19 games don't stay up. Added to that Newcastle are signing England players and are bound to sign much more quality, whereas we are going to do precious little.

    The league table and the points on offer aren't why many of us already accept we are down. It's the performances, the clear lack of quality in the squad. The loss of our footballing ethos and identity.

    • Like 1

  7. On 08/01/2022 at 13:39, Petriix said:

    To be honest, I think I like our Championship teams and I don't like our Premier League teams. I detest the business of signing players for the top flight with the inflated fees, wages, egos etc.

    Every time we go up, we make a bunch of signings which always seem to backfire. I want to see us develop players in the Championship and retain them rather than selling them all and stop blowing stupid money on rubbish players.

    Looking back, we've signed so much dross. I loved it when we went up under Lambert and basically kept the same squad, same under Farke. I don't mind losing, as long as we haven't spent tens of millions on that bunch of losers.

    I feel no affinity with any of our recent signings and Dean Smith leaves me cold. I want Norwich to be the club who does things differently. Rather than aspiring to be Everton, I'd much rather keep yo-yoing but retain our identity. 

    It's all a bit late now though, we've blown the money, lost the soul of the club and I fear we are at the start of a long decline.

    I am inclined to agree. And above all I feel that the Farke sacking basically ripped up 4 years of improvement of the club in so many facets in the vain hope that someone, anyone, else might keep us up.

    However bad things were at times under Farke, I still felt that we were a team who knew our identity and how we would go about trying to score goals. 

    That is completely gone now. I can foresee a really rough year ahead because this squad is not prepared for another tilt at the Championship. And when our league position is back where it was 5 years ago, that's when things really will turn ugly. And then, with toxic fans at Carrow Road, we won't be able to come back up.

    And really, this is what disappoints me most about Webber this season. Not the failings in recruitment. But moving away from an ethos that defined the club. Webber came in and said he wanted the club to play a certain style of attractive football. Where is that ethos now?

     

     

     

    • Like 1

  8. 8 minutes ago, ZLF said:

    The midfield is a real problem with a real lack of defensive midfield options.     An injury free Normann is a good signing,   but there rest are so desperate that Rupp now looks like the best of the rest.    There is a timing issue with players needing time to adapt to the EPL tempo & or bought for a longer term investment eg 19yo Tzolis.  PLM simply hasnt lived up  to expectations and Gilmour is better than the moans but not quite the player we needed.     Add in a change of formation,  an over playing of lord mayors new clothes Kenny (who has always been out of his depth in the prem) and its easy to see why we are being over run and defensively inept.

     

    However we must not overlook the failure to address the CB issue over the last 3 seasons.   The experienced pair (Hanley and Gibson) are positionally poor and, like Kenny, simply not good enough for the prem - the £8m spent this summer on Gibson at his age seems as much a waste of money as any other summer signing.    They are solid champs cbs but there has barely been a good performance from either of them this season with errors of passing and positioning every game.    Add in injuries and constant changing of pairings this crucial position needing stability and consistency is a weak base to the side.    Omo & Kabak are young,  inexperienced and full of potential but are feeding off the anxieties and lack of confidence from those around them.

     

    These weaknesses undermine the attacking output too,  increasing the pressure on the strikers when a rare chance does come along. 

     

    While we persevere with the like of Kenny, Hanley and Gibson we are doomed to continue to concede too many goals at this level.             

    We wouldn't have been able to get Gibson to help us out of the Championship without an obligation to buy though.


  9. 7 minutes ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

    It’s also painful seeing how much we hang back on 50/50s and just flick the ball on and hope for the best- no sense of cohesion or a plan. Something has to change but what? 

    Was saying on Twitter earlier, we look like a side with no real idea as to how we are trying to score a goal.

    It's a far cry from the last manager who, for the vast majority of his tenure, and defensive weaknesses accepted, always produced sides who knew how to attack.

    • Thanks 1

  10. 4 hours ago, littleyellowbirdie said:

    Are you kidding me? That's a joke of a question. 

    One play off win and two championship titles in 6 seasons, with 50% of the 6 seasons in the Premier League is something many clubs would kill for as a record, regardless of how badly we do in the Premier League. 

    We do so badly in the Premier League because there's a determination not to throw everything at a desperate chance in a highly competitive league and take the club back to the brink of collapse when it goes wrong. That's a healthy philosophy. 

    Too many fans tackle it with the wrong attitude in my view. If you start from a perspective that we're underdogs anyway then it all becomes a lot more enjoyable. 

    I agree quite strongly with what you've said here.

    However, it doesn't accord with the club's messaging. Tanks, bazooka's and grenades were apparently signed. It was clear that the higher-ups were marketing this season as one in which we had pushed the boat out and expected to give it a right good go at surviving. The Farke sacking itself evidenced that the club expected the squad assembled to compete to survive.

    You can't really criticise fans for having an unrealistic set of ambitions for the club in the PL against a backdrop of such messaging.

    I personally felt that it would be very difficult, once again, to survive. But I did expect us to compete a little more and do better than 21 points. The reality is that performances have actually been far worse than two years ago. We were naive and vulnerable defensively then, but we played good football, scored goals and gave most teams a proper game. There's been very little of that this season.

    • Like 3

  11. 1 hour ago, Branston Pickle said:

    Funny isn’t it - I was only reading stuff on here a couple of weeks ago about how much more impressive things looked in training and now this is all being revised. The continuing love-in for Farke is all well and good but with anything like 12 players out, as we had for Palace, the idea that we’d not have had a bigger defeat for me is simply misplaced. 

    Smith has already proven better with the squad when it’s fit than Farke did - the performances were markedly better up to Villa, anyone disagreeing with that is lying, plain and simple.

    I'll give you my honest opinion, Branston.

    I thought the first half v Southampton was the worst we've played all season. Absolutely shambolic and it was a miracle that we weren't 4-1 or 5-1 down at half time. The second half was much better and we nicked a set-piece goal and an undeserved win. I thought Smith had tried to change too much, too quickly in that game. 

    Wolves I thought was very good and really showed some decent signs.. We looked a bit more compact and defensively resolute, although didn't create many chances and didn't score.

    Newcastle was absolutely dreadful. We didn't adapt to playing 10 men at all when we'd clearly gone there to defend and counter-attack and we were indebted to a wondergoal to avoid an absolutely crushing defeat.

    Spurs and Man Utd were similar games. We looked decent and tidy in possession but still offered only a sporadic goal threat and lost both without scoring. Man Utd were very poor. 

    The games since, Villa, Arsenal and Palace, have been, Chelsea apart, the worst performances of the season. Even with the mitigation of injuries and illness, we had 6 of our summer signings in the starting line-up v Palace and were so far off even competing that it was truly embarrassing. You know how bad it is when the gallows humour starts in the away fans.

    Over the piece, 3 goals in 8 games. We scored 3 in the last two games that Farke was in charge. So, overall, I don't see much improvement really. I thought under Farke the first half v Brentford was the best we've played all season. We also had no Normann and Kabak for the first 4/5 games and a very tough start and had taken 5 points from his last 6 games in charge. We have 5 points from Smith's 8 games in charge. So, in reality, whilst I acknowledge there were some decent signs in the Wolves game, I really haven't seen much to suggest Smith has got any more out of this group of players, who simply aren't good enough. 

    • Like 3

  12. 6 minutes ago, FCC said:

    The sacking of Farke unraveled the unity at the club. I wonder who the players who wanted him gone were.  I’m not seeing anyone playing better under Smith, and I don’t know what our playing style is now supposed to be.

    Just Weber showing more confidence in his signings than his Coach. Looking like misplaced confidence.

    There's another point to this.

    Farke revolutionised training at the club. Training sessions were increased and the tactical elements of playing his system were complex and took quite some time to adapt to. Days off were moved to allow recovery sessions the day after games.

    It will have been a less than simple process to rip all of that up and alter the tactical setup. 

    And whilst some say that there were signs of improvement under Smith, my own view is that we looked to have tightened up defensively but at the expense of attacking output. We scored 2 goals in Farke's last game in charge, we have scored 3 in 8 games under Smith, with two of those being goalkeeping errors and the other an absolute wondergoal from Pukki. 

    To be honest, under Smith I think we've had 2 good performances out of the 8 games, Wolves and Man Utd. We were incredibly lucky to beat Southampton and, but for that, Smith's record would look completely horrendous.

    I don't blame either manager though. In all honesty, this squad simply isn't anywhere near good enough. With all of our best players fit all season, we might have a chance. But that never happens. Every team has to deal with unavailability of players. When you scratch past the surface of this NCFC squad, what is underneath is completely sub-standard.

    • Like 2

  13. I was just watching Sky's podcast on the Ashes.

    Nasser Hussain came out with a quote that translates perfectly across to NCFC, and to this thread.

    "People always want their pound of flesh when things go wrong. Someone to blame.

    But always ask yourself. Am I confident that change will make things better?

    Change for change's sake is not improvement."


  14. 6 hours ago, mannings bandy legs said:

    I really feel the way we go down this season could be a defining moment for a lot of supporters. No one enjoys seeing their team become the subject of constant humiliation.Embarrassment has its limits,and we are reaching those limits I feel. Don't think I have ever left Carrow rd. feeling as deflated and totally p#ssed off as yesterday.Things need to change,and it probably is in the supporters hands how and when that changes.

    You must have missed the 7-1 v Colchester.


  15. There's this old saying about babies and bathwater etc.

    The summer recruitment has been terrible. Webber has some responsibility for that. However, it's also fair to say that the financial constraints forced us to shop in certain markets which were always going to be risky for recruiting PL quality. I also think that the strategy of going for 20-21 year old players hoping that they will appreciate in value at some stage and turn a profit was to the detriment of our short term goal of being competitive this season. 

    So Webber has of course to shoulder some blame. 

    But he's also done a hell of a lot of good for this club, and in reality we would be hard pressed to get anyone as good as him, let alone someone better. 

    Acknowledge the mistakes but then move on and try to do better next summer.

    • Like 8

  16. Could we have made Emi stay here? In theory, I suppose the answer is yes. 

    What would the outcome have been? Well we would have been unable to sign half a dozen of the players we did, and we'd have had an immensely unhappy player on our hands. Harry Kane is one of the best strikers on the planet. He was forced to stay at Spurs and has, as a result, contributed 3 goals this season. 

    In reality, we had to let Emi go and we got good money for him.

    The issue is not Emi leaving, it's been the shocking way in which the money we got for him was spent.


  17. 4 hours ago, Hairy Canary said:

    Spot on. The government will not want to bring in further restrictions, that’s why they are so desperate for the booster program to be a success and slow the hospitalisations if at all possible. 

    Can genuinely see the end of Johnson as PM in the not too distant if the rebels continue.

    Johnson clearly risks a vote of no confidence if he tries to push through greater restrictions dependent upon support from Labour votes. It literally could be the end of him. If the mood music is toward an even greater rebellion than the 100 or so MP's who rejected vaccine passports etc, then I think it's unlikely he would even seek to bring forward a vote on greater restrictions.

    As such, I think Boxing Day games will go ahead, Covid cases in playing staff permitting. There seems to be some discussion around postponing the 28th Dec round of fixtures simply to give players more recovery time given clubs are playing with reduced squad sizes. Will wait to see what happens with that.

    • Like 1

  18. 7 minutes ago, Branston Pickle said:

    There’s over 600 seats in the Commons; restrictions should get through if needed.  

    The point is surely this:  if we are lucky and Omicron is far less effective and doesn’t bring hospitalisation/deaths, then that’s great.  But what if it isn’t?  There’s already a shedload of cases and it’s rising fast - if we do nothing for it to turn out as previous variants it would be disastrous.  Playing roulette with hundreds of thousands of lives simply isn’t a gamble worth making.  Far better to do restrictions and find you didn’t need them than to not do them and wish you had done.

    If that were the only consideration then sure, fine.

    But lockdowns bring with them a huge number of problems. Economically of course but also in terms of domestic abuse, reduced availability of treatments for other medical conditions, mental health deficit.

    We were told the route out of all this was vaccination. The majority of people have done what was asked of them and there is increasingly a lack of appetite for further restrictions. 

    The government is facing a situation where the majority of its MP's will oppose further restrictions, and they will only have a chance to get anything through with significant labour support. It's not a position that Bozo will want be in.

    • Like 1

  19. I think they will be on, Covid cases at each club permitting.

    Fans will be allowed in. 

    It is looking as though it will be very difficult for the government to get greater restrictions through the commons now, which don't forget is now closed for Xmas and would have to be recalled to vote on any proposed restrictions.

    But given 150-200 Tory MPs could vote against more restrictions it actually starts to look more difficult for further restrictions to get through. 

    There is an increasing lack of appetite in parliament and in the country for more lockdowns etc. We've got our vaccines and are getting our boosters. Those were supposed to be the route out of all of this. 

    • Like 1

  20. Ultimately the squad isn't good enough to stay in this league, whoever is in charge.

    The issue now is whether we've made it even more difficult for ourselves to come back up again from the Championship. We've gone away from a long-term mantra, we've sacked a guy who absolutely ruled the Championship, and we have half a dozen players who won't be here next season. 

    On the face of it, it's going to be a lot more difficult to come back again this time. 


  21. 6 minutes ago, PurpleCanary said:

    I agree with most of that, but I don't think the money we spent on Tzolis will turn out to be wasted. Sargent is a result of what might be called the Pukki Dilemma. Because we were not going regularly to play two up front it was always going to be hard to attract a PL-quality pure striker. Hence looking at Josh King, who can play out wide as well.

    Added to that, the mood music coming out of Carrow Road early on in the summer window (although not so much later) was that Idah would make the breakthrough. And that Rashica would provide some goals. Of those only the latter may start to come true.

    The other point, which is linked to failing to get Josh King, is that players with PL experience who are good enough for us to want to buy them will usually have wage demands well above what we can afford.

    Absolutely. My point is not necessarily that Tzolis and Sargent will never be good enough. It is that, for this season, they are not at the level required to contribute sufficiently to a side staying up.

    On my point re. PL experience, I was only pointing out the fact that we signed very little of it. There are reasons why that is the case, the main one being our meagre budget by PL standards, which was also a point that I made. In some respects, it is the messaging that is the problem. Webber spun the signings as given Farke a few tanks and a bazooka. It was spun as a genuine effort to stay in this division. The reality is that we did not recruit players at the level required to stay in this division.

     

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