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Petriix

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Posts posted by Petriix

  4. Posted

    Yeah, this makes no sense at all. He is not for sale so there is no asking price. Our valuation would be the point at which we would want to sell because the money was enough. That might be £15m or £20m but there would come a point where we would say "Ok, we didn''t want to sell but we can''t refuse that much". If they didn''t offer enough to actually make us agree to sell him then they did not meet our asking price. What a stupid thing to come out with.

  5. Posted

    I''ve been one of his harsher critics in the past, largely for his previously poor pass completion rate. I have never doubted his work rate but he actually made relatively few successful tackles or interceptions in the Premier League and he committed quite a lot of fouls; although I seem to remember him having made the most fouls without receiving a booking at one point. Another frustrating thing is that he would sometimes completely fail to track a run from midfield into the box leaving their man unmarked to head or tap in. Not exactly what you want from a defensive midfielder.While you could argue that Johnson and Tettey between them should have been there to stop the opening goal last night, his performances in the last two games have been fantastic; particularly the passing and shooting. You could say that it is easier at this level, you get a bit more time on the ball and the opposition leave a few more gaps and make more positional errors which make passing a bit easier. Another factor is that the new system we are playing and the overall attacking intent from the team is allowing him to play a bit further up the pitch and is providing him with some team mates who are running into space, wanting the ball; these all help.However, I genuinely believe he has made some significant improvements to his game: he is taking the simple option when appropriate in order to retain possession but he is also growing in terms of vision and creativity. He has always had an amount of creativity - I''ll always remember that 28 pass move that led to Pilkington scoring against Sunderland with Johnson playing him in - it''s just often been that he has seemed to lack the accuracy or ability to pull things off; on the evidence of the last two games he is very much improved in both. Finally, his shooting seems to have been transformed. In the past it was more a case of smash it as hard as possible whereas the two goals he''s scored this year have been exquisite, curling, controlled finishes. It''s almost as if he''s been practising.

  9. Posted

    [quote user="Bryangunnshairline"]Really? we played at least half our season in the premiership under

    lambert playing the diamond? What was you watching? we played either 451

    with two wingers most of the time. some times we played 442.[/quote]Er, yes! We played a diamond formation in about half of our games that season. Lamber only played a flat 442 a handful of times and it didn''t really work. Wes was only really played in ''the hole'' so you can go back and look at the games where he played along with two strikers as us playing the diamond. I also remember E. Bennett playing in the hole when we beat Swansea. It certainly is an option worth considering, especially against some of the lesser teams.

  10. Posted

    Our passing was much better today without him. The whole balance of the team was much better and we had the highest possession % I have seen us have in the premier league. What let us down today was poor final balls and poor finishing. Cant see how bj would have helped improve those.

    The goal we conceded was poor defending and one or two of the other chances we let them have through lack of defensive cover. However, we need to be more attacking not more defensive. Today was a step in the right direction, and bringing bj back would undo that step.

  11. Posted

    [quote user="Tony Moore"]You watched a different game to the one I saw. He gave the ball away at least 10 times today. Yes, he made some good tackles and covered well in the midfield but his passing is still simply not good enough. Fer made him look like a championship player. There were a few others who''s passing was worse today though.[/quote

    Out of interest I had a close look at Johnson today. In the first half he passed successfully 18 out of 20 passes, and I think the second half wasn''t a lot different. Don''t let the truth stand in the way of a good prejudice.][/quote]Yes, you really were watching a different game:http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/719954/LiveStatistics/England-Premier-League-2013-2014-Norwich-SouthamptonBradley Johnson: 77% of 48 passes = 37/48 means 11 incomplete passes; compared toLeroy Fer: 94% of 36 passes = 34/36 means 2 incomplete passes.I agree that, when he didn''t have the ball, he played well. I just don''t think that alone justifies his place. Giving the ball away roughly 1 in every 4 passes is not good enough for a central midfielder in the Premier League in my opinion. Our passing was poor in general yesterday but this is about average for BJ.

  12. Posted

    You watched a different game to the one I saw. He gave the ball away at least 10 times today. Yes, he made some good tackles and covered well in the midfield but his passing is still simply not good enough. Fer made him look like a championship player. There were a few others who''s passing was worse today though.

  13. Posted

    Wow, at times I think I''m watching a different team to some of you. I''d be interested to know how people come up with their player ratings. I would start everyone at 6 and then give them plus points for things like goals, assists, key passes, crucial tackles, blocks, saves, dribbles, runs, beating players, interceptions, closing down, passing accuracy etc; and minus points for defensive errors, goals conceded, red/yellow cards, fouls, incomplete passes, poor positioning, not tracking a man, lack of effort, dwelling on the ball, missing a key pass, inaccurate shooting etc.Conceding 3 goals against a league 2 means we did not do so well defensively. However there was some poor defending from set pieces and I don''t know who lost their man each time (not necessarily defenders). I don''t think Bunn covered himself in glory with a couple of the goals. We did, however, do quite well at the other end so lots of plus points for those involved in the goals...Bunn: 6 - could have done better but made a couple of good saves.Martin: 7 - solid, got forward well, switched to centre back and did ok.Bassong: 7 - not at full fitness and took a couple of knocks but is a class defender and it showed at times.Bennett: 7 - solid, don''t think he did anything wrong, won a few headers.Olsson: 7.5 - caught offside a couple of times but attacked and defended well and with pace. Good goal too.Johnson: 6 - gave the ball away a lot of times, ran around a lot but didn''t really contribute.Fer: 8 - Looked composed on the ball, passed it well, linked well with Wes and deserved his goal.Snodgrass: 8.5 - a little ineffective in the first half but fantastic runs, passes, crosses and how many assists? My MOTMHoolahan: 7 - gave the ball away countless times, brushed off the ball, some poor decisions; then some awesome creative play, incisive passing and two assists. The enigma continues.Pilkington: 7 - played really well for 75 minutes, good goal, always a threat but one bad miss.Elmander: 8 - quality play in the second half, great composure and finishing. Maybe worth a start on Saturday?SubsWhittaker: 7 - well taken goal, looked good going forwards.Becchio: 6.5 - made little impact.Redmond: 6.5 - one good run but no real impact.Maybe take half a point off each of the players who lost their men for the two goals conceded from set pieces.

  14. Posted

    See http://www.whoscored.com/Matches/719917/LiveStatistics/England-Premier-League-2013-2014-Hull-NorwichJohnson, with 38 passes at 76%, was simply not good enough for a central midfielder in the PL. Regardless of his other qualities, he consistently fails with this vital part of his game. He played for 20 minutes against 10 men from arguably one of the weakest teams in the league but gave the ball away once in every four passes. That is shockingly bad however you look at it. It might more forgiveable for an attacking midfielder attempting lots of through balls or a winger repeatedly crossing as these are lower percentage/higher reward but, for a defensive midfielder, there *should* (more on this later) always be an easy pass and, if not you can go back to the keeper rather than keeping giving it away. Against Everton he was even worse with just 71%.Johnny Howson attempted 64 passes with a commendable 91% completion - giving the ball away just 6 times (Bradley Johnson gave the ball away nearly three times as frequently) and completing four key passes. He has not always lived up to his potential, but he gave a solid performance against Hull, just lacking that cutting edge in his final ball. This was much better than his 75% against Everton.Alexander Tettey made 48 passes at 90% which is what you would hope for; completing nine out of 10 passes allows the team to retain possession and build some pressure. You can only score (and you cannot concede [apart from an own goal - but that''s by the by]) when you have possession of the ball! For what it''s worth Tettey made one successful tackle - which is one more than Johnson. He also completed 92% of his passes in the 20 minutes he played against Everton. A massively underrated player I think judging by some of the comments on here.Other significant players to note are Leroy Fer only completed 82% of his 45 passes which is nearly twice as profligate as Tettey and I really hope this improves as he settles in. Steven Whittaker was slightly worse with 55 passes at 80% but, Javier Garrido completed just 76% of his 71 passes, conceding possession on 17 occasions - by far the worst offender - although eight of these were incomplete crosses and incomplete long balls which might be skewed by the freekicks he took. I don''t know if our fullbacks are given a bit more licence to try creative passes and maybe the loss of possession mainly occurred in the attacking third but this does not seem very good at all. If we''re questioning Bradley Johnson the surely we have to look at them too.With all this focus on the passing accuracy of the passer, it is easy to overlook other crucial factor in making a successful pass: the movement of the other players. One thing that Hull did very well was press us all over the park, rushing our passes and taking away the space of the intended receiver. However, we did not create enough space in the midfield and, at times, there was a real lack of movement to engineer this space. Maybe Johnson is not entirely to blame if he is limited in his options of who to pass to and forced to attempt riskier passes.One thing is for sure: we need to improve our passing accuracy as a whole. I noticed that John Ruddy was kicking the ball short on Saturday which certainly helped his percentage improve. Maybe the team need to work on this in other areas too.I know some ignorant people moan when the ball goes sideways or backwards, but we need to get the balance right. Trying too hard to get the ball forwards quickly can be really bad for the team if the ball is given away cheaply and, sometimes a bit more patience is required. I gleefully recall laughing at the people around me who were booing in the middle of our 29 pass Barcelona esque goal against Sunderland as the ball went forwards, backwards and sideways before finally it was played long to Pilkington who finished it off; and guess who made that pass?

  16. Posted

    Someone mentioned in another thread that they didn''t think we had won a game this season where Howson started so I thought I''d check. He started the Swansea game so they were wrong, but I noticed that we had actually done quite badly in the majority of games he has started in so I though I''d add up the stats:

    played pts f a gd pts per game
    all 28 25 32 60 -28 0.89
    starts 21 14 24 53 -29 0.67
    2012/13 18 17 21 38 -17 0.94
    12-13 starts 11 6 13 31 -18 0.55
    I know that one player is not responsible for the result but we are only gaining 0.55 points per game this season where Howson has started. The 2012/13 appearances including as a substitute are skewed up to 0.94 points per game by late appearances from the bench in the Man Utd, Wigan and Sunderland wins. Notably, in our 10 game unbeaten run he only played a total of 105 minutes (including 90 in the Swansea win). In all he has contributed 2 assists and 1 goal, with only 1 assist this season.I was really surprised to find this as I thought he looked class when he came in, but it seems that the team do not perform well when he is playing. Could it be coincidence or is he somehow pulling the team down?

  18. Posted

    Wow OP, you’ve got this totally backwards I’m afraid!

    Wes was total pants out on the left - he doesn’t have the

    right attributes for that role at all: lack of pace, crossing, tracking back,

    general discipline at sticking to his position in the system. Think about how

    much running Pilkington has to do in that role and now imagine Wes doing it!

    On the other hand, he has proven to be extremely good

    playing in the hole at the tip of a diamond midfield behind two strikers. We

    played this system 90% of the time in league 1, about 66% of the time in the

    championship and in maybe as many as half our games last season under Lambert.

  21. Posted

    So you think Turner had a good game then? I though he was awful throughout the game aside from his goal. It makes no sense to bring on a third centre back when 1-0 down. Bennett has played at right back on several occasions and done really well.Great that we finished the game with 2 strikers on the pitch but, with better substitutions we could have killed them off. We will not come up against a weaker team in the league this season but Hughton still took off a right back for a centre back and a pacey winger for a slower (arguably out-of-form) winger before bringing on a second striker for a midfielder when losing and playing against 10 men. That is tactically inept however you look at it!

  22. Posted

    I simply cannot understand the negative substitutions! 1-0 down and chasing the game what do you do: take off an injured Russell Martin, bring on Snodgrass and move Elliott Bennett to right back or bring on an extra centre back?Then, when 11 against 10 why take off Elliott Bennett even though he is having a really good game rather than taking off the extra centre back who is having a bit of a shocker (i.e. Turner) and really go for it?Massive opportunity missed for the win, they were there for the taking , we were the better team but we were hamstrung by a raft of unbelieveably negative changes when we should have ended the game with 3 up front looking for all 3 points. We are in serious trouble if we cant beat one of the worst teams in the league with an extra man.

  23. Posted

    Ok...

    When I was at university in Preston living in halls in the first year I lived in a ground floor flat (flat 2) in a 10 flat block. On the fourth floor on the opposite side (flat 9) lived a group of girls, one of whome was called Barbara. I met her on severel occasions and often shared a friendly smile but I had no idea who she was until one drunken evening I discovered:

    She was a former girlfriend of the brother of one of the boys who featured in the famous milk advert in which the immortal line "Accrington Stanley, who are they?... Exactly" was spoken.

  24. Posted

    [quote user="Cambridge Yellow"]Norwich played 4-4-2 a total of 7 times under Lambert in the 2011/12 league campaign. This yielded wins over Swansea and QPR. Draws with Stoke and Chelsea. Defeats to Aston Villa, West Brom and Man Utd. Projected into a 38 game season this would have given Norwich a grand total of nearly 44 points.[/quote]

    ...but against Swansea we switched to the diamond at half time and that''s what made the difference!

  25. Posted

    [quote user="joeb123"]I agree with you pete mate, allot of em need a kick up the arse and shown theres competition, especially in midfield where its plentifull!For chelsea, injuries permitting id play                                           RuddyR. martrin        Barnett             Bassong      Garrido                                                  Fox                                Tettey              E bennet                                                 Pilkington                                   Hoolahan

                                            Holt

    swapping bennet, pilks or hoolahan for butterfield some time in the 2nd half. The boys young and wants to proove himself, his movment against donny looked wise, and hes not afraid to run with the ball and shoot on site, What better time to make an impact than scoring a winner against chelski at the bridge?!? Not going to happen if he starts cos of the pressure, and it certainly wont happen if he gets brought on with ten to go! course it may be wishfull thinking but iv got faith we''l step up to the challenge, as will butterfield given his chance in the prem.[/quote]That is the exact team I would pick. Good call.
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