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Petriix

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Everything posted by Petriix

  1. Mental. The midfield is clearly the problem and has been for as long as we can remember. So, let's roll with pretty much the same midfield and, er, change the fullbacks!?
  2. I think it's a reasonable goodbye/self eulogy which focuses on the positives while providing a very political non-apology for the negatives, despite the cons clearly outweighing the pros by this point. Let's face it, he was never going to come out and apologise for getting pretty much everything wrong since June 2021 so this is as good as it could have been. It beautifully betrays the arrogance which let us to this point. I think it's fair to say that he got most things right in those first years, in spectacular contrast to the final two and a half seasons. I'll always think of him as a gambler who won big but then lost it all on the next spin of the wheel then continued to chase his losses while becoming increasingly desperate. Between Webber, Farke and the players we had, that 2021 Championship title was the culmination of something very special. How I wish that Stuart could have recognised what we had and not thrown it all away. "There ain't no mountain high enough..."
  3. I think you're missing the point though: the reason why he's a 10 not an 8 is because he doesn't fulfill the defensive side of the role sufficiently to play that deep. As a 10 he could play with more freedom without being such a liability. Same reason Kenny is an 8 not a 6. No problem with either of them dropping into deeper spaces, but they need cover and support rather than being the crucial defensive cogs. [But you clearly went on to mention that later in your post]
  4. For me Sara is a number 10 and McLean is an 8 yet they're currently being played as an interchangeable 6 and 8.
  5. As ever there is a degree of nuance which escapes most of the reactive rhetoric when things are going badly. As it happens I don't think Wagner's tactics are all that terrible but the failure to adapt to clear problems or around the strengths and (particularly) weaknesses of the individuals on the pitch are his Achilles heel. The fundamental problem is a failure to get our weapons into goalscoring positions (and generally a lack of weapons) while leaving our midfield short of numbers and defensive skills. This, combined with a feedback loop of nosediving confidence and mental fragility, leads to the slump we're experiencing. Players revert to their base instincts when under pressure. Plan A is highly dependent on all players reading the game and working as a tight unit; if one player misses their cue or gets out of position, a cascade of overloads can (and does) lead to clear openings on our goal. The team lacks balance. Rowe, Sara, Hernandez and Nunez are primarily attacking players who want to operate in the final third. This is compounded by playing very high fullbacks meaning we're often caught with far too many players ahead of the ball. Then Kenny drives forwards and we're left in far too many foot races where opposition wingers have a head start against our fullbacks. In attacking transitions, our midfield lacks the collective skill, awareness and cohesion (and confidence) to make the right passes and movements to open teams up. Without a quality striker (mainly in terms of movement and positioning) we are far too easy to defend against. By generally being too high up the pitch and too stretched out, we're far too easy to play through. It's a shame because I can often see exactly how the system is supposed to work. Against both Blackburn and Middlesbrough we won the ball in the final third several times during the opening exchanges but, through poor passing, movement and decision-making, were unable to create any real chances. I think there are some glaringly obvious changes that we should make to mitigate the current fragility and get our players into the right positions so that their natural instincts more readily fit the situations they find themselves in. I can understand why Wagner keeps trying to make it work, but surely he must realise that something needs to change now? The main thing is to stop throwing so many players forwards all the time; be more compact and harder to break down out of possession. To that end we need to play a more balanced mix of players. Get Rowe and Sara forward because they're the biggest threats but don't try to have Hernandez and Nunez on the pitch as well because neither have the required defensive skills. Likewise, get Kenny into his natural box-to-box role by playing him with a more defensive midfielder. It remains to be seen how much influence Stuart Webber has imposed on the tactics and team selection. I have a suspicion that he's more involved than people realise. It might be that Wagner performs better once his toxic boss has moved on. Ultimately the players aren't good enough (or assigned roles that they're good enough at) to play the system they're trying to play. We need to adapt the system to the players we have and/or try different players in certain key positions. I'm willing to give Wagner the chance to do something different post Webber before demanding his head.
  6. Is Wagner 'toast' though? I can't see anything to confirm this anywhere. Did I miss an announcement or is this just Sky Bet encouraging the snakepit divorcees to donate them some money?
  7. This doesn't count as a legacy because neither are still here and the former was entirely wasted by the inexplicable change in system in 2021. We can all agree that there was a period of exceptional football with some incredible memories, but that's history not a legacy. A legacy is what's left afterwards, not the high points from his tenure but what endures after he's gone. So, let's be honest about where we really are right now: the club is in a shambolic state from top to bottom. There's no leadership, no proper structure and no accountability. All the staff from behind the scenes who made the success happen have departed. The playing squad is a chimera: unable to function as a cohesive unit and lacking the skill to hurt other teams yet paid comparatively huge wages. It would be great to be able to say that now comes a fresh start but the truth is we're on a downward spiral and no one can predict how far we still have to fall. The level of debt is unparalleled in this club's history while the balance between current wages and future income is alarming. Without parachute payments next year, our turnover is set to drop to its lowest level in more than a decade. We don't know what will happen with the club's ownership but, without serious investment, the quality of the squad can only decline further. Webber’s hypocrisy will be his biggest legacy. He accused his predecessors of pissing the money up the wall but has gone on to spectacularly dwarf that previous profligacy.
  8. I have it on good authority that he had a Brazilian.
  9. This attitude is exactly why we're in free fall now. We had a good thing. Winning the Championship in style two out of three seasons was a huge success in comparison to the plight of most clubs of our stature. I'd say I 100% disagree with you. What we need is to recreate the excellent football we played under Farke by building a skillful squad of the kind of quirky players who we can afford, then drilling them on how to play an effective style of attacking football. What we don't need is journeymen picking up £40k per week. Just because a vocal minority clamoured for "giving it a go" AKA "bankrupting the club" doesn't mean it was the right thing to do.
  10. I think there's a spectrum of opinion ranging from the less cerebral just demanding "Wagner out" or "Delia out" to the nihilists saying "we're heading for League One no matter what we do now". I think everyone recognises that *something* needs to change but there's less agreement on what that change should be. Most people are also calling for things to happen immediately but I think we've caused most of the problems (including on the pitch) by rushing in rather than looking at the bigger picture. A few more weeks of floundering might afford us the time to get the next steps right. The main point I'm making (which seems missing from the hymn sheet) is that we really need to get Stuart Webber out before changing the coach and playing style, otherwise his influence could poison the chalice for the next regime as well.
  11. This is very good news if true, and represents a significant departure from the previous plan.
  12. I can't emphasise enough that there is absolutely zero point in making any managerial change while Webber's grubby little hands are still pulling any strings at the club. A director of football has more than a little say in the 'direction of football' so pinning the blame on the head coach is missing the point. I'm not saying I want Wagner to stay, just that the absolute priority must be getting Webber out of the club before he can do any more damage. It's plain for all to see that the idea of a transition period with a handover is just going to ensure the malaise is perpetuated; which is obviously the opposite of what we need. The club needs a fresh start with a clean break from the negativity. That means getting Webber and Wagner out ASAP as well as all of the first team coaching staff. The roles should be filled in the interim on a week by week basis until the new sporting director is in place and able to appoint a new coaching team.
  13. I don't regard two promotions followed by two relegations as 'failure'. To be perfectly honest, in my 30 years of supporting Norwich City, only the very first season I followed the club in 1992/93 and the European campaign that autumn could be considered more exciting than Farke's titles; I was 10 then. What I do regard as failure is the paradigm shift in the summer of 2021 culminating in sacking Farke just weeks after giving him a four year contract; and everything that's followed.
  14. This is absolute BS of the highest order. Some of the figures are just ludicrously low. We signed Dimi on promotion to the PL, there's no way he's only on 7.5k. I suspect our wage bill is closer to double that total figure.
  15. Too many 'h's. It's confusing and disconcerting so best to leave hhim out.
  16. I've got a horrible feeling that this 'takeover' might not be the panacea people are hoping for. I don't quite see how the club could still hold anything like the value we did when the negotiations began.
  17. I'd be ok if Kenny was competing for his place as a genuine number 8. In the role he's currently playing he is the central cog in a broken midfield. His strength (and instinct) is to operate box-to-box, driving through the midfield and linking play into the attacking players. My reasonably valid complaint is that in doing so, he abandons the most important duty of anyone in his role. Ultimately it's beyond ridicule for the deepest midfield to charge forwards (either with the ball or in the press) when the fullbacks are already ahead of the ball. I'll accept that the other midfielders are also culpable with the following caveat: Sara and Rowe are our only attacking weapons so should be afforded a little less defensive responsibility in order to get them into the positions from which to hurt the opposition. Hernandez, as far as I am concerned, should be nowhere near a Championship first team. If you believe Kenny is an innocent party in this shambles, given an impossible job by the ineptitude of the other players around him and an awful coach, perhaps you might offer some thoughts on how we might fix the problems.
  18. Are you seriously suggesting that any if those events occurred within the last couple of decades? Let's not turn into Ipswich supporters and cling to past glory...
  19. With the obvious irony being that the club was the most successful it's been in the past couple of decades while retaining the self-funding model and has only gone down the pan since pushing the boat out and borrowing millions to fund an attempt to show 'ambition'.
  20. A thousand times this. If you accept the obvious wisdom that the squad is now vastly inferior to that which achieved our record points haul in 2020-21 then you have to accept that the remaining players are the embodiment of that decline. Kenny has never been an adequate replacement for Skipp and the repeated attempts to shoehorn him in there have coincided with the club's meteoric decline. I'm not sure exactly what level of involvement our much maligned sporting director has in shaping the match day team, but he certainly holds responsibility for building the squad and has categorically failed to fill what many of us consider to be the biggest void.
  21. Don't you remember? It actually turned out to be all Gary Kasa with Lambert just the public facing puppet.
  22. I don't want to derail this thread with more Kenny bashing, but I have to respond to this. When Kenny drives forward from deep when we already have six players ahead of the ball, abandoning his essential structural pivot and leaving us with just two centre backs who are far too far apart, that completely describes his fundamental unsuitability to the role he's in. Add in that he frequently picks a high risk, low percentage pass with the resulting turnovers leaving us exposed with only (the defensively weak) Sara as the possible other covering midfielder. Surely you can see the problem?
  23. This is exactly why I think Kenny is central to the problem. "We need do more" as if running about is going to fix the underlying structural problems. "We need to double down on the hard work" so absolutely misses the point: we don't need to carry on doing the same thing but try harder, we need to do something different. We're losing because we are putting the wrong players in the wrong positions at the wrong times. This interview highlights the absolute mess we're in because there isn't the slightest bit of awareness of how wrong our underlying approach is. We can't keep sticking 6 players ahead of the ball and expecting not to concede.
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