SplatCat

I mean they only gave us a total of 90 seconds and in that time they- falsely claimed Gilmore played through the pass falsely claimed Gimore has been key to our resurgence falsely said it’s a minor shock Impressively crap!

Yeh but he knows nothing about norwich he’s ignorant he could have said if norwich were full strength they could have won instead he says we’re the worst team in the league when actually we’re level on points with 2 other teams pr***

Jenas was better though. He said Norwich weren’t out of the game, but the difference was the quality in attack. And I think he’s right. Put Sarr in our team and it’s a different story. The difference is in the boxes. So many fans are catastrophizing and calling it an abysmal performance but we were well in the game and if we can tighten up the details in the boxes we can turn things around. Some big adjectives being thrown around considering it’s only the 5th game of the season.

Looks like he plays right back, no wonder they lost 6-0!

We need to do all we can to keep him, but he will probably feel next year is about the right time to move on. He will feel rightly that he has the potential to manage in the champions league. Question is, can we replace him with someone good .... big point in the clubs history when it comes to replacing him and Webber.

Very interesting projection, nice work for compiling! Yes 86 could be enough... but on the other hand, if Swansea, Brentford and Watford's form until the end of the season is really good, they could easily pick up a few 'extra' wins and end up on 92/93. I wouldn't rule out an end of season burst from these 3.

I didn't watch the Norwich game last night, but I did see the Sheff Utd v West Brom game. Very competitive, very physical. Reminded me of where we're going if we do go up. My worry is that if we do go up we want some players to be really stepping up so we can compete properly next year. Players like Cantwell, Buendia, Pukki firing on all cylinders, some big players emerging. At the moment I feel like we're grinding out games but there's got to be more to come or we'll struggle again next year.

I basically agree that we lost the central midfield battle yesterday. Tettey would have improved us imo We've spent big on a striker this window, but may not play him if Pukki and Idah play well. Perhaps it would have been worth bringing in a quality centre midfielder - a Yousseff Safri type. Especially because in Farke's system it looks so crucial that we are able to pass through the initial press from the opposition often around our penalty area. Otherwise we end up going long as so often happened yesterday.

I honestly think with the quality of their squad they should get promoted automatically, and easily. Go through their squad player by player, it’s ridiculous at the moment and their wage bill will reflect that. Of course they might sell a few but they still will have a fantastic squad for the Championship. For me it’s comparable to when Newcastle got relegated a few seasons ago. And then they have a Russian billionaire who could write off any debt at a moments notice.

I mean, we tried to do more than 'nothing.' We signed Roberts, Drmic, Farhmann Amadou and Byram. If they had all made and improved our first XI, then fair enough. But all they turned out to be was squad fillers. I doubt that Webber anticipated they would just be squad fillers. I think he hoped they would improve our actual first choice XI. He turned out to be badly wrong. So you could say it was a failure of recruitment and scouting, rather than lack of ambition. The scouts and Webber were probably caught a bit off guard, getting promoted from nowhere. On paper you can see how lots of these signings might have looked like they would improve our first team.

For me it’s not so much an inability to change our style of play as an inability to be really effective in a style of play that served us well last year. Through last year and this year we’ve consistently conceded goals. What’s changed this year is we haven’t scored enough. We haven’t scored any scrappy goals, goals from set pieces, have hardly ever battled to a 0-0 draw, and even in open play, implementing our style of football, we have lacked a cutting edge. An inability to have a consistently performing front 4, especially in the number 10 role, has been key. Think back to last year’s attacking 4 and in my mind only Hernandez and Pukki have performed near their potential, and that’s pushing it. Stiepermann and even Buendia have not been as effective, despite impressive sounding stats on Buendia’s part. Meanwhile Cantwell has stepped up but hasn’t been very effective either. His goals/assists are not that high. I also think our fullbacks haven’t been particularly effective going forward, despite their high valuation. Defensively there’s no doubt they’ve struggled, but going forward too their end product is often lacking. Both of their passing and crossing is often weak. Compare with the simple effectiveness of Sheffield United’s fullbacks swinging in cross after cross - having a game plan to be effective which doesn’t require too much of limited ability. We have a style of play which demands effectiveness through the middle of the pitch, incisive through balls, slipped passes from inside channels, e.g. Buendia’s pass to Pukki in the Liverpool game, and this year we haven’t had the quality to be productive through that area often enough. Stiepermann had a surprisingly good year in the number 10 role last year, but this year has gone missing. To be effective in that area in the way we play you have to have real quality. You are going up against top quality midfield players who are often used to Champions League players. As our only mode of attack, we have been snuffed out. Teams in the prem have been used to Wenger’s arsenal trying to pass through them for years; they just get ready for our mistake, often a misplaced through ball in the middle of the pitch, and pick us off. It’s a laudable and noble strategy that has won us plenty of plaudits, but we’ve ended up being the fall guys. In addition, not picking Vrancic, an incisive and smart passer through the middle to front third of the pitch, has left me baffled. I suspect Webber’s next move will be to try to find more quality unknown players to try to achieve what we didn’t this year. If we manage to achieve promotion again in the next couple of years and want to stay up, we will have to either have serious quality in our attacks through the middle of the pitch, or we’ll have to be prepared to mix up our style a bit - more klopp’s Liverpool and less guardiola’s Man City, press a bit more from the front and not get bogged down passing out from our own half.

Think of the wages wellbeck, sarr, chalobah, cleverly etc will be on. Nothing to be ashamed of.

Gutting. We showed some good spirit. Not a bad performance at all, but we are poor in both boxes.

In lambert’s first season in the PL we let in 66 goals. This season 61. Not too dissimilar.

I’m afraid a year of rebuilding, just finishing in the top 10, is a more realistic and acceptable situation. Even though last year we won the league, we could easily have been just a top 10 club and no one would have batted an eye lid.