rock bus

Russell martin doing well at Swansea again…….take him over smith and I’m not even joking.

Honestly it’s just embarrassing to watch. Walked through the defence with ease. We can’t carry in like this, wished Webber would have the balls to get rid of Smith now!

To be fair so is the game!

Yep, I’ve got same problem!

Why he is with us he should be treated like any other player and picked on merit. But that means it would’ve been extremely harsh to drop him purely due to his performance at Reading. Whilst he may have been poor in that game it was widely acknowledged he had been one of the best performers in the previous couple of games. To instantly drop him after one poor game would have a considerable impact on a young players confidence and his willingness to take chances in future games (which is the type of player I think he is and actually what we really need!). I wouldn’t expect Smith to do that to a young ‘one of our own’ players and nor would it have been right to do it to Ramsey. Havimg now had two poorer performances, higher quality opposition AND with the return of Cantwell it is probably more reasonable to give him a rest against Watford

I know I’ll get abuse for it but maybe it’s time to bring Gibson back. I know he is equally liable to a mistake but he is experienced and it feels like Omobamidele could do with a break.

Very disappointed not to see Todd in the squad, surely he offers more than Dowell?

Very disappointed not to see Todd in the squad, surely he offers more than Dowell?

Should’ve taken a picture and sent to club. Would be interesting to know how they would respond. Sadly a typical example of the attitude of over privileged footballers

I dont rate McLean at all but must begrudgingly admit he was one of the better players last night (despite a couple of really stupid balls). That, however, says more about how poor we were as a team. I am really concerned that Sara still isnt getting a chance... if by now he isnt good enough to take a chance on instead of McLean (especially given how good Gibbs and Nunez are alongside him) then it looks like Webber has once again pd a load of money against the wall!

I definitely think there is something in this and some good points made. I'm a big fan of Byram but thought he was very poor last night. Unfortunately I think that Aarons is continuing to go backwards (both in terms of his performance levels and actually literally!). He is being exposed defensively, especially by bigger and stronger players, and not offering the same sort of threat going forward. I am sure this is at least partly due to Smiths tactics to keep things tighter. But that probably means that Aarons isnt the type of full back we need. We miss Dimi's left foot so when he is fit I'd be tempted to move Byram to the right and drop Aarons. Also agree that it is a waste having Sargent on right - doesnt suit him and means we are missing an outlet to attack teams and move the ball forward. Smith needs to be brave and alternate between Sargent or Pukki or find a way of playing both centrally (I'd give a go of having Pukkis as no10 behind Sargent)

Totally agree, I've been saying for about last 18 months that Southgate should be building his team around Foden. He is a great talent and Southgate with his negative/conservative tactics is just stifling him at an international level

Whilst I understand your point and I'd certainly think it would be better if we were developing one of our players, it would seem that maybe Ramsey is just a better player and maybe also putting in more of an effort. Our/Smiths priority has to be winning games now..sure, it would be great to develop the players mentioned but we know they are decent for the championship and our aim is to get back in the premier league. It may cause an issue next year but for now it's up to Sinani, Cantwell, Dowell and Sara to prove they deserve a starting place ahead of Ramsey.

I think we need to move on from this ‘still only x’ ….Idah has been a ‘potentially” good player for years. He’s not a youth team player and many others players have been starters in the premier league and internationally by that age. Unfortunately he just doesn’t seem to be able to stay injury free and even if he was I’m not convinced he has the talent to be anywhere near as good as Sarr. Indeed I’ll be amazed if he is ever the leading striker in a team above league one (happy for people to bookmark this comment and prove me wrong in years to come,,,would honestly love that as nothin against Idah himself).

On first read lots of these comments seem pretty harsh for someone who is a good player and has been very loyal to us. But actually they are probably all right. He very much reflects us as a club - too good for championship but doesn't have the quality to really make it in the premier league. He could probably make it at one of the constantly battling against relegation teams but he doesn't have the level of quality at any level (ie defending/tackling/forward play/physicality/height) to be at a really decent team. Unfortunately he has now moved out of the 'potential' stage and therefore a club would need to be looking at him as an immediate starter. I expect there may still be some debate as to whether we are partly responsible for stunting his development.... if he had got a move a couple of years ago he may have benefited from working with better players and coaching staff.

Surely having Gibson as cover is sufficient! He was meant to be our premier league quality CB a couple of seasons ago. Not sure what sort of quality CB you'd expect to be happy to be reserve behind Gibson?

One of my biggest moans about replacing Farke with Smith was that lots of emphasis had been placed on having a style of play across all teams within the club. Thankfully this has reassured me that we are making sure that hopeless defending and an inability to stop crosses or put early tackles in is actually being adopted throughout the entire club 😉

McClean? Only sort of joking, what we really need is that tough tackling, no nonsense defensive midfielder. a player who can get in the oppositions faces, win the ball and free up all our creative players. Put that kind of central pivot in the team and we should be promoted again as this is a poor championship. Although sadly I think the squad is nowhere near good enough to survive yet again.

The one thing I would say is that if we can keep this going and remain in the automatic promotion spots until he comes back then we will be dead certs for promotion. Its the position we are crying out to fill and if he lives up to expectations should allow the whole team to click.

Imagine if this had been released before deadline day with no Pukki…this forum would’ve exploded!

In commentary on radio Norfolk, Gossy couldn’t stop saying how great he was during first half

Pretty sure he used the death in the family quote after the last relegation….in fact somewhat disappointingly then whole thing is just a regurgitation of what he said last time and doesn’t show he hasn’t learned anything new. I appreciate he needs to put a positive spin on things but it’d been nice if he had at least acknowledged that the signings hadn’t worked out as well as he had hoped.

I live in leamington just outside Coventry and my regular pub going group are all cov fans so they’re the games I really want to win this season!

Totally agree with this. Real shame with the injuries or I think he would’ve been first name on team sheets for years…..do wonder what 5hey might’ve meant for Max though

Really pleased for him and you’ve got to love his passion. if he could consistently finish like that or deliver a decent cross he’d be a premier league player. I know people will be calling for him to start now, even if just a reward for tonight, but reality is that he is much better as an impact sub. His pace and directness just causes panic when the defence is tired. If he starts the defence soon realise how to deal with him and that despite his pace they will probably get two or three goes at stopping him. It’s really important there are players who fans can love and bring some excitement into the game. That’s something that was completely missing in the squad last year. There was Hanley, Krul and Pukki but none really bring edge of the seat excitement ( bit harsh on Pukki maybe and Krul and Hanley got me in the edge of my seat for the wrong reason occasionally!) But when did Normann, Rashica or Tzolis bring any sense of excitement to a game or did you ever think they actually gave a toss about Norwich?