earnie1

For me, the mentally at the club is all wrong and for Farke to basically give up with his comments after the Brighton game is unacceptable. No wonder the players don’t put much effort or have the belief that we can still stay up when the management don’t either. I find it very hard to accept that with 5 games left with enough points to still stay up that the management have basically given up. The teams around us are unlikely to get more than 3 or 4 points so 4 wins could also be enough to stay up. Where is the fighting spirit, willingness and belief that we are capable still of staying up?? I just cannot understand the manager’s mentality as win tonight at Watford and we still have a great chance to stay up. All this talk about our last chance was the Brighton game and we have no chance now is just mentally all wrong. Forget about the performances of the previous games, and get focused and prepared mentally believing that we could stay up as we can still do it but the whole mentality of Farke is all wrong and the players don’t relieve enough. Like I say we can still stay up, we have enough games & points left to stay up, we have good enough players to do it but where is the fight, determination, spirit, hard work, organization and man management - it’s nowhere to be seen which is unacceptable really. We should at least mentally do everything possible to still stay up but if we lose at Chelsea & Man C then so be it but at least by winning tonight & against west ham we would give ourselves a chance but all the signs are that the management have already given up which is so poor and unacceptable.

If Farke and the coaching staff are more concerned about criticism from a fair article from the journalists than concentrating on tomorrows game then we are in big trouble. Farke was and has been stubborn all season with his tactics and team selection as well as the subs and once again vs Southampton Farke completely got his team selection and tactics horribly wrong and you have to seriously question why there was no real effort or desire from the players either. Now is not the time for morning or whining from the management team as we have to mentally prepared and up for the fight to win games. Everyone could see including the journalists that our performance against Southampton was frankly embarrassing and a disgrace with such a lack of motivation and desire to play and tackle. If Farke is so concerned with journalist criticism then why are they not doing everything to sort out the defence and defensive organization. I love Farke as our manager but to constantly harp on about our injuries and so on is not the right mentality when we need to be doing everything to sort out the defensive problems, play our best players and creative players with Tettey holding and not have them sitting on the bench and be mentally right to win the game tomorrow. There needs to be at least 5 changes to the team, Vrancic, Tettey, Hernandez, Leitner & Idah have to start with dropping Trybull, McLean, drimic, cantwell & Klose as Klose is clearly not fit enough to start and now is not the moment to be carrying players, with a change in formation to 3-5-2, and go all out for the win. A draw is not enough anymore. I still believe we can stay up and that we have enough quality in the squad but I get the impression that the manager and players have mentally given up as if we play like we did vs Southampton then we won’t get anymore points. Farke has to be more creative and change his tactics which he stubbornly failed to do all season and adapt to the difference in the premier league. If anyone needs an example of his stubbornness then just look at the defence. No change in defending or how we defensively organize or even mark the opposition and also the fact he didn’t even sign a new CB or DM in Jan. The journalist in question was right in lots of his analysis despite what Farke might think and I am not confident for tomorrow’s game now as mentally Farke should be concentrating and focused on the game tomorrow rather than arguing with a journalist who made a lot of fair and correct points. And I have always liked Farke as manager but if we continue to play and line up like the Southampton game then we have no chance. I was expecting big changes and improvements for tomorrow like most of the fans on here so let’s hope Farke has too.

I agree with the thoughts of you Jim the op and this was an embarrassing performance in a must win game. I wasn’t too confident before the match of a win because of the strange atmosphere playing with no crowd. However, the problem for me was the lineup and formation which was so bad. I couldn’t believe that we were starting with Tettey on the bench, our main holding midfielder & starting with trybul with McLean was just lightweight and to have drimic on the wing was strange too. Also as we cannot defend properly & Klose was not 100 per cent fit then why didn’t we play 3-5-2 and go all out for the win playing Tettey as holding midfielder with leitner or Duda alongside. Vrancic, Buendia & Hernandez to create for Pukki & Idah. The majority of the players were clearly not motivated to play or put any effort in which should come from the mamager. For me Farke did not look motivated for this game & his comments afterwards reiterated that to me. The only players who tried to do something were the subs but the game was already over. This was a must win game and though I like Farke a lot, he got his team selection, tactics, formation badly wrong and what was just as embarrassing was that we needed the win more than Southampton but they were much more sharper, fitter and motivated to win and play and despite the injury excuses being made to defenders there is no excuse for our players lack of effort and motivation to play. Like others on the discussion I didn’t think the break would help us and after watching tonight’s game we really do need a miracle to turn things around so quickly even though it’s still possible to get enough points to stay up, I don’t see enough fight or determination to change things. Will still be watching and remain positive that we can stay up whilst still possible but after this performance us staying up looks very unlikely now. Just wanted to add my thoughts to the discussion as a lifelong city fan even though I don’t post much on the forum.

You do realize that this is the same cheating Vardy who blatantly dived at CR to win a penalty?I just wanted to also point out that this is not an all time consecutive scoring record - this is just a "Premier League record" and Vardy has not even equaled the all time]English Football league consecutive scoring record yet that stands at 12. Lots of people seem to think that because Vardy has set a Premier League record that this is the record. If Vardy gets to 13 then he would have broken the record but until he gets to 13 he hasn''t broken any record yet. 

Well said Buh!! Totally agree with you! I am a life long City fan but this is the first real time I have written on here. I felt that some things needed to be mentioned because for me there is too much of an acceptance on this board by our fans to just accept that our defence was the reason why we lost against C.PalaceI am not able to get to the games as living abroad but was able to watch the match on a live stream and to me this was one of the worst refereeing performances that I have seen and to be honest after the game it felt like City had been cheated by the ref! I have read a lot of times on here about people slating our defending for the 2 goals which is true but ultimately this is irrelevant because at different stages off the game the referee has influenced the course of the game which had no bearing on our defence or our own quality. In addition, the major turning points in the game were at 0-0 when G.Murray should have been sent off and at 1-2, when we had the perfectly good goal disallowed (which i am still wondering as to why that was disallowed) and thirdly the blatant penalty that was not given.  Now we all know that all teams get bad decisions and that referees make mistakes, that is part and part of the game. In addition, decisions have also gone for us in the past but over a season the good and bad decisions tend to even themselves out. However, what really annoys me is the reason behind why Simon Hooper was allowed to referee the first game of our season after his shockingly bad performance in our opening day defeat at Wolves in the Championship last season. In addition, something that has also been highlighted on another thread this morning is that an ex referee has asked the question why the league association has given this referee our match. I am sorry but that in itself is not good enough and should be questioned and loked into. For me after watching football for so many years, you know when something looks dodgy and to me the performance of Simon Hooper on Saturday was seriously suspicious and to add further suspicion, the likes of the BBC and Sky reporters who often don''t like to highlight such incidents for us, both conclusively stated that the goal should have been allowed and that the penalty should have been given. The Crystal Palace fans have also admitted this and feel that the scoreline was flattering which you do not often see from the opposing teams fans. In addition the same ex referee who questioned the appointment of the referee states how it was a "fantastic" goal that C.Jerome scored and that it was such a blatant penalty that how could the referee not have seen it. Both of these major incidents as well as the red card which as stated "many experienced referees" would have sent off G.Murray culminated in Norwich losing the match and to just ignore these and say that its "papering over the cracks" for our defensive problems is ridiculous. Yes we can all see that the defence needs strengthening and that certain players should not be in the defence, after watching the match my overriding feelings were that City had been cheated by a referee who should not have been refereeing our game. I have very rarely felt this, in which the only other 2 occasions over the years watching Norwich when I really thought something was suspicious was when we lost 3-1 at Arsenal under Lambert and when we drew 3-3 at Portsmouth under Worthington  In both of these games which also occurred in the game versus C.Palace on Saturday the referee made blatantly bad decisions that were so bad that they could not have just been a mistake. Also on Saturday when you have so many commentators and reporters making a real expression as to the legitimacy of the decisions made then you know something is also wrong and to blame our defence for the defeat, I am sorry that is just ridiculous and wrong. What also annoys me is that the league feel that they can get away with giving such an inexperienced referee the opening day fixture because not everyone will be looking at the opening day games so if a mistake or wrong decision is made then they can just make out that its only the opening game and we have mistakes. For me someone at the Club or associated with the Club or the Supporters Club should complain to the FA or the Premier League and there should be an investigation into the reasoning why this referee was chosen for our game and also an investigation into the blatantly bad decisions made by the referee which the majority of the fans on here agree with. Ultimately, the referee has cost us this game and in my opinion has cheated us out of at least 1 or 3 points, which could prove vital as the season goes on.  I would be very interested to hear what everyone thinks and whether someone on the message board here would be willing to send their views/opnions of the referee to the Norwich City board and whether these views/opinions would be welcomed or not by the Norwich City Board. 

Cheated by referee Simon Hooper!!

Charlton 1 Norwich 2 Plymouth 4 Barnsley 0 GET BEHIND THE TEAM SUNDAY AS WE ARE STAYING UP ON THE BALL CITY!!    

At last some positivety for sunday. No way have I given up, We are Staying up!! Will win at Charlton and Plymouth will beat Barnsley for us.... Get everyone fired up for the match at Charlton as its our turn for the great escape... ON THE BALL CITY!!

The point is pastry and phat we are not down yet and we should not simply give up and just accept already that we are down. All this negativity is not going to help and we need to do our bit to get behind them. I also think that the atmosphere could have been more hostile against Reading.  

COME ON Canary fans, we are not going down on Sunday!! I am expecting Plymouth to do the job for us. We have to get behind the team and make the atmosphere as good as possible at Charlton because if we win we will stay up.... Get behind the lads on sunday even more so than usual as unfortunately couldn''t get ticket for the game. Forget about what has gone before until after sunday and concentrate on getting behind the team on sunday because we don''t want to go down by drawing or losing our game with Barnsley having lost. Remember when we lost on the final day and other teams won, it can be done!! Its more than possible that Plymouth will beat Barnsl;ey for us as long as we do our job ON THE BALL CITY !!!