Rock The Boat

Given that the country is deep in debt and assuming we don''t want to end up like another Italy or Greece then we have no choice but to cut back on soft subjects such as the arts. And why is this posted in the NCFC forum anyway, AJ?

[quote user="Branston Pickle"]I disagree - if it worked until Johnson got injured, how can we say the tactics were wrong? IMO Villa are a decent enough side, we gave it ago and came up just a bit short. The match stats on BBC are mostly in our favour suggesting we were unlucky. You take it on the chin and move on.[/quote] Did you see the game, I did, or are you baseing your opinion on BBC match statistics? After Crofts came on for Johnson we were still outnumbered in midfield. Leon''s mistake came about originally through a backpass from midfield. It wasn''t until Fox came on that we were more evenly balanced and were able to make a comeback. I thought Holt played well, a lot less clumsy challenges and falling over compared to the first four games of the season. He put in a good shift, made some great through balls into danger areas, and took a lot of pressure off Morrison. I think he did enough to keep his place and I think two strikers can work, but we need more beef in the midfield if we play with two up front.    

[quote user="City1st"]"The first objective for the club this season is to secure prem football next season" ...... and how can that be achieved without the intent of finishing as high as possible ? Perhaps one of the terminally dim behind this nonsense could finally answer this[/quote] And how exactly will this thread, to which you irrationally object, prevent us from finishing as high as possible? 

Two strikers, two wingers and Wes just behind the front pair. That''s basically a five-man front line with only Bradley Johnson in a holding midfield role. Far too risky, especially at this level. We looked good for the first 15 minutes andthen after Johnson went down in a clash of heads he didn''t look right and we were swamped in midfield, letting Villa into equalise. Most of the comments about this game will be about Barnett''s reckless backpass costing us the points today, but in my opinion if you play two strikers up front you have to sacrifice one of the wingers, or Wes, for a midfielder, you can''t play all three at the same time or else you lose the midfield. BTW, Peter Grant was busy  today on the Villa bench.   

[quote user="City1st"]"You''re not the forum police telling people what they can or cannot post" but it appears you are[/quote] I am the supporting the right of the OP to make a post, something which you, oddly, seem to have a problem about.

Did Tangy man up to ask McNally to justify his bonus -or is Tangy just a Pinkun keyboard warrior??

[quote user="exiled blue"]the point i was making, in my original post was simple. i would be very disappointed if a son of mine, was taken on a school day, such a long distance, to see a game at a premier league rival. running the risk that he may be influenced by what he sees there, and be lost from the pool of potential supporters of my local team. like it or not they are the future of every club. i`m not after scoring any personal points here, nor seeking disagreements with individuals.[/quote] Sorry but there''s a tad of control freakery in your post. What if your son is influenced by what he sees and decides he wants to support United and not City like his Dad? What''s the difference between you controlling his free will and United trying to influence it? If my son wishes to support Ipswich I have lost a son but he is expressing his free will which is far more important than being without freedom of choice. And no doubt in the fullness of time he will learn through experience that he has made a mistake and will return to the fold. But you can''t force people into patterns of behaviour, the best way of learning is through experience. And the more your son experiences the more he will learn. Even more, he will learn far more through making mistakes. Boy, wait until he discovers girls!

[quote user="lake district canary"]I won''t comment on this post again. However, I would therefore question what is the point in having a thread that keeps reappearing and not being able to criticise the principles and ethos behind it? It''s supposed to be a forum where people discuss things. Perhaps a thread like this ought to have it''s own sub-forum, then people who disagree with it don''t have to go there. If statistics are your bag then good luck, but don''t expect everyone to go agree with you................[/quote]   For goodness sake chill out, brother. It''s a little bit of fun for a handful of guys that causes no harm and no offense. If you don''t like it you''re well aware of the thread title so you can just skip over it if it is of no interest to you.    You''re not the forum police telling people what they can or cannot post and this little thread will have no effect whatsoever on the way the team performs.   Complaining about this thread is like sneering at a harmless bunch of train-spotters huddled around the end of the platform, simply because your train arrived late.

To be fair Blackburn played very well today and not at all like a team bottom of the table. It would be unjust to see him sacked based on today''s showing. 

Jackson, Holt and Croft all did enough to deserve a starting position for next week. I think we need to shake it up a little bit, some of our guys didn''t seem to have that ''edge'' to their game on Saturday and maybe a change in line up will keep everybody on their toes and fighting for a place in the team.  The settled first eleven have delivered exceptional results since the Bolton win but in the last couple of games I think the dynamic improved after the second-half substitutions. Perhaps a change will give us that little lift. 

I think there were a couple of alarm bells going off after this game. Perhaps not so loud but a definite warning that there are no easy games in this league. There are some really difficult fixtures all the way up to the end of the year. PL may have a little bit of tweeking to do to keep this machine running smoothly.

Indeed a reality check. We were not at our best today and for a time seemed to have run out of  ideas.  I think PL needs to shake it up a bit for next week, maybe some of the lads are getting a litttle complacent. I didn''t think I would say this but I think Grant Holt has earned himself a starting position as he really mixed it up when he came on, and you could see he was really up for it. Perhaps we should go with a single winger and have two up front. We''re moving the ball forward really well but need more target options up front. Perhaps Holt and Jackson deserve a runout?  

[quote user="Better Wizard"]ooo let''s all praise the motd pundits finally after weeks of berating them. Funny how the pundits say something right when it''s something good about our team. Your all so simple guys.[/quote] And you are sooo wrong.

[quote user="Tangible Fixed Assets anyone"] No one can question that Chase delivered: 3rd, 4th and 5th place in the top tier of football and 2 FAC Semi Finals. [/quote]   Hey, you''re the guy who was asking how many goals McNally has scored! You''re the guy who says our success is purely down to PL and his boys. And now you''re trying to claim the success of the past is down to Chase and not Ken Brown/Dave Stringer/Mike Walker et al.   Well let''s see if you''ve got the balls to put your concerns directly to McNally at the AGM.    

[quote user="lake district canary"]How long he stays is surely up to the club, the fans and the players. If he has the board behind him - he''ll feel supported. If he has the fans behind he will feel appreciated. If he has the players behind him - and I can''t see that changing, why would he want to leave? This is a progressive club that has learnt alot over the last few years. It is now on a positive footing in every way, in the top division of football. Why would he want to leave under these circumstances? There are only a handful of clubs that could offer him a better football situation and as much as money is important, I don''t think the best managers make football decisions based just on finances. Lets hope he stays for many years and builds a NCFC dynasty that can challenge every season for honours in league and cup. I''m not one that holds a view that the richest clubs are the best. I feel that someone in the ilk of Brian Clough can come along and force their way to the top - and PL is from the Brian Clough school of managing via Martin O''Neill. Lets not place any limits on what we might be able to achieve. Lets just get behind PL and enjoy the ride. As long as he is here things will be positive because it''s the only way he knows!![/quote] First Class post LDC. Spot on!

[quote user="First Wizard"]I will NEVER turn on Lambert...never....ever...and you can ban me on here if I do.[/quote]   So the unequivocal first half of your sentance is qualified by the ambivalent second half of the sentance. In other words,Wiz, you''ve got the fine art of flip-floppery down to a single line of less than twenty words. I salute you, sir!

1. How long have you been a Norwich City Supporter? Fifty years 2. Who is your best player? Probably Wes at themoment 3. Who you think is Villa''s best player? Darren Bent - didn''t he once play for 1p5wich? 4. What is your perception of Aston Villa? You whacked us in ''75 at Wembly You wacked us again (I forget which year,was the ''70s) 4-0 at Carrow Road just after we got promoted You whacked us a 3rd time when we were leading the Premiership up until the last few games of the season and Man U won the title.) You had our manager that we should never have let get away (Martin O''Neil) You somehow seem more classy than Birmingham. 5. What do you think the score will be? We will win, unless you''re in whacking mode. 6. What do you think your final position will be? mid-table 7. What do you think Aston Villa position will be? below us, sorry. 8. Who introduced you to norwich city? Pre-ordained at birth. 9.What was your first game and what made you want to follow then and made you return? Think it was Southampton in ''62. Standing on a crowded terrace I couldn''t  see a thing. Went back to find out what I''d missed. 10.What stadium you most looking forward too and why? Carrow Road, of course 11.How many games do you visit a season? I prefer sex to attending away games.   12.Away days for yourselves expensive this season in particular, but do you think Norwich FC are doing all they can to encourage you? No, the sex is definitely a better option. 13. What would you define as a good season? Beating 1p5switch home and away.   14. Has promotion to the premier league attracted new fans Hopefully, I don''t personally have a problem with this. It doesn''t affect my suppport for myteam. 15. Do you think Alex McLeish moving from Birmingham to Villa was a good move for us? Scottish managers eh? Depends on whether you can understanding what he is saying. Since Paul Lambert joined us, I haven''t understood a single word he''s said.

Starting with Holt means sacrificing Bennet and I think we would be better off with a pacey winger running at their defence. By all means mix it up later in the game if needed. Grant is just a wonderful option to be used when needed, and he''ll always do his best.

Each of our players is a dangerman becz we score from every position. I don''t thinkLiverpool will be able to handle that because you won''t know where the goals will come from. We''ll beat one of the big 4 this season at least once because we play every game to win. If I was a Liverpool supporter I would be very nervous about this fixture.

I would put our success down to the fact that even before we finished our Championship season PL had already decided how we were going to approach the Premiership, and then went out to buy the best players to fit into the system he thought would be effective (Pilkington and Bennett in particular, and no out-and-out striker). This shows a manager who is both intelligent, pro-active and knows clearly what he wants to do. I think he commincates this to the players so that everyone is aware of their role in the team and know what is expected of them. It make for a very tight playing unit, and one that is learning to defend well and moves forward from the back line in a very controlled manner. PL has defintely got the players to play as a team, which is why we are much better than last time around. Remember 2004 when we started with Docherty up front as our striker? You just can''t see such things happening this time around. De Laert maybe our Helveg but PL has pulled him out of harm''s way much quicker than NW did. End result, we''re much better than last time we went up. If there''s just one concern, it''s if we get unlucky with a spate of injuries to key players. Every game is a hard physical game these days and it is almost inevitable that some players will pick up knocks to keep them out of the team. We have that problem at CB right now but fortunately Russell Martin has proved very effective in moving over from his right-back position.  If we were to lose say Morison and Hoolahan  in the next couple of games, or Johnson and Fox from midfield, the replacements might struggle to maintain thevery high performance levels that we are currently acheiving. Looking on the bright side, I think we''re doing extremely well, and who outside of Norfolk, would have predicted us to be sitting very comfortably in the top half of the table at this stage of the season? And that leads me onto one final point. I don''t think we really need to be overly concerned about PL moving on in the short term. He''s obviously building a team here from a long term plan,so why would he chuck it all in to start afresh atsome other club whenthere are around 10-12 Premiership clubs that are not so far about from each other in performance terms? And PL does not yet have the experience to attract the big four, which is where he may eventually end up, as right now he would be a huge gamble for a club like Arsenal or Liverpool to contemplate. I think he would want to see his team building come to fruition at Norwich as he knows that in McNally he has an ally on the board who understands what PL is trying to acheive and a Chairman in Bowkett who is the enabler, making it possible for PL to see his plans through to execution. In short, we''re a world away from the last time we went up to the Premiership.

East Anglia to join the 20th Centuary?

[quote user="Duncan Edwards"][quote user="lappinitup"]I knew his grandad. Used to run a fans group around these parts. [6] [/quote] I''m sorry but I just can''t imagine THAT Tilson running.....[/quote] I can''t imagine THAT Tilson sireing offspring either...

I actually respect Roeder''s right to decide who is and who isn''t going to be part of his squad. He gets paid for making those decisions and stands or falls by them. In the case of Hucks, it was a risk to extend his contract. Darren was getting towards the end of his career and he had hip problems. When you consider that Huck''s replacement was a certain Wes Houlahan then I think Roeder''s decision was the right one. Of course, none of that excuses Roeder''s extremely bad handling of the situation and his poor man-management skills eventually caused him to lose the players trust and ultimately his job. I''m sure many of us have worked for a bullying, pushy boss at some time or other. They can be very effective in the short-term by snapping people out of their complacency and therefore can be very effective for a time - just as Roeder was when he first arrived. But people do not repond positively in the longer term when faced with constant criticism or bullying from their manager. I feel sorry for people who have to put up with years of this kind of behaviour in their workplaces while the nasty bosses often get promoted because of their short-term successes. At least in football it is relatively easy to get rid of a bad manager. Anybody here working for a Roedent-type boss?

Thanks BBB, many of us would have missed it had you not posted that link. Tomorrow: Delia Smith takes over at Carrow Road shock!

Don''t think anyone, including PL, was 100% sure of our best 11 when we started at Wigan. But the team is beginning to gel and quite a few players are shining through and showing themselves to be premiership quality. We''re not yet the finished article but when you''ve got a clever manager working with the squad, you know we are just going to get better as the season goes on - especially after we picked up three points away from home. It''s a learning curve for everybody but we can be quietly optimistic.