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LeJuge

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Everything posted by LeJuge

  1. I never understand this argument, the Premier League evolves all the time and the clubs change all the time. The likes of Man Utd and Chelsea are no more dominant than Man Utd were in the sixties and seventies, and no more dominant than Liverpool were in the seventies and eighties. There have always been periods in which there have been elite teams, success breeds success. Look at the table in 2001/02.....ArsenalLiverpoolMan UtdNewcastleLeedsChelseaWest HamAston VillaTottenhamBlackburnSouthamptonMiddlesbroughFulhamCharltonEvertonBolton SunderlandIpswichDerbyLeicesterOnly 12 of the teams in that season remain in the Premier League. Arsenal haven''t won anything for five years, Leeds were in the top six and are now less successful than us, West Ham are in the Championship. We now have the likes of Stoke playing in Europe, Everton went on to play in europe several seasons in a row, Tottenham are now a top six team, a 6th place finish is now rubbish for Chelsea. Liverpool have had a few terrible years, 2nd place seemed impossible until Dalglish took over (the mastermind of their great success in the eighties). The money argument is a poor one, it still has to be used properly. In fact if the money wasn''t full of money then Leeds and West Ham wouldn''t be where they are now, they are victims of their own overspending, Southampton are to a certain degree too, they had years and years of SKY money and went down pretty much insolvent. Out of the four league games we have played so far this year, only one was in the Premier League in 2002. Yes it can be hard to stay in the league, but giants can fall too. Football is always evolving, in that same year we finished 6th in the Championship, the top two were Manchester City and West Brom. Yes Man City have money now, but they stayed up with very little for several years before they got it. Wolves finished 3rd that year. On the other side of the coin, in our league that year were Wimbledon, Gillingham, Bradford, Walsall, Grimsby, Rotherham, Stockport, and Crewe. Add to that list Sheffield United, Sheffield Wednesday, and Preston, and only 9 of the teams in the Championship in 2001/02 are in that division now. In the past 7 seasons we have played League one football, Championship football, and Premier League football. This season is our 2nd year of Premiership football in 8 years. Six years less than we desire, but our time may come. Personally I''m just glad that we are still a club capable of getting into the first of four tiers of competitive professional football, rather than one of the ones that are now stuck in the fourth tier, which a little over 2 years ago seemed like a very real possibility.
  2. [quote user="Yellow Shirt"][quote user="Felixfan"]Need Drury back - has premier league experience and never commits unless he knows he will win the ball. Good going forward as he can interact well with a left winger. Remember how he and Huckerby mastered the left side.[/quote]I posted this earlier somewhere already but...While Tierney is keeping him out of the side at LB I''d love to see him pushed on to the left of the diamond with Drury behind him.[/quote]If we were to play a diamond formation, wouldn''t you want Crofts at the bottom of the diamond, and then Bradley Johnson on the left of the diamond? Or perhaps Surman or Lappin? I can''t see the sense in playing a left back on the left side of a diamond when we have three players who are perfect for that position. In the case of Surman, you could argue that the left side of the diamond is the only position which seems to get the best out of him. I personally want to see something like this though....                               RuddyMartin    Whitbread     De Laet      Tierney                             Crofts                  Fox                 HoolahanBennett                                                Pilkington                         Holt / Morison With Bennett and Pilkington effectively meaning that we switch between a 4-5-1 and 4-3-3 throughout the game. We know that both Pilkington and Bennett can score goals. Hoolahan could even go more advanced when Pilkington and Bennett drop deeper, so at times we could see....                       RuddyMartin    Whitbread     De Laet     Tierney               Bennett    Fox           Crofts         Pilkington                               Hoolahan                 HoltYou have three different formations there using precisely the same set of players. Hoolahan and Pilkington could even switch. That for me is an exciting top half of the pitch. I''d happily have Johnson or Surman in there somewhere, but I never want to see the uninspiring line up that we saw at West Brom again. Playing Crofts and Johnson together in a flat 4-4-2, I just didn''t understand it, not when we have people who can pass the ball like Hoolahan and Fox sitting on the bench.
  3. [quote user="Felixfan"]Need Drury back - has premier league experience and never commits unless he knows he will win the ball. Good going forward as he can interact well with a left winger. Remember how he and Huckerby mastered the left side.[/quote]Surely Tierney has been one of our top 3 or 4 players this season so far? I haven''t seen Tierney make a major mistake yet? Not only do I consider Tierney to be by far our best defender so far, not including goalkeeper because Ruddy for me has been immense, but Drury has looked past it for about 6-9 months. I wasn''t at the MK Dons game, but two people commented that they couldn''t believe how bad Drury looked. Now, if you can find us a centre back who never commits unless he knows he will win the ball, then that would be a dream right now. We don''t seem to have any kids who can play centre back, why is that? We had Dumic and Stephens at the club at one point who both looked pretty decent, anybody in the youth team? Shackell came into the team in the Premier season and was a revelation!
  4. [quote user="Yorkshire Canary"]All sounds a bit desperate non impress me too much[/quote]Steed Malbranque p*sses over anything else that we have got at the club asides from Hoolahan.
  5. [quote user="bjg123"][quote user="Mervmeister"]Steed won''t be playing football. He left his club to support his son through a serious illness. McFadden would be class signing and I would take a gamble on Diouf.[/quote] Except he doesn''t have a son. Surprised McFadden hasn''t found a club, asking too much money? Him and Steed would be very welcome additions imo.[/quote]He was injured at the end of last year, he turned down a deal from Aberdeen to try and get a Premier League team. He is too good for Aberdeen so that doesn''t surprised me, he is currently on trial with Wolves to prove his fitness.
  6. [quote user="Mervmeister"]Steed won''t be playing football. He left his club to support his son through a serious illness. [/quote]No, that was a vicious rumour started by twitter and a third rate blog and was never fully supported or validated by any major reputable news outlet. He released a statement saying that he was deeply offended by those malicious claims, confirmed that he did not have a son, and frankly I would suggest in future that if you hear a rumour you check out the source before helping to spread it. That''s what I did after somebody else on here said that, maybe you, and it took me no more than 10 seconds to verify that it was factually incorrect. Malbranque is a very quiet man who hates being in the media or in the spotlight so these rumours were particularly nasty. http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/2011/writers/ben_lyttleton/09/09/malbranque/
  7. It''s surprising just how many free agents there are floating around for one reason or another, here are a few....Richard Wright - I''ve been saying that we should sign him for a year to let Rudd get some games out on loan, no harm right?Sol Campbell - Worth a punt?James McFadden - Can do a job on the left?Steed Malbranque - Class player.El-Hadji Diouf - Shame that he is a complete loon.I''d say that they are all a risk, but if I could choose two I''d have Richard Wright to do a Paul Crichton type job, and Steed Malbranque because the bloke is a class act.
  8. [quote user="Mervmeister"]I just don''t understand why he didn''t spend more money on the defense if he planning on starting Holt and Martin. 3m on Morison is a hell of alot of money for a player he doesn''t seem to have faith in. Quit the tinkering Mr.Lambert and resort back to what we know worked before. Why fix something that isn''t broken. I know Prem is different class, but atleast stick to what we know works.[/quote]If Morison hadn''t have played twice over the International break then there might have been a good chance of him starting today I suspect, I thought he looked decent against Wigan.
  9. [quote user="Gingerpele"]That was last season, both us and Swansea scored plenty of goals last season, see either of us doing the same this season? Just because of last seasons result, doesn''t mean it will happen again, and if the somehow managed to not score in the 3 games between our game, they are no more likely to score against us than they were against Wigan or Sunderland....[/quote]Could say the same with Crofts goals though, they were last season too! I don''t expect Swansea to give us an easy ride, I would like to see both teams going for it, and think that a high scoring game is as likely as a low scoring one. You could argue that Swansea have had a better start than us. They are undefeated at home, haven''t conceeded at home, and their two defeats have been away at Man City and Arsenal. As of yet, they haven''t had a result as bad as ours today, I know that it is early days, etc etc, I''m being negative, but today was a very bad result. Perhaps you could argue that the refs have cheated us out of a point or two this year, but most of our points have been lost as a result of mistakes. Swansea can take a lot of positives from two clean sheets.
  10. [quote user="ron obvious"]I will be very surprised if Jackson succeeds at this level. Last season it struck me how often, & how easily, he was knocked off the ball. Players in the Prem are generally extremely strong on the ball. This was Grant''s biggest attribute last year, but it''s clearly nothing out of the ordinary against these defences. Strikers at the top level need to be very strong, as well as quick off the mark.[/quote]I can name a fair few slight strikers who get away without strength, Defoe the obvious one. Jackon''s goal to shot ratio last year for us was extraordinary, and whilst I rate Chris Martin, can''t help but feel that Jackson needs one less touch on the ball in the final third. Probably a confidence thing with Martin, but Jackson came back from the International break with a goal to his name, that''s why I''m surprised we didn''t see him today.
  11. [quote user="Gingerpele"]Crofts scored 8 goals last season. I''m fairly sure he isn''t limited to the position of DM, as they don''t tend to score 8 goals a season, even in the Championship unless they take free-kicks. I would also argue that Johnson and Crofts were fairly attacking today, neither sat back in their own half all game....[/quote]Hoolahan scored 9 and set up 9 though, most of the latter for Holt. For me, Hoolahan makes Holt tick. Fox created a bunch too.
  12. [quote user="Gingerpele"]We will against Swansea, they probably won''t score all season....[/quote]They have kept two clean sheets though, so that game is looking like a certain 0-0 to me, might check out the betfair odds.
  13. [quote user="Gingerpele"]We will against Swansea, they probably won''t score all season....[/quote]They have kept two clean sheets though, so that game is looking like a certain 0-0 to me, might check out the betfair odds.
  14. [quote user="Downloads"]Not saying I have all the answers but playing with 2 wingers and 2 defensive central midfielders is not the answer![/quote]Good to see that you agree with that part Downloads, about the two defensive midfielders, especially not in a flat 4-4-2..... in a five man midfield maybe.
  15. [quote user="Gingerpele"]The fixture list only looks harder if we are not up to scratch, something that can''t be decided this early on in the season, and if were not good enough we go down simple as that, and all this discussion is pointless. All we can really talk about at this point, is why we have only got two points, is it down to tactics that can be improved? Down to bad officials? Down to just bad luck? Or more worryingly down to poor players? Or a mixture. I personally think, its part tactics, part luck and part officials. I think from here, we can go one of two ways, we either just completely tail off failing to win, and seeing poor performances, or we start to get results. I don''t think it will carry on as it has been, which I hope has been a huge learning experience for Lambert and the players, and we go and win at Bolton to kick start a bit of form. (Although fairly likely/obvious defeats at Man.U and Liverlose next month will kind of limit that, it just has to be about getting points against Bolton, Sunderland, Swansea and Blackburn, i think we will get minimum of 6 points, which probably isn''t enough, really we want 12.. If we can win all four, then were laughing)[/quote]I know that you don''t like Lambert criticism, but I really think that we will begin to play better when he identifies his most effective formation, and the most effective XI for that formation. In the past two years he has bought players to compliment the existing system, this year he is trying to find a system to fit the players. I suspect he will do it, I do have faith in him (may not seem like it right now), but chopping and changing isn''t going to work. Somebody, maybe you, mentioned Stoke. Well, Stoke play either one of two very rigid systems and Pulis knows his XI for both of them. I really think that he needs to pick his systems, pick his XI''s, and then stick with them until they gel and work. I don''t think that Surman on the left should be involved in the equation though, left of a diamond possibly.
  16. I don''t think that we need to keep clean sheets if we can start looking more dangerous in the final third, we only need to score one more than them.
  17. [quote user="Gingerpele"]If we were to play the 4-2-3-1 formation, I would probably cry if Jackson were the man upfront.... I know many people rate him, and i am very grateful for all his important goals last season, but like some people think Martin isn''t up to prem standard, i don''t think Jackson will be. Of course i will be more than happy to have him prove me wrong...[/quote]I wouldn''t play him up front alone either, so we agree there. I do rate him though, and do think that Jackson and Holt work well together up front.
  18. [quote user="Gingerpele"]Its probably a silly thing to say i''m going to ignore you. Yes of course we can have different opinions, and doesn''t matter what either of us say were probably not going to change our minds. Your last sentence, i didn''t think it was a good game, neither team played wonderfully, but we were better than WBA, and certainly not rubbish. If that was us playing rubbish then i would actually be much happier than i am now, the reason i''m quite down beat at the moment, is because we failed to win when we played fairly well.... Same as the last three games. Seriously, if the loss were just down to a poor performance that would be much easier to take, than a loss after a decent performance. Of course it wasn''t the best performance, and on reflection the tactics didn''t work. But i really don''t think they were negative, and i really don''t think we were poor. But there is definatly room for improvement which should give us hope. I don''t think any of us should be making rash judgements on what the whole season will be like until after we have played (and beaten :P) Bolton and Sunderland. (Not saying that you are)[/quote]I do have a tendancy to take Norwich defeats a little too much to heart, and I do overly worry, and it is early days. So hopefully after the Bolton and Sunderland games we will either take our first 3 points, or perhaps remain undefeated in those, and I will chirp up. Unfortunately any less than 2 points in those two games and I can''t promise to become any more positive, that will be 17% of the season gone already, with the easiest start to the season (in terms of opposition) imaginable in this league.
  19. [quote user="Gingerpele"]One last reply to you LeJudge, was just interested in what you had to say to Hucks report, but you didn''t mention that. Last time in the prem, we didn''t win until November, against Southampton on the 20th, which took us up to 11 points in 14 games. And we only just got relegated that season, think about that for a moment. Its a 38 game season, each one holds equal weighting, of course things like form and fitness come into it, making some games seem more important at the time, but i can imagine how many times were going to hear ''must win game'' this season...[/quote]Me and you both know that this won''t be your last reply to me, don''t make promises that you will ultimately break within about a week. In 2004/2005 our first 7 games were:Crystal PalaceManchester UnitedNewcastleArsenalWe took two points from those first four games, and scored 5 goals. Our first four games this season have been:WiganStokeChelseaWest BromFrom which we have taken 2 points and scored 3 goals. Yes it is early days, but have you studied the fixture list? It only gets harder and harder, the second half of the season looks a lot harder than the first this time around.
  20. [quote user="Downloads"][quote user="LeJuge"]So what''s the plan then? How were they going to score? Martin puts the ball out wide to Bennett, we hope that Bennett has his crossing boots on, and Holt will get a head on it? It''s one dimensional stuff, so bereft of ideas and options. For me it was rubbish, we can agree to disagree, we didn''t look a threat going forward.I love the way that you use statistics in this argument. I''ll give you some facts using the same stats: West Brom had the most possession. West Brom had more shots on target. West Brom had more corners. West Brom were the away team. We looked useless, like relegation certainties, no threat whatsoever. Hoolahan and Jackson would change that. This is Worthington football, I never expected to see it from Lambert. [/quote] What I don''t understand is it feels like we are playing the tactics in the wrong games. We are playing defensive at home and attacking away. Surely we should attack at home where we are more likely to win? And defend away and grind out a point. Still I''d rather we went the below in every match: (When all are fit of course) Naughton  De Laet  Barnett  Tierney                    Fox     Johnson Bennett         Hoolahan      Pilkington                      Jackson [/quote]I''d be happy with that formation, in fact I would be happy for Crofts and Johnson to play together in a five man midfield. That is a similar formation to Blackpool''s, only they played one deep midfielder and two centre mids in front, with the wingers playing really advanced, and the two centre mids drifting out wide to cover the wingers..... almost alternating between 4-5-1 and 4-3-3. I''m not sure what formation I want to see us play, but it would be one that incorporates Hoolahan, whether that is the diamond or 4-4-1-1 or 4-3-1-2 or whatever, he is class and we need him on the pitch.
  21. [quote user="Gingerpele"]Were are you getting your possession stats from? Stats i saw had us having more. And if they did, then thats just because Foster had it loads, and they probably count the time from when he kicks it to when Rudd catches it at the other end. It certainly did not appear to me that WBA had more of the ball. We were not useless, and to be honest you comments seem very anti-NCFC, why? They weren''t negative tactics, get over yourself, If you think you know better, get yourself down to Colney tomorrow and tell Lambert. Yes it didn''t work today, but what your saying is just wrong. One dimensional We looked useless No threat whatsoever Jackson would change that This is Worhthington football IF anybody expected Surman to do anything today then they are on a diffrent planet. Sorry Le Judge, but i don''t think i will be reading your ridiculous posts anymore, don''t mind if you feel the same way. But to be honest i''m just ashamed that a Norwich fan can be so critical of a performance that wasn''t half as bad as you make it out to be.[/quote]"Were are you getting your possession stats from?"I told you, I''m using your own source, the BBC. It has us at 48% v 52%. "They weren''t negative tactics, get over yourself, If you think you know better, get yourself down to Colney tomorrow and tell Lambert."So we all have to agree on everything on this board? I was gutted with our performance today, I''m expressing my own opinions, you have yours and I have mine. They differ substantially, but sometimes people disagree. The whole "if you know better" line is tiring, I take it you have never disagreed with a tactical decision then? I will remember this, and when the day comes that I see you being downbeat, I''ll play that line on you."Sorry Le Judge, but i don''t think i will be reading your ridiculous posts anymore, don''t mind if you feel the same way."Well sorry mate, but I don''t feel the same way. I have already agreed to disagree, which is the grown up way to deal with differing opinions. I will continue to read your posts, sometimes I will agree with them and sometimes I will disagree with them, but please don''t object if I remind you of your promise the next time you respond to one of mine. "But to be honest i''m just ashamed that a Norwich fan can be so critical of a performance that wasn''t half as bad as you make it out to be."It wasn''t half as good as you seem to think it was. I thought they were rubbish, you didn''t, simple stuff.  
  22. [quote user="NWC"]To be fair I often agree with most of your posts Le Juge, and I agree that West Brom had the possession, SOT''s, corners etc., but I don''t agree with your reason for this.I think the reason is plain and simple - it pains me to say this, but West Brom had better players in every area, man for man, 1-11. I can''t think of any of our players that was better than his west brom adversary.[/quote]They didn''t really have a Hoolahan though, and with Jackson banging one in off of the bench for Canada the other day, I''m really surprised that he wasn''t brought on at some stage. It''s fine for you to disagree though, I wouldn''t be on this board if everybody agreed with each other all the time, where''s the fun in that? :-)
  23. [quote user="Branston Pickle"]It''s daft to say that Bolton is a must win game, nothing at all will be decided by it and there will still be 30+games remaining...but we do want that monkey off our backs as soon as possible. I have a feeling that it will come vs Sunderland, as I can''t go![/quote]It''s not really daft, our fixtures become a lot more daunting after Bolton and Sunderland. Probably is a bit daft to call Bolton away a ''must win'', but we must win one of the two..... otherwise I really don''t know when our first win will come from, maybe Swansea, but that''s a long time without a win and we won''t have many points on the board if it takes that long. I was calling this game a must win, and still think it was.
  24. Interesting that you mention possession so much, the BBC have us as having 48%, we had more of the ball at Wigan away, we had more of the ball against Stoke too. We struggled to win the ball and keep the ball in my personal opinion.
  25. [quote user="Gingerpele"]NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO Go read my post in your Blackpool thread, it wasn''t negative. In fact i think we were more attacking (less passing about at the back) than we have been all season....[/quote]YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES.... I replied with:If anybody expected Surman to do anything today then they are on a different planet. Chris Martin is a striker, he shouldn''t have been required to play so deep, they were rubbish tactics. So what''s the plan then? How were they going to score? Martin puts the ball out wide to Bennett, we hope that Bennett has his crossing boots on, and Holt will get a head on it? It''s one dimensional stuff, so bereft of ideas and options. For me it was rubbish, we can agree to disagree, we didn''t look a threat going forward.I love the way that you use statistics in this argument. I''ll give you some facts using the same stats:West Brom had the most possession.West Brom had more shots on target.West Brom had more corners.West Brom were the away team. We looked useless, like relegation certainties, no threat whatsoever. Hoolahan and Jackson would change that. This is Worthington football, I never expected to see it from Lambert.
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