grefstad

[quote user="TCCANARY"]That noise you can hear is you laughing on your own.[/quote] So, so, have you become the spokeperson of the cavemen? Chill down, in case you feel offended, and get back to topic. You are derailing. I also did, and apologised. Get your act together.

Hehe, seeing the responses from the usual suspects is worthy of a good laugh. Now, back to topic, please.

[quote user="Chippy Minton"]You really are a lovely warm human being Grefsted![/quote] Possibly. Caught a nerve? Stick to the topic, please. Sorry for derailing it a bit. Could not help myself. Will not happen again...

Back to topic.... This is taken from Vital Norwich today. http://www.norwich.vitalfootball.co.uk/article.asp?a=430987 View on Klose: Deutsche Welle''s Van Opdorp describes him as "a squad player with latent dependability." It seems he has been a solid defender in Germany although worryingly he is also described as "never been good in the air." However, Van Opdorp thinks he has something that Norwich City currently don`t have. He says that Klose "isn`t as physical as Sebastien Bassong or Russell Martin" but that he is "more crafty" and "able to contribute play from the back" and has ''gifted feet.'' He also "has excellent spatial awareness." --------------- Hmm...as "physical as Russel Martin"? Surely a joke. If Russ coukld get half near a forward, he might be a bit rough, but he is alsways at least 3 yards away, backing off... I like the "spatial awareness" stuff though. Much needed in our defence.

Good stuff, Indy. In this forum, inhabited by far too many ignorants, eternal student losers, coffee drinking bearded hipsters, 1-bedroom inhabitants living on benefits, pint-loving gigabelly bellends with a wreck of a wife, keyboard warriors with a inferiority complex, etc, you will never be acknowledged for being knowledgable or predictive of the future. Most of the "know" in here is what people read on the backside of newspapers, and whatever dross Archant is producing/recycling, and ofcourse the subtexts scrolling on the bottom of Sky Sports. And if I am being patronising now, yes, I was, on purpose. Maybe it can kickstart a discussion on a dull Monday...

True, Legend. Good read that article too. For us, playing deep will rarely work, because we have virtually no threat on the counter. Only Redmond, but he is off form, and not playing much. We lack pace in midfield, which many of the direct competitors have. A side like Newcastle have got a lot of pace in their team. Players like Sissokho can break with pace from midfield, among others. We sadly don''t have that, so imho, AN is trying to play a style not suited to our players. The way our team is set up, is to keep possession, boss the game, and pass our way to success. This has worked well in the Championship, not so well in the Premier because such a stryle requires a high back line, which we all know is death to us, given the lack of pace among our defenders. So, the options are: 1. Play deep, but recruit quicker forward players to be a threat on the counter. 2. Play "the Norwich way", attacking, possession, high back line, but we need quicker defenders for that. Pinto has arrives and may help for option 2. Klose is perhaps not the quickest, but surely not slower than the ones we got. Naismith, although not blistering quick, is equally suited to both styles of play, having operated in both styles at Everton. We do lack a pacy, Ighalo-type of forward to play on the counter when we are laying deep. Maybe why AN seemingly wants Gayle.

We´ll see. Bassong may benefit from playing with another type of defender, more of a leader type, so Bassong can hide in his shell and do his thing. Bassong is not a leader himself, so may suit him. As for Bennett, not convinced AN thinks he is the real deal. Started very well, but has tailed off a bit recently. Depends on the expected match picture, I think. If we are to play a high line, I don´t expect Bennett to play as often. If we play deep, Bennett is more suited, as it invites more crosses which Bennett is decent at hacking away. Bennett is also more suited to the knuckling of deep defending, tight marking, little space behind for attackers to exploit, etc. Bennett would probably be a shoe in defender for Pulis at WBA, the way they play.

Teams that successfully (more often than not) play a 4-5-1 high intensity defensive game are Palace, WBA, Leicester, to a certain extent Everton, among others. Infact, as westcoast says, most of the teams in the Premier try to play like that when on the defensive. It is the level of intensity that differs greatly.

It is a fair point that tactics has something to do with the total km run during a game. A deep tactic would normally lead to less km, but indeed more sprints (on the breaks). Also, a common mistake in deep tactics is that the intensity levels drop, because the the team feels more secure, with two deep banks of 4-5-1. This was a huge discussion in Norway during the 1990´s when Norway did very well in the international scene, playing 4-5-1 with high intensity defensive work, compact lines, and quick counters. The system works very well, if you keep the intensity up. If intensity is not present, the system breeds even more passivity.

Certainly looks like Howson is being groomed for the captaincy, being pushed out to do most of the media talk, etc.

Ehat Martin has done in the past for this club counts for very little, I''m afraid. Football is a revolving business, and Russ has had his time. If Norwich ever is to become an established Premier side, we can not let sentimental stuff influence the team too much. In the case of Martin, sentimental stuff IS influencing, in addition to the terrible choice of having him as captain (makes him less likely to be dropped).

Fair point, Legend. Norwich also had mote possession vs Bournemouth, 54% vs 46%. Blurnemouth did us on the break, but also on quicker, more direct attacks, which is always effective against our defenders. Howe did AN tactically, but AN was also massively let down by a lack of collective effort, and the usual no show from the likes of Martin (defensively VOO was shite too). Our entire right side needs to be overhauled imho. Not good enough defensively, virtually dead offensively.

[quote user="Crabbycanary3"]and you will cherry pick which ones suit your agenda[/quote] But ofcourse. You can get your sorry a$$ out of the chair and find stats that prove me wrong. If you can find them. Then we can have a fruitful discussion for once.

To my knowledge I have seen very few, if any, stats posted here before I did it recently. By all means, keep them coming...

Last years stats means nothing, and besides, if you insist, the teams that went down were very low on those stats, if not in the last 3. This years stats are mote important. If you think it is boring, it is probably why such stats need to be told. To lift the knowledge of people like Squit (and his like).

[quote user="Legend Iwan"]Grefstad, does this mean you no longer think his dodgy form is solely down to confidence now?[/quote] Ofcourse not. He does not strike me as being a very confident type anyway, and he has little confidence of his own ability at the moment. Why he has low confidence is another matter.

It´s a fair point, and a good point. There is every reason to questions what is going on in the trainign sessions at Colney, because the team lacks the cohesion needed, and seen from other teams we should be on par with.

Yep. Being an out and out winger is a pretty simple thing. Just beat your fullback, and get crosses in. Being a right mid is different, as there is way much more defensive work to be made, and you will normally be positioned deeper in the pitch, with more players to pass on your way forward. So, for Redmond, it is anther type of game, a game he is not well suited to play at the moment.

Clearly, Dead Canary, it is not just about "running around". The sprinting stats show very few sprints made, and that says something about effort. A sprint is a committed run, and when we have few of them, we can point to us not being decisive, commited, etc. It seems you are trying to pick on the stats, just for the sake of it. I have never said these stats is the entire explanation for why we are so poor. But it surely explains parts of it. We are constantly outworked in games. I have seen these in most games this season, and for some games we have come away with the points, most of them not. When we match other teams for work rate, we are good enough to pick up points in this league. When we don´t, we are cannon fodder, because we don´t have skilled enough players to do a Man C and pass our way out of trouble with everyone else running inbetween chasing the ball. It is clearly evident in our defensive play. We don´t move our feet quick enough, and we don´t cover space well enough. The stats also show we have made the fewest tackles of any team, and are one of the teams which is easiest to be victims of dribbles past players. For me, it is pretty damning, and a clear indicator of our problems.

[quote user="morty"]I think Redmond is probably feeling a bit left out, a bit part player. I think he would greatly benefit from an arm round him and being made to feel he is wanted and important.[/quote] Yes, you may well be right with this. I also think Redmond is a player that needs a bit of trust, to build confidence. Needs to be nurtured, perhaps more than other players. He is clearly a confidence player, and when he is off form, he really is very much off form, while others may be able to carry them through a poor pitch of form by simply working harder for a while. For Redmond, as a flair player, it is very much a confidence thing, and he does not seem to carry much confidence these days.

Howson perhaps the best skipper material in the squad, yes, but to be frank, we dont have any players suited to the armband. Howson is not a guy I would typically turn to, for inspiration, etc, if I were a player. He is rather quiet, rarely on the front foot, a bit low key. Have we got a vocal player at all in the club? Someone who can inspire, kick som a$$ when needed, and be AN´s prolonged arm on the pitch? I see none, to be honest.

[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"] but I thought Dorrans did the deep def job much better than Howson yesterday; and howson was 100 times more effective as a result of moving forward.[/quote] Yes, Howson is a roamer, and should play as a roamer. He gets into situations to score more often when he is not restricted to the def mid job.

Scoring first have always been important. Even more so when playing away. If you play at home: Scoring first statistically gives at least 70% chance of winning the game, maybe a bit more At least 85% of NOT losing. If you play away: Scoring first statistically gives around 62% chance of winning the game, while approximately 85% or slightly better to NOT lose. Generally, the statistical chance of turning a game around is no more than 15% when you concede first, home or away.

Redmond´s contract is up on June 30, 2017. So, 18 months left. Normally, talk about a new contract would be started now, and if redmond does not want to prolong his stay here, it would be normal to put him up for sale in this window, or at the very latest in the summer, to avoid him running his contract down and leaving for nothing.

Highland, Pinto comes from a winter break, so will Klose do, if he arrives, and Naismith carries an ancle injury. Likely none of them will be ready for a start, but maybe sub appearance?