Monty13
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Posts posted by Monty13
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Massive game at the weekend now.
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17 minutes ago, daz said:Batth in for Duffy the only change 🤓
Noted on one of the videos from the weekend Batth was all smiles and gave Wagner a big hug post result. Don’t think there’s any bad blood from him on how he’s been used, model professional.
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1 hour ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:The obvious one would be to play fassnacht on the right and move Sara into the middle if Barnes needed a rest
However , I'm loathed to swap a striker for a midfielder vs a bottom 3 side.
The more obvious solution would be to just replace Barnes with Van Hooijdonk but they clearly dont trust him..
While I don’t think he’s proving to be a successful signing I’m pretty sure SVH is not a similar player at all to Barnes.
SVH seems to be the Sargent backup, and the fact we’ll let a clearly not 100% fit Sargent play 90 mins some weeks you may be right in that he’s not trusted to fulfil that role.
We desperately need to keep Sarge fit though so if we are winning by a two goal margin I’d expect him to come off at some point.
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8 minutes ago, TheGunnShow said:Didn't Ipswich show something close to relegation form after a few injuries, but then corrected it with some loan signings?
They had a run of 1 win in 9 same as us, difference is they picked up 6 draws in that period and we got 1.
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8 minutes ago, The Raptor said:If their fans genuinely think that they're in for a real shock if they are promoted. Most teams do this much more than Norwich. The bigger clubs will always be backed by the pundits too. 'there was slight contact' 'he had the right to go down
They also did it much more than us Saturday I thought, should have had at least 3-4 yellow cards for blatant pull backs
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3 minutes ago, littleyellowbirdie said:On the one hand you've pointed out the squad's unbalanced in your view, citing only three players, including Sargent, who are top 3 calibre, then on the other hand criticising the manager for not having a magic answer when arguably the most important of the troika you mentioned, the centre forward, is long-term injured. Either your point about Webber is true and that merits cutting Wagner some slack for the poor period, or the point about Webber is not true, a good SD was villified and left, leaving us with a meh manager who really should have been doing better earlier in the season. Trying to reconcile holding the strong view that Webber was failing and Wagner is also no good seems like major mental gymnastics given the turnaround since Sargent's return.
Except the point people continue to make about the injury period is not that we should have been maintaining top 6 form without these players, but that it shouldn’t have resulted in us producing relegation form.
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5 minutes ago, Fen Canary said:He also hasn’t got two promotions under his belt and any signings of the calibre of Buendia or Pukki. Nobody cared about Webber being outspoken and upsetting people when things were going well, it only became an issue when we were playing poorly. If we’d been promoted last year nobody on here would have batted an eyelid at anything Webber said.
Now I’ll agree Webber should have maybe read the room a bit better and kept his head down while things weren’t going great, but that’s clearly not his nature. That sheer bloody mindedness can be both an asset and a liability, sometimes both at the same time.
Knapper is obviously much quieter and will likely hide in the background. Whether this is seen as good management or slightly cowardly will depend entirely on our league position going forward
I don’t think that’s true at all. Lots of people have had issues with what Webber said throughout his tenure. It wasn’t that people didn’t care, it was while we were doing well he got away with it.
Flip side of which though was when fortunes did turn his character immediately got called into question due to what he had been saying, no one forced him to say these things.
It was arrogance and hubris. He loved slinging mud at the previous regime and supporters and it inevitably came back to bite him.
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Just now, Canary Wundaboy said:Not the final. I’m confident we have their number over 1 leg or 2 but the mere possibility of losing to them at Wembley just doesn’t even bear thinking about.
This 100%, why on earth would we want them to get a day at Wembley for a start, but one that possibly ends in them promoted over us. Can’t think of anything worse.
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1 hour ago, Robert N. LiM said:The weird thing is, I think I agree with this, but I had us to finish 8th before a ball was kicked. I guess the emergence of Rowe and Sainz means we probably have a better team than I thought we were going to have, so that might partially explain it.
Were you expecting us to finish top six this season? Fair enough if so but my recollection is that not many people were...
But coming off the season we had I think that was expected.
There were a lot of unknowns, would Sargent step up, would Sara kick on further, what would Barnes bring, would Nunez refind that early promise, how was Sainz going to fit in, would Rowe come through, was Duffy the Hanley replacement we needed, how good was Stacy going to be at replacing Aaron’s, was Gunn ready to be our unchallenged No1 etc. etc.
The good thing was the answer to a lot of these questions was all positive.
When you see these guys all firing now I think it’s hard to deny it’s a top 6 side, only issue is it’s a fragile one, take out the talisman (Sargent) and/or too many other key players and it doesn’t look like that.
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2 hours ago, hogesar said:"if we praise Wagner too much, we might look wrong about Wagner. But if we criticise Wagner so much and make out the squad is really good, we'll be praising Webber"
Maybe, just maybe, they both have had good points and bad points this season?
I said a while back other than a couple of odd signings (Baath/Forshaw and I’d argue Hwang depending on your generosity) Webber had a pretty good summer all things considered. I’m still glad he’s gone though personally and his latest interview gaffe reinforced that.
Wagner had a really bad spell where he looked down and out of ideas, he was failing to just keep us afloat and grind out results till injuries returned. But since then I personally think he’s been fantastic, I’m pleased for him because he seems a great guy but ultimately him doing well is good for us.
Finishing in the playoffs vindicates both to a certain extent, I think given the talent in this squad it’s what we should achieve though personally, and it’s been repeatedly the clubs aim. So if over 46 games we do, Wagner deserves backing and Webber gets a small reprieve on his legacy, but that’s just my opinion.
I still think we lose one or two players everything could crumble though unfortunately, maybe that’s just our reality in terms of squad depth, so I’ve just got everything crossed Sargent stays fit and no more key players are lost for any period.
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43 minutes ago, king canary said:I'm pleased for him. I didn't think he could turn it around but he did. Yesterday was particularly impressive in that after a poor performance and coming up against a team on a high from a last minute winner in a high pressure game it could have been the start of another losing streak. Instead he got the team up for it and it could become a defining moment in our season.
Yet, he's still walking a tightrope in my view. If Coventry and Hull win their games in hand then we're still in the thick of a race for 6th. If we fall just short I still think he's failed in his goal this season despite this run.
100%. Failure to deliver 6th or better is failure. I’m sure he knows this.
Theres three teams in this division with better squads than us and one over performing team.
Over a whole season I don’t see any reason, having seen them play us, why we shouldn’t be ahead of WBA, Coventry and Hull.
Webber left us just enough in the tank IMO.
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18 minutes ago, Mason 47 said:I'd agree in general. I think Fassnacht, perhaps Gibbs will come in for Tuesday
The trouble is with the youngsters + SvH, we are not in a 'learning' stage at the moment. The latter could probably have had more minutes recently but if Sargent can play, Sargent plays. We just aren't in a position for players to find their feet.
The return of Hernandez + Rowe may be very aptly timed.
I’m pretty sure Onel is out for the season. Dimi might make the playoffs apparently, Hanley may as well.
Rowe and Sorensen should be back by next weekend if not before.
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They’ve beat QPR, Rotherham and Plymouth in the last month but otherwise have been beaten by all the top half teams
They are desperate for points but our best 11 should run rings round there’s.
Only issue potentially fatigue, yesterday was a big game and bar Barnes they basically all played 90 mins, bet it took its toll. Would be good to see some fresh faces given a chance if needs be.
We should be aiming to take all 3 points and keep Coventry at bay.
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Weren’t Tzolis and Kamara Webber loans?
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Just now, BroadstairsR said:They had a couple of significant players out, don't forget, Burns and that centre forward whose name escapes me.
We have Rowe and Argos and others whose names escape me.
Evened out, I suppose.
Our bench is thin because of bad signings as much as anything, RVD, Long and of course Forshaw who was never replaced, as wasn't Placheta.
On the upside, a few decent City youth were benched. Most of their bench was bought or loaned.
While it’s great to see youth on the bench if they aren’t seen as viable options to change/secure a game it’s not ideal IMO.
Yes they bought and loaned players in January to push for promotion, it hopefully won’t work out for them.
I still would have preferably had one more viable option brought in sitting on our bench, you’d think Knapper would known of a few players that could have improved us from his previous role.
Hopefully we have no more injuries/suspensions, Rowe comes back fully fit and hopefully Dimi too but it just feels on a knife edge still to me. Losing one or two more players for the playoffs could be disastrous.
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32 minutes ago, Robert N. LiM said:No argument with that. The celebrations of Idah's late goal at Bristol City (not Hull, thanks TGS) told us everything we needed to know on that score.
Obviously as fans the past is the past. We're in a great position now, better than most of us predicted at the start of the season and way better than most of us feared at Christmas. All that's left now is to enjoy being in the 'interesting positions' again and try to roar the boys home. But part of Knapper's job is to take a more dispassionate view of how the head coach is doing, and when he does so, there'll be stuff in both columns of his list. That's all I'm saying.
I agree with this. Wagner has made Knappers job incredibly difficult now. Yes that period was poor and an underperformance despite the difficulties, but he’s also been excelling since.
If Knapper wanted a new coach he had an opportunity to come in and sweep clean at a time no one would have blamed him for it.
If Wagner takes us to the playoffs, and possibly beyond, removing him is going to have a negative affect on players (who clearly are playing for him as others have mentioned) and the relationship with supporters that I think it’s fair to say HE has repaired, no one else.
If the subconscious plan was to let Wagner play out this season and refresh in the summer, Knapper’s going to have to pivot now IMO.
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2 hours ago, Mr.Carrow said:Compare out bench with a side who were in league one last season and haven't had big investment. Ours was so weak i don't think anyone was clamouring for more subs yesterday, despite some players looking absolutely shot towards the end of the game. We have possibly our best player playing out of position on the right because there are no more realistic options. Coming up with creative solutions which work in a very weak squat is excellent management.
The fact we beat them again is a joy, the fact it might cause them to miss the automatics is also to be savoured. I hope they finish 3rd and us 6th because we have a mental hold over them and our 1st 11 is just better than theirs.
The only slight downer I felt from yesterday is watching them bring on Subs from a bench that was stacked with far more options than ours. Luckily it didn’t matter, credit to Wagner and the players for that, but our bench is threadbare by comparison. I know we have injuries but so do all sides, surely no one expected us to finish an injury hit season without more.
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3 hours ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:Credit where it's due, he has done very well on the whole this season.
I think we were all pretty unanimous in wanting him gone in November, and I didn't think he was ever going to turn it around, but with some important players returning from injury and a little less naivety in midfield, he has done a brilliant job.
I'm still not completely convinced about next season because Knapper is clearly here for the long haul and I'm not sure if they share the same vision and philosophy, so we'll have to wait and see.
I think that’s the issue, he wasn’t showing anything during that period to suggest he was going to turn it around. I don’t think people were wrong to be voicing concern at our trajectory and performances.
What he’s done since has been fantastic and as long as he delivers top 6 he deserves our credit, thanks and support.
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1 hour ago, littleyellowbirdie said:I think the way things are going are vindicating the decision. It's clear the club calculated that the players we needed to make a difference would soon be back from injury, so there was no need to spend; it looks like they were right.
And if we had spent at levels we could realistically expect, what's the likelihood we'd have had someone come in and hit the ground running turning things around? Pretty slim, I would have thought.
Our rivals loaned players, we were more interested in moving them on.
We let possibly the most dangerous player from the bench in the league depart and replaced him with what unfortunately is turning out to be a damp squib.
It’s a good job we had players returning or we wouldn’t have made it. One more key injury/suspension over the run in could have cost us and possibly could still.
Theres so few options from the bench the team picks itself.
I wanted to give Knapper credit, I wanted to be positive from his first window (and there were positives) but in terms of pushing for promotion this season it’s a massive gamble if it comes off (and the credit if it does must go to Wagner and his team) and really does smack of us not expecting to be in this position.
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26 minutes ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:..additionally ,we have now taken
4 pts from those filthy b@stards
2 draws from Southampton
3 pts from WBA
6 pts from Hull
4 pts from Coventry
Having at least equalled ,if not bettered all of those around us, it would probably now be considered a failure if we didnt get a top 6 place...
And we could have possibly took more from WBA if Sainz hadn’t been sent off.
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57 minutes ago, Capt. Pants said:Knapper should have done more to back him January. Did he? Not really.
We shall see.
Not the time to me discussing this but there is a fine line between a good manager and an ordinary one.
Thankfully it's not down to the Pinkun.
I agree, I like Wagner so I’m glad to see him turn it around. Good for him, good for everyone.
However the complete lack of backing in January despite the constant insistence we were aiming for promotion is looking a mistake.
If we don’t get promoted this season it’s looking like it won’t be Wagner’s fault based on his 2024 performance.
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2 hours ago, Robert N. LiM said:Daniel won't let us down
And yet he did 🙄
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C’mon Leeds, don’t bottle the opportunity we’ve given and do is a favour Daniel.
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13 minutes ago, Rock The Boat said:they have more points than other teams
This is the kind of no nonsense insight and analysis I come here for 😂
Why wasn't Wagner backed in the January window?
in Main Discussion - Norwich City
Posted
I agree with a lot of what you’re saying here but I’m not sure it’s clear how much of the summer window was what Wagner wanted. The fact he barely plays Batth or Forshaw before he left makes me doubt how much influence he had over incomings.
I think it’s clear there is a level of divide between Manager and new SD, how deep who knows. But Wagner was vocal all through January about bodies, he’s stated that again here.
Knapper was clear we need to refocus on youth yet these players are not getting a look in.
Knappers one transfer is being effectively ignored (although I’m also in the camp of feeling it was a foolish move in hindsight).
I think it’s pretty clear top level management at Carrow Road no longer expected us to be genuine top 6 challengers and that January plans were based on that.
I know money is tight but you don’t loan out Idah and not look to bring a single loan in while reducing the squad size if you’re fully focused on promotion, I just don’t believe that personally.