Surfer

https://mg.co.za/article/2019-08-23-00-norwich-wont-back-down Very good - if anyone else is looking for it, it's at the bottom of the page or this link directly.

Wonderful Newcastle post match summary

That would be classic team introduction music ... dah dah dah dada da dadah da . .... ☠️☠️

I know Luton were in the old Anglia TV coverage region, but I’d define East Anglian teams to be Norwich, Ipswich, Colchester, Cambridge and maybe Peterborough. Plus all the non-league teams of course.

Of course we won’t have to worry about a floodlight failure this weekend - so that’s one less worry for playing this Lampard team.

Agreed, it was initially a Vrancic to defense hand off problem. And after that Hanley didn’t cover himself in glory, although Shelvey did sell him a good dummy. If the team had strong words with each other about that, rather than just shrugging their shoulders, I think that is a good sign. IMO Hanley will be one of our CB’s v Chelsea - and probably until the int’l break to make sure Klose and Zimmermann can fully recuperate.

They won 2-1. Yeah, lucky old ... but they won. In the 94th minute too ... remind you of another team? Wish them luck (not too much) but East Anglia deserves more than one team in the top two divisions.

Yup, that’s the one, our full back shanked a shot and Rikky puts it in the back of the net. So Chris Hughton put a stop to any of those antics and laid down the law nobody was allowed to shoot again .... and then RvW broke his foot. Best 7 milllion we had spent until that waste of time Naismith turned up - who only bothered to play properly against Liverpool. So you owe us big time for that one - on the other hand you did get Mike Walker and he turned out to be a dud too.

They know don’t they? The fix must be in, how else could we beat Frank Lampard’s Chelsea?

Shocking game, reminded me of a few we saw last year between supposed playoff contenders, just illustrates how far ahead our playing style is compared to our relegation competition.

Yes it’s quite reasonable to say Hanley was too easily turned there, but Shelby is also a class player, and Hanley couldn’t recover quickly enough. But we had just made a bunch of subs and perhaps the mental focus was broken. He may have also been at “fault” on the header their 40 million striker put wide - but that would be taking away from a great cross. Lewis also was in a CB position and lost his RM opponent to blast over the bar just before that, so we could have been down 0-2 again and just as aggrieved as we were feeling at Liverpool. What is clear is our defense played much better than Newcastle’s did, the space they left us was as criminal as the space we left at Liverpool - or are we under-appreciating PL offences?

I’m not worried about a lack of height in our forwards as we play it on the ground anyway, and we are often too quick for the opposition players. In defence it’s a bit more of a problem which is why I think Amadou will come in for Trybull eventually (and Klose / Zimmermann for Hanley for pace and reaction time reasons) Our quick passing is creating opportunities that a target man plus a poacher would have traditionally created, but our approach means we don’t just give the ball back half the time it is punted forwards. Can we beat Chelsea, yes. West Ham, yes. Man City, no - they play our game better than we do, it would be a major upset if we literally beat them at their own game. But, “he who dares, wins” so we’ll try! OTBC.

Did you see the other words “‘rites rite roit” under the “Ricardo”

I thought the Newcastle analysis was good, our time was spent interviewing Pukki and rightly so, however I agree with the overall sentiment.

Fact is he can't score and doesn't track back.... can I have the prize now? p.s. I've been a big Todd fan, and have posted on that subject before. Yes he's coming along nicely, and it would have been great if he'd put that pass from Pukki into the net early on. I'm sure that goalscoring touch will come and then watch out everyone...

No linkage between midfield and the front three locked to be the problem last night - Fulham were doing all the passing, Huddersfield just looked devoid of any ideas or confidence. They were not getting much out of Pritchard either.

An opportunity for Roberts then.

Yes all true, but again Stiepermann had two opportunities from just outside the box early on, opportunities we have seen him score last year, so we could have been 2-0 up, not 2-0 down. But he didn’t obviously, and Liverpool got some breaks. Reminds me of the old “lucky Arsenal” tag, when you are actually better the breaks seem to fall for you as well. Maybe it’s speed of thought that lets top players exploit errors.

McLean might play better as a deep lying midfielder with an aggressive and pacy DM like Amadou alongside him - although I'd still prefer Leitner there - but I've personally felt he'd play better further up the pitch. Then again, I'm not the coach, and Farke has been very successful so I defer to his judgement 🙂

Creates an opportunity for the next generation of writers though - the subject remains the same over the decades, those who write about it and comment about it come and go.

We may have been for the first one, Alan Shearer pointed out Pukki was badly positioned for our throw-in from the left touchline, which allowed a counter attack and cross from the edge of our box, which Hanley then mis-kicked. An important lesson learned there I hope.

I’d suggest staring the above - Klose is still injured and Trybull may also be. Up front Cantwell and Roberts, over Stiepermann and Cantwell, we shouldn’t need a lot of muscle up there for long out balls from defense, but we do need recovery speed and height and muscle in our box when defending against counter attacks and corners.

Yes we should be concerned, however IMO we’d still be concerned even if we had spent a ton of money, and as we found out last time, getting much better players in doesn’t always occur as the best players don’t want to come here. Existing squad under-performers (based on what we saw, and in the positions they played, last year) for me : McGovern, Hanley, Srbeny. Add in marginal performers : Krull, Klose, Heisse, Trybull, McLean, Cantwell. Genuine class performers: Aarons, Lewis, Godfrey, Zimmermann, Vrancic, Leitner, Pukki, Buendia, Stiepermann, Hernandez. So based on ONE GAME some played better - Cantwell and Krull come to mind, and others played worse - Lewis, Trybull, McLean and Steipermann come to mind - than last season’s experience would indicate; but it’s one game, away v’s the league winner in almost any other year, so I’m still very positive we can sort our defending out, and will be successful scoring against teams. Yes I’m concerned about our CB and DM options, but we hopefully will have the worst of that sorted out when our 1st choice CB, and our new DM signing, can be put into the team. I also know I feel a whole lot better about our prospects for this season than I did at the same time last year 🙂 OTBC

I agree it’s probably best Hanley plays against Newcastle, and then see where Klose and Zimmermann are at for the next game. As for midfield, Leitner and Amadou for McLean and Trybull - or Leitner and McLean with Amadou on hold for another game to ensure he knows our system and not to upset squad unity to much?

Yes a shame for Hanley, seemed to be a similar personal situation for him as with the game against Portsmouth, which went equally poorly. Maybe that's him effectively done with Norwich; that may sound harsh but he will almost certainly be back to 4th choice again, and I wouldn't be surprised to see us define Amadou as our 4th choice CB if needed, and Hanley to leave for a Blackburn on loan if our injuries to Klose and Zimmermann clear up. And if not out on loan now, then leave in January to a promotion contending side.