littleyellowbirdie

[quote user="iron_stan"]i think this is a great ideawe should also play hoolahan in goal, garrido up front and bring neil adams back as a central defender [/quote]lol. Bang goes that idea then. Speed and acceleration they''re great, shooting they''re great.  Just seems to me the missing ingredients for that sort of full back are tackling and intercepts and I would have thought those areas are easier to develop. I do think that players that can do all that on the wings give a team something pretty special. Seems to work for Pellegrini.

... to operate as full backs in a 4-4-2 diamond or a 4-4-2 magic rectangle in the opinions of the folks on here? Personally I''m a big fan of these two formations and would love to see Norwich use them one day.

What I''d quite like to see one day is a 4-1-4-1 with Tettey Howson and Hoolahan, behind Hooper. Think Hoolahan and Hooper have a bit of a thing going on.

Just thought I''d share this quite amusing satire on the prevalent attitude amongst fans these days as it made me chuckle. Link here.

[quote user="Canary On The Wire"]How incredibly condescending and exactly what I have come to expect of this forum.You think because I opted not to hyphenate in ''resign'' that I was unaware of the connotations of both meanings?Had I put ''Hughton Needs To Re-Sign'' then it would have been equally guilty of the same crime.Hughton Needs To Resign implies as a standalone statement, whereas the former makes the continuation too obvious.I apologise for assuming you had more intelligence than needing to be spoon fed the pun.I''m not sure it''s me who needs to do the hoping. Best you all get back to incessantly whining about Houghton.[/quote]I think it''s the sort of pun that works better spoken than written.

[quote user="Indy_Bones"]Holt was already getting past his best when he left for Wigan (partly due to Hughton''s style of play IMHO), whereas Henry was still a world class player when Barca signed him.[/quote]I''m confused. On the one hand you''re saying age was starting to get the better of Holt and then you''re saying that Chris Hughton contributed to that. How does a manager contribute to the effect of the passage of time on a player?

There''s been no transfer request despite other papers saying there has. The gossip''s all aimed at destabilising. Ignore it.

[quote user="UkraineCanary"]I rarely post here, but read daily. I fully expect to be denounced as a ''plastic'' because my work with our government took me to Ukraine, which makes it tricky to travel to Carrow Road for games, so have to resort to watching them in bars. However, this forum has become one of the most toxic and bitter places on the internet. Every thread gets taken into personal attacks, trolls, bitching and worse. I frequent other forums, regarding darts, cars, food etc; none of them have the air of hostility we have here. As mentioned earlier, we are all supporters of a fantastic, well run club, why do we have to be at each others throats all the time, and make this an unfriendly place to be. Good times or bad, we don''t have to degrade into Schoolyard Bullying surely? This is the main forum for us fans to communicate, I just wish it was more civil.[/quote]To be fair, I think that description fits just about every online forum I''ve ever been involved in! lol

[quote user="Canary Poirot"][quote user="Samwam27"]So if the problem (& I agree) isn ''t with our strikers, but with the service from midfield, who would you change.Howson''s been decent, as has Fer (although a little inconsistent), so would you change these, or our wingers. Am guessing most would say we could do better than Johnson, and Snodders has been less effective than last season. Redmonds been a bright lightIf we got a better defensive midfielder, that would release Fer to play more forward and creative? Is the combination wrong in midfield, and who''d you change?I personally think RVW will come good, and Hoops has already shown his pedigree, but whilst Elmander works his socks off, no goals (& he''s had his chances) could well be one of the worst returns ever for a City striker?[/quote]   I actually think we have sufficient personal of good enough quality in the midfield department to create sufficient chances. Granted not all of our midfielders are probably quite Premiership quality, and I think the form of some of those players has dipped this season to an extent where I can see them going back to the Championship next season (hopefully not with us!). For me it''s a question of deploying the right tactics, and being braver with our positional play. Like players pushing forward to get into the box from midfield to offer more support and options. Yes it''ll leave gaps further back, but we have to try to win too. Too often we get forward and the striker is so isolated he is immediately surrounded by defenders and has little or zero chance to be effective unless the ball to him is top drawer. Likewise I''m really not a fan of 4-3-3 with two wide men who also always seem to look isolated most of the time running down blind alleys to nowhere unless they cut inside (which Redmond does pretty effectively). Ultimately I would prefer two up front, but this tactic is not the fashion at the moment, but things will change in time. It always does. Remember wing-backs? [/quote]I think Olsson could cope with the demands of being a wing back, but I''m not so sure about anybody else in the squad. Whittaker?

[quote user="Canary Poirot"]Ask Grant Holt why our strikers aren''t scoring any goals this season.   It''s all to do with Hughton''s defensive tactics. If we continue to play one guy up front, whomever it is, will struggle to score goals. As Michael Owen said last week - even if you have a world class striker up top who can play effectively on their own, if you put a partner with them, then immediately more chances and goals will be scored. Until we start playing with two strikers, getting in more strikers to mitigate the risk of a Hooper injury won''t make a huge amount of difference unless we can attract a seriously good striker, and I doubt we can. The other strikers at our disposal, whilst probably doing a worse job than Hooper in the lone striker role, will probably be just about good enough (and I would certainly hope it to be the case in Van Wolfswinkle who cost us £7.5 million or so, and looks half the player Dean Ashton looked who cost half that amount). [/quote]We''ve played 30% of our games in 4-4-2 this season  and got 35% of our goals from them, so it doesn''t seem to have a dramatically favourable effect on our goal-scoring,

[quote user="YellowNets1901"]Just posted this on another thread. Relevant for this one too: If we finish up in say 16th or 17th place I would expect Hughton to be released from his contract at the end of the season and for McNallt etc to rethink things in the summer. Ironically, if we were to finish in the bottom three, I think Hughton would keep his job, and as result, be more comfortable as a manager in the league below.[/quote] Hughton''s contract was for three years. You can only release from a contract if both parties agree. If you sack, you have to compensate. The degree of importance of a manager and dismissal of other factors is over the top. Alan Pardew and Newcastle finished 16th last season. This year they''re strong top ten. No managerial change.

I don''t get how some of Norwich''s fans seem to cling to predictions of doom so fervently. The level of certainty they seem to have that life under Hughton is guaranteed to end in relegation is bordering on religious. Having the best chunk of our midfield out of action is a mere excuse and their return can''t possibly have any positive effect. Bizarre outlook.

[quote user="Surfer"]" 1 Win in 6 games such as those we''ve played, including 2 losses (and no wins) at home, is immensely worrying, and unlike some i can''t honestly say that we''re assured the minimum of survival under Hughton. Moreover i''d suggest relegation is a far more likely prospect on the basis of the available evidence " All six of those games w/o Bennett, Pilkington and Tettey, and four of those six w/o Howson and RvW, so it''s just possible we may have a better chance of success once they are (all) available… hopefully immediately after the FA Cup 3rd round game.[/quote]Spot on.

[quote user="ricardo"][quote user="......and Smith must score."]Simple answer is obviously yes but I doubt they will.If we go down we''re more than likely to be playing them next season unfortunately.[/quote]Well that would please some who miss the Derbies. Every cloud has a silver lining.[/quote]The probability of them being promoted is fairly slim.The probability of us being relegated isn''t particularly big.The probability of us getting relegated and them getting promoted is the first multiplied by the second, so much smaller than either of them.The probability of us playing them in league football either through us being relegated or them getting promoted is the most likely probability, but still not very likely.I''ll be quite honest and say I''d like them to get promoted. Derbies are fun and it''s good for East Anglia.

4 out of a possible 6 against crustal palace this season. That''ll do.

I''m not saying Mike Dean is taking bribes, but if it turned out to be the case I wouldn''t be surprised. I hope Hughton will be writing to the FA over Dean''s performance today.

[quote user="Aggy"]At the time of the booing (ie; before there was any talk of Hooper carrying an injury), we were losing 1-0 and took off our in-form top scorer for another striker who has only played 20 minutes after an injury. Now I''m not one for booing anyway, but based on what we knew at the time of the substitution, it did seem like a strange swap and can understand where people were coming from.[/quote]They booed, which is crap behaviour towards your own team anyway let alone without knowing what was going on. shouldn''t make excuses for retards.

I''m not sure whether it''s a ''must win'' per se, but the fact is we''re going to win this one.

[quote user="Feed the Wolf"]I think Sunderland might just survive. I have a feeling it will be us or West Ham...we might just survive in 17th...but if you look at the fixture list we really need to be safe before the final 4 games (Liverpool, Man U, Man C and Arsenal).[/quote]Order of the games isn''t important. We''ve played all the teams and have 19 points in 14th. We''ll do better second half providing we don''t have so many injuries.

[quote user="NWCoastCanary"]Agree with the 4 points raised. The first names on my team sheet would not be the players Hughton has signed. We only play well for half a game because on the odd occasion the tactics are right the oppositions coaches respond. The majority of the time we are gutless, look incapable of winning a game, and don''t have a plan. We need a leader - I don''t think Hughton is one, and I don''t see any in Yellow. In fact I don''t think Hughton has had the fans backing since his first (of many humiliations) at Fulham. At least he is now having to recognise we need Wes, one of the few the club means a lot to that Hughton hasn''t got rid of. He appears to sign players who do not fit into how we are to play - use wingers but no powerful number 9 with a presence.[/quote]Leadership happens on the pitch it''s not the manager. Scott Parker the other day at Carrow Road demonstrated that well. It is something we''re missing.

I think it will come down to whether we get a decent spell withoutinjuries to key players. We''ve been plagued by them this half of the season and I think it''s what''s needed to build some consistency.

[quote user="Citizen Journalist Foghorn"]Lets add the last game of 2012 to those stats to make them more comparable to a full season.2nd half of last seasonPlayed 19 Won 4 Drawn 7 Lost 8 For 21 Against 30 Points 191st half of this seasonPlayed 19 Won 5 Drawn 4 Lost 10 For 16 Against 32 Points 19The Full 2013 ( + last game of 2012)Played 38 Won 9 Drawn 11 Lost 18 For 35 Against 62 Points 38[/quote]It''s just barely off the pace and doesn''t take into account the amount of disruption we''ve had from injuries, particularly in midfield, this first half the season. That''s what has been at the root of not being that consistent this half of the season.

[quote user="djc"][quote user="Surfer"]Wow. Get out of the wrong side of bed did we ? Today we had 15 shots to their 7 and 8 corners to their 4…[/quote] And 0 goals to their 1. And 0 points to their 3.[/quote]Yet when we win, it''s always ''we were poor and got lucky'' or ''they were on the beach''. One wonders why you''re not inclined to take the view that it was them who got lucky on this occasion.

[quote user="Holtcantshoot"]If we were given three points for every time Chris said this after a game we''d be 5 points clear at the top by now.New exciting game for the Crystal Palace game: guess the post-match quote after we lose with only 1 shot on target:1. It''s hard to take because we deserved more than we got2. We''ll learn our lessons and move on to the next game3. Hopefully we''ll get a reaction to this in our next game4. There a top side regardless of their league position and it''s always a tough place to come.[/quote]Yes, they''re all general platitudes. Why does he use them? Because the alternative is to go into where our players have failed in a public forum. He does it to best preserve the morale of his team in disappointing circumstances. I think it''s a very wise media strategy personally.

To change a game you need choice for substitutes. Midfield is where the substitutions are usually most effective and we''ve been suffering injuries there for most of the season, usually to our key ones, i.e. E Bennett, Tettey, Pilks, Howson. All of those would be starting 11 at the moment if fit.