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SwindonCanary

Norwich v West Ham

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Developed the play well but no threat.

Toffs isn''t ready yet, exiting etc but not sufficiently solid at the back yet.

Vadis very impressive.

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Another great pre season work out, will have zero bearing on when it gets serious and the first choice eleven line up vs Palarse......

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Let''s not forget, West Ham are further into their season and it only changed when they brought on 9 new players with fresh legs. 

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Toffolo, Vadis and Ruddy were all very good. I would be comfortable having Toffolo and Olsson competing for that left back position. Toffolo had a solid game defensively and offensively. Could tell he was tiring towards the end which is expected as he has now had 90 minutes on Saturday and tonight. The own goal was just unlucky. Vadis looks class though. Could be a big player this season bearing he stays fit

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IMO today didn''t show us a great deal at all in terms of the season ahead - AN went with a near second-string squad, certainly at the back; put that with no Johnno, Mulumbu and several others and I would suggest you can''t read too much into it: it was a pre-season friendly, that''s all.

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Vadis is definitely looking really cultured and full of vision this pre season. Could be an option at number 10! Some plus points tonight but, sadly, looks like Ricky can''t overcome the psychological barrier of fearing scoring...

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[quote user="Branston Pickle"]IMO today didn''t show us a great deal at all in terms of the season ahead - AN went with a near second-string squad, certainly at the back; put that with no Johnno, Mulumbu and several others and I would suggest you can''t read too much into it: it was a pre-season friendly, that''s all.[/quote]

Agreed, but you CAN look at individual performances and, as I said earlier, there were several positives in that respect.

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Reasonably encouraging. Very much a second string side (as was theirs also) but we only looked second best for the last 25 minutes or so when we tired a bit and they brought on their 9 subs whose fresh legs allowed them to get on top.

All in all a decent workout and this preseason feels a world away from last seasons in terms of quality and intensity.

Ruddy back on form and Vadis looks very good. Would be nice to beat Brentford though to go into the opening game on a positive note.

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"Toffolo, Vadis and Ruddy were all very good. I would be comfortable having Toffolo and Olsson competing for that left back position. Toffolo had a solid game defensively and offensively. Could tell he was tiring towards the end which is expected as he has now had 90 minutes on Saturday and tonight. The own goal was just unlucky. Vadis looks class though. Could be a big player this season bearing he stays fit."

Agree with all that, except for the omission of Gary O'' Neil in your list.

Reluctant to say it, as I had expected him to be released to free the squad up, but he was outstanding tonight.

What a midfield we have. The best ever. So many good ''uns.

We mostly dominated them in the first half, although they carved us up a bit after their multiple substitutions.

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Bottom line is that we lost a game we should have won.Can''t afford to do that in the PL.Some good performances but some very average ones.A couple of players that look promising & a few that should be shown the door.We need some new signings & quickly.

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[quote user="Making Plans"]Bottom line is that we lost a game we should have won.

[/quote]think that''s a bit harsh. we played the game we needed to at this point in the preseason - and gave a decent amount of players 90 (or in hoopers case, a near 90) minute run out - when the opposition then fielded 9 fresh players very early in the second half. at that point it was going to be an uphill battle to win it - but we stayed being competitive throughout

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Whilst Toffolo is exciting going forwards, I dont think he is ready for the PL yet. His positional discipline needs a lot of improvement as there were too many occasions in the second half where there was simply too much space in the LB zone. Personally, I think he needs a season in the Championship where he can learn his craft without being put to the sword by the speed of the PL.

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Cerberus wrote the following post at 28/07/2015 10:23 PM:

Whilst Toffolo is exciting going forwards, I dont think he is ready for the PL yet. His positional discipline needs a lot of improvement as there were too many occasions in the second half where there was simply too much space in the LB zone. Personally, I think he needs a season in the Championship where he can learn his craft without being put to the sword by the speed of the PL.

^^^^^^^^^^ This.

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Have to say reading back on some of these comments a lot were made by watching on Mustard TV ? Toni Andreu did very well as did Toffolo and Elliot Bennett, and could do a job if called upon, Gary O Neil just keeps amazing me with his level of fitness and doing everything that is simple and doing it well.

Vadis shows he has it, but still not fit enough, Ricky had 3 great chances and if any of those fell to Hooper he would have bagged at least one, in RVW defence his movement was much better than 2 seasons ago, but god does he get muscled off easily ?

IMO GK ok, defence with arrival of Wisdom some good options although R Bennett and Turner big ???? midfield we are rich, and Redmond looked top class when he came on, however strikers a concern, Hooper will score, but can''t see him getting many chances, so going to be down to Jerome and Grabban, need reinforcements, especially if Jerome injured, but right now, i feel we will do ok but will need a couple of big signings in January to take us through second half of the season.

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I went to the game tonight. We played ok in general without being amazing. Ruddy looked solid, though I was the other end for the goal and not seen it back, so not sure who to blame for that. Tof done alright, has a lot of potential and very good going forward, needs to improve his defensive play. VOO had a decent game, though the final ball was poor, hopefully that will come back with game time. Far too many shots over or wide though for my liking.

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I thought that Ruddy, young Toffs and O''Neil did ok, plus Valdis got better as the game went on and he had a good 2nd half.

Was hoping we''d see more of the first team players tonight but guess they are being saved for Saturdays game.

Game changed when West Ham made 9 substitutions, lots of fresh legs.

What did people think to Ryan Bennett and Turner?

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Just leaving Norwich now for a nice 6 hour drive back to Daaarset before working tomorrow morning - dreading it!. Taking into account it was very much a second string side, I was impressed with how we played against a strong West Ham lineup. Standouts for me were Tettey, Vadis, Toffolo, Ruddy and E Bennett. Turner looked solid enough, and Andreu impressed me greatly in the half he played, plus Redmond always looked a threat once he''d made his introduction. Although RvW perhaps should have done better in the one on one, I don''t think he played badly at all, some good movement and I think his (?) looping header in the second half caused their keeper a big problem plus he got an angled drive in that was well saved rather than spun into the net. My only criticism is modern football boots - numerous players from both sides slipped non stop throughout the game, perhaps if the manufacturers put as much effort into making boots that can grip on a slippy pitch as they do on the visual aspect of them, then more players would stay upright!. Overall, happy with that workout, West Ham unsurprisingly looked much more of a threat after a 9 man substitution in the second half, but we looked quite slick and well organised for large periods of the game so all in all quite pleased.

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Well said Alex.

Makes me feel even more ashamed that I didn''t go.

Now I know how plastics must feel, don''t like it.

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For me the game showed that E.Bennett isn''t a right back, looked good going forward but constantly lost Matt Jarvis when defending. It isn''t like Matt Jarvis is even a particularly high level.

Hooper was pretty shocking, looked off the pace, unfit and lacked sharpness.

Toffolo showed he is getting close to being an option for Norwich. Carried the ball forward well but also struggled with defending.

Better performance from VOO, but his decision making needs to improve a lot - played a lot of sloppy passes but carried the ball out of midfield well. Gary O''Neil also looked good - the strength in depth in midfield is remarkable.

Ryan Bennett needs to stop trying 40 yard passes that go out for goal kicks.

Overall I don''t think anyone has made AN rethink his starting 11, but does show there is some depth to the Norwich squad. However, improvements at centre back are needed.

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Toffs still need to work on the defensive aspect of his game and I think would be targeted as a weakness if he plays next season. He has more to learn and under the scrutiny of the PL is not the place to do it and will not help him IMO.

Bennet was never going to become a RB, he doesn''t have the positional snce or the ability to read the game which is essential for a full back, some posters seem to think its straight forward to convert a winger into a full back, it''s far from it.

I am very concerned about our cover and the quality of defence, we desperately need some new better players to come in.

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Whoever headed the ball back to the corner taker, preceding the goal - it was his fault we lost the game.

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A lot of ''modern full backs'' are actually quite naff at defending so I''m not massively worried about Toffolo, as long as Norwich play at least one defensive midfielder and have two mobile centre backs.

Bennett is probably a little too poor positionally, gets drawn into the winger too quickly leaving a big gap behind him. He might have been better if the more vocal Russell Martin was playing to help him with his positioning. Ryan Bennett doesn''t really know where to stand half the time either so that wasn''t much help.

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Had a quick look at a couple of west ham forums. They are raving about their last half an hour when admittedly their "first team" looked good going forward. That said they completely ignore the fact that was our reserve team (many think we will struggle on the basis of last nights game) and that most of our players played 90 minutes and thus it was perhaps unsurprising that they came on strong when their almost full strength team came on for a half hour burst. For me that we the main reason they got on top at the end and I''m not really worried about it because of our side last night only Ruddy, Redmond, Howson and perhaps if we have injuries Vadis and Ryan Bennett are going to be in the running for a starting berth next season.

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