Ricardo's report v West Ham

[ricardo 8,033]

It was right parky in Norfolk today so the first outing of the season for Ricardo''s thermal long johns was never in doubt. On the team selection front we saw the end of Alex Neil''s Tombola method as he settled for a simpler cut and paste. Rudd, Mbokani and Mulumbu were cut while Ruddy, Jerome and Redmond were pasted in.City almost began with a bang as Jerome raced down the left before crossing and Martin smacked a drive a foot over the top. For a couple of minutes it was all City but West Ham slowly began to put their passes together and the Canaries defence started to look a bit unsettled. Klose looked a dominating presence in the centre but once again there was too much space allowed on the flanks and the fast Hammers forwards were twice on the verge of springing the offside trap. Ruddy had to tip a stinging shot over just before the twenty minute mark while at the other end Wes was brought down just outside the area only for Brady''s free kick to fly a yard over. It got a bit feisty for a while as both sets of players battled hard in midfield and Collins and Obiang were both shown the yellow card. It finally stirred City into action because for the remainder of the half we held a slight edge on territory but apart from speculative shots from Naismith, Howson and Martin, Keeper Adrian could have comfortably spent his time reading a paper in a deck chair.The Jamesons was put to good use at halftime but it seemed to get even colder as the afternoon wore on. City again started with purpose and Jerome wasn''t far wide with a twenty yard cross shot in the opening minute. Then it looked as if Naismith must score when Jerome crossed from the right only for the ball to elude everybody. City were looking much busier now and if only We, galloping clear down the left, had released the ball half a second earlier Jerome would have had a clear chance in front of goal. We were still bemoaning that chance when City finally did manage to go ahead a minute later. Brady won a tackle 30 yards out before taking a couple of steps and curling a shot off the underside of the bar.It was a deserved lead for West Ham had gone rather quiet and it was no surprise when Carroll and Moses came on. However things got even better for City just after the hour as  Redmond,Wes and Naismith inter passed before the later had a shot parried by Collins only for the loose ball to fall kindly for City as Wes slotted it in the corner.From here it should have been plain sailing and with West Ham now committed forward, City seemed happy to keep it open. A third goal might have sealed it but it didn''t come and when Moses raced away from Klose on 74 minutes Brady looked like saving the day with a last ditch tackle only for the loose ball to find an unmarked Payet who couldn''t miss the empty net. Olsson now came on for Naismith but you couldn''t help feeling it was a goal too late.Dear oh bloody dear, you couldn''t make it up. I''m sure we all saw it coming a mile down the line as City were now at sixes and sevens and a couple of minutes later Noble crashed a rising drive past Ruddy and into the top corner. If Brian Gunn had been sitting next to me I would have chucked my season ticket at him.The crowd that had been in fine voice for most of the half was now stunned to silence and it was a matter of holding on for a point now as West Ham, with Moses running wild, made and squandered several opportunities. There was one final flourish in the last of five added minutes as Mbokani won a loose ball and Dorrans weaved through two or three tackles to release Martin on the right narrow angle. Somehow the ball was kept out and in the scramble Redmonds low shot looked goalbound until deflected for a corner. It just wasn''t to be and once more a two goal lead thrown away because we are unable to defend.It gives me no pleasure to repeat once more that conceding two goals a game will get you relegated but there it is anyway. The second half was open and exciting for those that like their football that way but I can''t help feeling that we will be exciting ourselves all the way back to the Championship if this carries on much longer. Sometimes supporting this club is just to much of a cross to bear. Why oh why do we make it so hard for ourselves?[:@]

[ron obvious 1,711]

Nice one Ricardo. " Exciting ourselves all the way back to the Championship". I like that. Well not, really.

Did it look to you like our players were getting badly knackered through the second half? We seemed to stop pressing & gave them far more space than earlier in the game.

Any stand out players?

[Lessingham Canary 108]

Fair assessment ricardo, as always.

Though i thought there were positives today we didn''t see last week, i thought overall we looked to have a better balance, and the back line were doing a great job and wet spam kept getting caught offside, 2 great goals, but once they scored the players did look shot of confidence to close the game down.

The saving grace is i dint think Villa, Sunderland, Newcastle or Swansea are better than us, so not over yet, all down to who can find a few unexpected wins !

[Lessingham Canary 108]

Apologies meant don''t,not dint.

Ron, i thought Brady and Jerome were excellent.

[Mr Angry 2,010]

Ricardo, you mention that there was too much space down the flanks-I''ve noticed this to and it seems that this has been happening regularly for a few seasons. Is this down to the players not being good enough defenders, not being disciplined enough, down to our tactics of having attacking fullbacks, our wingers not tracking back?

I must admit I don''t watch any other football so it''s possible that all teams play this way but a lot of the goals we concede appear to come from the right and leftback positions.

[ricardo 8,033]

[quote user="Lessingham Canary"]Apologies meant don''t,not dint.

Ron, i thought Brady and Jerome were excellent.[/quote]I would probably agree with that.I couldn''t fault anyone for effort.

[Katie Borkins 1]

It did look as though we were hanging on after 75 minutes, the way some boxers do going into round 10. I don''t know if there is a fitness issue, there certainly should not be, but I wonder how much we burn up in nervous energy.

Disappointed but some green shoots amongst the gloom and doom.

[ricardo 8,033]

[quote user="Jan Van Borsburg"]It did look as though we were hanging on after 75 minutes, the way some boxers do going into round 10. I don''t know if there is a fitness issue, there certainly should not be, but I wonder how much we burn up in nervous energy.

Disappointed but some green shoots amongst the gloom and doom.[/quote]I didn''t think they looked like scoring until they did. Then it seemed to take the wind out of us and gave West Ham a lift.

[Badger 2,745]

Thanks Ricardo.I was gutted after the final whistle but then watching Newcastle capitulate in the first 15 minutes against Chelsea cheered me a little. Obviously your point about two goals a game is right but there was just enough about to day to be encouraging if you try really hard!

[im spartacus canary 0]

Do we Flagg so badly in the last 20 minutes cos we have to

Work so hard keeping up with superior players ?

[Fish eye view 2]

Excellent report as always.

I thought the West Ham substitutions changed the match. We seemed to have no answer to Carrol & Moses. How lucky are they to have quality like that to bring on.

First goal was unfortunate - blocked twice & Payet lucky to get on end of clearance. Unfortunately City body language was poor after this setback - most players returning for re-start with heads down. Always felt next West Ham goal would soon come & so it did. After that (until last five minutes) West Ham looked most likely to get a third goal. There''s a real confidence issue here but with Chelsea doing us a favour, we''re out of drop zone. I was pleased to hear Neill positive after this. Bring on Leicester. OTBC

[nutty nigel 7,902]

Disappointed in the end but all is not lost. As for exciting ourselves back to the champs, I''d like a fiver for every time that was asked for in our last relegation season. Where will we find another Hootun....

[Indy 3,471]

I''ve been quiet positive of late, but today really peed me off, we can''t keep throwing away 2 goal leads to dreadful teams at CR.

Two poor sides but at 2-0 we should have seen this game out given that West sham played a long game mid week.....utterly awful and at the end we were holding on! They so nearly nicked it but thankfully their attacker couldn''t reach the ball as he sprawled out....

Can''t take much positive out of today, but a good report as normal!

[Faded Jaded Semi Plastic SOB 1,220]

This game summed up our main problems.........confidence and concentration. In the second half it was clear that West Ham were uncomfortable as we closed them down, harried them, as a result we went 2-0 up. We gifted West Ham a goal, as soon as that ball hit the back of the net our players heads visibly went down and the West Ham players suddenly looked confident. As usual a good report, I would disagree with the "fitness" comment though as we were not hanging on given that we created a couple of chances at the very end of the match, one deflected for a corner and one cleared off the line with the last kick of the game.......

[Tetteys Jig 851]

[quote user="Jan Van Borsburg"]It did look as though we were hanging on after 75 minutes, the way some boxers do going into round 10. I don''t know if there is a fitness issue, there certainly should not be, but I wonder how much we burn up in nervous energy.

Disappointed but some green shoots amongst the gloom and doom.[/quote]

To me it seemed like a discipline thing. Too many of our defenders and midfielders were being dragged into places they had no need to go, all chasing the same ball like a bunch of ameteurs playing rounders lobbing the ball to each base, following the batter instead of playing safe and lobbing to last base to stop the rounder!

Goal one and Howson doesn''t even bother look over his shoulder while tracking back to see Payet. One simple look and that goal would have been prevented, the rebound would have fallen to either Howson or Payet with Howson near enough to stop the tap in. Not solely to blame because Bassongs rush of blood to release Antonio free on goal and then Klose and Brady''s poor efforts weren''t great but it just stank of panic.

Goal 2 and for some reason Wes legs it over to Payet who despite being given too much space to get the ball in the first place was more than covered and was obviously looking for the late arrival. If Wes had looked over his shoulder, he''d have been monitoring and marking Noble and the goal would have been a lot less likely. Again, pure panic in our ranks which is a massive shame because we played well today.

Silver lining, we get to spend the rest of the month out of the bottom three but we really need to cut the crap at the back. Hopefully we fight through a tough March still in tact and then save our asses with a very generous April fixture list so we can all have a nice early BBQ on the beach in May. Today for me confirmed we''re still in this, a massive improvement on recent weeks. Ruddy looked better for his break as well.

[GJP 79]

[quote user="Tetteys Jig"]

Goal one and Howson doesn''t even bother look over his shoulder while tracking back to see Payet. One simple look and that goal would have been prevented, [/quote]

Sure about that?

Think you''ll find Howson did look over his shoulder, did see Payet and did match his run.

[Tetteys Jig 851]

Maybe he did have a look, but he didn''t get near enough to Payet. There was plenty of time to make is way over to him, there was no race on as the initial shot had been held up. Instead, he ended up in no mans land between the initial shot and Payet. He should have been much tighter on him.

[Tetteys Jig 851]

Have a watch again:

https://streamable.com/m449

In particular, look at the moment when the initial challenge goes in, Howson has got back and is on the edge of the box while Payet continues on to the back post behind him while Howson thinks about getting involved with the battle with Moses. He is then stood for far too long in the middle while Payet, the clever player he is has found himself a mile of space at the back post. This is where Howson should have been covering.

It''s harsh I know, but if we want to stay in this division, we need to be able to manage those situations better.

[Tetteys Jig 851]

Goal 2:

https://streamable.com/kl95

Why is Wes even getting involved there? Valencia is adequately marked and Payet can''t go the easy way across goal thanks to Klose. It''s annoying because Wes looks and sees Noble just before and then has a rush of blood thinking he has to go get involved/. I don''t understand what he''s trying to cover there rushing back like that?

[GJP 79]

Bit harsh to say the least. I would suggest Howson has tried to play the percentages by occuping the space between Moses and Payet. You would expect players in his position to do that.

Figuring out what the right back was doing for both goals and generally for the time the very threatening Victor Moses was on the pitch would be a better way to spend your time.

[Tetteys Jig 851]

As I said, he wasn''t solely to blame but he has to track Payet better, he''s achieving nothing being in that space and he dawdled at the critical moment..

Brady has legitimately got involved in trying to sort Moses out and Howson should be covering the vacant space left.

Payet is a clever player though, and he''ll score them type goals against stronger players than we have.

[GJP 79]

Very much doubt AN and his staff will be taking issue with it. I think you''re barking up the wrong tree.

[Crabbycanary3 994]

Anyone else think that, for the first West Ham goal, Moses committed a foul on, I think it was, Klose, in our box?

[Mr Jenkins 0]

Dean Ashton seemed to think so after the game, Could have been given as a foul but certainly not nailed on.

The officials were good to us yesterday, for a change, the way we defended we had to rely on them calling the offsides, which they did, one or two of the decision on that could easily not have been given. Overall I was very happy with the officials.

[hogesar 10,758]

Ruddy seemed adamant that Howson should have got their instead of Payet.

[westcoastcanary 0]

[quote user="hogesar"]Ruddy seemed adamant that Howson should have got their instead of Payet.[/quote]Ruddy''s good at telling others what they should have done.

[hogesar 10,758]

Which is better than keeping quiet and timid lime Rudd.

[Donkey dangler 0]

T Jig:

To me it seemed like a discipline thing. Too many of our defenders and midfielders were being dragged into places they had no need to go, all chasing the same ball like a bunch of ameteurs playing rounders lobbing the ball to each base, following the batter instead of playing safe and lobbing to last base to stop the rounder!

Goal one and Howson doesn''t even bother look over his shoulder while tracking back to see Payet. One simple look and that goal would have been prevented, the rebound would have fallen to either Howson or Payet with Howson near enough to stop the tap in. Not solely to blame because Bassongs rush of blood to release Antonio free on goal and then Klose and Brady''s poor efforts weren''t great but it just stank of panic.

Goal 2 and for some reason Wes legs it over to Payet who despite being given too much space to get the ball in the first place was more than covered and was obviously looking for the late arrival. If Wes had looked over his shoulder, he''d have been monitoring and marking Noble and the goal would have been a lot less likely. Again, pure panic in our ranks which is a massive shame because we played well today.

Hoorah! Good to see somebody else think we lack positional discipline.

Howson didnt mark Rose up in the first half v Spurs either. Rose was allowed free use of the wing while Howson kept drifting towards the centre of the pitch.

[Donkey dangler 0]

GJP

Figuring out what the right back was doing for both goals and generally for the time the very threatening Victor Moses was on the pitch would be a better way to spend your time.

You mean our deep lying striker, Martin?

[Donkey dangler 0]

[quote user="GJP"]Very much doubt AN and his staff will be taking issue with it. I think you''re barking up the wrong tree.[/quote]

I am with T J. on this.