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Insidersknowledge

Norwich City fans have no idea, what so ever.

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The majority of Norwich City fans are far too quick to jump on the bandwagon, and struggle to see the wood between the trees when it comes to Alex Neil and his side.

Firstly, you wish to blame Alex Neil for individual mistakes by players on the pitch. How is this his fault? Yes he picks the side, but the side the majority of the supporters would also pick. You can''t train week in week out on elimanting individual errors. Look at the Brighton game - we were dominating the game before McGovern slipped up. Everyone of their goals was down to individual errors. Players giving the ball away cheaply, players randomly swinging a leg at the ball, not picking up your man from set pieces etc. Yes, you''ll claim they aren''t good enough, but who else can he pick. This leads to my next point - transfers.

You harp on that Alex Neil didn''t sign any defenders in the transfer window, and decent enough strikers. But how is this his fault. He would have had lists of players he wanted to sign, but the board failed. How can this be Alex''s fault.

You moan at Alex Neil for not changing the side. However, last season you moaned at him for changing his side far too frequently. What else can he do? He has his favourites this year, and rightly so. Every manager does.

You call the manager ''tactically inept''. How so? We dominate every game, for large parts. If he was tactically ''inept'' how would this be the case? You moan at AN for when he takes of an attacking player to replace them with a defensive one, but then you''ll moan when he doesn''t bring on a defender. What can he do?

If you all got your way and, Alex Neil was sacked. Who would you replace him with? Ow Pearson? What the same manager that failed on numerous occasions to get Leicester out of the championship, who spent money season after season but failed. Yes, he got them promoted eventually. He failed at Derby, players lost faith very quickly because of his hard nosed approach. That won''t work at Norwich. Yes, the majority of championship manages would leave there post to come to Norwich. Who would you take though? Whose, been there, done it, and stayed up? My choice, if this was too happen, would be to prize Gary Monk away from Leeds.

I await the barrage of abuse...

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I have no idea what you have inside knowledge of, but it''s not football!

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You aren''t Frankie McDuff the Pie Man aka The Assistant Manager or whatever name he goes by now

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We don''t dominate games at all most are fairly even but we certainly don''t dominate every game.

We concede alot from set pieces that can be rectified on the training pitch but isn''t being, we seem to defend in a zonal way which clearly isn''t working but also not being changed.

He''s signed 15 player''s and only 4 are regular starter''s, there''s Canos, Naismith and Oliviera are struggling for game time and Prirchard is in and out of the team regularly thats £20+ of signings not in there starting 11 at champio ship level, that''s poor buying or management but whatever it is it ultimately falls at AN''s feet.

He is tactically limited, he refuses to change his formation and just shoe horns personal in to try and change his fortunes. His substitutions are always after we''ve conceded or after the game is lost. To play 4-5-1 you need your striker to run off the shoulder we haven''t got that and didn''t replace Grabban or Hooper and thats ultimately going to be his downfall.

I agee whos out therw to replace him with? But not sure the way forward is to just keep him because we''re too tight to pay to attract another manager.

Honestly think if he goes two up top until the window opens and buys quick he can turn it around but not sure he has the boll@cks to change his set up.

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Paragraph 1 - The majority of Norwich City fans are far too quick to jump on the bandwagon, and struggle to see the wood between the trees when it comes to Alex Neil and his side.

You have no more idea of what the majority of Norwich City fans think, than I do.

Then you manage to say that all the fans unhappy with Alex are unhappy for the same reasons.

You could have made your opinions known without any reference to those unconvinced by the current manager.

My personal view is that I lost a lot of confidence when he picked the players who had allegedly stopped trying at Brighton for the next game against Leeds. If he had identified and dropped those the Captain accused of not trying, I honestly wouldn''t have blamed Alex for the defeat.

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@ InsidersKnowledge

A passionate post, which is good to see, but I’m hoping you can add to it…

Firstly, do you think that it is the managers responsibility to ensure the team he fields has the technical ability to carry out basic skills, the confidence to apply them under pressure and also to organise the team, as best as possible so that any potential error is mitigated for?

Do you think that the manager is responsible for selecting the clubs transfer targets? And that this responsibility extends ensuring the targets are achievable, and the manager should also have a role in persuading those players to play for him?

Do you think that the manager is responsible for the selection of the best team and tactics, to utilise the squad to its maximum? Do you think Alex Neil is achieving the maximum return possible for the players currently available to him?

Your post seems to attack the perceived criticism of Alex Neil by some fans / posters, but if you are willing to absolve the manager of responsibility in these areas, I would be interested to hear where you do actually hold him responsible for?

The only area left seems to be dealing with the media? I actually like the guy, I hope he succeeds, but my feeling is, that he is right in the guts of it now, he has the above responsibilities and he needs to turn our form around. Good luck Alex, OTBC – see you Saturday!

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The trouble with the players / manager blame game is its a complete chicken and egg situation.Are the players letting the manager down, or can he not motivate them sufficiently. You can spin it in whichever direction you want to frankly.Me? I think the players are badly letting the manager down with individual mistakes, and I feel for Alex because we don''t really have too many alternatives. Take away the players who fall into the category of "well he couldn''t do no worse / all he needs is a run in the team, and we really don''t have much sitting on the sidelines that could drastically improve us.Thompson and the possible emergence of Lafferty are, perhaps, the only viable alternatives, and in the case of Lafferty it would require a change to 4-4-2, which, in turn, would require a fit Johnny Howson.

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[quote user="Insidersknowledge"]

Firstly, you wish to blame Alex Neil for individual mistakes by players on the pitch. How is this his fault? Yes he picks the side, but the side the majority of the supporters would also pick. You can''t train week in week out on elimanting individual errors. Look at the Brighton game - we were dominating the game before McGovern slipped up. .[/quote]no but we can blame him for picking the same goalkeeper again and again, who makes silly mistake and doesnt instill confidence in his back 4, and lets face it if he was any good he wouldnt have been plying his trade at hamilton would he

[quote user="Insidersknowledge"] 

You call the manager ''tactically inept''. How so? We dominate every game,

for large parts. If he was tactically ''inept'' how would this be the

case? .[/quote]doesnt matter how much you dominate a game if you defend like a pub team and cant hold onto a lead, this is a consistent occurrence and has happened throughout his reign, it represent a level of tactical naïvety, and the buck stops with the manager, if him nor his coaches cant teach, adapt and train the players then either the manager needs to change his coaching team, the playing staff or he needs to go. simple[quote user="Insidersknowledge"] 

If you all got your way and, Alex Neil was sacked. Who would you replace

him with? ..[/quote]mark bowen

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Really dominated Brighton until the 6th minute. The OP is clearly an idiot. Alex Neil out of his depth, players not interested, fans unhappy, press becoming more strident in criticising AN. This has gone too far Neil will be out of a job by December get over it. Are there any managerial options don''t think so but something needs to be done sacking manager is cheapest option and may be quickest.

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[quote user="pete"]Really dominated Brighton until the 6th minute. The OP is clearly an idiot. Alex Neil out of his depth, players not interested, fans unhappy, press becoming more strident in criticising AN. This has gone too far Neil will be out of a job by December get over it. Are there any managerial options don''t think so but something needs to be done sacking manager is cheapest option and may be quickest.[/quote]Great stuff Pete[Y]

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@ Morty

I''m not really one for finding scapegoats or attaching blame to individuals either, but each player is responsible for his own performance.

My question is why are the players making so many individual mistakes? Most likely the answer lies in the pressure that is being put on them, that could be the opponents, our manager, our fans... but the bottom line is they have to be able to deal with that or they aren''t good enough. Essentially, the point of repeated practice (training) is to be able to act / respond automatically. I think all to often players are thinking too much and that split second of hesitation is what is causing the errors. The manager has a role in addressing this.

I also think we have plenty on the sidelines, for championship football, you rightly mention Thompson & Lafferty. Alex has spent out on Pritchard and Oliveira that aren''t consistently in the team. We also have Ruddy and Bassong on the bench who are more than capable at this level.

What we really lack is leadership and perhaps a little bit of muscle, I think if we can find that in January, and yes I do think we have to buy it, results and confidence will return.

Alex Neil tends to play whatever he deems his strongest 11, with a tiny bit of tinkering depending on opponent (and enforced changes through injuries). That seems fair enough on the face of it, but when we struggle, and he tries to change the team, he is bringing in a player that he has already marginalised for not being deemed quite up to the mark. So it is not difficult to see why players coming are struggling improve the team. Alex Neil has marginalised several players and that is part of our problem.

For me, we have a sufficiently good enough squad to have a more rotation and keep players at a high degree of match fitness (ps there is another issue), and higher levels of motivation. Alex will need to be brave to rotate his players under this current level of pressure though.

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[quote user="Europe_93"]@ Morty

I''m not really one for finding scapegoats or attaching blame to individuals either, but each player is responsible for his own performance.

My question is why are the players making so many individual mistakes? Most likely the answer lies in the pressure that is being put on them, that could be the opponents, our manager, our fans... but the bottom line is they have to be able to deal with that or they aren''t good enough. Essentially, the point of repeated practice (training) is to be able to act / respond automatically. I think all to often players are thinking too much and that split second of hesitation is what is causing the errors. The manager has a role in addressing this.

I also think we have plenty on the sidelines, for championship football, you rightly mention Thompson & Lafferty. Alex has spent out on Pritchard and Oliveira that aren''t consistently in the team. We also have Ruddy and Bassong on the bench who are more than capable at this level.

What we really lack is leadership and perhaps a little bit of muscle, I think if we can find that in January, and yes I do think we have to buy it, results and confidence will return.

Alex Neil tends to play whatever he deems his strongest 11, with a tiny bit of tinkering depending on opponent (and enforced changes through injuries). That seems fair enough on the face of it, but when we struggle, and he tries to change the team, he is bringing in a player that he has already marginalised for not being deemed quite up to the mark. So it is not difficult to see why players coming are struggling improve the team. Alex Neil has marginalised several players and that is part of our problem.

For me, we have a sufficiently good enough squad to have a more rotation and keep players at a high degree of match fitness (ps there is another issue), and higher levels of motivation. Alex will need to be brave to rotate his players under this current level of pressure though.[/quote]How do you know he has marginalised them though? Could it just not be that they aren''t performing well enough to be in the team?And Alex Neil was roundly criticised for tinkering too much recently, so he really can''t win with some fans, can he?Ruddy needs to come back in, in my opinion, and as soon as Pinto is fit we need Martin back at CB with Klose, who looks much worse without Martin beside him.The trouble is that the manager is shackled right now, especially with the injuries to pinto and Howson, which limits the system he can play.

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[quote user="morty"][quote user="Europe_93"]@ Morty

I''m not really one for finding scapegoats or attaching blame to individuals either, but each player is responsible for his own performance.

My question is why are the players making so many individual mistakes? Most likely the answer lies in the pressure that is being put on them, that could be the opponents, our manager, our fans... but the bottom line is they have to be able to deal with that or they aren''t good enough. Essentially, the point of repeated practice (training) is to be able to act / respond automatically. I think all to often players are thinking too much and that split second of hesitation is what is causing the errors. The manager has a role in addressing this.

I also think we have plenty on the sidelines, for championship football, you rightly mention Thompson & Lafferty. Alex has spent out on Pritchard and Oliveira that aren''t consistently in the team. We also have Ruddy and Bassong on the bench who are more than capable at this level.

What we really lack is leadership and perhaps a little bit of muscle, I think if we can find that in January, and yes I do think we have to buy it, results and confidence will return.

Alex Neil tends to play whatever he deems his strongest 11, with a tiny bit of tinkering depending on opponent (and enforced changes through injuries). That seems fair enough on the face of it, but when we struggle, and he tries to change the team, he is bringing in a player that he has already marginalised for not being deemed quite up to the mark. So it is not difficult to see why players coming are struggling improve the team. Alex Neil has marginalised several players and that is part of our problem.

For me, we have a sufficiently good enough squad to have a more rotation and keep players at a high degree of match fitness (ps there is another issue), and higher levels of motivation. Alex will need to be brave to rotate his players under this current level of pressure though.[/quote]How do you know he has marginalised them though? Could it just not be that they aren''t performing well enough to be in the team?And Alex Neil was roundly criticised for tinkering too much recently, so he really can''t win with some fans, can he?Ruddy needs to come back in, in my opinion, and as soon as Pinto is fit we need Martin back at CB with Klose, who looks much worse without Martin beside him.The trouble is that the manager is shackled right now, especially with the injuries to pinto and Howson, which limits the system he can play.[/quote]

Lafferty, Bassong, Ruddy have all been marginalised no question. Pritchard & Oliveira have had limited impact on the team so there''s 5 players who are all proven at this level. I could understand one or two being out of form, but when there is 5 plus, that is an approach, in my view.

I get it''s not easy for him, but if there is disharmony in the camp, he is it''s leader. He needs to change his approach, or hope he survives long enough to change the personnel. The last 4 years or so has demonstrated it is extremely difficult and expensive to improve on the personnel we have (which ironically should demonstrate the quality that we do have in the camp).

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Simple question for all the AN critics, how do you explained the numerous individual errors made by our players which have often lead to goals against?

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Individual errors happen to everyone. The problem comes not with someone having an off-day but with errors becoming a part of the character of a club.

If we keep getting mistakes it''s right and proper to look for a cause.

Maybe it''s a lack of motivation or the opposite,too much pressure. Part of the manager''s job is to balance these emotions.

Perhaps the number of mistakes isn''t actually that great but we play a system that magnifies them. When some of the players are more Barnet than Barcelona should we think more about covering weaknesses than playing to strengths? This is a decision for a manager.

Ultimately the players might not be good enough, or at least not good enough to do the job required of them. Again it''s down to the manager to recruit,retain and select appropriately.

I''m sorry but I do think the manager must bear some responsibility for mistakes when they start becoming a rule and not an exception.

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The fact some of you are now trying to blame the situation on a few individual errors across the pitch as the reason we''re in this predicament is utterly delusional.

In every team across every division individual errors leading to goals are made.

Unfortunately we have a manager who''s team has lost it''s identity. Not overnight. Been on the decline for the last 12 months.

Wins have papered over the cracks for this season so far. Until now.

Some of you are in serious denial of our predicament at present.

Look at the leads game for example. That was the player''s response to a 5-0 drubbing. Should tell you everything you need to know and that is problems run deep right now.

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Bro

"Wins have papered over the cracks for this season so far. Until now. "

I''ve seen this sort of post so many times recently, it''s absurd IMO, a win is a win.

Why are you giving AN no credit when we win but all the blame when we lose, there is just no logic there.

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A point from the next three games will see the now inevitable departure. In contrast, QPR, in common with Wolves, have taken decisive, and timely, action. What price both of those teams to finish above us now?

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Good post OP.

I have been very fond of AN during his time at the club. I really like his general football style and the sheer truth that he speaks in interviews. I find it a real shame that things have gone off the boil and that it now looks to me like the writing is on the wall.

But, for whatever reason, this season, we''ve been playing below par. A couple of games aside, how many convincing wins have we had? 2-3 maybe? As others have mentioned you can accept the odd poor performance, but only if it is the exception and not the rule.

Our record of conceding the next goal when taking the lead is shocking. Our record of conceding the next goal when two goals up is probably even worse. When we go two goals up against a team, especially at home, we should be comfortably closing it out. It would not be beyond reason to expect us to go ahead and score another 1-2 goals in some of these games. This hasn''t happened at all at home - not once, why not?

We''ve lacked hunger all season. Our general play has spluttered us through games, with occasional flashes of brilliance from the team but largely speaking; slow, predictable, half-ars3d football that has had very little to no spark.

It''s been plain for me to see that - in our moments of flair, we are head and shoulders above most teams in this league. It is this fact that has yielded us plenty of goals and leads in games. And I would have accepted this general lack of consistency, had we been able to see out these leads in a convincing manner, but this simply couldn''t be further from the truth. What''s been going on?

Something is clearly severely wrong with the team at the moment and it''s slowly snowballed all season until the last 3 games that have seen us throw away leads, concede sloppy goals and even completely capitulate.

I would love to see AN turning this around but how can he? Our problems aren''t going to just go away like that.

You talk about individual mistakes from the players but where do they originate from? They weren''t even close to being this poor defensively in the prem last year (with Klose) so why has this suddenly started happening? A lack of concentration or preparation? Things that should be part of training. The lack of fitness of our team overall, evidenced by our second half goals conceded of 23 versus 5 in the first half must surely be a legitimate cause for our individual errors? Who is responsible for this?

With regards to the rest of your post.

I have never criticised AN for not signing anyone in the summer, our defence should be good enough as it is frankly. We had two promotion running seasons with defenders that are only good enough for the bench so...

I have also never criticised his tinkering or lack of changing the side. Generally he picks an agreeable line up but I do find myself questioning his substitutions quite often.

Who do we replace him with? Frankly, anyone who can get the players playing to the sum of their parts. I think we are definitely strong enough to get 2nd spot in this league, and this season is going to be our best chance of returning to the prem before we lose our best players.

I like your shout of Gary Monk. Mark Warburton I would also like to see. Sam Alladyce? Not the best football but I''d be confident of promotion at least.

For now, I''m happy to see how we do in the next game. But if we don''t perform as a team and are still gifting goals to the opposition, for me he has to go.

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Mr Jenkins wrote:

''''Simple question for all the AN critics, how do you explained the numerous individual errors made by our players which have often lead to goals against?''''

________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Because our players aren''t being worked hard enough in training and lack fitness both physically and mentally.

Two simple questions right back at you Mr Jenkins -

How do you explain that we weren''t making anywhere near the same number of individual mistakes last season in the premier league? When we had Klose in the team that is.

Why are our players only making these errors later on in games? We''ve conceded 23 second half goals vs 5 in the first half. Could it be that they are tired?

Are these both coincidences or do you believe our players have got worse overnight?

Just imagine how badly we''d be doing if we were still in the prem right now and playing like this? We''d be conceding 4 goals a game..

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I have no doubt that neither Wolves nor QPR will be getting promoted this season and we are in that race; I doubt either will be surging past us.

Anyone know how many clubs in the last 10 seasons have actually got promoted from the champs having sacked their manager during the season?

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[quote user="Mr Jenkins"]Bro

"Wins have papered over the cracks for this season so far. Until now. "

I''ve seen this sort of post so many times recently, it''s absurd IMO, a win is a win.

Why are you giving AN no credit when we win but all the blame when we lose, there is just no logic there.[/quote]

Jenks

It''s not a case of not giving AN any credit. it''s more a case of saying what you see. The reality is we have only played well on a few occasions this season IMO. Say Blackburn away, 2nd half of forest ermm maybe wolves away but I''m clutching now. I think that is generally agreed upon the majority.

Don''t get me wrong winning when not quite at it is terrific, all the top teams have to do it. However every week we have stuttered over the line or relied on individual brilliance to bail us out. Unfortunately you won''t get away with doing that every week, which is what i believe we''re now seeing.

I was a big AN supporter and felt he deserved a chance to rectify last season with keeping his job this season. Having seen what I''ve seen so far, same mistakes, not the greatest recruitment (although i accept maybe hands were tied this summer), disjointed performances throughout. I think his time is up.

This is a terrific squad at this level. The division IMO is poor. Brighton and Newcastle are already starting to run away. We could and should be a lot better. Ok we''re still in play offs but if the trend carries on we can forget about promotion.

Because of the situation now, as in many supporters against AN, which is resulting in a poor atmosphere around the ground, rumours of dressing room unrest. It''s a matter of when not if he leaves IMO.

In an ideal world he''ll turn it around, but for me, to much water under the bridge, can''t see it.

Hope I''m wrong

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Great post Chemical Bro and I think this is the view of many fans now. We never thought it would be easy but we have essentially a Premier League squad in a very poor Championship. The turning point for me was the Leeds game. We needed a response following the Brighton humiliation. A blood and guts performance was required but it was the same old lethargic Norwich. We never matched them for desire, they won all the 50/50s and knew precisely now to beat us. For me that is the fault of the manager. Unless there is a dramatic turn around and bloody quickly then I can see us heading for free fall. Derby will be tough and realistically I''m not expecting anything, but QPR is a must win game if we are to even think about promotion. QPR have actually won fewer games than Blackburn and with that mad dog Holloway in charge anything other than 3 points really won''t do.Gary Monk is a great shout as replacement. 

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