It's the fundamentals, stupid

[Big Vince 318]

The Board are going to have a lot to answer for at the end of the season because the game last night demonstrated once again that Norwich City have not got the fundamentals correct.

Martin and Klose were pulled apart by Mitrovic and Co and the harsh truth is that City were very lucky to get a draw. Only the continued revival in the form of Ruddy saved them.

Neil and the Board failed to bring in any central defensive reinforcements during the window and Newcastle really exposed the fragility of that department. By opting to put the money in the bank instead, the Canary Board do not deserve promotion this season and the play-off places ought to go to those teams who have been consistent over the whole season.

It will be a complete fraud if Norwich get into the top six after having gone to sleep for the best part of 3 months of the season. The Board do not deserve any reward for their failure to act when they should have done.

Last night''s game showed that Neil and the Board have learnt no lessons whatsoever. If you aspire to be in the EPL then you need to build a defence that is capable of operating there. Neil and the Board have made no attempt to even start rebuilding the defence. They are still mostly using the same failed players who were relegated under Hughton. These defenders have no pace and cannot clear even simple balls into the box.

I hereby issue an open invitation to the Board and Neil to borrow my glasses for the next few games because (un)clearly their eyes are not seeing the same game as me.

Neil''s team selections and substitutions still leave a lot to be desired. Bringing on Bennett against Forest allowed the boy McCormack to score (along came Norwich) and then Pritchard who was MoM against them was dropped last night. How can a player who scores twice be dropped the next game? Clearly Neil has no psychology whatsoever. Why make an unforced change when there were already so many forced changes to the line-up?

[Rogue Baboon 0]

''They are still mostly using the same failed players who were relegated under Hughton. These defenders have no pace and cannot clear even simple balls into the box. ''

Current 1st choice back 4 - Dijks, Klose, Martin, Pinto

Only 1 of those was here under Hughton.

''Bringing on Bennett against Forest allowed the boy McCormack to score''

Bennet was brought on due to obvious injuries to Pinto & Dijks...

''Pritchard who was MoM against them was dropped last night''

As a team we looked better before Pritchard came on. Different players suit different teams

Anything else to add to that nonsense?

[Big Vince 318]

[quote user="Rogue Baboon"]''They are still mostly using the same failed players who were relegated under Hughton. These defenders have no pace and cannot clear even simple balls into the box. ''

Current 1st choice back 4 - Dijks, Klose, Martin, Pinto

Only 1 of those was here under Hughton.

''Bringing on Bennett against Forest allowed the boy McCormack to score''

Bennet was brought on due to obvious injuries to Pinto & Dijks...

''Pritchard who was MoM against them was dropped last night''

As a team we looked better before Pritchard came on. Different players suit different teams

Anything else to add to that nonsense?[/quote]

The squad defenders are Bennett, Whittaker, Bassong, Turner - all relegated under Hughton and so therefore not able to put any pressure on those holding the shirt.

Martin - relegated under Hughton

Pinto - a wing-back, not a defender (esp. in EPL)

Klose - fish out of water in the Championship

Dijks - a good player, but doesn''t fancy the Chumps long-term

Pritchard - any player who scores two should never be dropped. End of.

[TCCANARY 263]

Big Vince - Too one dimensional.

[PurpleCanary 5,554]

[quote user="Big Vince"]

I hereby issue an open invitation to the Board and Neil to borrow my glasses for the next few games because (un)clearly their eyes are not seeing the same game as me.

[/quote]

[Bill 1,788]

"It will be a complete fraud if Norwich get into the top six after having

gone to sleep for the best part of 3 months of the season."yes, how dare the FL decide that it is those with the 3rd to 6th highest points total who should go into the playoffs ?We can only be eternally grateful that we have folk such as you with your fundamentals who are astute enough to understand all thisKeep up the good work, pig minceyour county (whichever one it is) needs you

[Chip20 69]

Newcastle also conceded two goals last night; against a side that is apparently incompetently managed from top to bottom to hear you on. Do their Board have a lot to answer for as well?

[Chip20 69]

[quote user="Big Vince"] Clearly Neil has no psychology whatsoever. Why make an unforced change when there were already so many forced changes to the line-up?[/quote]

Hmm, Huddersfield also made five changes to their lineup last night. Is their manager incompetent too?

[lappinitup 629]

[quote user="PurpleCanary"][quote user="Big Vince"]

I hereby issue an open invitation to the Board and Neil to borrow my glasses for the next few games because (un)clearly their eyes are not seeing the same game as me.

[/quote][/quote]Lol Purps [Y][:D]

[morty 0]

I actually sometimes wonder if this isn''t actually a wind up.

[True Grit 26]

I''ve lost total confidence in the board after the treatment of Jez. Very sour.

[Bill 1,788]

you mean it isn''t ?old pig mince is up there with Parma Ham''s stuff

[Mr Angry 1,545]

Newcastle''s goalie forgot one of the fundamentals of football last night-kicking the ball. It isn''t just Norwich who get it wrong Vinny boy.

[Guest]

I love Pig Mince,clearly the best binner wind up merchant on here for a good while. Keep up the good work Pig Mince(er).

[paddycanary 538]

I feel fundamentally more stupid now after reading through that entire post.

[Horse Renoir 1]

Bennett and Bassong, our back up pairing would be good enough to reach the top 6 in most teams, nevermind Martin and Klose who are borderline PL quality. The problem is getting the best out of those players* ..and the way we play as a team.

It''s common knowledge across our fan base, other fans bases and especially at other professional clubs that we expose our central defenders way too much. Both fullbacks often push up together and as has been noted numerous times before Tettey lacks positional discipline and one of Murphy x2 Pritchard Hoolahan etc playing wide really doesn''t help matters as they will lose runners and switch off from time to time.

We''d be looking at 3/4/5 million+ for upgrades in central defence. We rightly prioritised replacements after shipping out under performing players we could get a good fee for. Upgrading that position really wasn''t feasible or necessary imo.

Set up and approach games more like Villa home/Brentford/Cardiff away and our defence will appear to improve dramatically.

Under AN, unless he learns to quieten his overtly attacking instincts a bit we will always appear to have a leaky defence no matter the personnel.

*Which I think is more about making sure they''re determined and up for every game and cut out the mistakes. At their age and in this league there''s nothing more you can really coach into them.

[Big Vince 318]

[quote user="Horse Renoir"]Bennett and Bassong, our back up pairing would be good enough to reach the top 6 in most teams, nevermind Martin and Klose who are borderline PL quality. The problem is getting the best out of those players* ..and the way we play as a team.

It''s common knowledge across our fan base, other fans bases and especially at other professional clubs that we expose our central defenders way too much. Both fullbacks often push up together and as has been noted numerous times before Tettey lacks positional discipline and one of Murphy x2 Pritchard Hoolahan etc playing wide really doesn''t help matters as they will lose runners and switch off from time to time.

We''d be looking at 3/4/5 million+ for upgrades in central defence. We rightly prioritised replacements after shipping out under performing players we could get a good fee for. Upgrading that position really wasn''t feasible or necessary imo.

Set up and approach games more like Villa home/Brentford/Cardiff away and our defence will appear to improve dramatically.

Under AN, unless he learns to quieten his overtly attacking instincts a bit we will always appear to have a leaky defence no matter the personnel.

*Which I think is more about making sure they''re determined and up for every game and cut out the mistakes. At their age and in this league there''s nothing more you can really coach into them.[/quote]

The Board already has its collective head stuck way down in the sand without idiotic posts like this to make things even easier for them to carry on as normal when clearly there is a huge amount of work to be done on the defensive personnel at the club.

To say that the boy Martin is borderline PL quality is absolutely ridiculous. He has no pace and gets caught out by simple balls through the middle and into the box from wide areas. He plays too far apart from his central partner, makes mistakes and gets shoved off the ball. He''s no good in the air and no good on the deck.

As for saying no upgrading is required to this central defensive area, you will have a hard time convincing Greg Downs with that as he has been banging on about it all season and he is an ex-pro full-back who''s played top flight football.

There is something about Norwich that they simply don''t do centre-backs.

I am rapidly coming to the opinion that Alex Neil has a clause in his contract preventing the purchase of centre-backs - just like the one that states he must get knocked out of the cups early doors.

If you are going to play with wing-backs it is even more important to have high quality, mobile centre-backs. As I recall, Norwich still conceded a lot of goals even when the full-backs sat in during the Hughton area.

It all comes down to quality and quality cost money and so long as Red Bull are kept on the sidelines by the Canary Board there will be no money to buy quality.

[lappinitup 629]

[quote user="Big Vince"]so long as Red Bull are kept on the sidelines by the Canary Board there will be no money to buy quality.[/quote]We don''t need Red Bull while you keep feeding us your Blue Bull Vinnie.......

[Old Shuck 183]

Looking forward to seeing and reading your evidence about our owners rejecting overtures from Red Bull Vinnie, quite a coup for you getting that exclusive. When did they first make an offer? Am surprised they didn''t publicly ''leak'' their interest in an effort to get some support from the fans, rather than keeping it quiet.

Bet they''re really worried you''re going to go public with your information re.the deal soon.

[Big Vince 318]

[quote user="Old Shuck"]Looking forward to seeing and reading your evidence about our owners rejecting overtures from Red Bull Vinnie, quite a coup for you getting that exclusive. When did they first make an offer? Am surprised they didn''t publicly ''leak'' their interest in an effort to get some support from the fans, rather than keeping it quiet.

Bet they''re really worried you''re going to go public with your information re.the deal soon.[/quote]

It hasn''t got to the offer stage, let alone a deal, because Delia refuses to speak to them.............

[Bill 1,788]

if your are trolling as a dimwitted binner pig minceit''s probably best not to over egg the pudding

[Horse Renoir 1]

Fair enough. No matter what division we''re in next season there''s likely to be some turnover in centre backs and I would bet my house on Neil being here at the start of next season. So watch how anyone new we bring in will seem just as jittery and error prone as those we have right now. We ask an awful lot of them and when their confidence dips the results can be disastrous.

It''s mostly down to tactics and partially down to the confidence knock two relegations has had on our regulars at the back.

I maintain that under Alex Neil we will always have a brittle and leaky defence no matter the personnel.

Hopefully the debate will crop up again some way into next season when I''d imagine we''ll only have Martin and Bennett (and Klose if we''re in the PL) left from our current crop and 2/3 new players competing for the position. I''m extremely confident it''ll be the same old story.

[Big Vince 318]

[quote user="Horse Renoir"]Fair enough. No matter what division we''re in next season there''s likely to be some turnover in centre backs and I would bet my house on Neil being here at the start of next season. So watch how anyone new we bring in will seem just as jittery and error prone as those we have right now. We ask an awful lot of them and when their confidence dips the results can be disastrous.

It''s mostly down to tactics and partially down to the confidence knock two relegations has had on our regulars at the back.

I maintain that under Alex Neil we will always have a brittle and leaky defence no matter the personnel.

Hopefully the debate will crop up again some way into next season when I''d imagine we''ll only have Martin and Bennett (and Klose if we''re in the PL) left from our current crop and 2/3 new players competing for the position. I''m extremely confident it''ll be the same old story.[/quote]

Klose at fault for the first goal. Martin caught out for the second. I rest my case.

Ever wondered why the Board turn a blind eye to all these defensive lapses that go on season in, season out??

Answer: Is because Delia and Co are all agents of Ipswich Town.

Only agents of Ipswich would put a clause in the manager''s contract to say that Martin has to be picked every game.