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Petriix

Good performance today with lots of positives

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Obviously it was disappointing to lose, and the manner in which the goals were conceded was poor. I was also frustrated by the number of chances that we wasted; particularly from set pieces where the ball seemed to reach our players in great positions on numerous occasions only to be completely missed or scuffed etc.. However, we played some fantastic football for large parts of the game.I am really happy with the new setup and particularly the footballing philosophy. The intricate passing and the movement off the ball was excellent for spells and I feel like we will create a lot of goals this season with one-two''s, flicks and backheels around the box. We could be a little more direct at times and maybe need to mix it up a little bit more in terms of whipping a ball into the box or going long from the keeper occasionally. On the whole there are some exciting things going on at the club.It is a cliche to say it, but it will take time for things to gel and we will need to be patient as fans while the team strive to get the balance right. Many of the players are new to the championship (and the UK) and will take time to acclimatise and to get to know each other.I am not entirely happy with the players we have: Franke was at fault for the first goal and looked a liability at times, Watkins was largely anonymous or fluffed his lines when well placed, Naismith does not seem to have the legs to compete at this level, and Jerome''s touch was poor today. I''m sure that there are others who could be criticised if you want. You can call it poor recruitment or bad team selection but I am hopeful that individuals will improve or be dropped and we will make another good signing or two.On the whole I am positive about the season. Give it a few weeks and we will be winning the majority of our games. I think it might come too late to compete for automatic promotion, but I am sure we will make the playoffs. My 7 year old daughter said (at the game today) that she''d like to go to Wembley again.

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Interesting you thought the football was good.

I find that style of football incredibly dull, going nowhere fast - sideways sideways backwards - and we are only ever one misplaced or under hit pass away from being caught on the break.

Tiki Taka football is ok, but you have to mix it up or it''s too easy to defend against. Sunderland proved that today. We run out of ideas far too quick and refused to deviate from that style

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Interesting take. We need do need to mix up our play more and also up the tempo. The kind of football we played today is quite easy to defend- Sunderland just had to sit deep and let us play in front of us.

Also I''m seriously concerned about how weak we look defending set plays. We looked likely to concede every time.

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First 30 mins we looked fantastic.

But as mentioned we ran out of ideas fast and it did get a bit dull to see us playing like we were 3-0 up at 0-1 down.

My major fear is we played very much like this under Chris Houghton. The fear of shooting or worse the fact the players couldn''t get in a position to shoot.

We needed to whip balls in and change our set up, I think we would have had a different result if we had gone for a Wesi / Nelson swap for Jerome / Naismith. Given ourselves some more depth.

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Our tempo was lacking big time today as well we seemed to drop off, which hopefully will come as the team play more together.

Will suit Wes but not Naismith as the Scot likes to slow things down.

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I am still hopeful that things will settle down and improve but for me there were no positives today. We lost easily to a bang average side. We defended very badly and going forward looked sterile and very predictable. Pritchard is a big miss but we have to get on with it. If there is not a big improvement against QPR then the early season optimism with evaporate very quickly

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Fake says it was an excellent performance in which we dominated the possession at 71%. It''s not how much possession you have but what you do with it. We had 50% more shots than. Sunderland (14 v 9) but they had 55% of theirs on target compared to our 21%. They were more productive with their limited possession and that is what matters.

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The natives were restless that''s for sure. Hughton was too negative, Neil was too positive, Farke is too possession orientated? It''s the losing that''s the problem. It''s all good football when we win.

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I really enjoyed the first half and the feeling that we were learning and not giving the ball away cheaply as we did in the matches I got to last season. The goal was a sucker punch, but at least it wasn''t due to giving the ball away.  At that stage there was no need to panic and we still looked strong.  The second half was a different story, especially once that second goal went in.  For me there is still a lack of urgency when not in possession, the second goal was an example - McGready should have been closed down instantly, not "oh, he''s got the ball, what should we do" which seems to prevail. Naismith did his best to get across, but the tere were thee defenders right in front of the attacker, one of whom could have come straight out to restrict the shot. But I agree with the op, some very good performances, particularly first half. Rome wasn''t built in a day - and Fulham was excellent last week.

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But Fulham wasn''t excellent. A good result certainly. But also a match in which, especially in the fist half, we could have conceded 5. They hit the bar and skinned our defenders time and again.

Bottom line is that in all 3 games our defence has looked beyond shaky and not good enough for this level.

We have a midfield and attack that could and should push for promotion but a defence that I honestly think would struggle two divisions lower. And that is serious given that the problem is not new but has existed for several seasons.

Why, when we were crying out for established championship CB, did we sign unproven cheap players and give martin a new contract? Can anyone honestly say Zimmerman and franke are an improvement on Bennet and Bassong. No. And there is the run and reason for the discontent.

The board had ONE job for the last few windows - always they tinker left, right and centre but don''t sort that one obvious and glaring issue

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I actually really like the possession orientated game. To find it boring is to ignore all the interesting tactical elements of it - i.e not necessarily just ball watching.

I also disagree we need to mix it up. When do you stop mixing it up? When do you lose your identity? It''s not in Farkes remit to ''mix it up'' - he''s creating a philosophy of which the club hasn''t had one for god knows how many years. Probably Lambert - teams knew we would be direct and physical and play off Holt.

The philosophy is fine and no reason for it not to work - what needs to happen is moving the ball quicker - space opened up in previous games when we restricted to one or two touches before releasing. That didn''t happen enough by the sounds of it.

But to say we need to ''mix it up'' is to essentially throw the entire pre season out the window.

If you don''t like the possession game then Carrow Road might not be the place for you to watch football, what with us having 72% today.

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And DCB , if you''re saying we could have conceded goals against fulham, we could have comfortably scored 4 more ourselves. It''s one of the most pointless observations I''ve seen on here for a while, so I tip my hat to you for that at least.

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Small margins really. Farke is playing the percentages game, & had Jerome stayed onside we would have scored first - & the game then changes completely. Likewise if one of our myriad of chances had gone in in the last 10 mins. I reckon we would have drawn.

I''m wondering if our problem is we''re actually too good - in purely footballing terms - for nearly all the other teams in this division. So they come & play in classic cup giant -killer mode; put 10 men behind the ball & rely on a big hoof or a set piece.

It''s difficult to break down this approach, unless you''ve got outstanding attacking flair. With Wes & Maddison on the pitch we have it, as seen Tuesday night, & with Pritchard to come we''ve got the best creative attacking midfield in the biz.

But of course sometimes it won''t quite come off. That''s when you need some really dominant, wise heads at the back who''ll see danger coming & deal with it.

That''s what we haven''t got, & that I think is our biggest priority.

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We had 70% possession in our own half, it was slow build up, the wrong tactic against a team defending deep, we had one chance in the first thirty minutes!

All for possession and building up, but there has to be an end product and an occasional quicker build up.

Wasn''t boring but frustrating that we didn''t shoot, we have Maddison, Wids and Naismith all who can hit a shot yet failed to have a go!

Wasn''t till the last 25 minutes we actually looked like getting something out of the game, so for all the possession it wasn''t to any real ends.

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As someone who remembers the football under Stringer, a possession based football, it was fantastic to keep the ball away from the opposition because by the very nature of things, our club cannot compete financially with many other clubs, so the best way to stop them beating us is to keep the ball away from them.  Score a few goals in the process and we have a recipe for success which suits our club - as in the 80''s.  There were shades of that in the first half today, hardly any mistakes or giving the ball away - it was encouraging stuff.  Couldn''t sustain it, but that was partly because we got a bit more careless.  Believe in the system. 

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[quote user="hogesar"]And DCB , if you''re saying we could have conceded goals against fulham, we could have comfortably scored 4 more ourselves. It''s one of the most pointless observations I''ve seen on here for a while, so I tip my hat to you for that at least.[/quote]

If my point is that we have a poor defence it isn''t pointless but proof. That we too could have scored more says our attack is ok-''and I also made that point - it doesn''t make the defend good enough

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No DCB, but if you''re going to criticise our defence use the 3 goals we actually conceded today rather than non existent ones which mean nothing - if we''d have scored 4 against Fulham that wouldn''t have meant their defence was league 2 standard according to you?

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