Squad - is it good enough?

[ZLF 274]

I have been looking again at our squad and questioning whether it really is as good as we think when we expect to be pushing for promotion.  Are we good enough?

Keepers - Greeno is in the top three in the league - with Kiraly and Niemi next best.  Most team would want him, and the cover will do as cover.  OK there then.

Defence - Plenty of bodies, good level of experience and potential.  Drury, Charlton, Brennan, Doc, Shacks, Flem, Colin and MLJ is as good a squad on paper as any in this league.  Add Davenport and it looks impressive - again not many I would swap with another team as a group.   Again, and I know I am alone here, I think it shouldbe good enough to get us in the promotion battle.

Midfield.  Marney, Safri, Jarrett, Hughes.  That is it as far as midfield players go. A youngster, one injury prone (Jarrett), two experienced with an appetite for bookings and injuries;   4 players to last a season is simply poor planning;  We know the cash was there for better (Morrison) but it was not used.  Creativity is dramatically missing. This part does simply not have the depth to get us promoted, before i enter the quality debate.  Would another club want this 4?  I cant think of many inthe top half of the table certainly. 

Attack - Ashton, Hux, Leon, Thorne,McVeigh, Jarvis, Hendo.  Two of them are the best in this league, WLY, thorne and leon proven at this level with england capped youngsters coming through.  What other club boasts that sort of talent in depth even before adding Lisbie who again is better than most in this league..

Even with this midfield I feel this squad IS good enough to clinmb the table, even from where we sit now, and push for promotion.  

Sitting 1 place of a relegation place 8 games in and the team still not having gelled (thats a red herring - look at the number of new faces in the blades line up,smae as ours and they are op)  is simply not acceptable.

Football is not played on paper.   It is the managers job to get the best from his players and our league position is potent evidence that this is not happening; the quality of the performances in all 9 games demonstrates any hint that it is not a true reflection of the clubs abilities on the pitch this season.   It is not about bad luck, it is about preparation, planning and readiness.

Nigel has chosen his tools for promotion, I think they are good enough for the job, he now has to reaassess and use them to their potential to take us up the table.  

A poor work man blames his tools.

OTBC   

[Putney Canary 0]

Good post.

Defence - the thing we seem to be missing is leadership here. It should be Flem''s role but he is failing at it. The players are good enough (including Fleming) but aren''t defending effectively. I would drop Flem for Davenport right now and let Shacks lead the line. I know he is young and inexperienced, but he seems to have natural leadership qualities and we need to try something, quick. Worthy was a decent defender himself, how come he can''t get them firing properly?

Midfield - not enough bodies, and those we do have seem inconsistent. You would expect this from Marney, but Hughes should be more consistent. Also we are relying far too much on players ''who can do a job there'' rather than specialist midfielders. Hendo/McVeigh/Brennan/Hucks/Charlton/Rossi Jarvis/MLJ(?) have all been played in midfield, not one of them belongs there. Worthy failed here over the summer, Jonson should still be with us and we didn''t add enough bodies. When Hughes and JJ signed I presumed they would be back-up players - how wrong was I!

Attack - nothing to add to your comments (except Lisbie).

I do think the players have to take some of the responsibility - last night''s performance sounded dire from most of them. But Worthy must get them playing to their best over 90 minutes, something we haven''t seen for ages.The fact that we have been good in patches saves me from being too despondent, but Worthy is now surely running out of time. I have been defending him on these boards quite a bit, and I would still advocate giving him some more time, but I really hope the board are polishing up a contingency plan... we aren''t too good to get relegated from this highly competitive league, we can''t afford to be complacent about that.

[Syteanric 1]

i agree with whats been said.. our squad.. with 1 or 2 exceptions (Hughes, Flemmo, and Lisbie... ok he scored last night but he has the touch of Akinbiyi... wait a few games and see what u all think).

 

Worthy doesnt get the best out of them... Someone like DeanMarney should be able to beat every single team in the division on his own.. he seems restricted in what he can do under Worthington.

I agree the midfield is a bit thin but Worthington doesnt want to address this by using what we have available. Norwich City is a club that has always prided itself on using Youth players... Worthy seems to be adverse to it... Shacks, Ryan Jarvis and Hendo are the only players he has brought through...

The likes of Crow, Sinclair, Batt, Keith Briggs (not our youth player but a good young prospect.. and signed by worthy in error it seems!), Paul Hayes, all cast adrift when never being given a chance...

 we got rid of Briggs and Batt and had 33 year old Edworthy and 34 year old Helveg.. where is the logic in that? We get rid of Danny Crowe and get the ageing Peter thorne!!!! Worthington is clueless... we have the team we dont have the manager! get anyone with half a grain of tactical nous in before its too late

jas

[ZEMAS TENDON 0]

ON PAPER OUR TEAM SHOULD EASILY BE IN THE TOP THREE.. ON LAST NIGHTS C**P WHO WOULD YOU SWAP FOR THE WATFORD TEAM.. ASHTON FOR KING.. LISBIE FOR YOUNG.. NO... WHO IN THIS DIVISION WOULD WALK STRAIGHT INTO OUR TEAM.. JAGIELKA.. QUASHIE.. STRUGGLING FOR NAMES NOW..

[Mark .Y. 352]

OK, haven''t posted for some time as have been very depressed with events so far this season. The reason they are so depressing is because it was clear from the pre-season games that this was exactly what was going to happen. I know there was quite a division on the board betweeen those who felt the pre-season games meant nothing and those (like myself) who were very worried that we seemed to be incapable of keeping a clean sheet against lower league opposition. We have won only one league game and that against a team who were right at the bottom of their form (but could still have had a penalty against us).

There is no question the first eleven are good enough, of all the teams we have played this season most Norwich players would be valuable additions to their squad. We would of course be even better if the £2m available to spend on Morrison had been spent on a creative midfielder (Koumas when he was available - perhaps he still is for a straight cash offer to WBA). Assuming we forget about luck, that only leaves one problem area - the coaching/management.

That really is all I want to say about it, the problem is obvious - as is the solution.

Mark .Y.