Stoke match thread

[kick it off 1,949]

Good time for international break, weve been looking fatigued for a few games now. Cantwell out and Buendia out for me when we come back. Rhodes and Onel in.

[BroadstairsR 2,163]

"Don''t understand why we waited to the 70th minute for the changes."

Far too late, imo, but that was my hobby horse for this particular fixture.

All that lovely football and Butland hardly tested.

Hernadez is back, that''s one big plus.

Buendia works hard and has his moments but is not quite ''it'' when it comes to goalscoring or creating.

Prefer Cantwell and we cannot start with both those again soon.

[GJP 79]

Yeah, we''re not getting enough from Cantwell and Buendia.

Lewis couldn''t get near Ince.

[Orly 277]

Leitner MOM for me.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

Stoke never looked troubled in the entire game.

Norwich a blunt attacking force, good on the ball when 40 yards from the opposition goal but once near a defender couldn’t create anything. Hopefully players returning from injury can add some creativity and spark - Hernandez certainly had flashes once he came on.

[westcoastcanary 173]

[quote user="BroadstairsR"]"Don''t understand why we waited to the 70th minute for the changes."

Far too late, imo, but that was my hobby horse for this particular fixture.

All that lovely football and Butland hardly tested.

Hernadez is back, that''s one big plus.

Buendia works hard and has his moments but is not quite ''it'' when it comes to goalscoring or creating.

Prefer Cantwell and we cannot start with both those again soon.[/quote][quote user="GJP"]Yeah, we''re not getting enough from Cantwell and Buendia. Lewis couldn''t get near Ince.[/quote] If you want the youngsters to keep improving, you keep playing them. I''m sure DF wants to win every match, but that''s not his only objective and almost certainly not his primary objective. Keep asking questions of the youngsters and have them try to find solutions to different challenges (like facing an experienced, EPL-quality defence such as Stoke fielded today); match time is what they need to develop. That way we will be in a position soon enough to focus just on winning matches.

[BroadstairsR 2,163]

That''s fine, un-disputable really, until you look at the players that were sitting on the bench for 75 minutes and consider the fact that they might just have got that goal and even that win.

Why shouldn''t we be in a position to focus on winning now?

[westcoastcanary 173]

[quote user="BroadstairsR"] ........ Why shouldn''t we be in a position to focus on winning now?[/quote] It''s not a question of "should or shouldn''t"; it a question of "are or are not -- yet". 

[BroadstairsR 2,163]

Eh?

I found your first contribution difficult to work out, but that?

Please explain.

[Bethnal Yellow and Green 1,557]

Hernandez and Rhodes came on in the 70th minute. Drake had also stated that Hernandez was only fit for 20 mins today. So stretched him as far as he felt sensible. Rhodes could have potentially come on earlier, but I don’t think it would have made any difference.

[BroadstairsR 2,163]

That''s a pretty precise assessment from Sir Francis there especially as Hernandez seemed full of it right to the end.

With all those crosses going in in the first half, and with one of the divisions best poachers on the bench it might well have made a difference should he have been introduced earlier.

Who knows?

We lost the game though so something clearly didn''t work.

[ron obvious 1,502]

Totally disagree BY&G.

We were centimeters from carving them open time after time. Had anything like the huge slice of luck come our way that did theirs we''d have been out of sight.

Footballs often about tiny margins. It''s particularly (& very obviously so) for strikers, who can consistently hit the frame for game after game before getting it just the other side for the next run of games. In this game it was that final pass, or the attackers'' position, which was just marginally off.

I''m well aware this is typical Norwich, I''ve seen so many games where we''ve played beautiful football without a clue how to break down a defence like Stoke''s, but this was different.

We just need to hold our nerve, tweak things a touch & NOT panic & abandon our style, which has happened in the past.

I said last season the reason we were so slow was because we were like an orchestra trying to learn a new piece. The music is starting to come together now, & it sounds bloody good to me!

[westcoastcanary 173]

@ron obvious

[Y] Spot on.

[GJP 79]

I thought they did a pretty good job at limiting us to not a lot. Final ball a bit lacking and Pukki not really in it.

[Indy 3,298]

Even though we didn’t win, it has to be pointed out, our team was made up of younger players still getting used to championship football.

First defeat in 6 isn’t to be frowned upon, it’s to be applauded to how controlled we were and have been for the last 6 week’s.

Great effort and sometimes it just doesn’t go for you.

[Capt. Pants 4,229]

Our undefeated run had to end at some stage and no surprise it was against a resilient Stoke side gradually finding their feet in the Chump. Substitutions far too late in my opinion and we were a bit slow in getting the ball into the box 2nd half. No reason to panic just yet but a rest might do us the world of good, but unfortunately the player who needs it most, Pukki, won''t get one.

A decent performance but we looked a bit toothless to be honest. Not getting much luck either last two games with the nature of the goals conceded.

[norfolkngood 1,086]

Stoke were always going to be dangerous a big club in the league with good players that had not hit the best form,

Maybe with hindsight the team needed fresh legs but before the game harsh to leave anyone out and i would not of dropped anyone

So we start again and bounce back and maybe just maybe Farke will changes things if we have runs of games like before

[Kanadyan Kanary 121]

We just didn''t get enough balls into the box. There was a lot of short passes again on the edge of the box without any end product. I just watched the Manure game and during there best spell they were playing balls into the box with first touches whenever they got into wide areas. It cause problems for the Newcastle defence. I felt we did that much better in the first half but reverted to the pitter patter football around the box in the second half.