Conference Style Footie!.

[First Wizard 0]

Okay, we won, yippee!, and two well taken goals to boot.  But since when did City play route one, Conference League style footie?. [:$]

For those not at the game, City''s main tactic was for Greeno to thump the ball up field to Ashton or Thorne, no wonder Ash has lost confidence!, and of course at the same time bypassing our midfield players.

Oh, there were flashes of City''s pedigree sure enough, but not nearly enough for my tastes.

Rejoice in the victory, but don''t kid yourselves, nothing has really changed at all!.

[Old Boy 0]

[quote user="1st Wizard"]

Okay, we won, yippee!, and two well taken goals to boot.  But since when did City play route one, Conference League style footie?. [:$]

For those not at the game, City''s main tactic was for Greeno to thump the ball up field to Ashton or Thorne, no wonder Ash has lost confidence!, and of course at the same time bypassing our midfield players.

Oh, there were flashes of City''s pedigree sure enough, but not nearly enough for my tastes.

Rejoice in the victory, but don''t kid yourselves, nothing has really changed at all!.

[/quote]

Don''t know what game you saw yesterday, but it wasn''t Norwich City-v-Luton Town in the Coca-Cola Championship. We played some good football with some very slick interchanges between the front 3 players. Virtually no long-ball stuff (which can be a useful strategy anyway). We kept possession very skilfully at times, though too many passes still went astray. We competed hard in midfield most of the time, although we dropped off at times in the second half. And in the end we beat a side who are well above us (no more "well it was only Hull, or Plymouth, etc." nonsense), and deservedly.

Deal with it 1st Wizard. Or please see someone about your problem.

[DumbleDelia is Magic 0]

I have to say I quite enjoyed yesterday.  I slate the players when they''re bad, but I''ll praise them when they''re good.  Two superbly taken goals.  Good passing, movement, energy.  Dickson provided another option.  Always on the penalty spot Francis style when we broke forward.  We could/should have increased our lead, but I for one was perfectly satisfied with the result

[still holding out for new heroes 0]

think you were watching a different game to the rest of us the movement and passing for the second goal were vintage city, and as for Ashton being low in confidence, didnt see that in the 2 cheeky back heals and the flick for the second goal, Ashton looked along with Hucks almost back to their best.

 

 

[Sir Quinny 0]

Wizard - it is not often that i vent my spleen but i must admit that i am fed up with your attitude and arrogant belief you know about football?  Can I ask

1) Have you seen much conference football recently?  You have an archaic view of this leauge

2) Were you watching yesterdays match?  This tactic was used but did you note when and the shape of the luton defence - i doubt it.

Look i do not want to have a gripe - I understand your recently shown passion and feeling and empahise with your comments - however i do feel you need to ofeten step back a little and look at the big picture!!

Premiership here we come

[T07 0]

It wasn''t great yesterday but it was much much better. We played a

combination of routes, I agree there is still too much route one, but

we need to build confidence to bring back the passing game. Too often

we have position in a promising area only to see a series of passes

ending up at Greens feet, then hooooofff......up the pitch.

[AJ 1,218]

[quote user="DumbleDelia is Magic"]I have to say I quite enjoyed yesterday.  I slate the players when they''re bad, but I''ll praise them when they''re good.  Two superbly taken goals.  Good passing, movement, energy.  Dickson provided another option.  Always on the penalty spot Francis style when we broke forward.  We could/should have increased our lead, but I for one was perfectly satisfied with the result[/quote]

im with you on this one, im happy to sit back and see how it goes, although im still not convinced that worthington should keep his job

[First Wizard 0]

[quote user="Sir Quinny"]

Wizard - it is not often that i vent my spleen but i must admit that i am fed up with your attitude and arrogant belief you know about football?  Can I ask

1) Have you seen much conference football recently?  You have an archaic view of this leauge

2) Were you watching yesterdays match?  This tactic was used but did you note when and the shape of the luton defence - i doubt it.

Look i do not want to have a gripe - I understand your recently shown passion and feeling and empahise with your comments - however i do feel you need to ofeten step back a little and look at the big picture!!

Premiership here we come

[/quote]

Sir Quinny: I just love the name. Yes, I WAS watching the game, and for nearly 45 minutes of the second half the ball spent a lot of the time aloft!.

I will conceed your point about conference football, I was harsh, and unlike tricky Dicky, I know when  I''m wrong!.

The proof of the pudding will be at Millwall, just you wait and see.

[wiggles 0]

Every time Green got the ball -HOOF. No variation.The second goal was the result of a hoof upfield (admittedly with a good flick on and backheel ) but a hoof nonetheless.

I can''t believe people are so easily blinded by the 3 points - we were ok in the first half  and devoid of any creativity in the second. If this is the sort of football Norwich fans are happy to watch then I am surprised to say the least. In the past we may have been crap but at least we played football -not any more.

[lucky green trainers 0]

agree wiggles. 2nd was disappointing, but in worthy''s position he was

always going to play it tight and put the onus on luton to come at us,

which they did but never really threatened. I would have preferred a

stronger 2nd half, especially as i had a small punt on city winning by

3 or more goals, but at this stage of the seaon i''d settle for 3

points.

with heavy pitches now, expect more hoofing until april!

[FilletTheFishWife . 0]

Can''t say i agree with your assessment of the match.

Nevertheless, its ''horses for courses'' and it worked.

[Creative Midfielder 1,985]

Bit of a risk on here, both to support 1st Wiz and to comment on a game that I only heard rather than attended, but I would have to say that it came out pretty strongly from the commentary that our main tactic seemed to be to whack long balls in Ashton''s direction.

In particular the commentary team complained that every time Green got the ball he immediately belted it as hard as he could, and that there was absolutely no variation or build up from the back. Fair enough once in a while, this may be a reasonable tactic but every time is pretty pathetic and not even Conference standard.

However none of this should be a surprise if you''ve watched City regularily since Worthington took over. We may get a lot of post-match waffle about passing the ball but from what we actually see on the pitch there can be little doubt that he''s an out and out long ball merchant.

 

[Syteanric 1]

thats one criticism i do have of Greeno.. his distrubtion is 1 dimensional.. its just BIG PUNT!

id liek to see him bowl it out or Throw it out to the wingers.. we have the pace and can couter attack so lets exploit it.. the big hoof to deano doesnt work

jas :)

[Yellow Rider 0]

Tend to agree with Wiz here. Yes - 2 good goals and a fairly comfortable win. BUT I was largely unimpressed by much of the performance. We looked better in midfield with Safri back but there were several occasions when we totally stood off Luton in midfield and gave them far too much room. 

The long ball game continues (as it will) under this manager - that is his fundamental philososphy but he will deny it to the bitter end. Witness Peter Thorne yesterday - he is receiving a lot of praise and rightly so for things like ....''leading the line and flick on''s. That''s ok but is only surely a relatively small part of what should be an ATTACKING role! He spent the whole gane with HIS BACK to the Luton goal watching these missiles come down out of the sky towards him. Did he once get a ball played to FEET or into space for him to run on to? NO.    

 As for Dickson - wrong to make an instant judgement and we should look at him more objectively after about 5 games but I was less than impressed on this showing.

Wiz is right about Ashton - look at his goalscoring record with us v Crewe at same stage of last season. He rec''d proper service there from a side playing fluent creative football. He is being made to ''run for the team'', ''work the channels'', ''hold the ball up'' etc. As soon as he can he will get out and who can blame him. The fault for that (when it happens) rests squarely with this manager and with the spineless Board for lavishing him with such a generous and open ended contract.    

[Old Boy 0]

"In the past we may have been crap but at least we played football"

Yes, crap football. That''s because we were crap. And that was a crap post wiggles, with that last sentence reeking of sour grapes. You can''t stand to win, can you? Everyone''s heard of bad losers, but you''re a bad winner...

No-one thinks we won the Championship after yesterday''s game, but some of us enjoyed the victory, and seeing our team play well.

[beelsie 0]

Thanks for your brief balanced assessment DD, I was''nt able to be there and I generally take Steve Gedge''s EDP write-ups and your''s for an idea of the game. I''m afraid Wiz had me worried for a moment, perhaps I ought to know better.

[No 9 - Bly<P><FONT size=1>Its better to have loved a short girl, than never loved a tall.<FONT><P> 0]

Not sure that it was all long ball, certainly not in the first half, but even so what did you expect.....

Because of the poison spouted by you and the other turncoats Worthington is under immense pressure, and therfore its win at all costs at the moment. If long ball tactics win a game then thats what will be employed. Same story for those who complain about a defensive attitude in the second half.

For exciting passing football you need to relax and play without fear, hardly likley with the boo boys in full force.

[ZLF 271]

As I posted in my ratings we did employ a long ball approach for much of the game - and it was far more successful because we had thorne leading the aerial challenge instead of Ashton.  Yes Ashton played the ball well from his feet when he got it from Thorne but that is his simply using his strengths, rather than seeing him as a aerial battering ram, which is not his strength.  Hux linked up with both well as did the full backs.

This style will give us short term results but teams will soon learn that taking Thorne out of the will close this supply so we do still need to imporve our creativity from the rest of the pitch.

The midfield on sat was frequently by passed and 3pts is the main thing - but we need a sustainable tactic rather than yet another short term fix that will soon be countered.

 

OTBC

   

[wiggles 0]

Old Boy - Don''t get me wrong , it was a massive 3 points ahead of 4 away games and I was delighted to win - it''s just that I wasn''t over impressed with the style in which we achieved it. I would like us to play a more cultured passing game and we should be able to with the players at our disposal but if you are happy with the long ball game then that''s your prerogative.

[Leg biter 0]

Hmmmm.....two goals scored by midfielders. One after a deft layoff and a dummy, then a 16 yard finish. And a game full of overlapping runs by full back and the midfielders seeing the ball. Where the Luton defence were run ragged by our forwards. And if we were simply playing route one, how could Safri lose possession so often?

I thought we played well, Thorne made a big difference as he and Ashton created a big physical threat, allowing Huckerby to run on more often. Hughes was tidy on the right as well.

Three other points.

Someone said there''s nothing to get excited about, as we won against nine men. Except one was sent off after 90 mins, and the other after the final whistle. We were already 2-0 up when the first one went off.

Second, if you''re low on confidence and got the crowd on your back, you''re going to be nervous and hit long balls. After we scored in the third minute (against 11 men) you could see the confidence flood back, and some of the possession football was great.

Third, it was easy! Luton were fourth in the table, and we won pretty much at a canter.

Sorry, I''m being a bit positive here. Ermmmm......Worthy out! Burley for manager! Get Iwan, Fleck and Newsome back! etc etc 

[Old Boy 0]

Nice one Leg Biter! They put ''em up and you shot ''em down. Route One/Long Ball/Conference footie they call it, but actually they seem to be objecting to Green kicking the ball out and one of out players (usually Thorne) having the temerity to win it for a change. I see that happening in football matches in every League. It certainly wasn''t a case of the long ball coming from the defence by-passing the midfield.

There was some very encouraging movement up front for a change, particularly one move in the second half when Ashton picked up the ball on the left with Huckerby overlapping. Ashton shaped to run into the area, drawing 3 defenders with him and leaving Hux unmarked. Then Asthton slid the ball to Hux, who was making a run. Unfortunately it broke down there, but it was clever work by both of them. But we shouldn''t say positive things, it might embarrass the Worthy-outers..

[ZLF 271]

I agree that our best football was played by Ashton who was superb with the ball at his feet and  the link up play between the front two and Hux in particular was thrilling to watch - it worked well on sat and will work well again.   However the ball was consistently played long and all I am advocating is a move to mixing the play up a bit.

 

As I said in my ratings post - the resukt was key no matter how it was acheived and if we need a few games of long ball football then I am happy to ensure it for a while.  But we did major on the long ball game on sat which hopefully will be mixed up with the passing game we are renowned for once confidecne returns.

 

OTBC 

[Rossi 0]

C''mon wizard!

I know u love playing devils advocate and u love stirring things up, but credit where it''s due. I understand a little where u are coming from, but to compare it to conference football is somewhat misleading.