Vital areas not improved?

[ROBFLECK 132]

29 minutes ago, BobLoz3 said:

Hi Vince

S not fair Bob , I think the OP has some valid points in his post. I too would have liked another CB and I too am still a "slightly doubting Tom" ... But does that make me f***ing Pig Mince ? I hope not , whoever is playing , I'll be supporting! OTBC 

[BobLoz3 492]

47 minutes ago, ROBFLECK said:

S not fair Bob , I think the OP has some valid points in his post. I too would have liked another CB and I too am still a "slightly doubting Tom" ... But does that make me f***ing Pig Mince ? I hope not , whoever is playing , I'll be supporting! OTBC 

Haha... Not so much the content (even BV has some good points now and then) more the style of writing.

Called it... I'm gonna stick by it 😊

[Trevor Hockey's Beard 526]

I for one am fully behind this experiment, to try and show that there is another way other than paying stupid money for over-priced players.

I suspect that DF and SW fully expect it to be a struggle, and that we may fail... this time, but the investment in the Academy and Under 23 squad suggests that they would intend to repeat the experiment if allowed.

Let us not forget that they did not expect promotion last year - the experiment was as successful as it could be - promotion as champions.

I am sickened by the toadiness of the MOTD "pundits", who repeatedly fail to call out the top clubs for buying success and distorting the transfer market in their favour. This season every goal scored by our "priceless" front line will be a spit in their eyes.

We've tried doing it the conventional way and that didn't work - more than once - so let us be true to our Norfolk roots and "Do Different".

In Farke and Webber I believe.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

I doubt there isn't a supporter who wouldn't have loved two or three more players in. Getting them, getting them to fit into our system and getting them to fit our financial model is the hard part. Sorting out the ones who will improve us rather than those after a payday.

I understand many will be disappointed because all they really see is EPL. This season is going to have to be a cracker to beat last season when after a terrible start, when surely even the most ardent supporter feared the worst at that stage, we took the league to new heights with our style, technique and enterprise. But I know what, as a supporter, means the most to me. 

We aren't Villa. We aren't Derby or Leeds. We are reasonably unique in what we are and I am proud and happy with that.

[Yelloow Since 72 54]

As the season kick-off approaches this from Paddy Davitt on the perspective needed:

"Lavish spending is no guarantee of success, as Fulham proved 12 months ago. The Cottagers appeared to abandon the guiding principles which saw then cut a similar swathe through the Championship. Everything Webber and Farke have engineered since lifting the title at Villa Park focused on refinement and reward. To hastily jettison the vast majority of a squad who sealed an improbable promotion would essentially have revealed a lack of faith in the plan as much as the players. It would have smacked of a club who knew they had got lucky and aimed to plug the gaps in pound notes."

Not sure if he intended Villa in that last comment, but it does seem to fit as they crept into the play-offs and then discarded 8 of the players who got them there. That's football, some would say, but it's noticeable how different SW's approach is, based on incremental improvements which have produced a solid, integrated squad ready to move on.

We've added 5 senior players from top level teams for around £1m spent, but their current values total around £35-40m. It isn't the money spent, but the value added. My guess would be that the value Villa have added is probably around half of the £140m they spent. You then need to deduct the value of the 8 discarded players and the difference isn't that great. Still the pundits only see the money spent.

The telling thing is that it's probable that none of our new 5 quality players will start at Anfield, thus indicating the quality of the team which came up as champions. This may change as the season goes on as none of the new players would be considered 'squad players' and there's intense competition at every position. In spite of that, there's a team spirit which puts the team first. That's a brilliant accomplishment by SW and DF.

Edited August 9, 2019 by Yelloow Since 72

[ROBFLECK 132]

1 hour ago, Trevor Hockey's Beard said:

I for one am fully behind this experiment, to try and show that there is another way other than paying stupid money for over-priced players.

I suspect that DF and SW fully expect it to be a struggle, and that we may fail... this time, but the investment in the Academy and Under 23 squad suggests that they would intend to repeat the experiment if allowed.

Let us not forget that they did not expect promotion last year - the experiment was as successful as it could be - promotion as champions.

I am sickened by the toadiness of the MOTD "pundits", who repeatedly fail to call out the top clubs for buying success and distorting the transfer market in their favour. This season every goal scored by our "priceless" front line will be a spit in their eyes.

We've tried doing it the conventional way and that didn't work - more than once - so let us be true to our Norfolk roots and "Do Different".

In Farke and Webber I believe.

I fully agree THB! 

[Big Vince 318]

Of course the OP is pretty much on the right track here.

Norwich City just don't do defence and that is how the fans want it. The whole philosophy of the club has for many years (aside from Hughton) been that you can somehow go into each game on the basis of outscoring the opposition. This can work in theory if you have got better quality players and the opposition is woeful in creating or putting away chances. But in the EPL Norwich City are not going to have better quality players compared to their opponents and the said opponents are going to create loads of chances and convert a very high number of them. 

Now, going into the summer transfer window the club looked to have some attacking talents who could cause problems for some of the lesser EPL sides. However, everyone knew (or should have known) that the defending last season was not good enough to give confidence at a higher level. All the goalkeepers and all the central defenders and all the defensive midfielders are simply not good enough for this level. Yet nobody within the club has spotted it (or they chose to delude themselves) (or, more likely, Delia instructed that it is better to get relegated having spent nothing than get relegated having spent £140 million).

Nobody is suggesting Norwich should do a Fulham or a Villa. But they should have done a Watford, which was to target the key weaknesses following promotion ie. sort out the defence. And this of course means they should at least have spent something to give themselves a fighting chance.

I fear the swansong this season is going to be how well they played, but lost the game due to lack of quality in key areas we all knew about. 

The spectre of Russell Martin lives on.

[Darth Canary1 91]

Cheer up Vince, looking forward to your insights after the game.