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Feedthewolf

Farke's fortitude

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It occurred to me yesterday just how much Farke has confounded us with the way that individual players have consistently defied expectations and stepped up to new levels. Obviously some players just weren't going to cut it - Franke, Husband and Watkins spring to mind - but so many other players have started poorly, looked out of their depth, and then gone on to play a vital role. Vrancic, Stiepermann, McLean, Srbeny, Cantwell, Tettey... all players whose place in the team (or even the squad) has been questioned, and they've all come through to make important contributions.

I'm not saying that none of the criticism was justified at the time - I for one was constantly beseeching Farke to drop the useless Vrancic from our midfield in the first half of the 2017/8 season, for example. But what I've really noticed is how we keep adjusting and stepping up as a squad. We're incredibly lucky to have Daniel at the helm, and now we've got through the worst of our injury problems (touch wood!) we look set to have a real tilt at staying in this league against the odds.

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He seems to have a real knack of improving players. Aside from those you mentioned, just look at Aarons, Lewis and Godfrey- players who have gone from the youth team to not looking out of place in the Premier League in just two years. It could quite possibly be the same for the players in the opening post- they've just developed considerably as footballers under Farke.

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Very good point.  I am astonished people are still ready to pass judgement on players after a handful of appearances, you'd think we would know better by now !

 

The other fantastic thing for me, looking back at yesterday's game, is that we went out there and played our own game against Arsenal, sensibly and not over committing ourselves but we faced them toe-to-toe - and looked marginally the better team over 90 minutes.  In past years when we've got results against Arsenal it's been by scrapping it out, eg the home win under Hughton was all about keeping it very tight defensively and taking a chance to score.  Yesterday we really should have won that game and can properly come away disappointed we didn't, against an Arsenal side that was very much reinvigorated after they sacked their manager.

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The only explanation is that he is an excellent, intelligent coach, and his team are doing a consistently impressive job.

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Good OP

 It reminds us (me!) not to write off our current crop of ‘underperformers’ - as long as they want it, there should be room for success at Norwich for Buendia, Leitner, Roberts and co

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I agree with the OP and I would add that he understands that patience is required with many of the examples that you mentioned.

 

Most of our players have come from different leagues/countries and often take time to adapt to England and the type/speed of football played here. 

It's the same as the young players - learning their trade and growing in confidence over time. Todd Cantwell is a prime example of this - he only had a short spell of starting consecutive games last season. Now that he's had a decent run of games to get into his groove, he's flourishing.

That's not to take anything away from Farke as a coach, of course. 

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22 hours ago, Ian said:

The only explanation is that he is an excellent, intelligent coach, and his team are doing a consistently impressive job.

Wholeheartedly agree and we need to remember this at the end of the season, wherever we finish. Nobody should be calling for his head at the end of the season, even if the worst happens. We are exceptionally lucky to have him and I strongly hope that he remains in charge for as long as possible. By far my favourite manager ever and as he said, he's a yellow.

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23 hours ago, Feedthewolf said:

Vrancic, Stiepermann, McLean, Srbeny, Cantwell, Tettey

One of these is not like the others...

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1 hour ago, king canary said:

One of these is not like the others...

Racist.

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1 minute ago, king canary said:

Ha!

I was of course talking about Srebeny not Tettey.

Oh! Joking aside, I did actually think you meant Tettey on account of him not having been signed by Farke (or, in Cantwell's case, promoted to the first team).

On reflection, Srbeny hasn't achieved nearly as much as the others I mentioned, but he's still here, and with Drmic out until the New Year I'd expect Dennis to get a bunch more pitch time over the congested Christmas period. All I'm saying is he's another one who was largely written off as a dud signing by fans, but who is still capable of playing a significant role in the Premier League.

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7 minutes ago, Feedthewolf said:

Oh! Joking aside, I did actually think you meant Tettey on account of him not having been signed by Farke (or, in Cantwell's case, promoted to the first team).

On reflection, Srbeny hasn't achieved nearly as much as the others I mentioned, but he's still here, and with Drmic out until the New Year I'd expect Dennis to get a bunch more pitch time over the congested Christmas period. All I'm saying is he's another one who was largely written off as a dud signing by fans, but who is still capable of playing a significant role in the Premier League.

Yeah that is fair I guess. I just think everyone went a touch overboard after his goal v Everton. He'd be the first person I'd be looking to move on to create another 'non home-grown' space in the squad.

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1 minute ago, king canary said:

Yeah that is fair I guess. I just think everyone went a touch overboard after his goal v Everton. He'd be the first person I'd be looking to move on to create another 'non home-grown' space in the squad.

I don't disagree, but I'm just saying that Farke has a habit of confounding us by getting another level out of players who appear ordinary. A lot can happen between now and New Year's Day... who knows? 🙂

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52 minutes ago, king canary said:

Ha!

I was of course talking about Srebeny not Tettey.

He was actually talking about McLean.

The only one among those players to have held the title of 'Mayor of Norwich' for a few days.

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12 minutes ago, Wacky Waving Inflatable Arm Flailing Tube Man said:

I was genuinely considering the exact same one-word response earlier before bottling it out of fear of controversy. Hats off to you, sir.

I can take a joke.

As long as it is actually a joke....

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