Reading v Bees

[Branston Pickle 3,657]

With over a third of the season still to play I’m happy enough with where we are - there’s a lot that’s going to happen between now and season-end.  We clearly need to rediscover our goalscoring mojo (perhaps start with set pieces, they appear to work for everyone else!!) but I’m sure  it’ll come.

Edited February 10, 2021 by Branston Pickle

[Mullet 293]

33 minutes ago, norfolkbroadslim said:

Perhaps a bit of desperation here, but if fit, I would have Soto on the bench on Saturday.

Yes agree with that, Farke hasn't mentioned him lately though

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,749]

1 minute ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

*based on current form

They bottled promotion in each of their last 2 games of last season when promotion was in their hands (aswell as the playoff final)...lets not be handing out the championship trophy with 18 games still to play

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

Just now, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

They bottled promotion in each of their last 2 games of last season when promotion was in their hands (aswell as the playoff final)...lets not be handing out the championship trophy with 18 games still to play

Yep we were heaping the praise on ourselves as little as 3 league games ago; there’s still lots of time to turn the tide again.

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,749]

2 minutes ago, Mullet said:

Yes agree with that, Farke hasn't mentioned him lately though

I just want Farke to utilise the players he's already got correctly

Still mystifies me that he thought the best course of action to cover Buendia's suspension was to play Placheta in both games...

[Mullet 293]

6 minutes ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

I just want Farke to utilise the players he's already got correctly

Still mystifies me that he thought the best course of action to cover Buendia's suspension was to play Placheta in both games...

Its all a bit disjointed at the moment, Buendia's suspension has hurt us. I don't mind Placheta but he couldn't score in a brothel

Edited February 10, 2021 by Mullet

[Paint Me Yellow 200]

20 minutes ago, Hardhouse44 said:

But we have Emi back and hopefully with some tactical tweaking we can get ourselves back on track. Long way to go and you don’t just become crap over night. 

Question is for how long?

I reckon there's a good chance he'll see a 3rd red card of the season in the next 18 games, and that means extra games out if he does.

Edited February 10, 2021 by Paint Me Yellow

[Nuff Said 5,137]

The monging of doom on this thread is extraordinary. We didn’t accidentally get to the top of the table for so long. We have the ability and the players to regain top spot, but to hear half the posters on here, we’ll be lucky to scrape into the playoffs. 

[Crafty Canary 495]

Let’s get some perspective here. Brentford are on a 21 match unbeaten run yet are only 2 points ahead of us. That shows what a great season we have had so far. Sure we have had a dip over the last three games but that doesn’t mean we are doomed to continue that. It is also likely that Brentford will not continue their run to the end of the season so keep the faith.

[cambridgeshire canary 6,716]

4 minutes ago, Crafty Canary said:

Let’s get some perspective here. Brentford are on a 21 match unbeaten run yet are only 2 points ahead of us. That shows what a great season we have had so far. Sure we have had a dip over the last three games but that doesn’t mean we are doomed to continue that. It is also likely that Brentford will not continue their run to the end of the season so keep the faith.

Indeed, but I think worrying about our current 'blip' is fair.

[lharman7 39]

2 hours ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

I just want Farke to utilise the players he's already got correctly

Still mystifies me that he thought the best course of action to cover Buendia's suspension was to play Placheta in both games...

Not sure you'd be saying this if Placheta had taken his chances.

I know its a big "if" but the whole team hasn't taken their chances of late so to single out Placheta who's most definitely a work in progress is a tad unfair. 

[K Lo 224]

3 hours ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Indeed, but I think worrying about our current 'blip' is fair.

Yes, I think Brentford have gained 10 points more than us just in the last 8 games.

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,749]

6 hours ago, lharman7 said:

Not sure you'd be saying this if Placheta had taken his chances.

I know its a big "if" but the whole team hasn't taken their chances of late so to single out Placheta who's most definitely a work in progress is a tad unfair. 

...he didnt take them

Thete were a few things he could have done to teplace Burndia, Placheta was well down that list.

I could understand picking him for one of the games, but both?...particularly after it hadnt worked in the first game..not for me

[Yellow and Green 334]

I am looking at the entire front four, rather than just Placheta, to be honest. They need to be looking at themselves in the mirror and wondering why they haven't stepped up in Emi's absence. 

Trying to find positives:

1) I'd say that we have pretty good fixtures coming up between now and mid-April. Aside from Stoke and Brentford, we're playing all of the bottom eight teams (Coventry, Rotherham, B'ham, Wycome,  Sheff W, Forest, Hudds and Wayne Rooney's Derby County) plus Rovers, Luton and PNE. Of course, there aren't any easy games in this league but we should be aiming to maintain 2 points per game from that.

In March, Swansea have got Bristol city, Stoke, M'brough, Rovers, Luton and Bournemouth, which is a tough run.

2) There are 7 points between us and 4th place. I think it will be two from us, Swansea and Brentford and it looks like it will go down to the final few games.

[Crabbycanary3 994]

10 hours ago, GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary said:

They bottled promotion in each of their last 2 games of last season when promotion was in their hands (aswell as the playoff final)...lets not be handing out the championship trophy with 18 games still to play

Agreed. They are on a phenomenal run, yet are just 2 points ahead of us, and we haven't had any of Brentford's 'stunning' performances. Brentford seem to be at the top of their curve . We haven't, according to a lot of Norwich fans, reached ours yet, and yet here we are in 2nd place.

Edited February 11, 2021 by Crabbycanary3

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

40 minutes ago, Yellow and Green said:

I am looking at the entire front four, rather than just Placheta, to be honest. They need to be looking at themselves in the mirror and wondering why they haven't stepped up in Emi's absence. 

Trying to find positives:

1) I'd say that we have pretty good fixtures coming up between now and mid-April. Aside from Stoke and Brentford, we're playing all of the bottom eight teams (Coventry, Rotherham, B'ham, Wycome,  Sheff W, Forest, Hudds and Wayne Rooney's Derby County) plus Rovers, Luton and PNE. Of course, there aren't any easy games in this league but we should be aiming to maintain 2 points per game from that.

In March, Swansea have got Bristol city, Stoke, M'brough, Rovers, Luton and Bournemouth, which is a tough run.

2) There are 7 points between us and 4th place. I think it will be two from us, Swansea and Brentford and it looks like it will go down to the final few games.

'Trying' to find positives? Surely we're not at the point where its that difficult! Still lots and lots of football to play - and lots to like about this team. 

We just need to start reminding everyone again what got us to top of the league in the first place! 

[ron obvious 1,502]

Watching the game last night it struck me how much less inhibited both teams were. We look constipated by comparison.

When things went wrong they both seemed to be able to improvise their way out of a bad situation. If we make a mistake it seems to inevitably lead to a goal.

It makes us more fragile. We need to add some flair to our discipline. Easy to say, difficult to do, & requires a renewal of self confidence.

Over to you, Daniel.

[Capt. Pants 4,233]

7 hours ago, K Lo said:

Yes, I think Brentford have gained 10 points more than us just in the last 8 games.

Yes, extrapolate that out over the coming 6 games and we face a stiff challenge to win the league. We have to get out of this blip next game, and probably hope Brentford have one over the coming few weeks. Failing that I fear they will build up quite a lead.

But there's always 2nd!

[ROBFLECK 132]

This shows the Brentford way of doing things does work... They lost Watkins , Benrahma ... yet found a signing like Toney and the guy in midfield Josh Dasilva is only getting better...

They'll take some stopping. If we find form again, we can be the team that does it...

[......and Smith must score. 1,343]

22 minutes ago, Capt. Pants said:

Yes, extrapolate that out over the coming 6 games and we face a stiff challenge to win the league. We have to get out of this blip next game, and probably hope Brentford have one over the coming few weeks. Failing that I fear they will build up quite a lead.

But there's always 2nd!

Exactly.

[Crabbycanary3 994]

30 minutes ago, ron obvious said:

Watching the game last night it struck me how much less inhibited both teams were. We look constipated by comparison.

When things went wrong they both seemed to be able to improvise their way out of a bad situation. If we make a mistake it seems to inevitably lead to a goal.

It makes us more fragile. We need to add some flair to our discipline. Easy to say, difficult to do, & requires a renewal of self confidence.

Over to you, Daniel.

Less inhibited could be also seen as defensively weaker (Both teams have conceded more than we have) It could also be because of the threat the opposition have (Poorer teams have just set up shop against us for example) . I get that both Reading and Brentford have scored more than we have, but to get both defensive and attacking elements is extremely hard in that League. 

As much as you claim as soon as we make a mistake it costs  goal, I would disagree. I know Swansea cost us 2 goals , but throughout the season, I would say not. We are miles better defensively than we were (but we can certainly get even better) . Brentford score a lot of goals, but are vulnerable (they have had 1 clean sheet in the last 11 League games). It's just going to take good teams to score more than they concede, which, this year, may be a bridge too far for all bar one team. I'm confident that will be us.

[Making Plans 936]

Was listening to Everton v Spurs last night and the commentator/pundit made the point that Ancelotti had changed formation 5 times during the match.

Five times in one game is more than we have all season.

[Crabbycanary3 994]

As teams are right at this moment, who do people think would gather more points if they were in the Prem ?

Brentford, who score heaps (but their shots/scoring ratio seems pretty awesome atm) but concede regularly?

Us, because we are ok at scoring (but need to be more clinical against the amount of chances we are creating) and are defensively much better than last season?

Swansea, who concede next to nothing but are nothing special at scoring

I appreciate that both us and Swansea have scored the same amount of goals but they have more difficult away games to come, so I would wager that we will end up scoring a few more than they will, come the end of the season

Edited February 11, 2021 by Crabbycanary3

[ron obvious 1,502]

10 minutes ago, Crabbycanary3 said:

Less inhibited could be also seen as defensively weaker (Both teams have conceded more than we have) It could also be because of the threat the opposition have (Poorer teams have just set up shop against us for example) . I get that both Reading and Brentford have scored more than we have, but to get both defensive and attacking elements is extremely hard in that League. 

As much as you claim as soon as we make a mistake it costs  goal, I would disagree. I know Swansea cost us 2 goals , but throughout the season, I would say not. We are miles better defensively than we were (but we can certainly get even better) . Brentford score a lot of goals, but are vulnerable (they have had 1 clean sheet in the last 11 League games). It's just going to take good teams to score more than they concede, which, this year, may be a bridge too far for all bar one team. I'm confident that will be us.

I largely agree but I do think we tend to get broken once our pattern of play gets out of sync. It's all a question of balance, but the ability to improvise (& knowing when it's safe to do so) would be helpful in breaking down the defensive blocks we face every game nowadays. I still think we'll go up automatically, though, & most likely as champions.

[Yellow and Green 334]

3 hours ago, Hank shoots Skyler said:

'Trying' to find positives? Surely we're not at the point where its that difficult! Still lots and lots of football to play - and lots to like about this team. 

We just need to start reminding everyone again what got us to top of the league in the first place! 

In the context of the whole season, you would be right. We've done well and I would have taken this position at the beginning of the season.

In the context of Brentford leapfrogging us in the table, after a poor spell of four games in which we haven't come close to scoring, I think it's fair to say we haven't had much to shout about.  

Of course I'd love nothing better than the boys to turn it around vs Stoke on Saturday... so OTBC

[McWrighty 52]

1 hour ago, ROBFLECK said:

This shows the Brentford way of doing things does work... They lost Watkins , Benrahma ... yet found a signing like Toney and the guy in midfield Josh Dasilva is only getting better...

They'll take some stopping. If we find form again, we can be the team that does it...

Just like we did too though. 

Sold Godfrey, but brought in Gibson who has done very well indeed. Ditto Sorenson for Lewis (albeit unplanned for that position).

 

Brentford will have their wobble, and here's hoping it comes at the business end. We do need to find our shooting boots though -we couldn't finish a 2-piece jigsaw at present!

[Capt. Pants 4,233]

Brentford also have a fairly decent 'back-up' striker in Finland international, Marcus Forss who has scored more goals, mainly from the bench, more than Hugill and Idah put together.

We just can't seem to get that reaction from our subs (mind you bringing them on for 3 mins probably doesn't help).

[hogesar 9,666]

2 hours ago, Making Plans said:

Was listening to Everton v Spurs last night and the commentator/pundit made the point that Ancelotti had changed formation 5 times during the match.

Five times in one game is more than we have all season.

We've changed formation / shape 3 or 4 times in a single game. It's just a lot of people don't even notice it (and then have the nerve to openly criticise).

[cambridgeshire canary 6,716]

2 hours ago, Crabbycanary3 said:

As teams are right at this moment, who do people think would gather more points if they were in the Prem ?

Brentford, who score heaps (but their shots/scoring ratio seems pretty awesome atm) but concede regularly?

Us, because we are ok at scoring (but need to be more clinical against the amount of chances we are creating) and are defensively much better than last season?

Swansea, who concede next to nothing but are nothing special at scoring

I appreciate that both us and Swansea have scored the same amount of goals but they have more difficult away games to come, so I would wager that we will end up scoring a few more than they will, come the end of the season

Score heaps but concede regulary? You talking about Brentford or us two seasons ago?

[Nuff Said 5,137]

16 minutes ago, hogesar said:

We've changed formation / shape 3 or 4 times in a single game. It's just a lot of people don't even notice it (and then have the nerve to openly criticise).

I can only assume he was trying to be funny, because if MP thinks we haven't changed formation this season, he must have been dropped on his head as a child.