*****Official Match Thread v Wycombe*****

[Rock The Boat 1,325]

22 minutes ago, king canary said:

It is a shame our woeful finishing has again made a ge more nervy than it should be. I feel like we'd basically already be promoted if we took our chances!

Didn't feel nervy in the slightest. We were in a different class from start to finish, worked hard, dominated and controlled the game and popped in a couple of goals while keeping another clean sheet. 

[king canary 7,578]

12 minutes ago, Rock The Boat said:

Didn't feel nervy in the slightest. We were in a different class from start to finish, worked hard, dominated and controlled the game and popped in a couple of goals while keeping another clean sheet. 

Fair play, you're clearly less nervy than me- that punt over the top, the scissor kick and the potential penalty made me a touch concerned.

[Van wink 2,994]

Why do posters expect this to be easy?

[king canary 7,578]

3 minutes ago, Van wink said:

Why do posters expect this to be easy?

Do they?

I certainly don't, I just wish we didn't make it harder than it needs to be by missing so many good chances!

[Van wink 2,994]

1 minute ago, king canary said:

Do they?

I certainly don't, I just wish we didn't make it harder than it needs to be by missing so many good chances!

Yeh ok, when we are Man Citeh I might agree with you.😉

[City 2nd 191]

4 minutes ago, Van wink said:

Why do posters expect this to be easy?

It will never be easy when teams like Wycombe show  little attacking intent and park the bus from the off! 

City were in essence leagues ahead as the possession stats show. Sometimes you have to win ugly, and we did that, in full control.

[Downloads 35]

Yeah not sure i read anyone thinking this would be easy. I think most people expected them to park the bus and be rough

[Van wink 2,994]

Just now, City 2nd said:

It will never be easy when teams like Wycombe show  little attacking intent and park the bus from the off! 

City were in essence leagues ahead as the possession stats show. Sometimes you have to win ugly, and we did that, in full control.

Thats the way I see it too

[Making Plans 936]

33 minutes ago, canarycop said:

Can't really understand the Dowell situation.

As I've said before, Dowell is a round peg but we only have square holes

[king canary 7,578]

7 minutes ago, Van wink said:

Yeh ok, when we are Man Citeh I might agree with you.😉

Personally I dont think you have to be Man City to not miss the amount of chances we do. 

[Van wink 2,994]

2 minutes ago, king canary said:

Personally I dont think you have to be Man City to not miss the amount of chances we do. 

Yeh ok, rattled the bar and one cracking save from a free kick. We miss chances because we are not top top quality, Pukki according to MB has been working on his finishing with Idah, that certainly seems to have paid off

Edited February 28, 2021 by Van wink

[Ian 1,129]

24 minutes ago, king canary said:

Fair play, you're clearly less nervy than me- that punt over the top, the scissor kick and the potential penalty made me a touch concerned.

I know it's not necessarily predictive, but have you seen our record when scoring first? Remarkable.

[Midlands Yellow 3,935]

That was as cosy as we’ll get all season, cheers Wycombe. 

 

[Pukki Blinders 96]

Made hard work of it as per 😅 all that matters though is the 3 points. Absolutely huge win. Hard not to feel positive going into midweek with a 7 point gap to 2nd and a 10 point gap to 3rd.

Emi and Aarons very good. Gibson and Hanley generally solid and another goal for Pukki. Hernandez certainly added something today, no doubt he's a real problem for opposition defences but really he should've scored at least once. Hopefully it's maybe just rustiness after not starting a league game in so long, but if it's something he can address there's no doubt he could be massive for us in the last dozen games.

I have to say though, I don't want to spark another huge debate seeing as the last one has only just ended 😂 I know people will obviously point to the fact that one of our subs scored the goal that killed the game, but I really think Farke should have made his substitutions sooner today. I've understood him not making those early changes in some games recently but today we could've switched out Hernandez and Vrancic for Idah and Rupp from the 70 minute mark and it wouldn't have been to the detriment of the team, if anything the opposite, because look at the impact they had when they did come on. The fact is in the last 15 minutes or so before we scored, it was far too easy for bottom of the league Wycombe to work openings. If we find ourselves 1-0 up late in the game on Wednesday then we can't afford to do the same again, because Brentford will score if we allow them to have opportunities like we did Wycombe. It's one thing when those chances are falling to Daryl Horgan and Scott Kashket, it's quite another when they're falling to Bryan Mbuemo or Ivan Toney.

But yeah, we won, which is what counts. Win again in midweek and I would almost go as far as to say our position will be unassailable. 5 straight wins has definitely given us some breathing room though. All the pressure is now on Brentford. 

[Indy 3,283]

Gibson and Buendia were superb, knew it would be a tough game, credit to Wycombe. 
This has to be Hanley’s worst game in ages just looked like a pub player today, missed nearly all the headers he went for and by miles......still if we keep a clean sheet while he has his worst game I’ll happily take that! Good three points.

[king canary 7,578]

31 minutes ago, Van wink said:

Yeh ok, rattled the bar and one cracking save from a free kick. We miss chances because we are not top top quality, Pukki according to MB has been working on his finishing with Idah, that certainly seems to have paid off

It's less those chances, more the Onel/Buendia ones today. Over the course of the season though we've definitely scored less goals than we should of based on the chances we've created. Don't need to be Man City to do more with what we have.

[Mason 47 1,373]

26 minutes ago, Indy said:

Gibson and Buendia were superb, knew it would be a tough game, credit to Wycombe. 
This has to be Hanley’s worst game in ages just looked like a pub player today, missed nearly all the headers he went for and by miles......still if we keep a clean sheet while he has his worst game I’ll happily take that! Good three points.

I'm not usually one to resort to stats, but Hanley won 9 out of 10 aerial duels today (itself out of our 32 won compared to Wycombe's 12. I thought him- and Gibson- were excellent value.

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

Funny thing is we have more points at this stage than 2 years ago. Yet I thought we played better then than now. Probably because we were scoring more and made it more exciting.

[Indy 3,283]

7 minutes ago, Mason 47 said:

I'm not usually one to resort to stats, but Hanley won 9 out of 10 aerial duels today (itself out of our 32 won compared to Wycombe's 12. I thought him- and Gibson- were excellent value.

Not sure where that stats from butI saw Hanley under the ball three times! 😂👍

He certainly wasn’t the Hanley of the last few weeks, but like I said I’d rather this gam3 and Hanley back to his best mid week.

[hogesar 9,618]

1 hour ago, king canary said:

Fair play, you're clearly less nervy than me- that punt over the top, the scissor kick and the potential penalty made me a touch concerned.

As the seasons gone on I have to say this is the least nervy I've generally felt about a Norwich team with a 1-0 lead. The opposition just has such little of the ball and we generally defend well. No matter what we do there will be a couple half chances for the opposition but at no point did I feel like we were under the cosh or a goal was inevitable.

Your general point about finishing is important though. Onel and Buendia missed clear goals and neither even tested the keeper.

[Rivvo 257]

35 minutes ago, keelansgrandad said:

Funny thing is we have more points at this stage than 2 years ago. Yet I thought we played better then than now. Probably because we were scoring more and made it more exciting.

Although we couldn’t buy a clean sheet in that season, it felt like one of the Lambert seasons with the amount conceded, we seem a lot more defensively solid this season, most of the time....

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

44 minutes ago, Rivvo said:

Although we couldn’t buy a clean sheet in that season, it felt like one of the Lambert seasons with the amount conceded, we seem a lot more defensively solid this season, most of the time....

Far less tense this season of course but maybe not quite as exciting. But there is definitely more than one way to skin a cat. End result will be the same.

[Foxy2600 297]

3 hours ago, Downloads said:

Couple of those on Emi were really rough, still when you are bottom i guess thats what you resort to

He's like George Best. Draws the foul and rides it. Just knowing he doesn't have to roll around like Neymar. He didn't have blinder of a game today but was an absolute team player. Just to realise he got a yellow, you know he contributed !!

[Foxy2600 297]

Ahhhh, one step (6 wins apparently 😉) from the 'Bi-Annual Holy Grail' of.........

VAR 🤮

Nowhere near a European competition place....

Fighting with WBA, Fulham, Saaarfampton, Newcastle, Brightonistan, CP etc etc ad-nauseum for 16th place

D'you know - I'll be honest. The top two in the Championship should be able to join the Europa League. There's so many famous teams in it like:

Charleroi

Liberec

Teplice

Bansco

Chrudim

The Mighty.......Pribrham 

To actually achieve a Europa League Place whilst vying for a Prem League promotion. It would make all the ndifference.

 

[Foxy2600 297]

N'Difference..... Famous Central African defender.

[GenerationA47 747]

3 hours ago, Ian said:

I know it's not necessarily predictive, but have you seen our record when scoring first? Remarkable.

That must be P21 W19 D2 L0 now?

 

[WD40 720]

3 hours ago, Indy said:Not sure where that stats from butI saw Hanley under the ball three times! 😂👍

He certainly wasn’t the Hanley of the last few weeks, but like I said I’d rather this gam3 and Hanley back to his best mid week.

Yep fine to look at stats, but Hanley does have an issue reading the flight of the ball and those misses lead to decent chances. Similar happened last week leading to the goal, and a goal we conceded against Rotherham earlier in the season where it bounced past him. Gets caught flat footed a bit.

Fair play he’s cemented his place in the team after not playing much in title season or prem season. 

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

23 minutes ago, WD40 said:

Yep fine to look at stats, but Hanley does have an issue reading the flight of the ball and those misses lead to decent chances. Similar happened last week leading to the goal, and a goal we conceded against Rotherham earlier in the season where it bounced past him. Gets caught flat footed a bit.

Fair play he’s cemented his place in the team after not playing much in title season or prem season. 

I think it only becomes a problem when the ball bounces. He doesn't judge them well. 

[Ian 1,129]

18 minutes ago, keelansgrandad said:

I think it only becomes a problem when the ball bounces. He doesn't judge them well. 

Also today, I think the sun was making it very difficult to judge the ball. Still, he can't be all that bad as I think that's our 13th/14th clean sheet of the season?

[Petriix 2,834]

4 hours ago, keelansgrandad said:

Funny thing is we have more points at this stage than 2 years ago. Yet I thought we played better then than now. Probably because we were scoring more and made it more exciting.

While at the time, 2018-19 was probably our best ever season - all those late goals and high scoring games made for fantastic entertainment - we are, by any objective measure, a far better team today. The balance between attack and defence is so much better. We're controlling games and shutting teams out.

I think a massive factor is that we're not able to see it in the flesh so we're not able to enjoy it as much this time round. For me, this is the best I've ever seen Norwich play.