Lots of winnable games coming up

[Mullet 293]

The fixture list is now in our favour until the season end. If the players give 7/10 performances in games we could jump past Leeds, Brentford, Watford and Burnley.

Survival is definitely do-able but do the players have the balls?

[Chelm Canary 404]

I'm not sure about the 7/10 bit. 

We won't ease past teams with the players we have without going 9/10 each game and even then it will be a tight game and could go either way. 

Edited March 4, 2022 by Chelm Canary

[Midlands Yellow 3,985]

5 minutes ago, Mullet said:

The fixture list is now in our favour until the season end. If the players give 7/10 performances in games we could jump past Leeds, Brentford, Watford and Burnley.

Survival is definitely do-able but do the players have the balls?

It’s March, just over 2 months of the season left and this theory has been doing the rounds since last August. 

[Sjb 11]

Agree with this and the Chelsea game move, gives us a very handy 20 day break to recover from any niggles and to regroup and work on things in training to give the last few games a good push. I don't understand the negativity of the game move. We field and go for both games either side and play some fringe players for Chelsea 

[canarybubbles 1,915]

7 hours ago, Sjb said:

Agree with this and the Chelsea game move, gives us a very handy 20 day break to recover from any niggles and to regroup and work on things in training to give the last few games a good push. I don't understand the negativity of the game move. We field and go for both games either side and play some fringe players for Chelsea 

 

But we have to do something with those 20 days. Continuing to hoof it up to an isolated and demoralised Pukki, playing Placheta because he is fast when we have full backs who could do a better job in that position since they have brains, and fielding a midfield of McLean, Gilmour and one other (but no one playing as a committed DM), and we could have 200 days, it would still make no difference.

[Capt. Pants 4,234]

3 hours ago, canarybubbles said:

 

But we have to do something with those 20 days. Continuing to hoof it up to an isolated and demoralised Pukki, playing Placheta because he is fast when we have full backs who could do a better job in that position since they have brains, and fielding a midfield of McLean, Gilmour and one other (but no one playing as a committed DM), and we could have 200 days, it would still make no difference.

Harsh, but fair.

[Bomber 48]

Since when does this team have any winnable games 

[Canary Jedi 579]

Most of our games have been winnable. Only a rare few where we just didn’t turn up. Leicester, Brighton and Man United at home for example. Could easily have gone in our favour

[cambridgeshire canary 6,720]

4 minutes ago, Bomber said:

Since when does this team have any winnable games 

Depends on what version of our team decides to turn up. If it's the team that stated at liverpool we lose.. But if it's the team that played the last 20 minutes against liverpool we may have a chance of getting some wins

[Bomber 48]

6 minutes ago, Canary Jedi said:

Most of our games have been winnable. Only a rare few where we just didn’t turn up. Leicester, Brighton and Man United at home for example. Could easily have gone in our favour

The problem is they did’nt and that is what makes it such a failure - maybe I said it wrong in that yes all games are winnable but there is no confidence that when we do play a game we can win it - even today I have no faith and believe it has a draw written all over it although would love to be proved wrong 

[BroadstairsR 2,168]

40 minutes ago, Canary Jedi said:

Most of our games have been winnable. Only a rare few where we just didn’t turn up. Leicester, Brighton and Man United at home for example. Could easily have gone in our favour

Agreed, and you can add Newcastle away to that list. We were 'Ronaldo'd' out of a well deserved point against Manchester United in particular.

The fact that so many encounters have had results determined by fine margins suggest that perhaps our players are not quite so much out of their depth as we lead ourselves to believe. However, the table doesn't lie and the ignominious list of hammerings against the big guns has regularly brought us down to earth, and made our goal difference sky-high.

I am inclined to think that if we fail to win today, then the fact that there may well ve other winnable games in the pipeline could well be academic. Brighton was a kick in the teeth, a loss today would be a kick in the goolies.

We need to haul Brentford in for starters and our other rivals have been picking up useful points in recent games, whilst we haven't.

Forever the optimist, I am expecting a narrow win today but nevertheless will need to have my palad khik placed strategically in my underwear to bring luck for the full ninety, as uncomfortable as that may be. My goolies would be protected, though.

Edited March 5, 2022 by BroadstairsR

[Robert N. LiM 4,356]

2 minutes ago, BroadstairsR said:

The fact that so many encounters have had results determined by fine margins suggest that perhaps our players are not quite so much out of their depth as we lead ourselves to believe

Agree with this. The trouble is that if you're only slightly out of your depth, that means you lose almost every game, especially against the top teams, and that in turn puts intolerable pressure on the 'winnable' games. 

As @Parma Ham's gone mouldyalways says, it's the lack of weapons. Lots of the other struggling clubs have a player or two who can really hurt teams. So they usually lose, but they always have a sniff, even against the top teams. We just don't have anyone who'd scare the opposition. Rashica is looking as though he might come close to that, but obviously time is running out. 

[Monty13 2,234]

You need to score goals to win games, that’s our biggest issue.

[BroadstairsR 2,168]

20 minutes ago, Robert N. LiM said:

Agree with this. The trouble is that if you're only slightly out of your depth, that means you lose almost every game, especially against the top teams, and that in turn puts intolerable pressure on the 'winnable' games. 

As @Parma Ham's gone mouldyalways says, it's the lack of weapons. Lots of the other struggling clubs have a player or two who can really hurt teams. So they usually lose, but they always have a sniff, even against the top teams. We just don't have anyone who'd scare the opposition. Rashica is looking as though he might come close to that, but obviously time is running out. 

Good point.

Pukki has been our weapon in the Chumps, but we now lack a Saint-Maximin, Zaha, Sarr or even a Toney in our current line-up. A player who can regularly turn a game in a moment of brilliance despite being quite ordinary for most of it. Points winners.

You never know, perhaps young Rowe will be that man, one day.

Edited March 5, 2022 by BroadstairsR

[duke63 542]

Win or bust today. Especially as Leeds loook a lot more organised.

[Robert N. LiM 4,356]

3 minutes ago, BroadstairsR said:

Good point.

Pukki has been our weapon in the Chumps, but we lack a Saint-Maximin, Zaha, Sarr or even a Toney in our current line-up. A player who can regularly turn a game in a moment of brilliance despite being quite ordinary for most of it. 

You never know, perhaps young Rowe will be that man, one day.

The Pukki-Buendia axis was the weapon, I think. Not only did we lose Emi, we lost a large part of what made Teemu effective.

At the risk of making people laugh, I don't think we've seen the last of Tzolis, either. One day...

[For the future 65]

When do we start winning games I know when we are back in the championship .

[For the future 65]

15 hours ago, Mullet said:

The fixture list is now in our favour until the season end. If the players give 7/10 performances in games we could jump past Leeds, Brentford, Watford and Burnley.

Survival is definitely do-able but do the players have the balls?

 

[For the future 65]

The players that we have got are championship players not premier league players and the club know this as this happens every time we go up and back down with the premier league money.

[BroadstairsR 2,168]

35 minutes ago, Robert N. LiM said:

The Pukki-Buendia axis was the weapon, I think. Not only did we lose Emi, we lost a large part of what made Teemu effective.

At the risk of making people laugh, I don't think we've seen the last of Tzolis, either. One day...

Agreed.

I think that a lot of the evaluation of Tzolis has been lost in the fact that his signing has proven to be of little value for this season's task, when many were expecting a Greek George Best to burst on the scene.

Webber has been regularly criticised for using funds as future investment when the need was for this season, but I don't think that this is quite fair. That the youngster has been a disappointment is undeniable. That he has played so diminished apart in this season's campaign has caused a degree of ire against the player, the Sporting Director and the recruiting team in general. I believe a lot more was expected all round, but it seems to have been a difficult year for the boy instead.   

I still think he'll come good and prove to be money well spent.

 

[BroadstairsR 2,168]

58 minutes ago, duke63 said:

Win or bust today. Especially as Leeds loook a lot more organised.

Not today, though ... although the Leicester goal was under siege towards the end.

If we win today, we will only be 3 points shy of Leeds. Same number of games.

[Mullet 293]

18 hours ago, Mullet said:

The fixture list is now in our favour until the season end. If the players give 7/10 performances in games we could jump past Leeds, Brentford, Watford and Burnley.

Survival is definitely do-able but do the players have the balls?

Clearly they don't have the balls. Pathetic performance at home when we needed to grab the chance. Last nail in our coffin this is

[cambridgeshire canary 6,720]

Play like this and it's -50 to our goal difference and 0 points..

[yellow_belly 226]

Yes, can’t wait until the Championship kicks off. We should win a few. 🤷‍♂️

[Canary Jedi 579]

4 hours ago, Bomber said:

The problem is they did’nt and that is what makes it such a failure - maybe I said it wrong in that yes all games are winnable but there is no confidence that when we do play a game we can win it - even today I have no faith and believe it has a draw written all over it although would love to be proved wrong 

Another example today. Brentford won the game without breaking sweat. They were there for the taking. We just weren’t up for it. 

[Parma Ham's gone mouldy 2,220]

5 hours ago, Robert N. LiM said:

Agree with this. The trouble is that if you're only slightly out of your depth, that means you lose almost every game, especially against the top teams, and that in turn puts intolerable pressure on the 'winnable' games. 

As @Parma Ham's gone mouldyalways says, it's the lack of weapons. Lots of the other struggling clubs have a player or two who can really hurt teams. So they usually lose, but they always have a sniff, even against the top teams. We just don't have anyone who'd scare the opposition. Rashica is looking as though he might come close to that, but obviously time is running out. 

Indeed. 

Weapons are not necessarily good players, and good players are not necessarily weapons. 

Brentford had two, we had none. Toney is awkward and mercurial, Eriksen is an injury risk and required considerable recovery fitness. 

Hiwever there is nothing new in set pieces being important - free kicks, corners, penalties - nor is there anything revolutionary in the old-timers phrase ‘both boxes’.

We made an unnecessary, suicidal decision to sell Buendia pre-season. It cost us a weapon and a corollary half-weapon which we never replaced. 

To do this pre-Premier season when we did have the money, the limelight and the leverage not to do it, was (as Farke himself said) ‘our choice’.

It was a bad choice. It hasn’t worked. I never thought it would, very few people in football that I know did.
 

The lack of money at Norwich still meant a £25m net spend was possible. Keep Buendia, throw all available money at a Skipp. Maybe punt on an Eriksen type. 

Some at Norwich were ‘keen to do different’. They over-reached and over-believed. They ignored all noise, some of which was warning them - before a ball was kicked - they were about to walk off a cliff, in a triumph of belief over pragmatism. 

Billy Gilmour’s signing only makes sense if you believed he would sit in front of the back four - with space and time - and pop the ball around. 

£60m on Tzolis-Sargent-Rashica make sense if you believe them to be appreciating low-risk long term assets. Not here-and-now Premier League players. Rashica has done fine. He is a good player. Not a weapon. Teams don’t change their plans because he’s there, they just keep an eye on him. 

The lack of physicality and the appreciation that we would defend a lot, need goals from set pieces, do hard running, need tactically smart and instinctively defensive-minded players, perhaps even some nasty gamesmanship and game-managing players, is not hindsight. 

If you do not have weapons teams come at you more, change less from their ideal game plan and you are immediately at a notable strategic disadvantage. Of course you then make ‘mistakes’. Except they are not really mistakes. They are the inevitable consequence of poor maths. 

Parma 

[Robert N. LiM 4,356]

1 hour ago, Parma Ham's gone mouldy said:

We made an unnecessary, suicidal decision to sell Buendia pre-season.

Possibly going over old ground here, but is this something you know? You don't accept Webber's account of the sale, that Buendía had essentially decided he was going? Genuine question.

[Parma Ham's gone mouldy 2,220]

1 hour ago, Robert N. LiM said:

Possibly going over old ground here, but is this something you know? You don't accept Webber's account of the sale, that Buendía had essentially decided he was going? Genuine question.

Of course not. It was a conscious Carrow Road decision. Farke also stated this. 

The subsequent noise:  ‘wanted to go’..’great offer’..‘pushed for it’…’agent turned his head’ …are all post hoc justifications for a strategic decision that Norwich made. 

It is unheard of for key assets and footballing weapons to be sold pre-Premiership season. Economics may have been the driver, the wish to complete the Tzolis-Sargent-Rashica deals, finding a place for Gilmour, allowing space for Cantwell to be the next big star asset…take your pick. 

After a couple of weeks of headlines, goals, assists, MOMs, fan-love even any ‘issues’ (which always exist, are always there, with almost any half-decent player and their agent) melt away regardless. 

It was football camouflage for ‘We want to shake up the squad, we have no money, Villa have cash, it suits all parties, we’ll do it and blame the player’. It’s standard football PR.

Incidentally Jonny Howson was at a Norwich Club dinner not many months ago. He was welcomed with open arms. He too ‘demanded to leave..falling out…wanted to go…after that no turning back etc…’. Oh and we wanted-needed £5m quid. 

Go figure.

Parma 

[Iwans Big Toe 312]

On 04/03/2022 at 22:22, Mullet said:

The fixture list is now in our favour until the season end. If the players give 7/10 performances in games we could jump past Leeds, Brentford, Watford and Burnley.

Survival is definitely do-able but do the players have the balls?

Well this didn't age well 🙂