The midfield sunk us

[Dean Coneys boots 1,406]

Pukki’s stats in an underperforming team are praiseworthy. The defence isn’t always on form but is good enough if protected by midfield. 

what exposed them repeatedly and failed to supply the decent attack was a league one midfield. 

that is where we lost this campaign. A huge part of that was consistently playing an under performing rookie, an over hyped celeb who was not physically up to the job - that being Gilmour.
 

But also a ridiculous self inflicted wound was the bizarre refusal or inability to replace Skipp and Tetty. I get that Normann was meant to do that but he was injured on arrival!! And given that poor old Sorenson can’t buy himself a start despite rarely letting us down- questions must be asked.  

[Midlands Yellow 4,045]

4 minutes ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

Pukki’s stats in an underperforming team are praiseworthy. The defence isn’t always on form but is good enough if protected by midfield. 

what exposed them repeatedly and failed to supply the decent attack was a league one midfield. 

that is where we lost this campaign. A huge part of that was consistently playing an under performing rookie, an over hyped celeb who was not physically up to the job - that being Gilmour.
 

But also a ridiculous self inflicted wound was the bizarre refusal or inability to replace Skipp and Tetty. I get that Normann was meant to do that but he was injured on arrival!! And given that poor old Sorenson can’t buy himself a start despite rarely letting us down- questions must be asked.  

Your making a mountain out of a mole hill, Stu will answer all that needs to be asked in due course. 

[hogesar 9,722]

21 minutes ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

 

what exposed them repeatedly and failed to supply the decent attack was a league one midfield. 

Our midfield isn't League One standard.

[Renskay 36]

The midfield was so bad earlier in the season that the tactics in place were to boot the ball over them to the forwards rather than pass to them and allow them to make a mistake.

[Duncan Edwards 2,261]

9 minutes ago, hogesar said:

Our midfield isn't League One standard.

No, probably Conference at best... wait for it...

[Mike w 46]

Midfield just not up to any standard let alone Premier League. MUST DO BETTER on end of season report. EE marks.- Failure.  

[keelansgrandad 6,679]

34 minutes ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

Pukki’s stats in an underperforming team are praiseworthy. The defence isn’t always on form but is good enough if protected by midfield. 

what exposed them repeatedly and failed to supply the decent attack was a league one midfield. 

that is where we lost this campaign. A huge part of that was consistently playing an under performing rookie, an over hyped celeb who was not physically up to the job - that being Gilmour.
 

But also a ridiculous self inflicted wound was the bizarre refusal or inability to replace Skipp and Tetty. I get that Normann was meant to do that but he was injured on arrival!! And given that poor old Sorenson can’t buy himself a start despite rarely letting us down- questions must be asked.  

Three of last season's midfield have gone and four if you count AT. And they have been replaced by players who were nothing like them. I know Emi's flair was hard to replace and Todd could do the odd trick but the replacements are at best hard working but unfortunately, all very similar. Who just sits like Ollie did? He just solidly kept that position. Filling in the gap so we could play a diamond if we wanted. Our current midfield cannot cope with fast covering midfield players and are normally second best.

Saturday was better because midfield was so open that it was hard to believe the pitch wasn't twice as big as others,

 

[TeemuVanBasten 3,327]

25 minutes ago, hogesar said:

Our midfield isn't League One standard.

I sort of wouldn't be massively surprised if that is where Billy Gilmour ends up, there are plenty of youngsters who come through at a top club, plays an impressive number of games and yet end up there.

Jamie O'Hara and Jay Spearing each played 30+ games each for Spurs and Liverpool respectively, Rohan Ricketts too, Josh McEchrane, Jimmy Smith, Jody Morris, long list of kids who don't fulfil their potential.

 

[Badger 2,408]

1 hour ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

Pukki’s stats in an underperforming team are praiseworthy. The defence isn’t always on form but is good enough if protected by midfield. 

what exposed them repeatedly and failed to supply the decent attack was a league one midfield. 

that is where we lost this campaign. A huge part of that was consistently playing an under performing rookie, an over hyped celeb who was not physically up to the job - that being Gilmour.
 

But also a ridiculous self inflicted wound was the bizarre refusal or inability to replace Skipp and Tetty. I get that Normann was meant to do that but he was injured on arrival!! And given that poor old Sorenson can’t buy himself a start despite rarely letting us down- questions must be asked.  

If you thought that we needed a defensive midfield player, you should have said so before! 

 

 

😇

[Capt. Pants 4,274]

PLM, Normann and Gilmour didn't get up to speed quick enough.

Frustrating because the ability is there, as we showed against Man Utd.

[jaberry2 554]

I'd still like to see Sorensen given the starting position at DM in the championship, but given his injuries we need someone who can challenge him / develop the potential to play in the Prem too. Its a shame we didnt go for someone like James Garner whose doing well at Forest.

[AJ 1,224]

The main reason we have failed this season is we haven't replaced our best two defensive midfield players from last season; Buendia and Skipp. Buendia was far more crucial than you'd think defensively, he was statistically our best defender in the Championship and Skipp was a true CDM who made the formation work well by sitting as an anchor. As such, our midfield is much, much weaker than it was last season even with all the money spent.

We we let Buendia go for big money and bring in Rashica as his attacking replacement which is fine as he has shown promise, but we haven't then replaced the defensive side of his game, or Skipp, in signing PLM who seems to be a box to boxy type player, Gilmour who seems to be useless, and Normann who isn't fit and certainly isn't a true CDM anchor.

But what do I know, I'm just a money wasting paying fan

[AJ 1,224]

5 minutes ago, jaberry2 said:

I'd still like to see Sorensen given the starting position at DM in the championship, but given his injuries we need someone who can challenge him / develop the potential to play in the Prem too. Its a shame we didnt go for someone like James Garner whose doing well at Forest.

I don't know if it is still true, but there was some statistics out there that our best games this season have come with Sorensen on the pitch. I mean, who knew playing a CDM to protect the back 4 would actually work. It's not like we did it for the entirety of last season then completely abandoned it this season for no apparent reason other than our inability to realise the obvious

[Mr Angry 1,570]

3 hours ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

Pukki’s stats in an underperforming team are praiseworthy. The defence isn’t always on form but is good enough if protected by midfield. 

what exposed them repeatedly and failed to supply the decent attack was a league one midfield. 

that is where we lost this campaign. A huge part of that was consistently playing an under performing rookie, an over hyped celeb who was not physically up to the job - that being Gilmour.
 

But also a ridiculous self inflicted wound was the bizarre refusal or inability to replace Skipp and Tetty. I get that Normann was meant to do that but he was injured on arrival!! And given that poor old Sorenson can’t buy himself a start despite rarely letting us down- questions must be asked.  

I can see a job for you somewhere, the Job Description would list ‘Stating the bleeding obvious’ as an Essential Requirement.

[jaberry2 554]

11 minutes ago, AJ said:

The main reason we have failed this season is we haven't replaced our best two defensive midfield players from last season; Buendia and Skipp. Buendia was far more crucial than you'd think defensively, he was statistically our best defender in the Championship and Skipp was a true CDM who made the formation work well by sitting as an anchor. As such, our midfield is much, much weaker than it was last season even with all the money spent.

We we let Buendia go for big money and bring in Rashica as his attacking replacement which is fine as he has shown promise, but we haven't then replaced the defensive side of his game, or Skipp, in signing PLM who seems to be a box to boxy type player, Gilmour who seems to be useless, and Normann who isn't fit and certainly isn't a true CDM anchor.

But what do I know, I'm just a money wasting paying fan

Buendia certainly contributed a lot defensively and offensively & was always going to be hard to find a like for like replacement.

[AJ 1,224]

I don't think we needed a like for like replacement as such, we just needed to consider the loss of that ability when buying midfielders. PLM is certainly not a ball-winning midfielder, and Gilmour and Normann are not the midfield anchors that Skipp was

[jaberry2 554]

The recruitment was poor end of. Sargent wasnt ready for prem, neither was Tzolis. Then you had the likes of Gilmour / PLM who just arent anywhere near what we need.

I laughed when Brentford signed C. Eriksen, as I thought at this stage he was too much of a risk for too much £. However in hindsight his quality has got Brentford playing and Norwich just dont have anyone near the quality to affect a game. Albeit a short term sighting for them, he's had a massive impact where I think the Norwich could of afforded someone who could provide a similar quality / at a similar age rather than opt for the likes of Sargent and Tzolis at that stage.

[Jim Smith 2,339]

I think PLM has looked good in the latter part of the season. He’s certainly good enough to be an important player at championship level.

But what we really need to sort is that defensive midfield position so that when (if) we get back up again we have an established partnership in there which is capable of coping with the physicality/speed of the premier league. Personally I think Sorensen is up to it and has been treated dreadfully by successive coaches but if Smith does not share that view then we need to recruit well in this area this summer. 

[canarybubbles 1,937]

33 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

I think PLM has looked good in the latter part of the season. He’s certainly good enough to be an important player at championship level.

But what we really need to sort is that defensive midfield position so that when (if) we get back up again we have an established partnership in there which is capable of coping with the physicality/speed of the premier league. Personally I think Sorensen is up to it and has been treated dreadfully by successive coaches but if Smith does not share that view then we need to recruit well in this area this summer. 

Sorensen has been used as a sticking plaster. Every time there's a crisis in either defence or midfield, the manager takes him out of the box, plays him out of position, and Sorensen does pretty well on the whole. I can remember one good scoring chance he missed, but apart from that I don't recall any of the kind of bloomers that Gibson and Byram have made over the last few games. But that makes no difference, it seems. As soon as the crisis is over, back into the box he goes.

If I were Sorensen, I'd be tempted to put in a transfer request. I'm sure lots of Championship teams would be interested in him and some might actually play him on a regular basis. Time is moving on, and his career is going nowhere at Carrow Road.

Edited April 19, 2022 by canarybubbles

[Dean Coneys boots 1,406]

4 hours ago, hogesar said:

Our midfield isn't League One standard.

I was at Charlton when we played a league one side who looked very much our match in the middle of the park. In fact they edged it first half. At no point did we look two divisions better

[hogesar 9,722]

3 minutes ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

I was at Charlton when we played a league one side who looked very much our match in the middle of the park. In fact they edged it first half. At no point did we look two divisions better

No way you're using that as your argument 😂😂

Y'know, instead of the entire careers of each of our players, or the fact that some of those midfielders won the championship at a canter, some of them twice recently. Others played in the top French division etc etc.

But, using your argument our recruitment in the first Prem season under Webber must have been absolute top notch - we beat Man City in a one-off game so clearly our midfield was better than there's. 😂😂😂😂

Edited April 19, 2022 by hogesar
hahahhahahahah

[Dean Coneys boots 1,406]

As a unit- which is what counts-  I think they have very much operated at league one level. Not protecting the defence and creating very little and weighing in with no goals. 

[hogesar 9,722]

2 minutes ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

As a unit- which is what counts-  I think they have very much operated at league one level. Not protecting the defence and creating very little and weighing in with no goals. 

Well, Normann has scored, PLM has scored, Kenny has scored. Other than that you're right.

Again, calling our midfield League One level is really, really stupid hyperbole which I thought you'd accept but instead you've doubled-down. If that were true we'd have the record worst points total.

[BigFish 1,988]

3 minutes ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

As a unit- which is what counts-  I think they have very much operated at league one level. Not protecting the defence and creating very little and weighing in with no goals. 

This season only Krul & Pukki really looked the part, so if we define midfield as everyone from our No 1 to our No 9 sunk us then we could all agree.

[Google Bot 3,298]

3 hours ago, jaberry2 said:

Buendia certainly contributed a lot defensively and offensively & was always going to be hard to find a like for like replacement.

He's such a team player too.  I'm not sure Rashica offers such unselfishness offensively.

[Terminally Yellow 2,477]

7 hours ago, Dean Coneys boots said:

Pukki’s stats in an underperforming team are praiseworthy. The defence isn’t always on form but is good enough if protected by midfield. 

what exposed them repeatedly and failed to supply the decent attack was a league one midfield. 

that is where we lost this campaign. A huge part of that was consistently playing an under performing rookie, an over hyped celeb who was not physically up to the job - that being Gilmour.

But also a ridiculous self inflicted wound was the bizarre refusal or inability to replace Skipp and Tetty. I get that Normann was meant to do that but he was injured on arrival!! And given that poor old Sorenson can’t buy himself a start despite rarely letting us down- questions must be asked.  

No **** Sherlock

[Branston 56]

Lack of any midfield this season .

Resulted in the forwards feeding off scraps and the defence trying their best to keep the score down .

Did not realise how much Skipp would be missed .

[GJL Mid-Norfolk Canary 1,797]

We needed an upgrade on the midfield that we were relegated with 2 seasons ago. The fact that McLean just as 2 seasons ago is in course to play 32+ games again , tells us all we need to know.

Webber mentioned we needed a profile of bigger stronger players in that dept to compete in the premier league...and went and got the complete opposite in Gilmour.

I'd hoped that Lees-Melou would have been a midfield upgrade but the fact that he was unable to dislodge McLean for large parts must make him a poor signing, although there has been signs of improvement in recent weeks.

I'm reasonably happy with what our squad is mist likely to look like next season in the Championship in all areas barring the midfield.

The current choice of McLean , Lees Melou , Sorenson and the injury plagued Rupp might just about be servicable in that league ..but to really push for the promiotion places we will need more legs