Are we still a work in progress?

[cambridgeshire canary 6,669]

Connor Southwell sure seems to think so.

 

 

Edited July 13, 2022 by cambridgeshire canary

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

We’ve played 2 games in pre season and there’s 7 weeks of the transfer window left, what do you reckon?

[vlad666 203]

It’s only pre-season and results don't matter but it doesn’t stop me having a bad feeling about dean smith. I hope I’m wrong but I just don’t have any confidence in him. 

[Wings of a Sparrow 1,402]

1 minute ago, vlad666 said:

It’s only pre-season and results don't matter but it doesn’t stop me having a bad feeling about dean smith. I hope I’m wrong but I just don’t have any confidence in him. 

What exactly has he done or not done to make you arrive at this decision?

[TheGunnShow 5,905]

By definition, what evolves is ALWAYS a work in progress.

[vlad666 203]

7 minutes ago, Wings of a Sparrow said:

What exactly has he done or not done to make you arrive at this decision?

Since he’s been here I still can’t see what he’s trying to achieve. I don’t see any improvement from any player and I’d argue  a lot have gone backwards. The lack of creativity and style of play in his formations is a huge concern. Lastly (and this might because we got accustomed to this under Farke) there seems to be a lack of movement from players when in possession. The players seem rigid and don’t seem to have many options and resort to a lot of direct balls. There’s a distinct lack of flow to our game and find it quite an old fashioned approach. 

[JB 115]

31 minutes ago, Hank shoots Skyler said:

We’ve played 2 games in pre season and there’s 7 weeks of the transfer window left, what do you reckon?

3 games

[Nuff Said 5,079]

4 minutes ago, JB said:

3 games

In that case, we’re screwed. 😉

Edited July 13, 2022 by Nuff Said

[Capt. Pants 4,194]

The progress is it highlights the need for a creative midfielder. I might be wrong but having watched most of the Lynn game, the style appears to be to hit long balls to the flanks or over the top. This won't work against Chump teams parking the bus.

 

[Nora's Ghost 157]

Progress? That stopped when Buendia walked away and turned the lights off behind him.

 

New owners or no progress. That is the truth of the matter.

 

 

[JB 115]

17 minutes ago, Nuff Said said:

In that case, we’re screwed. 😉

Absolutely boogered

[Google Bot 3,255]

46 minutes ago, vlad666 said:

It’s only pre-season and results don't matter but it doesn’t stop me having a bad feeling about dean smith.

Getting the same vibes too, I'm hoping it's still just a case of adjusting from a character like Farke who carried a strong identity and footballing philosophy.

Past season hasn't helped of course, think we're just needing a run of good results to build confidence back into the team.  Opening month is going to be very important.

[hogesar 9,609]

In our 2019 Championship Title win, we played Kings Lynn and won 2-1. We also lost 1-0 to Charlton.

I'm sure everyone remembers the 2009 debacle at home to Colchester. For those that have managed to remove it from memory, congratulations, but we lost 7-1. That was the first game of the season having had an unbeaten pre-season which involved drawing against a Manchester United XI, beating Crystal Palace, Wigan and sticking 7 past Dartford.

The point? Anyone reading into pre-season is wasting their time.

 

 

[Worthy Nigelton 1,037]

32 minutes ago, vlad666 said:

Since he’s been here I still can’t see what he’s trying to achieve. I don’t see any improvement from any player and I’d argue  a lot have gone backwards. The lack of creativity and style of play in his formations is a huge concern. Lastly (and this might because we got accustomed to this under Farke) there seems to be a lack of movement from players when in possession. The players seem rigid and don’t seem to have many options and resort to a lot of direct balls. There’s a distinct lack of flow to our game and find it quite an old fashioned approach. 

Pretty comprehensive list there... and all of it reasoned, true and justified.

However, we need to give him time to put his stamp on things but I'm in the 'sceptical but hopeful' camp too. 

[Gordon Bennett 780]

I'd say every team is a work in progress in the early stages of their pre season. Just a throwaway journalist's line.

 

[shefcanary 2,377]

1 hour ago, Capt. Pants said:

The progress is it highlights the need for a creative midfielder. I might be wrong but having watched most of the Lynn game, the style appears to be to hit long balls to the flanks or over the top. This won't work against Chump teams parking the bus.

Agreed, I thought the last 15 minutes of the first half last night was something to build on, Lungi had us ticking in midfield but was always having to over-reach with slightly longer balls forward.  Cantwell unfortunately had a case of the Kenny's, running around like a headless chicken rather than looking for space to receive the ball and look for those searching passes.

As you say, Chumps teams will (initially at least until they see we are crap) sit back and wait for us to overload on them.  The only hope there is that if we don't find that creative midfielder, teams will then be more adventurous when playing us and we can pick them off on the break.  

Or Sara might just be what we need.......

Edited July 13, 2022 by shefcanary

[raunds canary 214]

52 minutes ago, hogesar said:

In our 2019 Championship Title win, we played Kings Lynn and won 2-1. We also lost 1-0 to Charlton.

I'm sure everyone remembers the 2009 debacle at home to Colchester. For those that have managed to remove it from memory, congratulations, but we lost 7-1. That was the first game of the season having had an unbeaten pre-season which involved drawing against a Manchester United XI, beating Crystal Palace, Wigan and sticking 7 past Dartford.

The point? Anyone reading into pre-season is wasting their time.

 

 

2009 opening day started off with a carnival atmosphere and clappers and flags. 20 minutes in we were 5-0  down and season tickets were being thrown and Bryan Gunn. The rest is history 

[Hank shoots Skyler 2,094]

1 hour ago, JB said:

3 games

Well in that case

 

[king canary 7,559]

2 hours ago, hogesar said:

In our 2019 Championship Title win, we played Kings Lynn and won 2-1. We also lost 1-0 to Charlton.

I'm sure everyone remembers the 2009 debacle at home to Colchester. For those that have managed to remove it from memory, congratulations, but we lost 7-1. That was the first game of the season having had an unbeaten pre-season which involved drawing against a Manchester United XI, beating Crystal Palace, Wigan and sticking 7 past Dartford.

The point? Anyone reading into pre-season is wasting their time.

 

 

THIS. I can't understand how people follow football and don't get this.

I remember going to watch us v Palace (who were a Championship side at the time) in the pre-season before the Lambert Premier League season. We looked rubbish, we then finished 12th.

[norfolkngood 1,086]

Pre season is just that fitness and working on things 

results is not really important we could of beat kings lynn 10 -0 last night does not mean we will start well in league 

as for work in Progress i felt we were on the right track and a good base at the start of last season 

we had Farke and New signings 

i think that has put us back a bit 

the new signings were nothing like PL quality and no great resale value 

so we have to get that back on track get more Potential more strength / Pace into the team ready for when / if we go back up 

[Indy 3,283]

3 hours ago, Hank shoots Skyler said:

We’ve played 2 games in pre season and there’s 7 weeks of the transfer window left, what do you reckon?

I think that’s a question to Smith! There’s lots on here who kept on going about this summer rebuild into a smith squad! Well 7 weeks gone and our first three games were with the same Farke squad! I’m not sure that’s Smiths team….😉

[astro 356]

The results in preseason matchs might not be much of an indicator but the style of play is, and so far, it’s looking like the same turgid dross he had us playing last season. I really hope I’m wrong and get to eat my words. 

[hogesar 9,609]

2 hours ago, king canary said:

THIS. I can't understand how people follow football and don't get this.

I remember going to watch us v Palace (who were a Championship side at the time) in the pre-season before the Lambert Premier League season. We looked rubbish, we then finished 12th.

Yep. Equally we could score 8 goals every pre season match and record our lowest total of goals ever in a championship season. Its genuinely that irrelevant.

[Robert N. LiM 4,220]

the combination of live-streamed friendlies and social media is hilariously toxic. 

I can see why, if you lived in Lynn, you'd go along to watch NCFC up close. But basically these are just training sessions. Absolutely pointless reading anything into them. Maybe the last two friendlies, at a push, but even then. And it's also worth saying that Farke essentially used the first six games of both our title-winning seasons as friendlies. It's a long season down here.

[Robert N. LiM 4,220]

2 hours ago, king canary said:

THIS. I can't understand how people follow football and don't get this.

I remember going to watch us v Palace (who were a Championship side at the time) in the pre-season before the Lambert Premier League season. We looked rubbish, we then finished 12th.

Exactly. I went to a couple of friendlies in that era when we'd basically given up on getting promotion so had a couple of 'prestige friendlies' against Premier League teams. Realised it was a total waste of time and vowed never to go again.

The only thing that would change my mind would be if we had one against Borussia Mönchengladbach...

[king canary 7,559]

26 minutes ago, Robert N. LiM said:

the combination of live-streamed friendlies and social media is hilariously toxic. 

I can see why, if you lived in Lynn, you'd go along to watch NCFC up close. But basically these are just training sessions. Absolutely pointless reading anything into them. Maybe the last two friendlies, at a push, but even then. And it's also worth saying that Farke essentially used the first six games of both our title-winning seasons as friendlies. It's a long season down here.

Yeah, the amount of people begging for streams on twitter is bizarre. Sounds harsh but if you've got nothing better to do than watch a dodgy one camera stream of us playing 90 minutes v Kings Lynn then you might need to get a life.

[repman 633]

1 hour ago, astro said:

The results in preseason matchs might not be much of an indicator but the style of play is, and so far, it’s looking like the same turgid dross he had us playing last season. I really hope I’m wrong and get to eat my words. 

It's clear that the majority of work so far has gone into pressing and generally what we do off the ball. As that was clearly the area the coaching area identified as our problem last season that is fair enough. Last night we had pretty much all the ball so those areas didn't come into focus. The Marseille game should be a good marker for this to judge any improvement. However now the whole squad is back from the summer, there will need to be work done on how we are going to manufacture chances, adding a creative midfielder might help, but there's plenty of sides that'll be well organised enough that an actual plan will be required and not just hoping for a moment of inspiration.

[Indy 3,283]

So without signing anyone else and given the new loan signings coming from injury, Sara to be confirmed, in 17 days time we kick off against Cardiff……what will our strongest starting 11 look like?
 

Krull

Aarons, Hanley, Gibson. Giannoulis

PLM, McLean

Sagent, Dowell, Rashica

Pukki……..

Who’d have thought with 17 days to go till kickoff we haven’t really made any real changes for whatever the reasons. Cantwell still here, Aarons and other players not getting the bids is it troubling? lots of posters on here from the poorest season I can remember said give Smith a couple transfer windows to build his squad, are you a little frustrated at the lack of changes? Or are you all confident there’s more to come in the next two weeks?

[AJ 1,218]

Watching the friendlies so far Norwich have looked virtually indifferent from last season where we had next to no goal threat. Don't get me wrong, we'll probably still end up scoring plenty mainly because we have Pukki but it is a slight concern. I was expecting to perhaps see a complete change of system of philosophy to our football like the Farke era kind of change, but we haven't seen that. If anything we played more hopelessly hoofed long balls against Kings Lynn than I think I've seen of any Norwich team in the entire time I've supported them.

[hogesar 9,609]

39 minutes ago, Indy said:

So without signing anyone else and given the new loan signings coming from injury, Sara to be confirmed, in 17 days time we kick off against Cardiff……what will our strongest starting 11 look like?
 

Krull

Aarons, Hanley, Gibson. Giannoulis

PLM, McLean

Sagent, Dowell, Rashica

Pukki……..

Who’d have thought with 17 days to go till kickoff we haven’t really made any real changes for whatever the reasons. Cantwell still here, Aarons and other players not getting the bids is it troubling? lots of posters on here from the poorest season I can remember said give Smith a couple transfer windows to build his squad, are you a little frustrated at the lack of changes? Or are you all confident there’s more to come in the next two weeks?

When people said give Smith time, it wasn't just to build a squad - I don't know anyone who was expecting wholesale changes when it's a team full of proven Championship winners - but to get across a style of play - to improve on the fundamentals he needs and to condition the players to that.

For example, it was clear that counter-pressing was something we didn't do under Farke. When training, you train for the style of play you're implementing - there's some good articles about it from coaches. We couldn't persistently press how a Smith team would because we weren't conditioned for it.

I also don't think your starting 11 is likely to be right. I imagine Omabomidele will be a starter, as well as one of Cantwell, Rowe or Springett personally. 

We've then also got far more 'options' during a game with the likes of Onel, Hugill, Idah, Sinani which we lacked last season.