What did you expect?

[Robert N. LiM 4,429]

I'm interested in how angry everyone seems to be at the moment - because my memory is that most people saw the play-offs as the limit of our capabilities this season. And I'd suspect the average prediction was something like 8th. We're currently 7th. So we're doing pretty much exactly what people thought we would, yet everyone's dissatisfied.

My explanation is that we briefly looked good at the start of the season, so expectations were raised from pre-season levels.

And I also suspect that Ipswich's current run is making us feel a lot worse about our team's form.

But maybe I'm missing something. So can I ask -

Are we doing worse than you expected before a ball was kicked this season?

 

[Graham Paddons Beard 2,435]

3 minutes ago, Robert N. LiM said:

I'm interested in how angry everyone seems to be at the moment - because my memory is that most people saw the play-offs as the limit of our capabilities this season. And I'd suspect the average prediction was something like 8th. We're currently 7th. So we're doing pretty much exactly what people thought we would, yet everyone's dissatisfied.

My explanation is that we briefly looked good at the start of the season, so expectations were raised from pre-season levels.

And I also suspect that Ipswich's current run is making us feel a lot worse about our team's form.

But maybe I'm missing something. So can I ask -

Are we doing worse than you expected before a ball was kicked this season?

 

I’d answer that slightly different Robert. 
 

I never “expect” anything from Norwich as the last 50 years mostly make that a silly thing to do. I didn’t expect any of the promotions and actually I didn’t expect being so poor in the Prem either. 
 

I certainly didn’t expect to win the league under Farke , or Worthy or Brown or go up under Lambert  . 

What I feel today is disappointment because we aren’t doing very well in the last few games. Not expectation.  
 

I hate the old soldier “ seen it all before” routine, but I honestly can’t recall expecting and then having that expectation realised . I didn’t expect to beat Boro at Wembley nor did I expect to beat Brum in Cardiff. 
 

The only thing you can be certain about it seems is the uncertainty! 

[repman 635]

I expected much of the same from the end of last year, I know we had injuries but I found the lack of any progress in the side from when Wagner took over to be a worry. Now the start of the season gave me some renewed hope that he'd found something but I think it looks more like we caught some teams out early. I also think there's a similar element to last season under Smith where the fixture list gave him a preferable run.

However in the last few games it's notable how the midfield box we formed early on in the year during build up seems to have disappeared, we're also not really pressing as much as was promised. I've no doubt that the injuries to Barnes and Sargent are a factor in this but I think there's an element of Wagner shrinking into himself, becoming more focused on not losing instead of winning games. Yesterday was a good example of that I thought, selecting McCallum over Giannoulis strikes me as a defence first move, and his post match comments were either him lying or actually saying the plan had been to go there and soak up pressure.

 

[Capt. Pants 4,263]

At the moment we are in the table where I expected us to be but on current form we will struggle to hold that.

I'm not seeing an awful lot of progress on the pitch though; I'm still not sure what Wagnerball is and at times neither do the players.

Injuries might be a mitigating factor but even so I don't understand why Wagner isn't trying to embed a style of play throughout the squad. We seem overloaded by wingers and wide players who vary from the quite decent to utterly dreadful. Trouble is Wagner seems to bring on the utterly dreadful with his substitutions.

We just need to try and stay in touch with the play-offs until Sarge gets fit.

And yes it us hugely frustrating our neighbours down the road are making it look so easy and look everything we aren't, at the moment.

[Conrad 171]

Kind of where I expected before the season started in terms of league position. But what I was expecting was an improvement in performances from last season, with a clear strategy in how we would play. We started the season well but without Sargent and Barnes it is clear that the remainder aren't up to it. 

[Ulfotto 640]

Totally agree, yesterday was a good point against the team who lost the playoff final. Don’t understand the negativity yes we didn’t play very well but point away from home in the championship is a good result.

We are in and around the playoffs as expected.

 

[Indy 3,307]

Everyone would be content with our start but the Binner effect is driving a big negative into this season’s narrative!

Personally we have signed far too many older players, yes we needed some older heads but not six of them….Rowe, Sara & Sargent stand out this season the rest not so much! 

Edited October 8, 2023 by Indy

[ricardo 7,395]

I expected the obvious weakness in defence to be addressed.

No sign of it so far.

[norfolkngood 1,087]

1 minute ago, ricardo said:

I expected the obvious weakness in defence to be addressed.

No sign of it so far.

That would of been my No1 choice and i think a real CDM with energy / pace and a bit of steel and drive would have solved that 

[FCC 76]

League position is better than I expected, but the lack of identifiable playing style and leadership is what I expected.
 

Hoping the new DoF will make his mark regarding a playing style. 

[hogesar 9,709]

We are about where I thought. We've had relatively kind fixtures and were it not for the injuries I'd have expected another 3 or so points.

Hopefully the international break gets Sainz back involved properly and Forshaw in a position to play 90 mins too 

[S_81 816]

24 minutes ago, norfolkngood said:

That would of been my No1 choice and i think a real CDM with energy / pace and a bit of steel and drive would have solved that 

Don’t mention a CDM - we’ve all been told a million times on here by the geniuses amongst us why Wagnerball doesn’t require one. 

[S_81 816]

1 hour ago, Robert N. LiM said:

I'm interested in how angry everyone seems to be at the moment - because my memory is that most people saw the play-offs as the limit of our capabilities this season. And I'd suspect the average prediction was something like 8th. We're currently 7th. So we're doing pretty much exactly what people thought we would, yet everyone's dissatisfied.

My explanation is that we briefly looked good at the start of the season, so expectations were raised from pre-season levels.

And I also suspect that Ipswich's current run is making us feel a lot worse about our team's form.

But maybe I'm missing something. So can I ask -

Are we doing worse than you expected before a ball was kicked this season?

 

I thought we’d finish bottom half and I still do. I suspect we’ll be much closer to that come the end of October. We had an easy start that flattered Wagner. But his incompetency is again evident for those who want to see it. I still think that a more simplistic manager that does the basics well would get more out of this squad. As limited as the depth of the squad may be. 

[Creedence Clearwater Couto 1,289]

Mid table was my pre season prediction, but my expectation is we should always be challenging for the top six. 

Forget our current position. Our current form is about 18th in the league. We’ll never replicate that early season form minus Barnes and Sargent - especially when Wagner tries to play the same way with less capable replacements. He has to find a different way of playing. In the last two away games we’ve allowed the opposition 40 shots on our goal. If we were at one of the better teams in the division, we could easily have had another two Plymouth results. 

[Mello Yello 2,298]

What I didn't expect is that our rivals 40 clicks down the road would be currently second in the league and eleven points healthier than us at this point of the season....

[Making Plans 936]

I expected us to finish +/- 18th.

Based on our current form, and the lack of quality in our squad, I have not changed my mind.

In fact, unless something dramatic changes, we could easily do worse than 18th.

My only disappointment is that it looks like my initial assessment seems about right, although at the time of making it I was hoping to be be proved wrong.

 

 

 

[Midlands Yellow 4,018]

6 minutes ago, Mello Yello said:

What I didn't expect is that our rivals 40 clicks down the road would be currently second in the league and eleven points healthier than us at this point of the season....

Don’t panic. The experts on here told us it would be an easy 6 points if we met this this season only 9 months ago. 

[City fan 78]

5 minutes ago, Midlands Yellow said:

Don’t panic. The experts on here told us it would be an easy 6 points if we met this this season only 9 months ago. 

Coco the fecking clown. 

[Midlands Yellow 4,018]

1 minute ago, City fan said:

Coco the fecking clown. 

I’ll dig it up, you’ll be stunned who made this prophecy. 

[shefcanary 2,435]

We are where I hoped we'd be coming into the international break - just at the edge of the play-offs. Why? Well invariably a good season develops over time, we aren't looking unbeatable after just a couple of months. 

However I am becoming extremely disappointed with Wagner's management. He is slow to respond. Instead of adapting tactics to get the best of the resources available to him, he perseveres with his preferred tactical set up and is making skilled players look absolutely dog**** at times by not playing to their strengths.

Saturday was just awful. His decision to stop playing on 65 minutes with the skills available was very poor. We allowed them back into the game. You can defend easier by playing in the oppositions half. Then to put Batth on with so few minutes to play led directly to Gibson's confusion and his o.g. as well as allowing the centre to come in. 

It's moments like that  which raises my heckles! 

I just hope he learns from it. However, is anyone engaged enough at Board level to apply some direction for him to respond to? 

Edited October 8, 2023 by shefcanary

[essex canary 503]

29 minutes ago, shefcanary said:

We are where I hoped we'd be coming into the international break - just at the edge of the play-offs. Why? Well invariably a good season develops over time, we aren't looking unbeatable after just a couple of months. 

However I am becoming extremely disappointed with Wagner's management. He is slow to respond. Instead of adapting tactics to get the best of the resources available to him, he perseveres with his preferred tactical set up and is making skilled players look absolutely dog**** at times by not playing to their strengths.

Saturday was just awful. His decision to stop playing on 65 minutes with the skills available was very poor. We allowed them back into the game. You can defend easier by playing in the oppositions half. Then to put Batth on with so few minutes to play led directly to Gibson's confusion and his o.g. as well as allowing the centre to come in. 

It's moments like that  which raises my heckles! 

I just hope he learns from it. However, is anyone engaged enough at Board level to apply some direction for him to respond to? 

Perhaps Gibson gets confused a little too easily?

Then again when the Board is brought into the debate perhaps not. Would his uncle employ him for £2 million plus per annum?

[Robert N. LiM 4,429]

Lots of good replies here, much appreciated

[hogesar 9,709]

1 hour ago, Creedence Clearwater Couto said:

Mid table was my pre season prediction, but my expectation is we should always be challenging for the top six. 

Forget our current position. Our current form is about 18th in the league. We’ll never replicate that early season form minus Barnes and Sargent - especially when Wagner tries to play the same way with less capable replacements. He has to find a different way of playing. In the last two away games we’ve allowed the opposition 40 shots on our goal. If we were at one of the better teams in the division, we could easily have had another two Plymouth results. 

Yes, we actually agree!

Continuing the exact same setup without Barnes and Sargent, particularly away, is becoming criminal. 

[GRB2 34]

I expected us to miss play offs by 6 or 7 points and I still think that'll be the case. I'm hopeful that we loan in a couple players in Jan to provide a boost but the early losses to Plymouth, Rotherham & Swansea will screw us. 

[PurpleCanary 5,575]

The top six, given the depth we have in the squad, with cover for every position and in several cases good quality cover. And if we hadn't lost both of the two strikers we had able to give some stickability up front we would be in th top six.

Edited October 8, 2023 by PurpleCanary

[baldy09 158]

From the OLD BOYS - More- experience solidness, creativity , what have we got so far ?

[Dean Coneys boots 1,400]

I expect a club with one of the biggest fan bases in the division - and paying some of the highest wages- to look like they can be competitive at the top half of the table. Instead we look distinctly average and more likely to fall than rise - we are underperforming as a club 

[Channon’s Windmill 327]

I did expect us to be fitter. That was the Wagner way, or do I thought. As someone has mentioned elsewhere half the team looks knackered after 65/70 minutes. Great if we have a bench full of talent…we don’t.

[Creedence Clearwater Couto 1,289]

1 hour ago, hogesar said:

Yes, we actually agree!

Continuing the exact same setup without Barnes and Sargent, particularly away, is becoming criminal. 

Don’t panic, I’m only one post away from reversing that again. 

[hogesar 9,709]

6 minutes ago, Creedence Clearwater Couto said:

Don’t panic, I’m only one post away from reversing that again. 

Phew, I'd hate for it to become a habit..