Highlights (8 mins)

[Google Bot 3,278]

From the highlights I thought Long looked as usual, the great save was a gamble as he went early, it was a great decision but he's hedging his bets rather than it being a clinical save.  A lot of strikers at this level would delay or naturally place it in the opposite direction or away from where his momentum is indicating.

In moments when it comes down to general aptitude, he flapped at a shot shortly before that save, and it spun out for a corner.  And that's where his issues lay for me, he lacks the ability to take the ball securely and this leads to many spills in the area.

It's still good to see the save though, I don't like the guy and maybe it is due to what CC and other have posted on here in the past has clouded my mind on him, I don't know.  Just don't like seeing his name on the teamsheet, sadly.

[Robert N. LiM 4,394]

3 hours ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Love how he gets two assists in his previous two, then has a bad 45 and is back to being a a scapegoat

Given that I sort of started this, I should say that I like Onel, love his attitude, and think he has some decent attributes that make him a good squad player at this level. I don't like scapegoating players either. Just thought it was funny that in an eight minute highlights package they found time for two examples of him at his worst, tamely shooting and then the ball just bouncing off him and ending a promising attack

[shefcanary 2,410]

3 hours ago, Jim Smith said:

I also did not like the triple substitution.

That was bizarre, even by Wagner standards. Killed the game for us for a while as you reported. I can only assume it was a "live" test on a different line up and formation, there was **** all justification or need for it.

[Grumpy 122]

Just watched the video and noticed at the end there appears to be a reference to Norwich signing a Brazilian centre half called ADRYELSON.
Is this old news or is there any truth in the rumour.Google has him as being with Olympique Lyonnaise

Edited January 18 by Grumpy

[jaberry2 550]

1 minute ago, Grumpy said:

Just watched the video and noticed at the end there appears to be a reference to Norwich signing a Brazilian centre half called ADRYELSON.
Is this old news or is there any truth in the rumour

Im pretty sure he signed for Lyon a few weeks back.

[RobJames 881]

McLean - a superb pass to set up the first and his goal was reminiscent of what we saw in clips from his Aberdeen days. McCallum is looking to be the player we thought we had signed, some take time (see Fisher, Gibbs). Cow's rear ends are safe when either Idah or Barnes are given a banjo.

Hard to make much of a judgement from a few minutes of highlights, but it is where some players are heading to and a recognition that others are as lacking as already known. I cannot see Bathh, Gibson, or Forshaw being here next season. Two were brought in as stop gaps and with Gibson we would only need him at best for another year.

All in all it is good to see us now breaking quick - something Sainz is excellent at as is Rowe. We may not make the play offs but we have a squad that looks like it's capable of giving it a good go. Let's see how we fare against WBA on Saturday. We could do with the 3 points, but we also need a performance that suggests we deserve those three points.

[Grando 263]

6 hours ago, Northluck C said:

I know AI is taking over but didn’t realise we had ChatGPT up front just yet! 🤖 

SoccerBot360 finally earning its keep!

[mannings bandy legs 389]

8 hours ago, cambridgeshire canary said:

Love how he gets two assists in his previous two, then has a bad 45 and is back to being a a scapegoat

Two assists in about 40 games.....

[jaberry2 550]

2 minutes ago, mannings bandy legs said:

Two assists in about 40 games.....

Yep, some realism. Hardly scapegoating. 

[The Bunny 310]

Looks like we deserved to edge it based on those highlights, though Long had to make some great saves. Both sides were pretty wasteful. 

There was a real lack of quality up front. Barnes' miss from 3 yards out at the end summed it up. Idah was also quite wasteful (failing to control the ball when in front of goal, firing straight at the keeper). Looked like we missed Sargent. 

Then there was the usual suicide defending moment from Gibson of course. I don't know how they didn't score from that. 

[RobJames 881]

9 minutes ago, The Bunny said:

Looks like we deserved to edge it based on those highlights, though Long had to make some great saves. Both sides were pretty wasteful. 

There was a real lack of quality up front. Barnes' miss from 3 yards out at the end summed it up. Idah was also quite wasteful (failing to control the ball when in front of goal, firing straight at the keeper). Looked like we missed Sargent. 

Then there was the usual suicide defending moment from Gibson of course. I don't know how they didn't score from that. 

Gibson was not at fault, as the pass was idiotic.  It is one of the blind sides Wagner has along with the no marking policy. We invite trouble by constantly pssing about with it at the back. Lose possession there and you risk a shot on goal. It is where this nonsense about allowing the opposition to go unchallenged in the middle so you can dispossess them around the 18 yard box. That explains the number of shots Rovers and others are have.

[The Bunny 310]

16 minutes ago, RobJames said:

Gibson was not at fault, as the pass was idiotic.  It is one of the blind sides Wagner has along with the no marking policy. We invite trouble by constantly pssing about with it at the back. Lose possession there and you risk a shot on goal. It is where this nonsense about allowing the opposition to go unchallenged in the middle so you can dispossess them around the 18 yard box. That explains the number of shots Rovers and others are have.

Are we talking about the same incident? I'm talking about this, 35 seconds into the video when he passes it back towards his own goal instead of clearing and they nearly score from it

[Jim Smith 2,322]

10 minutes ago, The Bunny said:

Are we talking about the same incident? I'm talking about this, 35 seconds into the video when he passes it back towards his own goal instead of clearing and they nearly score from it

This is an area we constantly seem to get ourselves pinned into. Sides know if they press us there we will either attempt a risky pass and give it away or play a predictable ball up the line. 

[The Bunny 310]

23 minutes ago, Jim Smith said:

This is an area we constantly seem to get ourselves pinned into. Sides know if they press us there we will either attempt a risky pass and give it away or play a predictable ball up the line. 

I don't disagree, but Gibson is still clearly at fault for this particular pass. 

Pissing around at the back (if that is indeed the strategy) would probably work better with more technically capable defenders. 

[Addick/Canary 73]

Thanks, Bunny, for putting up a picture which illustrates the post I made about 10 hours previously.

With attackers in position to block either direction, Gibson wasn't left with an easy option was he?

So the real question is, why pass to your own player who is going to get pinned into the corner, with virtually no out ball.

 

If done well, it can open up the opposition, as in the Nunez, Sara, Saint, Barnes counter which produced the goal (can't remember the game) recently.

[The Bunny 310]

4 hours ago, Addick/Canary said:

Thanks, Bunny, for putting up a picture which illustrates the post I made about 10 hours previously.

With attackers in position to block either direction, Gibson wasn't left with an easy option was he?

So the real question is, why pass to your own player who is going to get pinned into the corner, with virtually no out ball.

He did have an option. If you watch the clip carefully, you'll see a second or so before that he has the option of a low risk forward pass to Rowe but instead controls the ball with his left foot and cuts towards his own goal before playing the high risk pass. 

[RobJames 881]

6 hours ago, The Bunny said:

Are we talking about the same incident? I'm talking about this, 35 seconds into the video when he passes it back towards his own goal instead of clearing and they nearly score from it

 

eh ? He passed kit forward to Sorensen who was beaten to the pass even though being ahead of the attacker.  This is the risk of using this idiotic tactic. Much as with the no marking in midfield. One of the other downsides to this stupidity is it lowers the chance of a quick attack as while we are pi ssing about with it at the back the opposition has a chance to mark our players.

The opposition will quickly twig this and close us down forcing such unnecessary errors. What is sickening is all too often the player/keeper is obliged to hoof it upfield as they would have done previously, only now in hurried panic.

As an aside, watching McCallum shooting is heartening. One tipped over the bar in the first half and one that lead to the first goal bodes well.. just do what the opposition does and man mark and we are in with a good chance to the playoffs. Sticking with a tactic that puts the opposition into scoring positions is always going to be a massive disadvantage.

[The Bunny 310]

55 minutes ago, RobJames said:

eh ? He passed kit forward to Sorensen who was beaten to the pass even though being ahead of the attacker.  This is the risk of using this idiotic tactic. Much as with the no marking in midfield. One of the other downsides to this stupidity is it lowers the chance of a quick attack as while we are pi ssing about with it at the back the opposition has a chance to mark our players.

See above, he had a much safer outball which didn't require passing it towards a marked player on the edge of his own box. It's not a tactic, it's just bad decision making. Gibson does that a lot. 

[Jim Smith 2,322]

5 hours ago, The Bunny said:

See above, he had a much safer outball which didn't require passing it towards a marked player on the edge of his own box. It's not a tactic, it's just bad decision making. Gibson does that a lot. 

Yes as soon as they delay the pass it gives the opposition the chance to pen us in. I guess Wagner would call it drawing the  press!

[BroadstairsR 2,179]

4 hours ago, The Bunny said:

See above, he had a much safer outball which didn't require passing it towards a marked player on the edge of his own box. It's not a tactic, it's just bad decision making. Gibson does that a lot. 

Precisely, he's the worst of the lot at playing from the back, which is saying something. That and the fact that he is never a commanding figure in a role which often demands that a la Big Dunc, Hanley and even Duffy to a lesser extent which makes him an easy scapegoat.

That apart, he is not a bad defender, to the extent that he was even called up for the full international squad on one occasion.

Highest earner at Carrow Road though? How ridiculous. 

[Jim Smith 2,322]

28 minutes ago, BroadstairsR said:

Precisely, he's the worst of the lot at playing from the back, which is saying something. That and the fact that he is never a commanding figure in a role which often demands that a la Big Dunc, Hanley and even Duffy to a lesser extent which makes him an easy scapegoat.

That apart, he is not a bad defender, to the extent that he was even called up for the full international squad on one occasion.

Highest earner at Carrow Road though? How ridiculous. 

He’s one of the best passers to be fair. But as has been highlighted when he delays the pass too long and moves it too slowly it give us issues.

in fairness, under Farke teams often sat off us and he seemed to have the role of bringing the ball out and picking a pass so it’s a bit of a different system/role now. 

[Addick/Canary 73]

Bunny's second set of photos illustrates the point I was making in my final paragraph, that passing about at the back is fine, if it's done quickly and intelligently. Didn't we open them up in that way with the much better move that lead to McCallum's through ball to Idah?

I wish Idah could havs shown some willingness to at least attempt to reach the ball, but that's another story!

[Robert N. LiM 4,394]

2 hours ago, Addick/Canary said:

Bunny's second set of photos illustrates the point I was making in my final paragraph, that passing about at the back is fine, if it's done quickly and intelligently. Didn't we open them up in that way with the much better move that lead to McCallum's through ball to Idah?

Exactly. It's the very next passage of play in the highlights after Gibson's error (from 53 secs).

There's nothing wrong with doing it: you've just got to do it well. When it goes wrong it's very noticeable, but the question is, over a game, or over a season, is it worth doing? This is where stats come in (takes cover).

[Google Bot 3,278]

10 hours ago, The Bunny said:

He did have an option. If you watch the clip carefully, you'll see a second or so before that he has the option of a low risk forward pass to Rowe

I think Gibson's problem is that he often has an intended target in mind (Kenny) and struggles to switch mid-play.  So you get situations like this where he's not taking the opportunity to play an early ball as soon as it's presented (Rowe in this case) and gets caught out.

He's not the only one either, and I think that's what makes us such a poor watch currently, we're just not switched on when it comes to ball retention and moving the ball about quickly.

[The Bunny 310]

I do want to point out that I’m not a Gibson hater. I’ve been at games recently where he’s had a lot of stick from his own fans and I’m not ok with that. I’m just making the point that regardless of the tactics, the team do make a lot of individual mistakes.

Wagner isn’t sitting in the dugout with an xbox controller playing Fifa.

[Addick/Canary 73]

It's not only on the left that this happens. Stacey and Duffy are quite capable of getting into a pickle over on the right; conceding a corner from a goalkick a while ago, if I'm not mistaken.

[LaUnionCanary 86]

On 18/01/2024 at 10:54, RobJames said:

 

Commentator said " Ida h was pretty lucky there, straight down the middle. The keeper dived to his right and got his fingers to it". ???? Where was the keeper standing then?

[horsefly 4,303]

On 18/01/2024 at 09:43, canarybubbles said:

I think Nunez is becoming quite an important part of this team. He is keeping things ticking over and that kind of player always tends to get underestimated, but we definitely have looked better with him on the pitch recently. 

Yep! Would like to see Sara at number 10 instead of Barnes, Nunez as the box to box No.8, and Kenny (or someone else if he's playing CB) as the more defensive MF.