nothings changed then

[Syteanric 1]

just got back from Northants and as Martin Hunter said, "nothing will change"

we still relied on the big hoof, still seem to think Etuhu is the answer to all our problems and cant mix it up at all.

I saw the newcastle game too and against quality it showed tyhat we will be lacking, the big hoof just suurenders us possesion against other teams and the only way we wil lget the ball back is if the opposition score or make a mistake.

Last seasons fiasco is just going to run and run and we arent any better off.

jas :)

[0ridgemanddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue 0]

I couldn''t agree more, Earnshaw and McVeigh up front and what do we do thump it up high. Two or three nice moves on the ground and what happens from one of them we score but still we revert to the high ball with two short forwards.

We have little up front and it was interesting to note in the first half that most of the Northampton attacks came down their right our weak side.

It certainly seemed a very long ninety minutes and what a turnout 5,000 for the last pre season game perhaps the sign of things to come.

[Northern Canary 0]

Are we still hoofing????

[0Amarillo<P><FONT color=#cccc00 size=4><EM> º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ Amarillo ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°<EM><FONT><P>ddMMyyyy0Falseen-US<P><FONT color=#cccc00 size=4><EM> º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸ Amarillo ¸,ø¤º°`°º¤ø,¸¸,ø¤º°`°<EM><FONT><P>True 0]

I would like us to play like Arsenal as much as the next person... but when exactly were we last really a passing side? It seems that up until last season... apparently... we only passed it on the ground. By my reckoning, we haven''t done that since the early 90s. In the season we got promoted it was pretty ugly stuff at times, some wins against the run of play and so on... but very little criticism.

I''m just wondering what people expect in the Championship, with a team worth less than 10m (compared to, say, Arsenal, where each player is worth more than 10m!).

Don''t get me wrong, I like nice football, but why the sudden obsession with hoofing? Didn''t we shout ''hoof'' at every opposing team last season? Didn''t we stand in the pub this summer shouting ''hoooof'' at a lot of the England play?

[nh_ncfc 0]

[quote user="ridgeman"]

I couldn''t agree more, Earnshaw and McVeigh up front and what do we do thump it up high. Two or three nice moves on the ground and what happens from one of them we score but still we revert to the high ball with two short forwards.

We have little up front and it was interesting to note in the first half that most of the Northampton attacks came down their right our weak side.

It certainly seemed a very long ninety minutes and what a turnout 5,000 for the last pre season game perhaps the sign of things to come.

[/quote]

Don''t want to make this sound like a arguement, offense or a disagreement, i agree with you the hoof ball isn''t all that good, but u say we have littlee forwards and it anooys u etc, but then we had ashton for a year - and most of you still complained that we used hoofball and our strikers at the time were 6ft 3 and 5ft 10..

[Whats a right winger 0]

Virtually eveything was played to feet. Please note, not every elevated pass over 20 yards is a HOOF. I honestly think some fans decide what they will see before entering the game and nothing that happens makes any difference to their opinions

[0ridgemanddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue 0]

I don''t consider your comments an argument my point is simply play to your strengths. I consider Ashton was best with the ball at his feet i.e last years cup final. Much of the hoofball that was played to Ashton was outside the eighteen yard box meaning he could do little with it (it was mentioned in the world cup that with any high ball you only have a 50% chance of maintaining possession). Today we had Earnshaw and McVeigh up front kicking high balls up to them means that you will almost certainly lose possession. The goal that was scored was a passing movement on the floor.

 Last season Preston showed that football played on the floor with neat passing movements and movement off the ball can bring results and be pleasing to watch.

One other point that hasn''t changed all Norwich players in the eighteen yard box for a Northampton corner again in the World Cup it was pointed out that when one team left three players up it took four defenders out meaning seven less players in that area giving defenders more chance of getting to the ball. With all our players back it means that even if we clear the ball it is heading straight back not really rocket science.  

[jetstream 0]

There was a lot of ball-to-feet passing and some good long spells of possession

Unfortunately, the team did not seem to really know what to do with it in order to create goal-scoring chances. Earnshaw shoudl by rights be scoring hat-tricks against opposition like this but he looked off-the-pace again.

Time after time Hucks or Drury got near to the byline only to hesitate and fail to cross the ball - and often ended up with the ball being played backwards and across the back four again. Cross the flippin'' ball!

We did NOT dominate the game, N''ton played a reasonable game and created reasonable half-chances which on another day might have seen them equalise.

Yes it was hot, yes people are avoiding getting injured but it does not bode well and it is not "hoofball" as such that is the problem - it''s the lack of invention going forward and the lack midfield dominance.

See www.ntfc.premiumtv.co.uk for THEIR match report which gives a different perspective to the one on the NCFC website!

[We need a Manager 0]

And nothing will change untill coco the clown is removed from the managers position.

[Branston Pickle 3,632]

We''d all love to watch silky football all the time, but all sides mix it up to a lesser or greater extent, Arsenal and Chelsea included, and for those who think we never played long balls to Chris Sutton in the early 90s, or long passes for Mark Robins to run onto in 92-93, or balls for Ekoku to use his pace on, then think again! 

I''m certainly not advocating ''hoofball'', but the best way to play in this division is to try to play decent football but also to mix it up....it might not be pretty at times but surely the first thing we do want is to get out of this division the best way possible.  Also, for me, one of the advantages of having smaller faster front men is that they can get onto balls played behind big centre-halfs/into open space, so if we were to never to try to play to this advantage at certain times that would be stupid.   

[0peteddMMyyyy0Falseen-USTrue 0]

Certainly don''t expect it to be silky all the time, but was it ever silky at any time for last six seasons?

[7rew 0]

i went yesterday for once.hoofball - there was about 5 miunutes of proper hoofball just before the goal, together with a some defensive clearences, balls to run on to and long balls cross field (these three are used by all teams, even brazil)Etuhu played well. he got man of the match and kept turning up in the right places - i reckon was candidate for MoM even without the goal. Why is he always lumped in with hughes (crap) and robinson (never does anything great or awful - makes for a good backup)?We seamed to be playing 442, i think, with robbo on the right, it should improve with croft.Only criticism - why play McVeigh & Earnshaw and then replace them with Ryan Jarvis and Thorne. Surely pair Earnie & RyJ  and McV & Thorne.

[Evil Monkey 52]

I didn''t go at the weekend (I was in Hull - yay), but my brother went and tells me there wasn''t that much hoofball at all, and Etuhu had a good game.

I''ve said it before, and I''ll say it again - some posters on these boards will not be happy with anything Norwich do unless the board and manager are removed and they are installed in their place.

Long passes are not always a bad thing, it depends on the technique and skill of the player executing them - Safri can hit a pass 60 yards and land it straight into the path of a Norwich player; Hughes can barely pass two yards in front of him, so his own long balls are seemingly aimless.

It''s the same with the England team - Carrick can place a pass on a sixpence, Rio Ferdinand can''t.

[gazzathegreat 0]

[quote user="Amarillo"]

I would like us to play like Arsenal as much as the next person... but when exactly were we last really a passing side? It seems that up until last season... apparently... we only passed it on the ground. By my reckoning, we haven''t done that since the early 90s. In the season we got promoted it was pretty ugly stuff at times, some wins against the run of play and so on... but very little criticism.

I''m just wondering what people expect in the Championship, with a team worth less than 10m (compared to, say, Arsenal, where each player is worth more than 10m!).

Don''t get me wrong, I like nice football, but why the sudden obsession with hoofing? Didn''t we shout ''hoof'' at every opposing team last season? Didn''t we stand in the pub this summer shouting ''hoooof'' at a lot of the England play?

[/quote]

 

Completely and utterly agree Amarillo on the last time we really did play passing football.  In the promotion season we had a confident winning team who did pass the ball around when they were on top, but as you say, we did nick a lot of games and were dire defensively, as of now, defending too deep.  We had Iwan and Malky then though, two players who fought for the cause, now we are riddled with donkeys and journeymen who don''t give a toss who they are playing for.

I don''t expect Arsenal, but I do expect the players on the pitch to be able to pass to each other as they are supposed to be professionals.  They are still paid good money and should surely be able to master the basics.  Sadly the teams we have fielded over the past few years are pale comparsions of Walker, Brown and Stringer teams. 

England - I don''t personally watch much international football so can''t comment there, but is it mere coincedence that the England manager and Worthington are of the same personality and footballing philosophies?