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Creative Midfielder

I'll never understand Worthington

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How can he possibly be pleased with our performance at Bradford when we were absolutely pathetic, and be disappointed today when the lads gave 150%.

OK we were beaten on the day by a better team but everyone on the pitch absolutely gave it everything, and as far as I''m concerned the only person at fault is the manager who once again sent the team out with the wrong game plan.

Yes, he''s absolutely right that we gave the ball too cheaply but what do you expect if you play Abbey and McVeigh up front and then just bang long, high balls at them? After two years of this is it finally starting to sink in that this is not a good plan?

A lot of people seem to think that Iwan is past it but it seems to me that he''s still essential. Not that I''m advocating a long ball game but thats what we''ve had since Worthington took over and Iwan is the only target man we''ve got that''s good enough. Abbey, like everyone, worked hard today but didnt remotely trouble the Sheffield defence. Only when Iwan came on did we actually start winning and retaining the ball. OK we still didnt create much but at least we pinned them back which was a lot more than we''d achieved up till then.

I''ve often criticised Worthington''s negativity so I suppose finishing the game with four strikers should be good! The trouble is Worthington still seems to think that the answer to our goal scoring problems is to sign a striker who''ll score more, or like this afternoon to play more strikers but everyone else knows that the answer is to create more chances for the strikers we''ve got. This whole new striker thing is a huge red herring because away from home, at least, we simply supply zero service to the strikers whoever they are.

Today was a game between true promotion contenders and a good mid-table team which is all we''ll ever be with Worthington. Unfortunately its a gap that cant be bridged by hard work alone because I dont believe the lads could have worked harder that they did today. They could have gone out with a better game plan though.

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I''ve just seen the highlights on Canaries World. One highlight picked out in a short summary could easily have been another goal for Sheff. Utd.... Green kicked the ball long and high; it eventually came down, was won by the Blades, and soon put into the path of Lester who was one on one with Green. Once again the Norwich No. 1 saved the day.

Is Green under instructions not to throw the ball out? I''ve seen so many high balls from him that turn possession into a 50/50 ball. Why? Can''t we build from the back? Sadly, perhaps not. It matches up with the habit of pumping up long balls to the strikers. So ingrained is the habit that I saw on another highlights episode a long ball played from defence to Henderson, poor guy. I doubt the opposing defender even had to bother to jump. There is another way to play football, and Neil Adams has mentioned it on Radio Norfolk commentaries. If they can''t pass it''s time to learn - extra training needed on technique.

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I agree with everything said above.

The only time i have seen us play nice football was in the final run-up to Cardiff, and the play-off itself. With McVeigh and Nielsen up front we couldn''t afford to play the long ball. We looked slick and dangerous.

Sadly, that style of play seems to have left us at the moment, espeically at away matches. NW needs to instill the confidence in the squad to play attractive football away from home. Perhaps this would change our dismal away form since NW has been in charge?

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Agree. We are two different teams - home confident, dangerous and pretty much always the favourites - away we''re slow, scared and sluggish with no determination and very little belief in ourselves. Shame really...

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More frustrating because we know that we can play the ball on the ground and do well. Evidence? Reading away and Southampton away last season spring immediately to mind, two games when we kept the ball on the deck and looked confident and dangerous. OK we lost to Soton but not until the last 15 minutes and only because of a defensive mix up. Reading were thumped and could have lost 0-5, not a high ball all evening. Most of our other away performances last season were pretty poor and I can''t remember any others where we played to feet.

Frustration No.2: Phil Mulryne. Why pump high balls when you have someone who is capable of delivering those killer passes? But how often does he do it? If the ball is going over his head, take him off and play two ball winners. Otherwise play to his, and the team''s, strengths.

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it is wonderful to actually read a post like this

how I agree 100% with you. It seems to be a fundamental requirement of a footballer that he can pass a ball - preferably to someone with the same colour shirt on!

You are right about the habit thing, they try and pass, lose it, panic then resort to this long ball rubbish which

1 - loses possession and usually creates chances for the opposition
2 - loses time in which we could be building an attack
3 - is not what I pay to watch!

Come on Worthy, keep them off the golf course and teach them how to pass the ball to each other, before it is too late and we have a mid table (at best) position to look forward to

we can do better than this - really - on our day we can outplay anyone in this league, I don''t mean to sound arrogant, but we can. If only we would play football and not pump useless balls to McVeigh. What is the use of having a midfield using this approach? I know there are defensive limitations due to lack of pace, but we have two centre halves emerging in the reserves, let them have some first team action and then we can get down to some real (and effective) football

you might then find someone we already have is the mystical 20 a season striker!!

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"If only we would play football and not pump useless balls to McVeigh. What is the use of having a midfield using this approach?"

Exactly!

Remember Arsenal before Wenger - and what did he do but add a (mainly French) midfield with some flair to a mean English defence. Before Wenger arrived, Arsenal were well known for pretending that the midfield didn''t exist. (Wenger also had the skill to get the best out of Ray Parlour).

Mention of David Williams reminds me also what a superb player of the dead ball he was (and how many corners do we waste now?). He was well known for that when player-manager of Bristol Rovers before he went to Norwich (and I''ve heard the same comments from Rovers fans and staff). In the 85/86 season when Norwich were promoted from the old 2nd Division, the team scored 84 goals; 22 by Kevin Drinkell, but a whole clutch of players chipped in with 7,8 or 9 each. Williams was one of those, Steve Bruce another.


I agree, we have the players to do as well as anybody if we play effective football, but likewise I don''t like paying to watch hopeful long ball efforts being sent back by the opposition; watching paint dry instead at least ensures a result.

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Read these comments and smile

I''m not into bring names into disrepute, but just reading these comments made me smile - how far have we come from arguments about the long ball game...

The sun is shining, and I''m feeling fine!

OTBC!!!!!!!!!

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respect plastic scouser

i will hold my hands up and say the season did get better!!!

want to know why, worthy didn''t buy any of the donkeys he was linked to and instead settled for huckerby (sorry yankee, you know what is coming next), crouch and harper

the rest is history, we started to play decent stuff home (and away, eventually)

how far we have come since august - no longer do we resort to hit and hope, and if you had seen as many away games as me p scouser, you would have wanted something, anything to change it

enter one darren huckerby, the answer to all our prayers, god, was it good to see someone take on defenders, fly down the wing, and most of all, and crucial to our eventual successes, he inspired norwich city to play football, not panic and boot the thing anywhere other than another yellow shirt

we started scoring goals at will, passed the ball, yes, there were slip ups ( i nearly fell asleep at preston, but that may have been due to getting up at 4am to watch the rugby final in the pub up there first), there was the ambition question thrown at our board, but during that time, i began to really respect nigel worthington, he so wanted to capture darren huckerby for us, want to know why, because DH was the key to us beginning to be norwich city again, not another mid table hit and hope outfit, he wanted us to be a real football team (and god, so did i!!!)

to watch our team v walsall, both home and away, crystal palace (h) and both derby matches just goes to show, how things can be changed.

thanks for proving i was on here moaning in august mate, it reallly made me smile!


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Thanks for the memory, plastic scouser! How things have changed; I guess there was a fair bit of frustration when we seemed to be about to embark on another hit and hope season last August. I haven''t lived in the Norwich area for 30 years, so I''m glad I picked the Walsall match for a visit to HQ (It''s a 500 mile round trip for me). I know Walsall were in a bad way, but it still did my heart good to see the canaries able to hit (and control) accurate long passes as well as short ones, and string them together. My first match at Carrow Road was in April 1956, so it''s good to see the ball being passed properly again (we got out of the habit at the end of the Saunders era, and that was a mistake). Yes, DH has been the big catalyst for others raising their game, and they have responded.

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