Beauseant 0 Posted February 8, 2009 Hooray, I can finally get a post up, having tried in vain for about an hour last night. Was it just me, or was there a problem with the board?Very depressed after yesterday, more so because I was so excited about the game. Bristol were an excellent side. In fact, if we could play like them on a regular basis I would be very happy, as to a large extent they played Norwich City football, ie good crisp passing and movement, excellent control of the tempo of the game and a cutting edge when it mattered. Very attractive to watch if they don''t happen to be totally outclassing your own team.As for City, I really hope it was just an "after the Lord Mayor''s Show" performance, but the fact is that it as almost as if the last month hadn''t happened (except for Curo still having the anticipation of a corpse). The thing that stood out was the regularity with which Bristol players received the ball in space in or around our box. Only the most one-eyed City fan would argue that had they netted four in the first half we could have had little complaint ( three free headers, one of which hit the bar, two balls across the six yard box which eluded everyone and a point blank miss by Skuse are incidents I clearly remember, but I''m sure there were more). The fact was we looked very shaky even before Marshall''s howler,and that leads me to my main point.Defending is not just the job of the back four, its a team thing and yesterday we repeatedly saw Bristol players all over the field receive the ball in space, get it down and pick a pass at leisure. On one occasion McEndoe received the ball with three City players within five yards of him but everyone stood off and allowed him to move the ball, so eliminating all three from the game. In the first 20 minutes Skuse was regularly unmarked and caused us all sorts of problems. When we play well (eg Ipswich) we pressure the man on the ball ( the proverbial hunting in packs) and don''t let the opposition settle, but yesterday we seemd happy to let them have the ball. The fact is that we have two questionable full backs (actually that''s probably too kind to Semmy who was once again abject yesterday) and an inexperienced centre back, so letting a quality team have time to pick passes can only have one result. We have to improve our defending as a TEAM, not just as a back four,but one way of doing that is keeping the ball better ourselves and yet again yesterday we regularly conceded possession lightly. Its a major job and I don''t know what the answer is, but I do know that if Chippy and Butters can''t solve our goal leaking very quickly we are bound for League One Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lucky green trainers 0 Posted February 8, 2009 thought rusty and clinkers were 2nd best and our defence were 3rd rate...they had more energy - maybe our wolves heroics took it out of us, but brizzle c are a team in form, and looked it...looking forward to the arrival of the stoke lad to partner the doc - but druro looks half the player he was - and he and semmy constantly stood off players - allowing them too much room...a tighter right back is needed imo,,,doc got a tip-toe to the ball first,,,but he got tons more of the man cos he wasn''t alongside adebola when he challenged - imo,,,it was a pen/foul///but it was a crazy tackle to make unless he knew he was going to make it...where''s this leejer geezer??? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beauseant 0 Posted February 8, 2009 [quote user="lucky green trainers"]thought rusty and clinkers were 2nd best and our defence were 3rd rate...they had more energy - maybe our wolves heroics took it out of us, but brizzle c are a team in form, and looked it...looking forward to the arrival of the stoke lad to partner the doc - but druro looks half the player he was - and he and semmy constantly stood off players - allowing them too much room...a tighter right back is needed imo,,,doc got a tip-toe to the ball first,,,but he got tons more of the man cos he wasn''t alongside adebola when he challenged - imo,,,it was a pen/foul///but it was a crazy tackle to make unless he knew he was going to make it...where''s this leejer geezer??? [/quote]I was wondering about Leijer''s whereabouts too. Could find no reference anywhere yesterday, but we clearly need fresh blood at the back,and maybe a change of system. Agree about Semmy. He made no attempt to close players down at all yesterday and looked totally disinterested in tracking back, one of the reasons poor Crofty did so much running.It looked like a penalty to me, and the lino, who was in line flagged straight away. In fairness to Doc, he had to try to make the tackle, but the real blame lies with Marshall. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
lucky green trainers 0 Posted February 8, 2009 [quote user="Beauseant"][quote user="lucky green trainers"]thought rusty and clinkers were 2nd best and our defence were 3rd rate...they had more energy - maybe our wolves heroics took it out of us, but brizzle c are a team in form, and looked it...looking forward to the arrival of the stoke lad to partner the doc - but druro looks half the player he was - and he and semmy constantly stood off players - allowing them too much room...a tighter right back is needed imo,,,doc got a tip-toe to the ball first,,,but he got tons more of the man cos he wasn''t alongside adebola when he challenged - imo,,,it was a pen/foul///but it was a crazy tackle to make unless he knew he was going to make it...where''s this leejer geezer??? [/quote]I was wondering about Leijer''s whereabouts too. Could find no reference anywhere yesterday, but we clearly need fresh blood at the back,and maybe a change of system. Agree about Semmy. He made no attempt to close players down at all yesterday and looked totally disinterested in tracking back, one of the reasons poor Crofty did so much running.It looked like a penalty to me, and the lino, who was in line flagged straight away. In fairness to Doc, he had to try to make the tackle, but the real blame lies with Marshall. [/quote]sure beau - bad error by marshy and just before half-time too - hammer blow that crushed the game...at 1-1 we were back in it with no right to be so... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Beauseant 0 Posted February 8, 2009 [quote user="lucky green trainers"][quote user="Beauseant"][quote user="lucky green trainers"]thought rusty and clinkers were 2nd best and our defence were 3rd rate...they had more energy - maybe our wolves heroics took it out of us, but brizzle c are a team in form, and looked it...looking forward to the arrival of the stoke lad to partner the doc - but druro looks half the player he was - and he and semmy constantly stood off players - allowing them too much room...a tighter right back is needed imo,,,doc got a tip-toe to the ball first,,,but he got tons more of the man cos he wasn''t alongside adebola when he challenged - imo,,,it was a pen/foul///but it was a crazy tackle to make unless he knew he was going to make it...where''s this leejer geezer??? [/quote]I was wondering about Leijer''s whereabouts too. Could find no reference anywhere yesterday, but we clearly need fresh blood at the back,and maybe a change of system. Agree about Semmy. He made no attempt to close players down at all yesterday and looked totally disinterested in tracking back, one of the reasons poor Crofty did so much running.It looked like a penalty to me, and the lino, who was in line flagged straight away. In fairness to Doc, he had to try to make the tackle, but the real blame lies with Marshall. [/quote]sure beau - bad error by marshy and just before half-time too - hammer blow that crushed the game...at 1-1 we were back in it with no right to be so...[/quote]Absolutely right,and, we were starting to put them under a bit of pressure at the time. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Ankles 0 Posted February 8, 2009 All off the midfield were hopeless defensively yesterday, not picking up runners, not pressing the ball carrier, been happening all season and needs ot be rectified is we are to stay up in this league Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
kdncfc 0 Posted February 8, 2009 I also felt very depressed after yesterday, typical Norwich to come up with such a poor performance just as you think we have turned the corner. Bristol looked good in the first half but any team would if they were given that amount of space in which to play. I couldn''t believe we were so bad in the first half, after being unbeaten in 4 games we should really have come out and put them on the back foot. Hugely disappointing day all round, I really can''t see us getting out of it this year and it has to be said that this has been coming to us for a few years now. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Northern Canary 0 Posted February 8, 2009 The defence is absolutely dire and imo by far our biggest problem. Its just so easy to knock the ball around our box, and you simply cannot afford to be second best in reacting to the ball. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
