Ricardo's report v Palace

[ricardo 7,345]

Perhaps I was expecting too much tonight but with the recent hype and having missed the last two home games, Ricardo strolled up to the match with a real spring in his heels. Our recent good run and playing against the leagues whipping boys should have been the signal for a comfortable three points but somehow in NCFC World things never quite turn out that way. City kicked off towards the Barclay on a rainy night and with Askou coming in for the suspended Ward and Smith in for the injured Drury. Early doors it was a quiet start only enlivened after six minutes when Wes found Jackson with a sublime through ball only for the little forward to flash a drive against the bar with only the keeper to beat. This should have been the signal for further goalmouth action but strangely 20 minutes and then 30 minutes passed with bugger all happening. Palace looked neat without looking very dangerous although Zaha once got the wrong side of Askou but flashed his effort across the face of goal. City at last upped the pace as halftime approached. Two corners were cleared with difficulty before Lappin flashed in a low skimmer that had to be hacked off the line. After 42 minutes the goal finally came and it was Lappin again who sent in a low angled centre from the left and Holt reacted first to guide in the opener from 6 yards. Palace almost replied immediately as Zaha again went clear only for Smith to get a foot in as the trigger was being pulled. The appluase that greeted the halftime whistle was more in relief than for any satisfaction with City''s efforts.With the goal lead we were expecting the boys to come out on the front foot but it was Palace who looked more like taking the initiative. A series of corners should have been cleared but City defenders managed to dither one too many times as Palace worked a short corner and Bennet had all the time in the world to head in Garvans cross. Palace seemed rampant for a time and Ruddy had to make a fine save to his left to prevent a second goal. Unfortunatel;y City did not take the hint and with 18 minutes of the second half City went from one up to one down. Again it was Garvan from a corner and with the City defence in two minds, Gardener nodded in at the near post.The disappointing thing for me was that the 70 minute mark came and went before we managed a meaningful attempt on goal. Martin replaced Lappin and Anthony Mac came on for Wes but apart from a few ooh''s and aah''s we never managed to test the keeper. A couple of chances flashed over the top but in truth Palace were able to hang onto their lead quite comfortably. Ollie came on as hail Mary time approached but it was all too little and far too late as a storm of boo''s greeted the final whistle.I think tonights result requires a review of where we are going this season. There have been some decent performances but for me we have not put in a really convincing display in any home match so far. The absence of Drury and Ward was a big loss for us. Lambert does not seem to rate Askou and tonight I think we can all see why. At no stage did he dominate his forward and I think the weakness in defence transmitted itself to the rest of the team. Holty seems to be slowly regaing form but I still think Martin is a better partner for him than Jackson. There is a lack of guile in midfield when Wes is off song and apart from his early through ball to Jackson he was largely snuffed out. As for MOM I can''t name one because it was a pretty duff show all round.

[morty 0]

Good report, nothing I disagree with at all.What disturbed me tonight is that the performance reminded me of Norwich of old, i twas lethargic and uninventive for the most part.I expect a lot better on Saturday.

[ricardo 7,345]

[quote user="morty"]Good report, nothing I disagree with at all.What disturbed me tonight is that the performance reminded me of Norwich of old, i twas lethargic and uninventive for the most part.I expect a lot better on Saturday.[/quote]Very reminiscent of the Norwich of old as you rightly say. Too often in the past we have fallen when it seemed we were ready to fly.

[kdncfc 0]

Crofts was our MOM for me, think I only remember him giving the ball away once all night which was more than could be said for Lappin who I thought was woeful.

[Graham Paddons Beard 2,424]

Ricardo I think the one area that people are missing tonight is how Palace changed their shape at half time and how we completely failed to deal with it. Palace had 4,1,4,1 in the first half, with the midfield sitting so deep that we had space to play lots of cross field passes and keep possession easily. In the second half the one striker quickly became two with their 16 getting forward, and the midfield holding higher up the field, putting us under pressure on the ball and giving away possession countless times. I don''t think Corey passed to a yellow shirt all of the second half and he was certainly not alone.

My fear is that for once Lambert and Culverhouse seemed to be out manoeuvred by Burley, which sticks in the throat.

[Lambo 0]

Agree, as you mentioned Ricardo, when Wes doesn''t perform neither do Norwich.

It might sound harsh on Lappin but i''d like to see Fox come in to the side on Saturday, against us for Col U he was pulling all the strings in midfield and he hasn''t had much of a chance since his game (playing slightly outta postion at the base of the diamond) against Watford and I think he''ll make us a little less dependant on Wes to conjure up all our magic.

[Forever Norwich 0]

Good report as ever.

[Heresyourfathersgun 0]

Just back to freezing Kings Lynn from freezing Carra Rud. I''m prepared to put tonight down to a bad night at the office. Main points for me were:

First half - failure to push on with any pace or width - especially on the right where palace (Edgars) were very weak and there for the taking. Tempo was too slow.

It showed that Askou isn''t match fit and Steven Smith is still finding his way.

A lack of composure in defence in general - too many simple balls were hoofed/headed giving the midfield to much to do to gain possession or too many long balls for the strikers giving them nothing to work with.

Palace will be laughing all the way back down the M11 because I''ll be surprised if City play that poorly again. I think we believe our own hype at times and needed to concentrate more - Palace looked shite, we thought it would be easy and we took our eye off the ball. A sharp kick up the arse from Lambert should see us right by the weekend.

The five striker option at the end won''t work in this league - you need a bit more craft at this level.

[Mello Yello 2,280]

Bryan Gunn was in the Directors Box......Our defeat was just purely down to him being there. FACT!

Oh....and maybe because we don''t show for the ball enough - and our movement off the ball isn''t good enough - our passing was erratic....and we were apathetic and lethargic....

But, I much prefer to put the blame fairly and squarely for our defeat, wholly down to the fact - that Bryan Gunn was spectating....

.....and that young Zaha could have beaten us on his own.

[Lambo 0]

it was the inspirational cuddle from his skipper that did the trick ;)

[morty 0]

[quote user="Lambo"]it was the inspirational cuddle from his skipper that did the trick ;)[/quote]That was actually the best bit of the game for me, when we all chanted "Awwwwwwwww"[:D]

[urdie_Canary 33]

Once again, we see how much of a passenger Hoolahan is.Shocking performance from him, resulting in a poor team performance.

[morty 0]

[quote user="urdie_Canary"]Once again, we see how much of a passenger Hoolahan is.Shocking performance from him, resulting in a poor team performance.[/quote]Wow, really?

[Jim Smith 2,314]

[quote user="urdie_Canary"]Once again, we see how much of a passenger Hoolahan is.

Shocking performance from him, resulting in a poor team performance.
[/quote]

I completely disagree. I thought Hoolahan was decent last night. Technically excellent and our one creative spark. Not his fault he has Crappin on the left and an out of form Korey on the right meaning he has no outlets to hit.

[Wings of a Sparrow 1,409]

Good report and much as I saw it Ricardo. Crowd were awful from the off and never got going. Impressed with Zaha he was 1/2 a yard quicker than our defenders all night. Shame (for him) his final delivery let him down or it could have been a lot worse. We didn''t seem to have any ideas second half and there was little or no movement up front. As someone said and I don''t know how, but it was like pre-Lambert Norwich and I thought he had knocked this out of them. Managerless Middlesborough on Saturday and we all know what can happen in that situation.

[urdie_Canary 33]

[quote user="Jim Smith"]

[quote user="urdie_Canary"]Once again, we see how much of a passenger Hoolahan is.Shocking performance from him, resulting in a poor team performance.[/quote]

I completely disagree. I thought Hoolahan was decent last night. Technically excellent and our one creative spark. Not his fault he has Crappin on the left and an out of form Korey on the right meaning he has no outlets to hit.

[/quote]Its crazy how people see a different game.From where i was sitting, he was awful, lost the ball endless times 10yard from his own box, no creativity what so ever and predicable.If hes going to cross, -left foot, shoot - left foot, play the ball through - left footOponents work him out at this level very easily.Still unsure as to where i stand on Hoolahan.......None the less, poor performance last night and to top it off it was bloody freezing.

[morty 0]

[quote user="urdie_Canary"][quote user="Jim Smith"]

[quote user="urdie_Canary"]Once again, we see how much of a passenger Hoolahan is.Shocking performance from him, resulting in a poor team performance.[/quote]

I completely disagree. I thought Hoolahan was decent last night. Technically excellent and our one creative spark. Not his fault he has Crappin on the left and an out of form Korey on the right meaning he has no outlets to hit.

[/quote]Its crazy how people see a different game.From where i was sitting, he was awful, lost the ball endless times 10yard from his own box, no creativity what so ever and predicable.If hes going to cross, -left foot, shoot - left foot, play the ball through - left footOponents work him out at this level very easily.Still unsure as to where i stand on Hoolahan.......None the less, poor performance last night and to top it off it was bloody freezing.[/quote]I don''t think he had a great game, but I don''t think anyone did last night. Sometimes I think too much is expected of Wes, especially if the team as a whole isn''t playing well. It can be a case of them just giving it to him and expecting him to make something out of nothing, which he can do depending on how tightly he is being marked.But other players around him need to create space for him to work in by working hard to drag the opposition out of position, and also take good positions themselves to receive Wes''s passes. Yes he is very one footed, but if his right was as good as his left he would be playing at a much higher level!

[Boot 0]

Agree with much of this very good report. I wouldn''t be quite so quick to wrote off Askou though. He had a difficult night for his first game back for a long time up against two quick and lively forwards and also wasn''t helped by Barnett having his worst game in a Norwich shirt particularly with regard to his distribution - Hoof...up she goes! Askou is a quality defender in my view abd when match fit is good enough for this league.

I agree that we should review where we are going this season - if we are lucky with injuries we could finish top 6, but last night showed that the players off the bench either need more matches to get match fit or are not enough to get us a top 6 place. To finish with a statement of the boody obvious...we really miss Surman!

[Lambo 0]

[quote user="urdie_Canary"]Once again, we see how much of a passenger Hoolahan is.

Shocking performance from him, resulting in a poor team performance.
[/quote]

 

How does that make any sort of sense??? Surely if he''s a passenger in the team him having a bad game would''t have affected the teams performance??

I''m not saying he played brilliantly but that comment on him lacks any common sense, you can say he played poor resulting in the team''s performance being poor (i''ve said in other topics that was the case) but then calling him a passenger in the same post is just daft.

[nutty nigel 7,509]

[quote user="Jim Smith"]

[quote user="urdie_Canary"]Once again, we see how much of a passenger Hoolahan is.

Shocking performance from him, resulting in a poor team performance.
[/quote]

I completely disagree. I thought Hoolahan was decent last night. Technically excellent and our one creative spark. Not his fault he has Crappin on the left and an out of form Korey on the right meaning he has no outlets to hit.

[/quote]

I thought they were all decent in the first half Jim. But I thought Lappin, Korey and Hoolahan tired very early in the second half. I would make a guess that all three had a particularly hard game at QPR on Saturday which would have caused it. Let''s hope the extra day recovery between last night and Saturday prevents the same thing happening again. We have squad players but with Surman out if we are to play the diamond it only really works with those who started last night. I guess this is why Lambert didn''t change the team for this game. Maybe he would have been better resting a few and setting out a different formation with fresher players but that''s hindsight!

As for the defence I''m sorry but Askou isn''t good enough. I remember watching him last season in League One and he was caught out of position a lot then and Doc used to cover for him. Doc always got the blame too! His performance compromised both Barnett and Smith and if Ward is unavailable again let''s hope that Whitbread is finally fit.

 

[Graham Humphrey 13]

On the Hoolahan thing... I think it''s fair to say that he wasn''t at his best last night (not that he was on his own) but when he went off, our hopes of getting anything from the game went with it.  Why?  Because he was the only one who was capable of keeping hold of the ball.  McNamee did a couple of decent things but there really wasn''t much point having him there because the majority of the time we just couldn''t get the ball to him.  As soon as Wes left the pitch it took us a long time to get hold of possession again because there was no movement and little quality in our passing.  Even if he has a bad game there is always the feeling he will create something at some stage.

[ricardo 7,345]

[quote user="Boot"]Agree with much of this very good report. I wouldn''t be quite so quick to wrote off Askou though. He had a difficult night for his first game back for a long time up against two quick and lively forwards and also wasn''t helped by Barnett having his worst game in a Norwich shirt particularly with regard to his distribution - Hoof...up she goes! Askou is a quality defender in my view abd when match fit is good enough for this league.

I agree that we should review where we are going this season - if we are lucky with injuries we could finish top 6, but last night showed that the players off the bench either need more matches to get match fit or are not enough to get us a top 6 place. To finish with a statement of the boody obvious...we really miss Surman![/quote]I agree that it was a difficult game back for Askou but I think you have to ask yourself why Lambert has been reluctant to play him. Last night was his chance to impress and he certainly failed to grasp that chance with both hands. IMO he lacks the requisite quality for this League.On the Surman point, I can whole heartedly agree.  He is the one player with the quality and guile  to unlock defences (apart from Wes). His absence has put all the weight on Hoolahan and when he has a poor game we seem to be very lacking in ideas.