My Match Report for Norwich v West Brom is on www.dh6.co.uk

[hucks@dh6.co.uk 0]

please have a look http://www.dh6.co.uk/s31a1n152p1/Norwich-City-v-West-Bromwich-Albion.html

do you agree or disagree leave opinions here

[Gingerpele 0]

Pretty accurate description of the game, always fair and as impartial as possible, its great reading your reports.

[Rupethebear 0]

I agree with you Hucks, plenty of possession but not goals and you need goals to win games.

We lacked pace up front but midfield looked good and Tierney is prooving to be a natural in this league.

It''s now a must not loose game at Bolton on Saturday.

[Branston Pickle 3,632]

It''s daft to say that Bolton is a must win game, nothing at all will be decided by it and there will still be 30+games remaining...but we do want that monkey off our backs as soon as possible. I have a feeling that it will come vs Sunderland, as I can''t go!

[LeJuge 0]

Interesting that you mention possession so much, the BBC have us as having 48%, we had more of the ball at Wigan away, we had more of the ball against Stoke too. We struggled to win the ball and keep the ball in my personal opinion.

[LeJuge 0]

[quote user="Branston Pickle"]It''s daft to say that Bolton is a must win game, nothing at all will be decided by it and there will still be 30+games remaining...but we do want that monkey off our backs as soon as possible. I have a feeling that it will come vs Sunderland, as I can''t go![/quote]It''s not really daft, our fixtures become a lot more daunting after Bolton and Sunderland. Probably is a bit daft to call Bolton away a ''must win'', but we must win one of the two..... otherwise I really don''t know when our first win will come from, maybe Swansea, but that''s a long time without a win and we won''t have many points on the board if it takes that long. I was calling this game a must win, and still think it was.

[Gingerpele 0]

One last reply to you LeJudge, was just interested in what you had to say to Hucks report, but you didn''t mention that.

Last time in the prem, we didn''t win until November, against Southampton on the 20th, which took us up to 11 points in 14 games.

And we only just got relegated that season, think about that for a moment. Its a 38 game season, each one holds equal weighting, of course things like form and fitness come into it, making some games seem more important at the time, but i can imagine how many times were going to hear ''must win game'' this season...

[LeJuge 0]

[quote user="Gingerpele"]One last reply to you LeJudge, was just interested in what you had to say to Hucks report, but you didn''t mention that.

Last time in the prem, we didn''t win until November, against Southampton on the 20th, which took us up to 11 points in 14 games.

And we only just got relegated that season, think about that for a moment. Its a 38 game season, each one holds equal weighting, of course things like form and fitness come into it, making some games seem more important at the time, but i can imagine how many times were going to hear ''must win game'' this season...[/quote]Me and you both know that this won''t be your last reply to me, don''t make promises that you will ultimately break within about a week. In 2004/2005 our first 7 games were:Crystal PalaceManchester UnitedNewcastleArsenalWe took two points from those first four games, and scored 5 goals. Our first four games this season have been:WiganStokeChelseaWest BromFrom which we have taken 2 points and scored 3 goals. Yes it is early days, but have you studied the fixture list? It only gets harder and harder, the second half of the season looks a lot harder than the first this time around.

[Gingerpele 0]

The fixture list only looks harder if we are not up to scratch, something that can''t be decided this early on in the season, and if were not good enough we go down simple as that, and all this discussion is pointless.

All we can really talk about at this point, is why we have only got two points, is it down to tactics that can be improved? Down to bad officials? Down to just bad luck? Or more worryingly down to poor players? Or a mixture.

I personally think, its part tactics, part luck and part officials. I think from here, we can go one of two ways, we either just completely tail off failing to win, and seeing poor performances, or we start to get results. I don''t think it will carry on as it has been, which I hope has been a huge learning experience for Lambert and the players, and we go and win at Bolton to kick start a bit of form. (Although fairly likely/obvious defeats at Man.U and Liverlose next month will kind of limit that, it just has to be about getting points against Bolton, Sunderland, Swansea and Blackburn, i think we will get minimum of 6 points, which probably isn''t enough, really we want 12.. If we can win all four, then were laughing)

[LeJuge 0]

[quote user="Gingerpele"]The fixture list only looks harder if we are not up to scratch, something that can''t be decided this early on in the season, and if were not good enough we go down simple as that, and all this discussion is pointless.

All we can really talk about at this point, is why we have only got two points, is it down to tactics that can be improved? Down to bad officials? Down to just bad luck? Or more worryingly down to poor players? Or a mixture.

I personally think, its part tactics, part luck and part officials. I think from here, we can go one of two ways, we either just completely tail off failing to win, and seeing poor performances, or we start to get results. I don''t think it will carry on as it has been, which I hope has been a huge learning experience for Lambert and the players, and we go and win at Bolton to kick start a bit of form. (Although fairly likely/obvious defeats at Man.U and Liverlose next month will kind of limit that, it just has to be about getting points against Bolton, Sunderland, Swansea and Blackburn, i think we will get minimum of 6 points, which probably isn''t enough, really we want 12.. If we can win all four, then were laughing)[/quote]I know that you don''t like Lambert criticism, but I really think that we will begin to play better when he identifies his most effective formation, and the most effective XI for that formation. In the past two years he has bought players to compliment the existing system, this year he is trying to find a system to fit the players. I suspect he will do it, I do have faith in him (may not seem like it right now), but chopping and changing isn''t going to work. Somebody, maybe you, mentioned Stoke. Well, Stoke play either one of two very rigid systems and Pulis knows his XI for both of them. I really think that he needs to pick his systems, pick his XI''s, and then stick with them until they gel and work. I don''t think that Surman on the left should be involved in the equation though, left of a diamond possibly.

[ZLF 271]

Agree with most of that Hucks; thought Odemwingie was the man of the match overall; his pace and directness gave us all sorts of problems and was what we were missing

[hucks@dh6.co.uk 0]

Just thought Long was top draw, held ball up, ran channels well, won most headers, 6 mill well spent

[ZLF 271]

"hucks@dh6.co.uk" Just thought Long was top draw, held ball up, ran channels well, won most headers, 6 mill well spent

Certainly cant and wont argue with that Hucks, would I want Long & Odemwingie or our 4 on display? On todays performance comfortably their 2...

[Shack Attack 0]

Agree with pretty much all of that Hucks. Long looks a top player and his partnership with Odemwingie will cause a lot of teams problems.

 

As an ex-pro (who probably didn''t get involved in a lot of defending [;)]) what do you think of our set up when we don''t have the ball? It looks to me as if we are leaving massive gaps between defence and midfield which is inviting the opposition to pop the ball in between the lines and turn and run at us. I can sort of understand why the defence would drop deep yesterday what with the pace of Odemwingie but we look far too stretched and open to me. When we come up against the top sides who have players who like to play in that space between defence and midfield (the likes of Rooney, Silva, Suarez etc.) we could ship a hatful if we leave that much space.