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LeJuge

Negative Worthington-esque tactics....

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Pretty sure that this will prove controversial, but I just thought our entire line up today was completely negative. We were playing certain relegation rivals at home, looking for our first win, and played a midfield of Crofts, Johnson, Surman, and Bennett...... a front two of Holt and Martin. Was that line up ever going to build any sort of monentum going forward? Who was supposed to be our playmaker? We had two players on the bench who are capable of running the game in the midfield, dictating the flow and tempo of the game, and capable of playing people in (such as Bennett). With Surman looking completely void of confidence, something that anybody who went to the MK Dons game, you have to wonder how the hell he got a chance today. I''d rather have Hoolahan on the left wing if Lambert really insists on playing a negative workhouse centre midfield partnership of Johnson and Crofts. Bennett got a lot of stick for looking ineffective today, would he have looked so out of the game if Fox was pinging 40 yard balls to his feat? If Hoolahan was on the pitch for link up play? I just don''t understand where our goals were supposed to come from today, what is Lambert trying to do with this XI? Crofts and Johnson aren''t creative players, they are the type of players who give attacking players the license to be a little more adventurous. To be honest, and I don''t care if I am criticising Lambert, it all reminded me of 2004/05...... only Huckerby was at least providing us with some sort of outlet. Who was supposed to be our outlet today? Was Surman supposed to do this? Did Lambert expect Surman to play a blinder today? Because none of us were. Lambert needs to wise up, this is going to be an long and boring season if he is going to be leaving the likes of Fox and Hoolahan on the bench. We were all saying that we should play football the way that we are known for, the way that we came up, and then we leave our two best passers of the ball on the bench? I don''t understand the vision, if there is one, and if there is one..... it isn''t going to work.

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NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

Go read my post in your Blackpool thread, it wasn''t negative. In fact i think we were more attacking (less passing about at the back) than we have been all season....

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[quote user="Gingerpele"]NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

Go read my post in your Blackpool thread, it wasn''t negative. In fact i think we were more attacking (less passing about at the back) than we have been all season....[/quote]YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES, YES.... I replied with:If anybody expected Surman to do anything today then they are on a

different planet. Chris Martin is a striker, he shouldn''t have been

required to play so deep, they were rubbish tactics. So what''s

the plan then? How were they going to score? Martin puts the ball out

wide to Bennett, we hope that Bennett has his crossing boots on, and

Holt will get a head on it? It''s one dimensional stuff, so bereft of

ideas and options. For me it was rubbish, we can agree to disagree, we

didn''t look a threat going forward.I love the way that you use statistics in this argument. I''ll give you some facts using the same stats:
  • West Brom had the most possession.
  • West Brom had more shots on target.
  • West Brom had more corners.
  • West Brom were the away team.
We

looked useless, like relegation certainties, no threat whatsoever.

Hoolahan and Jackson would change that. This is Worthington football, I

never expected to see it from Lambert.

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To be fair I often agree with most of your posts Le Juge, and I agree that West Brom had the possession, SOT''s, corners etc., but I don''t agree with your reason for this.I think the reason is plain and simple - it pains me to say this, but West Brom had better players in every area, man for man, 1-11. I can''t think of any of our players that was better than his west brom adversary.

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[quote user="NWC"]To be fair I often agree with most of your posts Le Juge, and I agree that West Brom had the possession, SOT''s, corners etc., but I don''t agree with your reason for this.I think the reason is plain and simple - it pains me to say this, but West Brom had better players in every area, man for man, 1-11. I can''t think of any of our players that was better than his west brom adversary.[/quote]They didn''t really have a Hoolahan though, and with Jackson banging one in off of the bench for Canada the other day, I''m really surprised that he wasn''t brought on at some stage. It''s fine for you to disagree though, I wouldn''t be on this board if everybody agreed with each other all the time, where''s the fun in that? :-)

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I don''t think the tactics were negative as such (two strikers, full backs getting forward, no specialist holding midfielder) but we did lack a little flair. The way PL has used, or rather not used, Hoolahan so far this season has been strange to say the least.

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I think it was partly the tactics though, or a mix of players not fitting the tactics. (Still don''t think they were negative or Worthington-esque :P)

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I do think Crofts & Johnson in a 442 is too defensive; there is no creativity or pace from them in that formation, so while I like either of them in that role (but may prefer fox) the opnly formation I see them working together in is a 4-2-3-1 where they sit deep and provide a foil for de laet plus one other.

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Surman starting really surprised me. I think it was down to tactics today, he haven''t been clinical enough in the final third so far this season.

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felt our team was lacking something today that many of noted in the transfer window. The type of play Lansbury and Pacheco would bring to the table.

That bit of movement, ability to play a defence splitting pass.

In the first half we were on top without making the keeper make a save, second half pretty even but felt that Hoolahan has booked himself a place in the starting 11 against bolton.

A number of players looked out of sorts and once Holt and Martin went off, our direction as a team fell apart. I mentioned it on another post but I felt we were looking desperate. That is never a good thing to do but we looked a little clueless in the last 15 minutes once we got the ball in the final third.

The dropped points against stoke I can see costing us, they certainly have cost us momentum and a little belief at the start of the season. We need the win at bolton more than they do.

I don''t expect anymore than maybe being able to get 17th place, but having played wigan and wba and not securing a win against those two teams early is putting pressure on tougher games this early on in the season that we don''t need.

All I can say is we need next weekend very quickly. If we win at the reebok it is not all cheery and everything is great. It will be a start but it is a faltering start that will be very overdue if we fail to get a win in our next two games.

These next two games are very important.

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As an outsider looking in, I''ve seen a couple of your matches this

season and  you don''t need me to tell you that it''s going to be goal

scoring that is the problem. Today, particularly second half, there was a

lot of endeavour and some nice on touch football but I felt some of it

wasn''t necessary, at times you kept it narrow with a nice little layoff

when if time had been taken a ball could have been played wide, slipped

in behind etc. It''s easy on the eye to watch and with a pacier striker -

Vaughan when fit perhaps - it will pay dividends.

As it stands obviously Holt is your "Kevin Davies" - works his arse off

and good at holding the ball up, what he lacks in top class quality he

makes up for in work ethic. Unfortunately, Jonas Olsson is probably the

worst human being on the planet, never known a defender get away with as

much as this guy does, and as a result he wins most physical battles.

Not an awful lot between Martin and Morison, I don''t think either is

likely to get you 10 goals, I hope Vaughan can but keeping him fit is

the big issue there - not helped by getting an smack in the face!

The midfield...Hoolahan is a step above, is there a problem with his

fitness or something? Can''t understand why he wasn''t playing from the

start, I guess the only problem is he doesn''t play as a left winger as

he comes infield a fair bit, but Joey Barton did this from the right for

us to great effect so well worth playing him. Johnson & Crofts

seemed to do a similar job, and I thought Bennett linked up well with

Naughton, who looks very tidy.

Tierney is a good old fashioned full back, I like him. De Laet is a bit

up and down as a lot of young defenders are, and Barnett has never

convinced me, but at least he''s got some experience of the Premiership.

Going to be an interesting season, I obviously hope you stay up, there''s

enough rubbish in the Premiership (ourselves included) for you to make a

good go of staying up. One thing I''ve always thought was a problem for

Norwich is that you''re a victim of your stature - a big thing for a lot

of promoted clubs is their old style stadium, small bobbly pitch and

barely 15000 fans. Carrow Road is a beautiful stadium and more than up

to Premier League standard, so that''s something you lose out on.

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[quote user="LeJuge"] We were playing certain relegation rivals at home,
[/quote]

I don''t think WBA are "certain relegation rivals". Infact I''d be surprised if they were in danger of being relegated by the end of the season.

 

They''ve had a tough start to the season but they''re a strong side who play some decent stuff and have now got 2 forwards who are going to cause teams a lot of problems.

 

They are a hard team to beat and they''ve got a couple if guys who can score goals.

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