Norwich vs. QPR - Opinions and Ratings

[CantonsHero 0]

Ruddy - 6 - Had nothing to do, but was beaten by Mackie''s shot.

De Laet - 6 - Clean sheet for him; looked solid if unspectacular at right back today.

Martin 8 - Superb goal and solid performance throughout.

Barnett 6 - Seemed solid, but at blame for another goal. Just don''t have a good feeling when he is being attacked.

Tierney 6 - Again, solid if unspectacular.

Crofts 7- Helped shield the defence and moved the ball around well, but our midfield was extremely bullied today.

Johnson 6 - Solid, but didn''t seem able to marshall the midfield today.

Pilkington 5 - Probably his weakest game today. Needs a 5 man midfield to allow him the space to really attack the pitch.

Surman 5 - When you have only four men in midfield, they need to be able to pitch in, and Surman didn''t seem to add much.

Jackson 4 - Superb in the first 15 minutes, but faded after that.

Morison 7 - Strong up front and nearly got a goal, but Jackson playing off of him didn''t seem ideal.

---

Naughton 5 - Did what he had to do, but seemed off the pace.

Hoolahan 7 - A fantastic 10 minute shift when he came on, but after that, the midfield was back to be bossed.

Holt 7 - Again, fantastic for 10 minutes, but after that the supply ran dry.

---

Lambert 6 - Setup was wrong today; Holt on was a good move, but I think a 4-5-1 would have seen us extremely safe today.

[Bryangunnshairline 0]

Are you being serious? We just got 3 points and you think he got it wrong?

[Robert N. LiM 6,299]

Ruddy 7 - Solid game. Mackie''s shot was perfectly placed - can''t really blame him for that,

De Laet 4 - horribly off the pace all afternoon. Looked very rusty

Martin 7 - Solid as always at the back

Barnett 7 - Another decent game. MIstake for the goal, but QPR still had a lot to do.

Tierney 6 - had his hands full.

Johnson - 4 - almost completely ineffective. Hardly touched the ball in the first half

Crofts 5 - a bit better than Johnson but not much

Surman 7 - A fairly typical game from Surman. Most of the time things passed him by, but whenever he did get the ball, he did good things with it. His little lay-off to Morison the first half was the one moment of quality

Pilkington 6 - unusually quiet

Morison 7 - The usual - lots of hard work and effort, made a couple of good chances for himself

Jackson 6 - also looked pretty rusty

Holt 9 - quite simply changed the game when he came on.

Hoolahan 8 - ditto. Luxury player my arse.

Naughton 6 - STOP DIVING IN, YOU FOOL.

Lambert 6 - a lucky boy today. Picked the wrong team and got away with it.

[CantonsHero 0]

Of course I''m being serious.

Anyone who watched that game should admit two things.

1. Both of our goals came against the run of play.

2. We''ve played worse that only twice, WBA and Arsenal.

[Mister Chops 7]

Ruddy - 5

De Laet - 4

Martin 6

Barnett 5

Tierney 4

Crofts 5-

Johnson 4

Pilkington 4

Surman 6

Jackson 5

Morison 6

---

Naughton 4

Hoolahan 7

Holt 7

Lambert 3Crowd 2Half time pie 3Ticket attendant 3 - surlyAway fans 5 - in total

[yoda 0]

We got out of jail today without a doubt . Lambert gambled but it didn''t pay off , he simply must keep Wes in the side he is key for us to play higher up the park without him wwe have no ideas and as for holty he deserves his place too .

[jed exodous 0]

[quote user="yoda"]We got out of jail today without a doubt . Lambert gambled but it didn''t pay off , he simply must keep Wes in the side he is key for us to play higher up the park without him wwe have no ideas and as for holty he deserves his place too .[/quote]

 

How can you say ''Lambert gambled but it didn''t pay off''???

 

We could''ve won 50-0, and we still only get 3 points... [:P]

[Robert N. LiM 6,299]

One more number for you all.

7.

The number of points we are clear of the bottom three at the moment.

As I said, I thought we were lucky today, but we''ve been unlucky earlier in the season, and to be where we are after a third of the season is a great effort.

[CantonsHero 0]

Lambert is a very sharp guy, who can read the play extremely well. We''ve got a lot of praise for finishing games well and snatching points at the death, and a lot of that must go down to Lambert''s changes.

However, not for the first time this season, the way we''ve been set up has left us vulnerable.

We are better than QPR, but today should have been comfortable. However, as much as Holt and Hoolahan should be praised, so should Lambert, if only for the changes.

[yoda 0]

[quote user="jed exodous"]

[quote user="yoda"]We got out of jail today without a doubt . Lambert gambled but it didn''t pay off , he simply must keep Wes in the side he is key for us to play higher up the park without him wwe have no ideas and as for holty he deserves his place too .[/quote]

 

How can you say ''Lambert gambled but it didn''t pay off''???

 

We could''ve won 50-0, and we still only get 3 points... [:P]

[/quote]

His starting line up was a gamble that didn''t work things only improved when he put on two players that should have started in the 1st place . don''t get me wrong i''m not having a go just pointing out that we were lucky to win today .

[Bryangunnshairline 0]

Should start as a diamond. Holt, morison and wes. Last 20 mins looked good. Not the best game in midfield but we are never gonna boss every game at this level. To say he git it wrong is wrong in its self.

[Chelmsford Canary 0]

Agree about pilkington.

Went missing today.

Would he be able to fit into the 442 / diamond.

On today - no!

But then Wes is in effective in 442, but excellent today when we changed to the tested diamond

[kick it off 2,062]

Agree Pilks was ineffective today, thought Tierney was run ragged too.

Overall though I think people are being pretty harsh, I certainly didn''t think we were as bad as this thread would have you believe.

At the end of the day - it was a crap game with neither team playing particularly great football, but we won against a QPR side who have been in form as of late (albeit minus Barton), one of the teams that are likely to be there and abouts on the relegation battle come the end of the season in my book.

I thought Surman actually played ok today, he came into it as the game went on and got the assist for the first goal from a decent corner delivery. If anyone has actually watched us recently, they''ll know that when Fox isn''t on the pitch, our set pieces are normally absolutely crap.

Defence were pretty poor across the board, except Martin who had a decent enough game.

Mid were pretty ineffective.

Up front Moro was good, Jackson was pretty anonymous.

Subs were inspired. Holt and Hooly changed the game. Well done Lambo.

[Gingerpele 0]

kick it off, you say people are being pretty harsh but then go on to say pretty much the same as everyone else...

[LinkNR9 0]

[quote user="yoda"]We got out of jail today without a doubt . Lambert gambled but it didn''t pay off , he simply must keep Wes in the side he is key for us to play higher up the park without him wwe have no ideas and as for holty he deserves his place too .[/quote]

Funny, I could have sworn that we won the match.

[YellowBlood 0]

Slated the team the last couple of weeks but today I though we deserved the win, started off superbly first 30 but then were outplayed up until when Holt and Hoolahan came on and that changed the game, also what a buy Morison is proving to be another quality display today from him.

The only negative for me as yet another defensive error from Barnett, that''s three in three games when he''s cost us a goal and it''s not good enough, hopefully Zak will be fit for Man City because I''ve run out of patience with Barnett unfortunately. Also as earlier posters have stated, Pilks looked completely anonymous and Jackson couldn''t get into the game. Other than that though, a solid performance and a huge win.

[ROBFLECK 134]

Great subs''performance but we don''t look the part in the middle of the park... January? I think we need a midfielder who''s got some class.

[BW 0]

Glad people are opening their eyes to what i said months ago about barnett everyone was like ahh he''s our best player you''re a scummer etc. I can read the game better then anyone he is not up for this level.

[kick it off 2,062]

GP: If that''s how it is perceived then I obviously haven''t made my opinions very clear. I thought we were ok, wasn''t a great performance by any means, but we got the result and reading some of the earlier posts, you''d think we''d lost 5-0

[Block Y Seat 176 80]

For me Lambert was a 10. His team selection was a surprise to me you can imagine the prepatation that QPR had done on us and all that planning was undone by the inclusion of Jackson and a more robust midfield at the expense of Fox and Hoolahan. QPR were a shadow of the team that i expected. It didn''t think that they would have two bad 45mins and so it proved and when they scored it looked they could get anther. Lambert countered this threat with an attacking change The twin substitution changed things and Holts reputation as a super sub will unsettle teams.

H

[Largey 0]

I thought we played much better yesterday than we did against Blackburn, Villa and Arsenal. We defended better and won battles on the pitch. QPR never really threatened our goal - Ruddy made 2 notable blocks and one goal conceded. Pretty comfortable in my opinion.

[lake district canary 0]

I''m getting fed up with this Barnett bashing. For heaven''s sake - several of you - look at the goal again you bleary eyed so and so''s. Barnett was given no time to react from a pressurised header from Tieney. He did well to get anything on the ball at all.

CH you claim your mini relegation league thread isn''t negative then you come up with this fairly bleak account. Lambert only 6? For managing us to a win againast difficult opposition? Where''s your va-va-voom?

[Reggie Strayshun 0]

Yesterday was the 3rd game I''ve been able to attend in person this season (the other 2 were WBA and Blackburn), and this was by far the most effective over 90 mins of the three.

 

We just have to accept that, at this level ,we are not going to play teams off the park like we did in the Champ and, even more so , in Lge One. The key to City staying up will be to grind out narrow wins like this on a regular basis. It wasn''t pretty . It wasn''t spectacular; but we looked reasonably comfortable at the back....get off Barnett''s case, he looked pretty assured yesterday. As someone else has said winning the odd game 4-0, but losing the rest will be no good. We need a lot more 2-1 and One -nillers if we are to stay out of trouble.

 

I agree with the official MOTM award. I thought Morison was superb yesterday. It must be a really thankless task being asked to play in a lone strikers role for so long, but the amount of work he does for the team, inc all sorts of stuff that largely goes unnoticed, is awesome.

[GJP 79]

[quote user="lake district canary"]I''m getting fed up with this Barnett bashing. For heaven''s sake - several of you - look at the goal again you bleary eyed so and so''s. Barnett was given no time to react from a pressurised header from Tieney. [/quote]

I agree. Unfortunately that kind of criticism either comes from not being able to read the game well enough or just satisfying some mindless vendetta.

 

I think if you look back at that goal you''ve got Russell Martin getting caught under the ball, Ruddy offering no help to his defenders and then Tierney heading an awkward ball to Barnett in a dangerous area - who then had to swing his weaker foot at it.

 

And yet you''ve got people doing their best to single out Barnett for the blame. Silly.

 

[Nexus_Canary 1,206]

Ruddy - 7.5 - Safe hands and some nice distribution as well today. No chance with the goal and was very obviously furious with his defence. De Laet - 6 - Show boat in front of the Jarold, very pretty but he almost lost the ball. Not NCFC material judging by his attitude. Pilks also constatly telling him to keep positon, training group stuff Mr  De Laet ? Looked alright if un-inspiring. Straight off down the tunnel ! Injured or just lame ??Martin 8 - This guy deserves his place in the first 11. Faultless again today and becoming Mr reliable. Well taken goal.Barnett 6.5 - Did his job yet another induvidual mistake. He needs to start thinking, as he seems to not really have a very good footballing brain at times. Tierney 7 - First name on the team sheet ( well 2nd after Ruddy ) Some nice overlaps and essential in both attack and defence.Crofts 7- Tenacious performance, guy bullied well today and if he does lose it he will chase hard to get it back.

Johnson 7 - Does what it says on the tin. Grinded out a decent enough showing.Pilkington 6.5 - Thought he played quite well, very dangerous on attack. Fizzled out a bit, prob a good choice to sub him.Surman 6.5 - Thought he rose to the challenge. Although he seems to be able to do 75 % of the move fantastically then just mess up the final ball / pass / cross. Would have been a 7 if not for this ! Still consdering his first game, excellent stuff.Jackson 6.5 - Played well and im not a Jackson fan ! Was in the right place at the right time and did very well, unlucky with his one effort early on. Would like to see more of him following that !Morrison 6.5 - Fantastic when running with the ball but seems to put himself out of position and not get back in fast enough. He also seems to be the first person to bollock another player even if it was his fault ie: Pilks on failed 1-2 and Holt on a shot. I am still not convinced by this chap if I am brutally honest !! Think he could be a pain in the ass at some point.Naughton 6.5 - Did  not have much to do but was a refreshing replacement to De Laet.Hoolahan 8 - Had his magicians hat on today. Top outing from Wessi.

Holt 8.5 - EVERYONE from the XI on the pitch to the fans were lifted by him comming on. Had more attempts in 5 mins than Morro and Jackson in 50. He looks lean, tidy and holds up the ball like no one else. Natural goal scorer and the biggest threat we have.Lambert 8- We needed 3 points today and he delivered. Took a big risk shaking things up but the injection of Wes & Holt changed the game. Think Lambo played it perfectly today.

[king canary 8,758]

[quote user="GJP"]

[quote user="lake district canary"]I''m getting fed up with this Barnett bashing. For heaven''s sake - several of you - look at the goal again you bleary eyed so and so''s. Barnett was given no time to react from a pressurised header from Tieney. [/quote]

I agree. Unfortunately that kind of criticism either comes from not being able to read the game well enough or just satisfying some mindless vendetta.

 

I think if you look back at that goal you''ve got Russell Martin getting caught under the ball, Ruddy offering no help to his defenders and then Tierney heading an awkward ball to Barnett in a dangerous area - who then had to swing his weaker foot at it.

 

And yet you''ve got people doing their best to single out Barnett for the blame. Silly.

 

[/quote]Agree to a certain extent that it is not Barnetts fault although I dont think you can put blame onto Martin and Ruddy. Fact is the ball sat up pretty simply to Tierney to play back to Ruddy. Ruddy was waiting for it and Barnett obviously expected it to go there. For some reason Tierney tried to be clever and caught Barnett off guard by nodding it over to him. The ball is about 30 yards from goal so I dont really see what Ruddy should be doing differently.

[Gerry Harrison 2]

[quote user="CantonsHero"]Both of our goals came again run of play.[/quote]This comment tops the lot! How the hell did our first goal come against the run of play?

[GJP 79]

[quote user="king canary"][quote user="GJP"]

[quote user="lake district canary"]I''m getting fed up with this Barnett bashing. For heaven''s sake - several of you - look at the goal again you bleary eyed so and so''s. Barnett was given no time to react from a pressurised header from Tieney. [/quote]

I agree. Unfortunately that kind of criticism either comes from not being able to read the game well enough or just satisfying some mindless vendetta.

 

I think if you look back at that goal you''ve got Russell Martin getting caught under the ball, Ruddy offering no help to his defenders and then Tierney heading an awkward ball to Barnett in a dangerous area - who then had to swing his weaker foot at it.

 

And yet you''ve got people doing their best to single out Barnett for the blame. Silly.

 

[/quote]

Agree to a certain extent that it is not Barnetts fault although I dont think you can put blame onto Martin and Ruddy. Fact is the ball sat up pretty simply to Tierney to play back to Ruddy. Ruddy was waiting for it and Barnett obviously expected it to go there. For some reason Tierney tried to be clever and caught Barnett off guard by nodding it over to him. The ball is about 30 yards from goal so I dont really see what Ruddy should be doing differently.
[/quote]

I wouldn''t put too much blame on Martin - but he got caught under the ball/lost a header.

 

Ruddy, however, should have been communicating better with his defenders. He can see what''s happening but he didn''t help them at all. Barnett was actually showing Tierney to go back to Ruddy but Ruddy didn''t take any kind of positive action. Which you can see meant that was Tierney unsure of himself and playing that dodgy header back to Barnett.

 

It could have been an easy ball back to Ruddy but he didn''t let his defenders know where he was and that the safe pass home was on.