Where We Are At IMO

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

The Leicester game

Rumours of player in-fighting

Squad rotation

Comparisons to Swansea

Season petering out

I questioned some time ago whether we were in a slump; some agreed and many disagreed. The facts are we played poorly against Leicester but lost narrowly against United, Stoke and again today while we failed to beat a Wigan side in the sort of game we were winning earlier in the season and need to win within our remit. Such are the margins. But apart from the Leicester game we have competed and generally played well which is important - look at the state of Wolves for instance.

 

Where we are now is a must win game against the worst side in the division next week.

 

From the game today I saw a Norwich side dictate the pace of the game well and quieten the home fans. I though PL set his side out better than of late but wonder why Morison wasn''t subbed for Jackson. But overall we deserved something from the game and didn''t embarass ourselves at all. It was, though, patently obvious Newcastle were fragile in defence. They nearly handed us goals through panicked defending and the addition of firepower up front was too little too late, we lost because we were too cautious.

 

Positively we moved forward and back as a unit but lacked punch where it mattered and Newcastle''s defence were not put under enough pressure with only one up front.

 

The highlight for me was Howson and his absence when subbed was immediately apparent because he was constantly available for a pass due to good movement and finally in him we had a midfielder prepared to carry the ball forward. I saw him misplace two passes but perhaps due to fatigue. I look forward to seeing more of him, he could be what our midfield has missed and his game was the most encouraging thing for me today.

 

In simple terms we still leak goals, okay only the odd one but we have dried up at the other end and this appears to me to be Lambert''s biggest problem as he has recently tried all his available strikers and all are out of goalscoring form. In the case of Holt, unless he is injured, I blame Lambert for not playing him as Holt improves with games. I suspect he isn''t the greatest trainer and his fitness and sharpness is wholly game dependant. This comes back to his dropping vs Leicester after tearing Swansea apart.

 

Beat Wolves and optimism will return and no one likes Wolves so I expect the right ground atmosphere next week. If we keep playing like we did today it WILL come round for us. 

[Gingerpele 0]

I''d say we didn''t play well against Leicester, Stoke and Wigan. Three below par/poor performances out of five, never before seen under Lambert.

The only thing that slightly frustrates me, is we seem to put so much effort into playing the big teams (bar Man.C and Spurs) and I include Newcastle in the ''big teams'' because thats what they have been this season, above Liverpool and not far off Arsenal and Chelsea. But against Wigan and Stoke, we didn''t play half as well. I''m almost certain if we''d played like we did today last weekend, we would have won easily.

I''m not being negative, i''m happy with today''s performance, all it lacked was a goal or two from us. I think we''ll beat Wolves next week, its only if we don''t do that, then i''ll be genuinely concerned, maybe even a bit disappointed. After the Leicester game, we knew how hard Man.U would be, but we put in a great performance, after that game I thought we must go away to Stoke and get something, but no 3 loses in a row, never mind Wigan at home next, bottom of the table, surely Lambert will have his players geared up to stop the run of defeats, only just, not a great performance and only a draw against bottom of the league Wigan. Wasn''t expecting much today, Newcastle had nearly their strongest team available, are very good at home. But if we lose next week...

But I don''t think we will lose, I think next week is nearly as important for us as it is Wolves. They can''t expect anything from us, they might hope they can sneak a point or three, but realistically Wolves shouldn''t, in the form they are in, be expecting anything at Carrow Road. The right team selection, and a team full of players at the top of their game will see us back in winning ways.

[. 0]

City''s success over the past three seasons has been built on confidence and utter self belief. The addition of new faces and the demotion of Grant Holt as the fulcrum on which the team turns has changed things.No-ones fault in particular and it''s not terminal.... but things have changed.