A Balanced view on all things considered please! Fans, Players and manager after another Fulham mess!

[Indy 3,283]

Oh dear oh dear!

 

For those who say pre season doesn’t matter, it’s about getting fit, clearly yesterday confirmed what I said last week, we looked three weeks away from being ready! No idea of the formation being played, where they should be playing, our two wide players were defending! And even with 6 defenders we conceded 5 goals.

 

Did we actually get a shot on target which caused any concern for their keeper? Holt up top from the word go was isolated and Fulham coped with anything hurled up there!

 

Let’s not overreact about turner but hell, Tierney and Turner were so poor they looked as if two fans standing on the sidelines watching the Red Lion on a Sunday morning had been asked to complete the team!

 

For those who say don’t over react, I’m not going to but as most posted one here it’s only a matter of 5 matches and we could be in crises! 5 matches is three weeks!

 

The Fulham result was embarrassing no doubt, but the effort and commitment shown by the same players from last season is not acceptable! Had we shown some level of passion, aggression and desire on the pitch a 5-0 drubbing would have been bad enough but that performance was utterly unacceptable!

 

No positives can be taken from this apart from 1, we are 11 days from the transfer window closing and it’s as clear as day we need a quality CB who can command the back line, organise the midfield to defend and we need pace, pace up top to play alongside Holt! I suggest that the board forget about clearing the books, borrow more money and buy big and buy now or they will guarantee losing 45 million pounds by the end of this season!

 

Last Mr Hughton, I would suggest you choose your words more carefully next defeat, it was the same group of players who never performed like that last season and should not be so negative!

 

"Fulham are a top team"

"They are a technically superior team to us"

"I thought we stifled them well for the first twenty minutes"

"You don''t come here and attack"

"I knew we had a tough task of staying up as soon as I arrived"

 

That is something Mr Worthington would have said after his 6-0 drubbing, this is a team who we should be giving a game to, not losing 5-0.

 

Comments like these, Hughton will install anger in fans, make the players feel as though they are not good enough to compete at this level and defeat to PL teams acceptable without 100% effort.

 

Some of us knew it was going to be a tough season, but it’s you job to install confidence, passion, belief in the players, get them to play for you, get the formation right, balance the team right, don’t fit round pegs into square holes, another thing Worthy tried and failed with!

 

QPR is here soon, hopefully so will a couple more players and a change in mindset, formation and confidence or i can see trouble brewing!

 

Give it time, yes, give him a chance yes, Hughton can turn this around, but above all give him the money to make those two signings!

 

So those who are negative, yes 1 game and you have every right to complain, those who say why the negative comments should ask why the negative tactics!

 

Let’s see how we fair in the rest of August, the players reaction, the signings and the results then judge Hughton’s Norwich.

 

Let’s not turn on each other on the board just yet! We all have the right to view our opinions without the slanging please!

 

[JF 694]

Has anyone got a link to this interview because if he said these things Mcnally should be calling him in today and tearing shreds out of him.

[Mr Brownstone 0]

I don''t know how many times this has to be said, but WE DO NOT HAVE A CHOICE, WE HAVE TO PAY THE DEBT BACK.

Also, no financial institution anywhere in the world will lend a football club money to buy players.

[JF 694]

Money spent so far in the transfer window is £3 million more than Fulham, You could see that yesterday, Right?

[Indy 3,283]

What the hell do you mean no choice! there''s always a choice, it''s called restructuring the finainces!

 

Yes we have to pay the 6 million outstanding back but there are means to borrow that bit more and take a risk on the clubs future!

 

I''m not talking about spendiing 30 million on two players but we need two players who are the next level up to what we have!

 

Don''t be so blind in having to pay off the debt, it''s only around 6 million and January transfer could be to late for another Ashton tyoe signing!

 

We have to learn from the Worthy debacle, strengtthen now.

[Indy 3,283]

Oh and you borrow on your assets not your players, so debt free the club could borrow on the cllubs assests! It''s all about risk management.

[Mr Brownstone 0]

You have literally no idea what you are talking about.

[lake district canary 0]

One or two new players isn''t going to make any difference if the manager doesn''t get the team to play.  Its the team preparation that has to be right.   Mentally is where Lambert got us right.   Mentally we weren''t at the races yesterday.   I wasn''t expecting or even hoping for a win yesterday - just signs of things to come.   Well I hope things change and quickly.   Fulham were good - as you would expect - but the decision making from our manager and players was terrible.  

 

 

Onwards and upwards - I hope [:S]

 

[Making Plans 936]

"Fulham are a top team" - wrong, but we made them look like one

"They are a technically superior team to us" - wrong, we have players, if used correctly, that are just as technical as theirs

"I thought we stifled them well for the first twenty minutes" - shouldn''t we be aiming for more than just stiffiling our opponents. An occasional attack would be nice.

"You don''t come here and attack" - wrong, well we certainly didn''t do that but I don''t think we''d have lost by 5 if we had

"I knew we had a tough task of staying up as soon as I arrived" - wow, great attitude & in all honesty a surprising admission

[Old Shuck 183]

What yesterday seems to have emphasised is the absolute importance of self belief and mental strength in the modern game.

 

We can all tick off the obvious ones-pace, a good ''spine'' to the team, forwards who complement each other etc-but the above is right up there.

 

We saw it with Mike Walker. He made a similarly ''average'' team play out of their skins-bar a couple of them, that 92/93 team was the same one that had, the previous season, lost 9 of its final 11 league games (if we do that in any pattern of 11 games this season imagine the outcry and reaction!) -yet he put it in their heads they were world beaters, you talk to any one of that side who played under him-Dixie was the coach and tactician for the main, Mike the man who made them believe in themselves, and, like Lambert, he made good players great ones.

 

Hindsight is a wonderful thing-but the comparisons between him and Lambert in that way are apparant.

 

CH is at a club where the footballing culture is as strong as any other-but not as emphasised or well known. Players and fans at Norwich thrive on support and belief, praise when praise is due and openly-and criticism discreetly and at the right times. He seems a people person at heart, someone who can relate to people and how they like to be treated, I wonder if Calderwood is the bad cop to his good one? The problem with that is that if Calderwood is, or does, sound off to the players then they are going to make comparisons with how Lambert and Cully reacted in the same situation and, as all players do, especially with Calderwood, they are going to think, "what have you ever done, the previous gaffer won the Champions League".

 

Give the players the self belief and the faith in them to perform, they will respect you and perform in return. That was part of the way it worked under Walker and Lambert as well-we overachieved but deservedly so and on the basis of damned good man management. Don''t show it so much and the equation becomes as unreciprocal as the previous one was complementary. I''m not saying its why we were cut to pieces yesterday but I would hope what has so clearly and evidently been built and shown to work over the last three years is now not going to be disregarded. The momentum was lost when Walker left big time, lets hope it isn''t going to happen again-the strength of the Bond-Brown-Stringer era was that they maintained what we had and what worked rather than implemented change, it showed in how well the club did-even Walker was carrying on the good work set up ny his predecessors.

 

Change is not always a good thing or the best thing. We had something good here, no need to throw away what brought it in the first place-tweak and fine tune: yes, sweep out and away, no.

[Canary02 IV 0]

Whilst I would still like a couple more players in, I don''t think we would need ridiculously expensive signings, or for extra funds to be released outside that which we already have the budget in place for. The players we have are more than capable of competing at this level as it is.

What we need is a management team that can recognise when their tactic isn''t working and change it to something which will and which the players we have can work within comfortably.

Hughton should be given time to prove that he can do this, but if he stubbornly clings to a failing tactic and fatalistic approach, a "Little Old Norwich" mentality that says we can only hope to cling on against more established sides then he is not the man for us.

[lake district canary 0]

I''m flabbergasted at what appears to be happening.  Its only one result but already its clear that things are not going to go well this season.  You can''t fight with one arm tied behind your back. That is what it looked like yesterday.   The players appeared to have too much going on in their heads to be able to just play.   A new coach, yes, trying hard to implement new ideas, yes, but it had the effect of just making us look so useless.   Too much thinking.....................

 

 

The art of managing is to be able to get your ideas across AND get your players to perform well.     Looks like Hughton has got his ideas across - but hasn''t prepared the team well mentally.     The after match comments?  I''m speechless.

 

 

   

[AJ 1,218]

I think the main problem was we didn''t have a clear gameplan. Under Lambert every player was well educated and knew his role inside out. Yesterday looked like 11 strangers trying to kick the ball around.

4-5-1 didn''t work last year

4-5-1 didn''t work in the friendlies

SO WHY PLAY 4-5-1?!

Such negative approach, was clearly going for the draw. Lambert did nothing but look to overachieve, whereas Hughton seems a lot more cautious and underwhelmed.

Also, nothing against Morison, I thought he played alright when he came on. But when you''re 2 goals down and decide to switch to 4-4-2, why not bring on the player who has looked most like scoring and has scored 75% of our pre-season goals?! I mean, COME ON!

[Legend Iwan 30]

Indy, I believe the amount we have to pay back by the end of the season is closer to £18m, not six. But someone more financially minded, Purple (?) I think provided a breakdown of the accounts, will be able to give the exact figure.