Where are all the threads..

[nutty nigel 7,513]

About how well we played tonight. About how Wes was the best player on the pitch tonight. How Holty was awesome and only a fantastic save stopped him scoring the winner. How the midfield and defence all but snuffed out Southamptons forwards who every one was saying would cause us so many problems. About how our unbeaten run has stretched another game. How we have got more points now than most were saying we''d have by Christmas.

 

Unbeaten in 8 now is it? Including wins over Arse and Man U and in the quarterfinals of the cup? Did anyone seriously expect better than that? I can''t believe the negativity on here. It''s like the results and performances haven''t happened. There''s just threads criticising and moaning. I really hope the players don''t come on here and read it.

 

 

 

 

[Helsinki canary 240]

I felt quite unsure going into last nights game and was more than happy to get a draw and remain unbeaten, that is a great achievement to pick up points in the prem away from home week in week out. Sunday is now the big test, those are games we need to convert to 3 points, sunderland are not doing too well at the moment and we must put them to the sword.....2-1

[Herman 9,717]

But we should be losing 4-3 or some other crazy scoreline like that. A real gung-ho style of football is what we need, ney deserve. Bring in Holloway the genius, toot sweet.

Good stuff Hughton. On a small personal level,it is nice being able to buy a newspaper the morning after a game without having to skip the sports section.

[Gardeningleave 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

About how well we played tonight. About how Wes was the best player on the pitch tonight. How Holty was awesome and only a fantastic save stopped him scoring the winner. How the midfield and defence all but snuffed out Southamptons forwards who every one was saying would cause us so many problems. About how our unbeaten run has stretched another game. How we have got more points now than most were saying we''d have by Christmas.

 

Unbeaten in 8 now is it? Including wins over Arse and Man U and in the quarterfinals of the cup? Did anyone seriously expect better than that? I can''t believe the negativity on here. It''s like the results and performances haven''t happened. There''s just threads criticising and moaning. I really hope the players don''t come on here and read it.

 

 

 

 

[/quote]

The fans of Sunderland, Villa and Newcastle will at this moment be very concerned. Loss of form and injuries to key players are taking their toll. We are starting to look like an established Premier team where we can beat anybody on our day. Hughton has found the formula for not losing and getting the odd win. Long may it continue.

GL

[Herman 9,717]

How did Bunny play btw?

[Gardeningleave 0]

When i first saw him i thought his size and stature would count against him. I have seen him play twice and he is confident and agile with a good punch to clear dangerous crosses. A good standby but clearly Hughton is concerned about the length of time Ruddy is out and is looking at an emergency loan.

GL

[Robert Parsons 0]

Agree totally Nutty. Got home from the game very late and expected to be reading lots of positivity on this board but instead a lot of bilge about change and lots of negativity.

Personally very happy with the point, very happy with the formation, the chance creation and delighted with Chrissy Hughton. Can teams always improve? Of course, but if you are not overwhelmingly happy at this moment as a Norwich fan then you are simply a misery in my book.

BTW thought Bunn did very well.

RP

[smooth 114]

Never had a good result against Soton, but this is not a Soton team to be feared off.

A great away point, but as I only got Paul walsh''s piece from skysports in the second half and the fact they went over three times in 45 minutes explained that not much was happening. Heard a lot of good possession and pressure but very little goal threatening. I may be wrong, but again the final ball was under par and if it wasn''t for fragile defence from Soton it would have been more comfortable for Soton.

4 points from the bottom 3 is good, but yesterday I expected us to to take advantage of the chance of playing a bottom three team and increasing that gap. Sunderland will be up for our game, I do not think it will be easy as we lack so much going forward.

I thought yesterday''s game was the game where hoolahan would actually make headlines. He needs to find the back of the net and be that complete premiership player. He is looking in great form but goals are needed.

Just watched skysports news round up of our game and the coverage is about the referee not about the football, I think that speaks volumes.

[ROBFLECK 132]

I must say I can''t understand the negativity either. I''m not happy with our attacking play either, but we''re unbeaten in 7 PL games and we''re consistently picking up points. The thing I was most down about yesterday is Ruddy''s injury. Still I think our manager needs to change things round earlier in the game. Would''ve liked to have seen Benno get a chance earlier in the game etc... But we''re doing well and we''re not losing. No case for negative threads is it?...Euhmm apparently some think it is...

[flying high up in the sky! 1]

Some of the fans are still crying over shambert departing and can''t understand why we ain''t playing gung ho and losing 3-2 every week but "gave it a really good go". We r having our biggest unbeaten run in the top flight since 1980 plus have our best manager in years but some will always be negative. I couldn''t care less if we had 1 shot on target but win 1-0 every game tbh. Better that than the championship.

[Gardeningleave 0]

I said weeks ago that no way would i have Lambert back, we are a Hughton team now, onwards and upwards, one-nil, one-nil one-nil.

GL

[Beauseant 0]

[quote user="nutty nigel"]

About how well we played tonight. About how Wes was the best player on the pitch tonight. How Holty was awesome and only a fantastic save stopped him scoring the winner. How the midfield and defence all but snuffed out Southamptons forwards who every one was saying would cause us so many problems. About how our unbeaten run has stretched another game. How we have got more points now than most were saying we''d have by Christmas.

 

Unbeaten in 8 now is it? Including wins over Arse and Man U and in the quarterfinals of the cup? Did anyone seriously expect better than that? I can''t believe the negativity on here. It''s like the results and performances haven''t happened. There''s just threads criticising and moaning. I really hope the players don''t come on here and read it.

 

[/quote]

Spot on Nutty. Twice we ''ve gone behind in tough away games while being under the cosh. Both times we''ve hung in and ground out a point without ever hitting top form. As a manager, if your team''s struggling (as we were early season) the first job is to stop the bleeding and make yourselves difficult to beat. Hughton''s done that and the next step is to increase attacking potency, but you can''t do both at once. Away from home you start with a point and look to keep it, anything else is a bonus. What you DON''T do is, having battled for 70 minutes, go gung-ho in the hope you might nick all three by gambling the one.

I made the point in my EDP column the other week that we''ve moved on from Roy of the Rovers and are playing grown up football this season. Hopefully we''ll see a bit more grown up support too.

 

 

 

[First Wizard 0]

[quote user="Gardeningleave"]I said weeks ago that no way would i have Lambert back, we are a Hughton team now, onwards and upwards, one-nil, one-nil one-nil. GL[/quote]

 

My view also, long may Hughton continue.

[paul moy 235]

[quote user="Herman "]But we should be losing 4-3 or some other crazy scoreline like that. A real gung-ho style of football is what we need, ney deserve. Bring in Holloway the genius, toot sweet. Good stuff Hughton. On a small personal level,it is nice being able to buy a newspaper the morning after a game without having to skip the sports section.[/quote]

The question is whether you''d rather have the scenario of an unbeaten nine draws with rather boring cautious predictable negative football, or 3 wins and 6 defeats with nail-biting unpredictability but with a lot more goals, entertainment, the chance of more points and the supporters riding an adrenalin-rollercoaster. Both scenarios above yield the same number of points and we''ve gone for the first one under Hughton. My personal opinion is that I''m willing to put up with this lack of adventurousness at the moment as survival and money is paramount but long-term I really don''t think so.   

[Gingerpele 0]

For goodness sake.

There were about 3 posters who were negative...

Why are people reading posts saying we can can and should be scoring more goals as negative?

Why do people not want us to improve?

Its getting ridiculous to be honest. Any suggestion that we haven''t been all that in attack and people get upset. Well its time to face facts, we haven''t. We should have scored more than once last night. We should have scored more than once against Villa, against Man.U, should have scored against Reading, against Everton. This isn''t having a go at the system, this isn''t saying we should be losing 4-3 rather than drawing 1-1/ This is saying we are having the chances, we are getting the ball into the right area of the pitch a lot, not just a couple times a game, but a lot, and failing to do anything with it. 7 unbeaten is outstanding, but like I said multiple times last night, the best part about that is we can improve.

Why are some fans so against that idea? Because thats all this thread, and the multiple other posters last night who moaned about anyone suggesting such thing (of which there were more moaning about negativity than posters being negative).

I''m sorry if I can see my team can improve, and want them too.

[Gingerpele 0]

And Wes best player on the pitch?

I really don''t think so. He wasn''t poor, but if you are saying he was the best player on the pitch thats pretty insulting to the rest of the team. First half he did next to nothing, go into it second half and was the centre point of some nice attacking moves, but was well below his best last night, same against Everton. Think he needs a goal to give him some spark back.

And seriously, there was no more than 3 posters actually criticising and moaning. I''m getting very fed up of all these accusations, there were multiple posters at it last night. And the over-exaggerations, its ridiculous.

[nutty nigel 7,513]

I know it was late when I posted but I don''t think I misjudged the threads on here GPele. I believe there was one thread started to praise the team and that was Rudolph''s about Bassong. All the rest were criticisms. And even that thread didn''t take into account how well the whole team played to help Bassong be so imperious at the back. Had he had to cope with runners from the midfield and been overun I guess there would have been threads about how he was worse than The Doc. What got us that point last night was how well we played, to a man, when we didn''t have the ball. Another indication of how well we actually did play was that we didn''t find out much about Bunn. And when you consider that for the last two days I was reading how we wouldn''t cope with Southampton''s attacking threat how well must we have played to get that point and come closest to getting all three? And if you believe that Wes did next to nothing I seriously have to question your eyesight. He was the most creative player on the pitch for both sides.

 

And on another point buddy, I didn''t mention any posters for criticising or being negative. I said all the threads were to criticise or be negative. You point me to the thread that said "well played" or "great team effort" ot "the most we hoped for was a point and that''s what we got". Just read the titles as you look down the page. My point was that having stretched our unbeaten run to 8 games, and having got more points than anyone predicted we would, I can''t understand why there was so many threads started to criticise. And if the players looked at that I wouldn''t be surprised if they said "WTF do the fans expect?" Having looked at the match thread it was just like on Saturday where most people were moved to post by something negative but rarely posted about anything positive. IMO this board has become far too critical this season and if that makes me a "happy clapper" then I''m pleased to be one. There most have been 1900 more "happy clappers" at St Mary''s last night.

 

 

 

[Mr Jenkins 0]

I totally agree with dear Nutty, perhaps the majority who are happy do not even look at this board, let alone post on here, the posters we seem to have generally take a critical view, we all want more, that is human nature, but our posts should be tempered with some realism and a great appreciation of what we are achieving.I can just see dear Nutty sitting there with his polishing cloth in one hand and the end of his blue tip in the other!

[Gingerpele 0]

But Nutty, all we did is what we did in the previous 6 league games.

Everyone now knows we can do that well, and in the match thread pretty much everyone said that. Doesn''t mean its still not as impressive, but there is only so many times you can say good defensive performance. When you''ve kept a clean sheet against Arsenal and Man.U, even Stoke, conceding one away at Southampton and keeping them quiet isn''t really something that I can get too exited about. Its not my fault the team have set the standard high.

I get your point about the thread titles. But I don''t think more than 3 or 4 posters were actually really moaning. I can only really speak for myself, but I certainly am delighted with the team at the moment. But that doesn''t mean we can''t improve.

Surely you agree we are wasting a lot of chances? If you like I can list a couple dozen wasted opportunities, either shots or final balls that should/could have been better and probably even more chances to create something decent that just didn''t happen over the last few games. Our defence is fantastic. The only thing i''m not delighted about is the amount of wasted opportunities up front. We can, and should be scoring more without changing the system, the formation, the way we play. We are creating more than enough chances to score more than one or none a game, we have been all season. But a lack of quality and some bad luck has mean''t we''ve only scored more than one on one occasion this season.

A point away is more than good enough, i''d have accepted a point before the game, and before every away game. But when you watch the game, wether you are at the ground or watching on a steam (and mine was pretty good, was fairly clear and very smooth, very little interruption) and see the events unfold, personally I can''t just sit here and pretend everything is perfect when it isn''t.

And that, for me is the best part about our current form.

We can turn these draws into wins occasionally very easily. We aren''t desperately holding onto wins and draws, we are comfortable in our performances. The defence looks comfortable and we don''t really look like conceding, even the goals we have conceded of late have been down to one individual mistake (Whittaker, Bassong or Turner for Villa goal) or a bit of bad luck (last night). But we are getting forward, in a 15 minute spell last night we got the ball forward so much, it hardly left their half of the pitch, it pretty much finished with Holts header, we really should have scored a second then, or before then.

Thats all I, and I thought many others have been saying. A slight lack in quality in final ball, set pieces and finishing can and should be improved and we''ll be picking up even more points.

[Bury Yellow 2]

I can see where Gpele is coming from but overall I agree with Nutty.

A team performance is rarely perfect and commenting on events that worry you is fine but reading quite vicious criticism on some of our players is depressing.

We have a good shape, a top class centre half orchestrating a fine defence (I read somewhere someone moaning about Whittaker FFS) and a team working for each other.

Hoots as acknowledged that scoring goals is difficult with the system we are playing and it''s work in progress. He singled out Holty for praise prior to the Saints game so I hope Capain Fantastic was not too

piddled off to be subbed. Ah! now I could have a moan about subs and the timing of them :-)

[nutty nigel 7,513]

What chances did we waste last night though?

 

Have a look at the comments earlier in the week about Southampton being in form and how we''d struggle to cope with their attacking threat and then think about how many chances they created. The most anyone expected from the game was a point. Nobody expected a comfortable point. And I believe Hughton was right to cherish that point. Had he made attacking substitutions we could have lost 2-1 just as easily as won 2-1. Had we lost Southampton would have been 3 points closer to us. When we were losing at Everton Hughton finished the game with three strikers on. I don''t get the criticisms seriously buddy. But to be kind I''ve always believed that watching on TV forces you to follow the ball and the action on the ball far too much. Which create work for excellent pundits like Gary Neville who can point out the bigger picture after the game.

 

The only time I was concerned last night was when Holt was taken off. I feared the worst because of what happened the previous night at Villa Park when Humpty Dumpty took Roberts off and for a few minute we looked shaky but thankfully we started to play to Morison''s strengths and he kept the ball out of harms way before the end.

 

 

[BlyBlyBabes 0]

There''s those that are over-critical of the team; and there''s those who are over-critical of other posters. Those who moan about our powderpuff attack, and those who moan about other posters.

 

Now me? I empathise with the views of both Beauseant and Ginger Pele expressed on this post. Figure out that''un!

 

Now to those [:-*]  moaners............Hmmm..............I reckon they''re a bit like Abramovich........success is OK, but they''d far prefer pretty success (.......for their money - and time).

 

As for my buddyyyyyy ''dear nutty'', I reckon he''s got more than a touch of ''little Norwich'' about him - don''t you? [;)]

 

OTBC

 

[nutty nigel 7,513]

Thanks for that Babes[Y]

 

I don''t know how me and my buddies Beaus and Ginger Pele would have coped on this thread without your valuable input.....

 

[;)]

 

 

[Herman 9,717]

@ Paul Moy.

The simple fact is that i don''t want my team to ever lose. I hate the "football blues" after a loss and if that means putting up with some dull games i am more than happy. I couldn''t understand how Stoke fans put up with it, i do now.

[Gingerpele 0]

Well for a start the various FKs from good positions and corners.

When we put a good ball into the box we always look like scoring. But the players who we know can put a good ball in, only do that once every 10 set pieces at the moment.

I''m not just talking about shots, but general play. Pilks and Snod both nearly had a shot, just stopped by some good defensive work. Snod and Hoolahan got plenty of the ball in and around the penalty area in the second half. We had the ball in good crossing positions plenty of times. Snodgrass had the ball on the ground inside the box and pulled it back to no one. (something he''s done about 6/7 times this season, really frustrating).

Southampton''s defence wasn''t good, three or four ''last ditch'' tackles had to be made. We made it easy for them with the quality of our final ball.

Obviously i''m just rating our team to highly. Sorry for wanting us to do more with the ball when we have it in good areas. Southampton may have won a couple games, but against QPR in one of the worst quality games i''ve seen in the Premiership and against an out of sorts Newcastle who also lost to Stoke last night. There defence isn''t great, ours is. We dealt with some good balls into the box very well, they dealt with our rubbish balls into the box.

I expected a comfortable point at the very least, because I have watched us play the previous 6 league games. When you can shut out Arsenal, Man.U, Stoke, Villa who are all awkward teams to deal with for different reasons, deal with lots of attacking pressure from Reading and force Everton to pretty much rely on Baines being good to create chances you should be fairly confidant we can do the same to Southampton. Of course there will always be the chance in every game until it happens the other team will break down our defence and score 2/3 or more, but until that happens there is no reason to think anyone will do that.

We are a better side than Southampton. We are a very good defensive side with Bassong fit, with Tettey and Johnson in front. No one will be confidant going up against our defence. But we still have the same quality of attacking players that we had last season. The only difference is Howson/Fox have been swapped for a more defence minded midfielder. But Tettey loves to burst forward, Johnson gets forward as well. Quite simply Pilks is not as good as he was last season. Hoolahan is playing well but not quite creating as much as we know he can, and Holt isn''t getting many chances, because of poor quality balls and his positioning.

We aren''t not attacking, we aren''t rubbish. We are a good side who are lacking something in attack, something that can be rectified without sacrificing any of our defensive ability. Obviously I don''t expect us to be perfect, but in games like last night, Everton, Villa, Man.U, even Reading when the chances present themselves, or even the chance to create a good chance, we need to remember how to take them.

[paul moy 235]

[quote user="Herman "]@ Paul Moy. The simple fact is that i don''t want my team to ever lose. I hate the "football blues" after a loss and if that means putting up with some dull games i am more than happy. I couldn''t understand how Stoke fans put up with it, i do now.[/quote]

That''s fair enough Herman. My view though is that I like to see entertaining football with a team taking risks to get a win. I wouldn''t want to invest in a season-ticket knowing that the best I am likely to see is 19 boringly defensive home draws. When Stoke are on the box I don''t watch their games and I don''t want to be in the situation where I don''t want to watch my own team. I''m willing to accept defeats in order to see more entertainment as long as the number of wins outweighs the downside. The club also has to consider that lack of entertaining football will eventually drive away supporters.  

[nutty nigel 7,513]

Why do you get so defensive GP/ We''re only having a debate on a football forum. TBH buddy it makes little difference to me what you want to see so there''s absolutely no need to apologise. Me? I''m just glad and grateful that I didn''t go all that way to see us risk throwing away the point by going gung ho.

 

We are a good defensive side because we defend from the front. If the wide players and forwards didn''t defend then the defence, and even Tettey and Johnson would be over run. Hughton went for it at Everton. I believe he played the right team with the right tactics then and last night.

[quote user="paul moy"]

That''s fair enough Herman. My view though is that I like to see entertaining football with a team taking risks to get a win. I wouldn''t want to invest in a season-ticket knowing that the best I am likely to see is 19 boringly defensive home draws. [/quote]

 

Moyo - you''re daft as a brush[:O] This season ticket you haven''t bothered to get, probably ever, would have seen draws against West Ham & QPR, a 2-5 defeat to Liverpool and wins against Arsenal, Stoke and Manchester United.

 

 

[Shack Attack 0]

[quote user="Beauseant"]

I made the point in my EDP column the other week that we''ve moved on from Roy of the Rovers and are playing grown up football this season. Hopefully we''ll see a bit more grown up support too.

[/quote]

As much as I like you Beau a ''grown up supporter'' would not seek to dismiss what the previous manager did as ''Roy of the Rovers'' in an attempt to defend the present manager who can point to results as proof that his method is working without needing to denigrate previous efforts. We will succeed by combining the approaches of Lambert and Hughton and attempting to pass one off as better than the other is misguided in the extreme.

I saw a lot of reasoned posting last night which wanted us to be better in the final third from posters such as Gingerpele and LDC which far outweigh the one line ''Hughton is negative'' nonsense spouted by the herd. Join in with that and ignore the rest. As for the OP I didn''t think Holt and Hoolahan were that great last night. Holt put in a shift which is the least you should expect from any modern striker but although Nutty says Hoolahan was the most creative player on the pitch it is not saying much in a game so devoid of quality. I am regularly the most creative player in the garden when I play football with my kids but they just cannot read my passes [;)]

[Gingerpele 0]

I''m not trying to be defensive, i''m just trying to get my point across.

And personally, although i''d rather go to every single Norwich game, i''m almost glad I didn''t go last night. Would have been hard pushed to actually get the trains needed to get back to Canterbury before the morning. And to be honest, although I love away games, long journeys to watch us draw could easily get frustrating. I imagine you weren''t back in Norwich until very late, your post was at about 3:30, you couldn''t have been back long. Long trip to Everton for a draw. Yes these are good results, but in a way frustrating performances.

In my view we just need to get these set pieces and crosses to improve and a couple of these recent draws would have been wins. Without sacrificing any of our defensive ability. Thats my point. We don''t need to go all out, bring on 3 strikers to win a game, that didn''t actually help us against Everton, Morison winning a FK in a position the RW or RB would normally be in, for the CB to score from the FK taken by the LB who had both been paying all game. It wasn''t until that FK we put in a really dangerous set piece. Last night we only put in a couple good corners, and Holt nearly scored from one.

Some extra practice in training and maybe the consistency of set pieces and cross will improve, and a couple of these draws when we are more than comfortable in defence will turn into wins.

[nutty nigel 7,513]

This is the whole point I''m making though Shack. Before the game the fear was Southampton''s attacking players being too good for us. If Wes was the most creative player in Mary''s garden then the fears of Saint''s players pre-match were quite contrary with what actually happened. But remember the silver bells were actually thumbscrews and you don''t want to know about the cockleshells[:O]

 

I really don''t think comparisons with Lambert make any sense anymore. Lambert played the only way we could to survive last season with the players we had and the momentum we had. This is maybe not Lambert''s way though because his Villa team are much more like us this season than last. The money we got for Lambert''s success last season allowed us to improve the team defensively. I believe Lambert would have done the same thing with that money. Having built a solid base I hope and think the next step will be to spend proper money on player/players who can really make things happen in the final third.