Reputation of our great club

[Ha ya got a loight boy? 0]

Watching today online, I couldn''t help thinking, here we go again, another dour game in prospect.    The Johnson overhit cross after a few minutes summed it up.   A good position to give Holt  and a clear chance gone.   Poor technique.  No wonder Holt hasn''t scored so many this season.  And so it goes on.  We are led to believe its a work in progress but is it?   I''d like to think so, but it is becoming really difficult to watch the kind of football we are playing, week in week out.    Why can''t we string passes together like we used to?     Why can''t we get crosses in like we used to?     Is it down to tactics, or are the players just too scared to?     Thank goodness for Martin last week, putting in a decent cross to the back post.   Today was not a good advert for football or for Norwich.    If we''re not careful, we''ll end up getting a reputation for not just boring football, but poor football as well.   We might stay up, but is that all that matters?

[Bury Yellow 2]

Look out mate. A reasonable arguement but criticism ? No No No that will not do

[AJ 1,224]

I think with the resources we have Hughton is doing a good job - obviously we are all hoping that''ll change in the summer when we can splash a bit of cash!

[killiecanary 0]

''We might stay up. but is that all that matters?''

This season yes.

Next season no.

[Making Plans 936]

[quote user="AJ"]I think with the resources we have Hughton is doing a good job[/quote]Are you implying that our resources mean that week after week, we don''t set out to win games, we don''t have anybody who can regularly make an accurate forward pass, no one is capable of frequently delivering a half decent cross, no one has the desire to make an attacking run into the box and everyone lacks the confidence to have the occassional shot at goal. Because if you are then I find it strange that with more or less the same players as last season, our strengths have now become our weaknesses. At the end of the day, our team is made up of professional footballers who all have the ability to perform more effectively, both indvidually and as a team than the Manager is currently giving them credit for.Our players ability & strengths are being stiifled by the tatics employed. Yep, Hughton is doing a real good job.

[Rudolph Hucker 0]

Careful MP, you''ll have McNally''s Stasi after you for expressing a dissenting viewpoint.

[Making Plans 936]

Dissenting or not, that''s what I see

[Aggy 757]

I didn''t start supporting the club until the mid-to-late 90s as a young kid. And in the, what, 15 years since I''ve been properly supporting the club, at least two thirds of those have not been great football.

And if it''s going to be average football, I''d rather it was in the prem than the bottom half of the championship.

[ZLF 274]

I thought today was a good defensive display. The back 5 were good and in the 451 it was a close game - although the runaway champions of the league never really threatened to get out of second gear. It took a fluke goal and some woefully poor midfield tracking for them to take the lead.

It only really fell apart when we did what the so called knowledgeable fans wanted and went 442. Then we were ripped apart.

Today was a valuable lesson and highlighted where our strengths and weaknesses are.

The positives are our back 4 is solid and tough to break down and that in our wide players (pilkington and snodgrass) we have two quality players.

The negatives are that we lack pace, particularly up front, that Holt was very easily contained, that in centre midfield we are too weak and our passing lets us down.

BJ has been good for us this season, but his passing remains so poor and for an enforcer he simply is not destructive enough - things could have been so different had that early cross found holt in acres of space instead of going straight behind the goal. However he gives his all and I dnt envisage dropping him - he gets involved, makes himself available and exceeds his capability - what more can a fan want??

His partner in howson however had another anfield game, he is by far the more talented footballer yet had a worse passing rate than BJ today and spent teh whole match watching the game pass him by. Stats? BJ touched the ball 43 times in the first half - Howson 21 - same position and responsibility, one got involved the other watched - BJ moved and made himself availabel despite his passing limitationsm Howson was static And howson likes to point - at kagawa for the opening goal as he failed t track his run, standing hands on hips at his movement. a trcik (lost runner, not hands on hips) he repeated twice.

Combined this means we have to investing a striker and central midfielders next year - with pace power and commitment to get involved - tettey BJ howson and better makes for a good squad.

We set up at the champions to be to gain a point, unluckily went behind, came out much better for 25 mins in the second half, decided to chase the game by leaving howson on and taking of wes and paid the price.

It costs us nothing in the aim of getting to the summer so we can strengthen again - end the summer without better midfielders and strikers then this year will have been a loss - but that simply wont happen.

Get some realistic expectations fans

[Rolf Harris 31]

How was that a good defensive display ball watching and poor positioning.

[......and Smith must score. 1,349]

[quote user="Aggy"]I didn''t start supporting the club until the mid-to-late 90s as a young kid. And in the, what, 15 years since I''ve been properly supporting the club, at least two thirds of those have not been great football.

And if it''s going to be average football, I''d rather it was in the prem than the bottom half of the championship.[/quote]Aggy, you''re unlucky that you were born too late and therefore missed out on NCFC''s best years.I hope before too long you get to see some of the sort of football we used to play back in the day.

[Lavanche 0]

Great post zipper. I think exactly same. For me this game would have needed energy of Tettey as we had problems to retain ball after ManU took the lead.

Also for me next summer is about strenghtening central middlefield.

Hoolahan doesnt really have competition for his place as Hughton dont like to play Howson there and as good as BJ and Tettey are together for defensive options we could use another quality player for deep position who offers a bit more in a build up play.

Dont really know what is wrong with Howson. Has he lost his confidense or did he just have great run last spring and now dropped back to for his real level or is there something in tactics that dont suit him. His quality and energy levels have dropped down quite a leap.

Another thing is injured Surman which takes us great short passer away and last season most of our nice passing combinations included both Hoolahan and Surman. One of the reason Johnson didnt play so much was that Fox played better with those two and now as we missing two players from that trio it ofc affects our playing style.

In my opinion we still play good football. We dont just kick the ball away but try to play it on the ground for wingers who try to deliver it to strikers or make a slow play with Hoolahan to get more men forward.

That kind of strategy isnt really easy way to play and have to respect that Hughton wont go for Stoke kind of game.

[ZLF 274]

ok - a good display from the defence. the problems were from midfield.

No - i am right - it was a good defensive display, right until we went 442.

The start of the second half was encouraging - we were containing them until howson fell asleep and that changed the complexion of the game (as did johnsons disappointing cross the the unmarked holt)

[Rolf Harris 31]

[quote user="ZippersLeftFoot"]ok - a good display from the defence. the problems were from midfield.

No - i am right - it was a good defensive display, right until we went 442.

The start of the second half was encouraging - we were containing them until howson fell asleep and that changed the complexion of the game (as did johnsons disappointing cross the the unmarked holt)[/quote]It wasn''t 442 we got tired and switched off, If it was still the old formation we could of easily lost by the same score. The subs came to late to make any impact at all, as soon as we made the subs they turned it on, man u have smart players they know when to pick you off.

[Herman 9,793]

The subs came on in plenty of time to make a difference. Unfortunately the gamble didn''t work. And it did change to a 4-4-2.

[Mister Chops 7]

[quote user="Making Plans"][quote user="AJ"]I think with the resources we have Hughton is doing a good job[/quote]I find it strange that with more or less the same players as last season, our strengths have now become our weaknesses. [/quote]In:BassongBunnGarridoTurnerBecchioKamaraSnodgrassWhittakerTetteyWe took 3 more points off Man U than last year.

[nutty nigel 7,554]

[quote user="......and Smith must score."][quote user="Aggy"]I didn''t start supporting the club until the mid-to-late 90s as a young kid. And in the, what, 15 years since I''ve been properly supporting the club, at least two thirds of those have not been great football. And if it''s going to be average football, I''d rather it was in the prem than the bottom half of the championship.[/quote]

Aggy, you''re unlucky that you were born too late and therefore missed out on NCFC''s best years.

I hope before too long you get to see some of the sort of football we used to play back in the day.
[/quote]

 

Back in the day! LOL Smithy! We played that football for 5 seasons. Tops! I started going in 1967 which is 46 years ago. Were those good seasons, that poor old Crabby was born too late to see, the exception or the norm?

 

 

[smooth 114]

It is a work in progress, I agree that our reputation of good passing football is not evident. But Hughton made it clear after the Liverpool home game we needed to change or we would go down.

It was the right decision as we are not in the boots three at this stage. But it is def a work in progress, last year we came up and there were two teams in off field turmoil, Blackburn and wolves, if we could not finish above them it would have shown that the level of quality we had was really league 1.

We brought in some good players and our team developed and in the first season a number of players stood out, now teams have got an idea of the club. Remember the run of results in the second half of the season we did struggle to get over the line.

Hughton will bring in better players and it is better players that we need. Playing Man U, Everton they all have premiership players with mountains of experience and international experience. I have seen some awful games this season, Fulham away, reading away worst football I have seen by Ncfc. But I do know that with good business in the transfer window we can bring in a better calibre of player and we can play a more attacking line up. I just think that Hughton looked at it at the start of the season and felt that after Liverpool he had to reign it in and we went on an unbeaten run.

It isn''t a style I like, but we don''t have the players to play that style, great wingers with pace, ball playing midfielders.

Bring in whittaker at the back and we are solid, even play him in midfield, our back five is pretty solid, midfield we can upgrade out wide and in the centre, then with new forwards coming in you will see a different team next season.

The leap we have made over 4 seasons is massive and many of our players have been part of this journey. Some have come to the end of that journey and by a clear out we can bring in premiership calibre players giving the manager more options and more quality on the bench and at the training ground.