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Is the squad good enough?

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I would think the reply from most Norwich City supporters would be yes.

I don''t look at the likes of Cardiff, Palace, Hull, Villa and covet many of their players. It would seem that a move for Curtis Davies last summer might have been a shrewd move judging by Hull''s defensive performances this season.

It''s clear that almost all the players have regressed this season. One goal and no assists from Snodgrass in 13 games is nothing short of woeful compared to last year for example.

The buck stops with the management team. I don''t understand the argument that a new manager would need to bring in some of his own players.

This squad of players would get a whole new lease of life under a new helm. I''m quite sure this squad is good enough, but only under the right leadership.

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Agree with much of that, including Curtis Davies - I thought he should have been a top target for CH last January and reports then suggested he probably was. Why he didn''t go back for him in the summer only he will know.

The sliding form of Whittaker and Bassong this term only exacerbates the need for some defensive reinforcements.

But aside from that we have a great squad that in my view really is a hair''s breadth and a decent manager away from top half material easily. Our attacking players are in desperate need of some confidence and CH is clearly not the man to give it to them.

I also think he''s starting to panic. I was pretty surprised to see him abandon his cautious instincts and play two up at the second toughest away ground in the league. Certainly would like to see more adventure and I hope he sticks with it at home to Hull which is a very different matter to Everton away but it was a surprise to me. Expected him to try Fer and Johnson backing up Hoolahan behind Hooper myself.

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I think that when we have something close to a full squad to choose from, yes, it is good enough.

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But two up top yesterday was as much about playing the fit players as changing the system. When we have Howson and Tettey fit it will be more difficult to fit the best players available into a system that incorporates two up top.

 

 

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if fully fit we have a strong first 11 to play one up front and options from the bench to compete well for an 8-12 place; with injuries the second 11 are not quite good enough for that level, but good enough to just avoid relegation.

two up front is possible for us with a much better partner for fer than the club currently has

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I''m sure that''s right N.

But given how the Howson Fer Tettey trio was working I''m surprised CH hasn''t tried more of Hoolahan Fer Johnson in the same roles, esp given Johnson''s recent resurgence.

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Good enough to finish somewhere within a couple of places either side of 15th.But not the top 10 that some people thought possible.

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I place less store by placings than by points. Over the season the squad (assuming our January strengthening is at least comparable to that of our rivals) is good enough to equal last season''s tally of 44 points.

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[quote user="PurpleCanary"]I place less store by placings than by points. Over the season the squad (assuming our January strengthening is at least comparable to that of our rivals) is good enough to equal last season''s tally of 44 points.[/quote]But unlikely to happen now.38 points is the new 44.

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Not sure that''s how a squad works Morty. 4 injuries is enough to turn us from good to bad? Suggests the squad (not first team) isn''t good enough then doesn''t it?

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[quote user="Aggy"]Not sure that''s how a squad works Morty. 4 injuries is enough to turn us from good to bad? Suggests the squad (not first team) isn''t good enough then doesn''t it?[/quote]Its about who in the squad that gets injured though, obviously.There are players that are guaranteed starters if they are fit, and there are players who are on the fringes that would barely be missed.I would say that the vast majority of players we have out at the moment would be pretty close to the first team if they were fit.

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It is as good a squad as we could hope to have.

Ruddy, Olsson, Bassong, Turner, Redmond, Snodgrass, Fer, Pilkington, Hoolahan, Hooper and RVW are quality players in my opinion and not individuals we could upgrade easily.

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Not sure that''s how a squad works Morty. 4 injuries is enough to turn us from good to bad? Suggests the squad (not first team) isn''t good enough then doesn''t it?Its about who in the squad that gets injured though, obviously.There are players that are guaranteed starters if they are fit, and there are players who are on the fringes that would barely be missed.

I would say that the vast majority of players we have out at the moment would be pretty close to the first team if they were fit

So they''re not guaranteed starters. So injuries is not an excuse.

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[quote user="ricardo"][quote user="PurpleCanary"]I place less store by placings than by points. Over the season the squad (assuming our January strengthening is at least comparable to that of our rivals) is good enough to equal last season''s tally of 44 points.[/quote]But unlikely to happen now.38 points is the new 44.[/quote]Not a hope in h*ll of it happening...

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No, the squad is not good enough. Our best 11 can compete with the bottom. 10 teams and get the occasional point or 3 off the big ones. What we have at the moment is an awfull midfield with players unable to do the simple stuff well. Nothing to do with the manager and all to do with the low class of player we are having to use.

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Clearly under the present management and the present level of injuries, the squad is not good enough.

They have from time to time given glimpses of something better, so if confidence and form were better they might conceivably be good enough. Who knows?!

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[quote user="KeepTheFaith"]No, the squad is not good enough. Our best 11 can compete with the bottom. 10 teams and get the occasional point or 3 off the big ones. What we have at the moment is an awfull midfield with players unable to do the simple stuff well. Nothing to do with the manager and all to do with the low class of player we are having to use.[/quote]

NOTHING to do with the Manager ??

WTF have you been smoking ? If it is not down to the Manager then who the fuk else ???

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Morty, if it was Suarez then I''d agree. None of those four have the same effect for us as Suarez has for Liverpool. Even if you scale it down to Norwich/lower mid table standard, none of those are real stand out players. Suarez/RVP are irreplaceable etc. Benteke last season was having the "Suarez effect" at Villa if you will - without Benteke last season, Villa would have been long dead and buried.

None of our injuries are to players who have that sort of effect on us. And not only that, but we haven''t actually had all that many injuries. I''m sure plenty of clubs have had a similar amount.

Now, I don''t think our squad is necessarily any worse than any of the other bottom 10 - I''ve said in another thread that the reason it is so tight isn''t to do with managers but because the standard of the squads is very similar and no one team in the bottom 10 is good enough to pull clear - but I think we need another couple of signings to have a squad which I will be fully happy with.

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[quote user="Aggy"]Morty, if it was Suarez then I''d agree. None of those four have the same effect for us as Suarez has for Liverpool. Even if you scale it down to Norwich/lower mid table standard, none of those are real stand out players. Suarez/RVP are irreplaceable etc. Benteke last season was having the "Suarez effect" at Villa if you will - without Benteke last season, Villa would have been long dead and buried.

None of our injuries are to players who have that sort of effect on us. And not only that, but we haven''t actually had all that many injuries. I''m sure plenty of clubs have had a similar amount.

Now, I don''t think our squad is necessarily any worse than any of the other bottom 10 - I''ve said in another thread that the reason it is so tight isn''t to do with managers but because the standard of the squads is very similar and no one team in the bottom 10 is good enough to pull clear - but I think we need another couple of signings to have a squad which I will be fully happy with.[/quote]So, hang on, we have 4 midfielders currently injured.Howson, Bennet, Pilkington and Tettey.We have trouble retaining the ball, and more so, we have trouble creating good scoring chances for our strikers. We had to play a left back at left midfield yesterday.Could there be a link there?

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[quote user="ricardo"][quote user="PurpleCanary"]I place less store by placings than by points. Over the season the squad (assuming our January strengthening is at least comparable to that of our rivals) is good enough to equal last season''s tally of 44 points.[/quote]But unlikely to happen now.38 points is the new 44.[/quote]So where are these 18 pts from the next 15 games going to come from, Ricardo?As I''ve said in another thread, either this squad is simply not good enough, or it is and Hughton is not good enough.It has to be one of the two, otherwise we''d not be 3 pts off bottom place.

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Consistency is the key.

Watching the ManC game online, it struck me how rarely their players put a foot wrong - & Newcastle weren''t too shabby either.

Our players failings were typified by Hooper yesterday; a few games ago he scores a wonder goal that any striker would be proud of, yesterday however ..

And that goes right through the team. Possibly the most consistent player we have - Martin - isn''t quite top drawer. Fer, Redmond, Ruddy, Bassong, wherever you look you see flashes of skill but an inability to maintain a high level. The same goes for energy & commitment. We usually have a period in games when we look class & threaten to score, but it evaporates all too soon.

Are our players alone in this? No. The same can be said of all the bottom 10 or so clubs.

The skill consistency thing is difficult for a manager to change, but I do think the energy levels could be addressed. Over to you Chris.

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[quote user="a1canary"]Agree with much of that, including Curtis Davies - I thought he should have been a top target for CH last January and reports then suggested he probably was. Why he didn''t go back for him in the summer only he will know.

The sliding form of Whittaker and Bassong this term only exacerbates the need for some defensive reinforcements.

But aside from that we have a great squad that in my view really is a hair''s breadth and a decent manager away from top half material easily. Our attacking players are in desperate need of some confidence and CH is clearly not the man to give it to them.

I also think he''s starting to panic. I was pretty surprised to see him abandon his cautious instincts and play two up at the second toughest away ground in the league. Certainly would like to see more adventure and I hope he sticks with it at home to Hull which is a very different matter to Everton away but it was a surprise to me. Expected him to try Fer and Johnson backing up Hoolahan behind Hooper myself.[/quote]

As the manager doesn''t decide who we sign then that would be whyNo, it shows the need for coaching that is directed to developing the players NOT forcing them into the constraints of very rigid tactics. There are too many players being ''destroyed'' for there not to be a common cause. He didn''t. Each were tracking back to forage for the ball, merely doing what Hoolahan does.

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[quote user="City1st"][quote user="a1canary"]Agree with much of that, including Curtis Davies - I thought he should have been a top target for CH last January and reports then suggested he probably was. Why he didn''t go back for him in the summer only he will know.

The sliding form of Whittaker and Bassong this term only exacerbates the need for some defensive reinforcements.

But aside from that we have a great squad that in my view really is a hair''s breadth and a decent manager away from top half material easily. Our attacking players are in desperate need of some confidence and CH is clearly not the man to give it to them.

I also think he''s starting to panic. I was pretty surprised to see him abandon his cautious instincts and play two up at the second toughest away ground in the league. Certainly would like to see more adventure and I hope he sticks with it at home to Hull which is a very different matter to Everton away but it was a surprise to me. Expected him to try Fer and Johnson backing up Hoolahan behind Hooper myself.[/quote]

As the manager doesn''t decide who we sign then that would be whyNo, it shows the need for coaching that is directed to developing the players NOT forcing them into the constraints of very rigid tactics. There are too many players being ''destroyed'' for there not to be a common cause. He didn''t. Each were tracking back to forage for the ball, merely doing what Hoolahan does.

[/quote]city 1st do you keep saying hughton doesn''t  decide who he signs so who do you think does , we don''t have a director of football so does mcnally just say there you go chris this is who you have got to work with this season ?

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Wow, City-startoneinanemptyroom-1st strikes again!

Only you seem to be really searching for points of disagreement this time!

The manager doesn''t decide who we sign? He doesn''t go to the board, having taken info from his scouts and looked about himself, and say "i''d like to bring in X player"?

And with a medium term injury to one of his first choice centre backs and a right back struggling for form all season (vs an excellent left back), that doesn''t indicate to you a need for reinforcements?

And finally, so we didn''t play two strikers yesterday then? Or are you splitting hairs with the term "two up"?

If you weren''t so busy trying to disagree you''d actually find that our view points aren''t at all far apart. I absolutely agree he is destroying the team''s confidence through his one dimensional style of play. It says a lot that the player that seems to flourish under his management is Bradley Johnson while many of the rest appear straight jacketed and their flair and dynamism extinguished. Even wingers who seem to be his only creative attacking supply line are reduced to sending balls in to an empty box and frustrated as a result.

I''m just as frustrated as you are but quit honing in on ridiculous points of order and semantics just to fabricate an argument that isn''t there. It''s boring.

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very brieflythe scouting network targets players based on squad reportsthose players are evaluated by the board with the manager giving inputplayers are then targeted via agentsMcNally completes (or not) the signing

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[quote user="a1canary"]Wow, City-startoneinanemptyroom-1st strikes again!

Only you seem to be really searching for points of disagreement this time!

The manager doesn''t decide who we sign? He doesn''t go to the board, having taken info from his scouts and looked about himself, and say "i''d like to bring in X player"?

And with a medium term injury to one of his first choice centre backs and a right back struggling for form all season (vs an excellent left back), that doesn''t indicate to you a need for reinforcements?

And finally, so we didn''t play two strikers yesterday then? Or are you splitting hairs with the term "two up"?

If you weren''t so busy trying to disagree you''d actually find that our view points aren''t at all far apart. I absolutely agree he is destroying the team''s confidence through his one dimensional style of play. It says a lot that the player that seems to flourish under his management is Bradley Johnson while many of the rest appear straight jacketed and their flair and dynamism extinguished. Even wingers who seem to be his only creative attacking supply line are reduced to sending balls in to an empty box and frustrated as a result.

I''m just as frustrated as you are but quit honing in on ridiculous points of order and semantics just to fabricate an argument that isn''t there. It''s boring.[/quote]dear me, you can''t even see the irony in your rantyou post up something in a forum then throw your toys out of the pram when someone repliesit is not semantics tor a point of point out something that is fairly major in your argument - trying understanding the differenceand they are not '' his scouts'' - they are appointed in the main by Ewan Chester who reports direct to the board

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city 1st do you know this for a fact ? or is it just your take on things ? did not hughton bring back ewan chester ? i don''t pretend to know the ins and outs of the running of the football club if you do then fair enough.

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Because I dont even understand what it is you are trying to disagree with. Ok so you think the manager doesn''t decide transfers. I think/thought he did. If you can provide evidence I''m wrong I''ll take it.

Please explain the other points you pick fault with.

We dont need defensive reinforcements and we didn''t play with "two up" yesterday.

I haven''t thrown any toys incidentally, I just dont get why you seem only to come on here to seek disagreement rather than actually discuss things. I only ever see you on here arguing with people.

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