Scouting thoughts

[tom cavendish 0]

Before the match I wrote:[quote]I would expect Newcastle to be looking to be very positive to win the match. Therefore, I would have Pilks (left) and Redmond (right) on the wings to press them high up the pitch, and try to hit Newcastle with pace on the break to quickly play the ball in front of our striker/s with space to run into.I would go with Tettey & Fer in central midfield. I would be looking to push Fer forwards for set-pieces. I would expect Newcastle to play quite an open game so I wouldn''t start BJ as he isn''t so good at retaining possession.I would play RvW as far forward and central as possible with Hooper dropping deep as the forward-midfielder given freedom to go left or right in support of the wide players and RvW.           RVW          Hooper  Pilks Fer Tettey  RedmondOlsson Bassong Bennett Whittaker            Ruddy[/quote]What actually happened: RvW played much too deep and was too often behind play. He should be looking to run into space off the last defender not stood around in central midfield just in front of our defenders. Either play him where he has a chance to score or drop him. I would consider playing him in some under 21s matches to try to build-up his confidence. Hooper made a good contribution linking with midfielders (who were terrible) and getting in a couple of good shots on goal. If Hooper gets an injury then who else will score the goals to keep us in the Premier League?Snodgrass failed to deliver the ball quickly enough into the box. Redmond should have started on the right.BJ struggled to pass the ball and Fer was anonymous until Tettey came on. Tettey should have started in place of BJ not just because he is more effective than BJ, but because Fer plays a bit better with Tettey covering some of his mistakes.It was right to bring on Tettey but he should have started the match. It was wrong to substitute Hooper as he had been playing well and was a goal threat. We were at home, 0-0, 6 mins of the 90 remaining, Newcastle had lost their main goal threat, so why take-off ours?  Elmander should have been substituted instead.The defence looked disorganised at times but that was partly due to Newcastle players running straight through the midfield as BJ, Fer and RvW were so weak and static. The full-backs struggled to be in the right positions at times because Newcastle had such good movement going forwards but I don''t rate the defensive abilities of any of the Norwich full-backs.It was a very poor team performance from Norwich who were extremely fortunate to gain a point that they didn''t deserve.The problems are obvious, and they are the same problems over and over.