Thank you Neil Adams

[ron obvious 1,502]

I actually reckon we''ve got a 50% chance, if not better, of staying. That''s mainly because I don''t see things in black & white terms (50 shades of grey? ooh err), & reckon football''s a funny old game. We could quite possibly grab a win, & that would be quite probably be enough.

[Mr Jenkins 0]

Well said Ron, we can undoubtedly still do it.

[SwindonCanary 455]

The tactics were spot on against Fulham, but I think we maybe a little too open to play against our next 4 opponents. The main difference I could see was that we had more tackles in one match than the rest of the season !  

[jedi 0]

Shame NA didn''t get 10 games.

[morty 0]

I have been saying for months now that the quality of the squad just isn''t good enough, and the situation really wasn''t all Hughton''s fault.

 

Yeah, I take no pleasure in it, but its high time I got to have a bit of "I told you so"

[Hoolahans Left Foot 0]

Don''t let your ego get in the way Morty.

Pillock

[hogesar 9,658]

I thought the first half was much better than any away performance under Hughton this season pretty much.

Our possession retention was a million times better. Unfortunately, our quality in the final third wasn''t there.

I think Morty is half right - we do lack a little bit of quality in the final third. Although - I think it''s mostly confidence - no one willing to take responsibility other than Snodgrass up there - which is a problem. But that lack of confidence comes from countless away games where we barely got into the opponents final 3rd. Which was primarily down to Hughton''s tactics away from home.

[ron obvious 1,502]

Really? Against West Ham? Cardiff?

We tore them apart. Until we tried to score ........

I think there''s an awful lot of selective memory going on. The huge defeats before Christmas really upset the fans, but since the New Year we''ve generally created more chances & played some decent, if inconsistent, football.

The no-shows at West Brom & Swansea were not typical. All teams in the bottom half have been up & down in performance. But it was all too late anyway, & it''s gone.

Let''s all just enjoy the ride, & give the last few games our best damn shot. That''s all we can ask.

OTBC!!!!

[walks on water 0]

Think its fascinating how differently people can view performances.

[BroadstairsR 2,163]

Ince said on MotD tonight that the table doesn''t lie (or was it Fowler.) We were much the better team than Fulham today so let''s hope that is true and we somehow manage to keep above them.

 

They won''t get many more points for sure, but likely more than three.

[morty 0]

[quote user="BRING BACK HOUGHTON"]Don''t let your ego get in the way Morty.

Pillock[/quote]I take plenty of stick for my opions on here. If I decide I''m going to give a bit back, you''re just going to have to deal with it, I''m afraid.

[Guest]

Or laugh, whichever you prefer really. Personally I like to laugh.

[morty 0]

[quote user="ron obvious"]Really? Against West Ham? Cardiff?

We tore them apart. Until we tried to score ........

I think there''s an awful lot of selective memory going on. The huge defeats before Christmas really upset the fans, but since the New Year we''ve generally created more chances & played some decent, if inconsistent, football.

The no-shows at West Brom & Swansea were not typical. All teams in the bottom half have been up & down in performance. But it was all too late anyway, & it''s gone.

Let''s all just enjoy the ride, & give the last few games our best damn shot. That''s all we can ask.

OTBC!!!![/quote]Can''t disagree with that.Maybe the people who were going on about all this potential our players have, that Hughton''s negative tactics were stifling, are maybe thinking again.Maybe the point that was made that Hughton had to cut his cloth accordingly, knowing that we couldn''t score many, is starting to ring true?Cue the sound of a penny dropping.

[Hannibal II 0]

My over riding feeling throughout the whole game was i wish we still had Grant Holt and we would of probably won. Redmond and RVW are all nice and good but when a team shuts up shop you need someone who is going to knock the door down by force. Something none of our current crop are capable of.

[Phillip J Fry 0]

Well seeing as this is the closest thing to a tactics thread, I guess I''ll post my thoughts here:

. The experiment of playing Redmond upfront was interesting but not necessarily the best idea. Redmond did seem to enjoy his more central role and was more than willing to drive at the centre of the defence but his lack of penetrative movement in behind the defensive line clearly showed his lack of training as a striker. The decision to have Redmond remain the most advanced player on the pitch when defending may have made sense in theory, but didn''t work out so well in practice. Redmond rarely made the ''right'' kind of runs you needed from a striker when trying to transition from defence to attack he instead made the runs you would expect of a midfielder. 

. Despite these issues, the idea of playing Redmond behind the striker shouldn''t be abandoned just yet. His willingness to dribble at opponents, pace and his determination to shoot from long range make him an interesting counter-part to Wes in that role who plays a more creative, less direct game.

. Snodgrass played with all the determination you would expect from him, but looked uncomfortable playing at the tip of a diamond. His positioning was poor when attacking (not helped by Nathan Redmond constantly dropping into similar positions) and he looked far from as composed as you would expect from him. Say what you will about him when he plays out wide, but he rarely looks panicked.

. Fer and Howson once again reaffirmed they are our best central-midfielders. The link up play between the two during the first half was a joy to watch and is something we need to get more out of if we wish to stand a chance in the final 4 games.

. Defensively we looked panicked and poor. An entirely new-look back line was always going to lead to issues, but the use of the relatively immobile Johnson as a solo-holding midfielder was a big no-no. Fer and Howson looked like they weren''t entirely sure where they should be defensively and Snodgrass was much the same. This has to change for our final 4 games.

All-in-all, it was a decent performance under a manager who had clearly told his players to attack for all they were worth. What destroyed them was the conceding of a goal from a set piece, which seemed to destroy their confidence and sap their energy. Adams made the attacking substitutions as you would expect, but Norwich couldn''t drag themselves over the line.

My team for next Sunday:

             Ruddy

Martin  Turner  Bassong*  Olsson

Snodgrass  Howson  Fer  Pilkington*

                    Redmond

                 RVW/Hooper 

* If rumours about a fall out are true, then replace Bassong with R. Bennett and Pilkington with either Murphy or E. Bennett if fit enough.   

[JF 694]

I think it''s fair to say a manager would need more than 4 days of training before we can see a difference in the players and performances. So no the penny isn''t dropping and won''t this season. This is still Hughtons team and Hughtons tactics and training that has been drilled into them. We simply lack attacking flair because it has been trained out of them.

[hogesar 9,658]

No sorry Morty, don''t think that penny is dropping for anyone because I don''t think it''s true in the slightest.

I retain my belief that we have forward players who are derived from ANY confidence whatsoever and that''s originated from a season where we''ve seen perhaps the worst football in an attacking sense we''ve ever had in the top flight (our goals for column doesn''t lie, neither does our clear goal scoring opportunity count).

So it''s going to be tough - it would have been tough for anyone. Had the fans not turned we probably would have kept Hughton. And generally he can set us up not to concede relatively well - but individual errors by defenders has cost him on that front so we really weren''t gaining anything by keeping him.

The team have 7 days to prepare themselves for Liverpool. Who are an incredibly good force this season - but not invincible.

[Rolf Harris 31]

Hull has beaten Liverpool remember that.

[morty 0]

[quote user="hogesar"]No sorry Morty, don''t think that penny is dropping for anyone because I don''t think it''s true in the slightest.

I retain my belief that we have forward players who are derived from ANY confidence whatsoever and that''s originated from a season where we''ve seen perhaps the worst football in an attacking sense we''ve ever had in the top flight (our goals for column doesn''t lie, neither does our clear goal scoring opportunity count).

So it''s going to be tough - it would have been tough for anyone. Had the fans not turned we probably would have kept Hughton. And generally he can set us up not to concede relatively well - but individual errors by defenders has cost him on that front so we really weren''t gaining anything by keeping him.

The team have 7 days to prepare themselves for Liverpool. Who are an incredibly good force this season - but not invincible.[/quote]So our strikers can''t score, our defence is pretty shakey if we have the odd player out, our midfield isn''t creating chances for the strikers, and throw an injury or two in there and we look extremely lightweight.Sorry, for me, we''re just not quite good enough.What we would have given for a Hughtonesque, dull, nil nil draw yesterday, eh?[;)]

[nutty nigel 7,531]

We will see what we want to see I guess. Yesterday was infinitely better than Swansea and Southampton but probably on a par with the games at West Ham and Cardiff. However the two most recent aways were no shows so yesterday was an improvement on recent form. Maybe that''s enough to justify McNally rolling the dice but in the end it didn''t work.

 

Next week we will need a performance at least as good as the one at home to Man City but even that may not be enough.

 

 

[Yellowfuture 71]

The big gamble didn''t pay off, it was a calculated risk based on our poor away form, the strange thing now is that the one game where we could get something is Arsenal at home, and I would be much more confident about that one with Chris Hughton in charge.

Pleased I don''t have to make the decisions because you rarely win.

[LostTheFaith 0]

Listening to you all you would have thought we had won and do I aged the whole game !!

If that had been CH in charge you would be screaming foul for playing RVW, for not playing Hoolahan from the start, for poor subs......

Your all just trying to justify hounding out CH

Shame on you.