Ricardo's report v Birmingham

[ricardo 7,336]

I think some people were beginning to think that this season was going to be an easy ride after a couple of convincing away victories. Those of us with more seasons under our belts than we care to remember are always waiting for the reality check and we got a bit of a one today.City certainly started with a bang as Jerome s powerful 25 yarder after 20 seconds was deflected for a corner and then on five minutes Martins cross fell invitingly for Grabben but the City marksman chose a chest high volley when surely a stooping header would have brought a better result. It was a costly miss as Birmingham were to move ahead when a fiercely struck shot from outside the area took a deflection off a City defender. Ruddy did well to readjust but could only parry the shot and was unable to prevent the spinning ball rolling over the line.It was cruel luck but a timely reminder that it wasn''t all going to be plain sailing. City huffed and puffed a bit but without anything clear cut to show for it and indeed were extremely lucky when Wes lost possession and Brum steamed forward. Donaldson beat Turner and Martin to the ball and it looked an obvious penalty when he was clipped inside the area. Thankfully Referee Sheldrake hardly made a correct call all day and it was waved away. It was just not working for City mainly because Wes was having a real stinker with about half of his passes being wayward or badly timed. Grabben nearly broke through on the half hour and had two bites of the cherry as his first shot was blocked and his follow up lob easily collected by Randolph. The Brum keeper was called into more serious action with halftime looming when he made a fine one handed stop from the lively Redmond. Just as City looked likely to get an equaliser the game turned again as Clayton won a header and Gray smartly rapped a firm shot into the far top corner.Tetty''s miss in first half injury time only went to increase the misery and City trooped off facing the same mountain that they faced against Cardiff last Saturday.Credit to Adams he whisked the misfiring Wes out of the game and brought on Murphy and went 424 from the off. It took a few minutes to settle but suddenly City were transformed. Grabben almost burst through the middle then, following a sublime 30 yard pass from Johno, Martin cut in to the byline and squared back to Jerome who sweetly struck a low shot across the keeper and in off the far post. At last it was game on as City whizzed the ball from wing to wing with a vociferous crowd behind them. Next it was Redmond down the right with a fine cross that Jerome expertly angled over the keeper and unbelievably City were level.I don''t know if it was gamesmanship but a Birmingham defender stayed down for all of 5 minutes and this took a bit of the sting out of the game. When things resumed the game became tighter with Birmingham outnumbering the City midfield. Ruddy had to be alert to stop a point blank header but when City got possession most of the play was at the other end. Redmond and Murphy were flying past their respective fullbacks and decent crosses were coming in. However Birmingham defended stoutly to keep City at arms length.With time ticking away Laffers came on for Grabben but it was Redmond who could have won it after beating two defenders and cutting across the box. Unfortunately his hard low shot was a yard wide. He did it again in injury time but this time his smart reverse pas to Jerome was inches too strong and Randolph arrive a split second before the City striker.So it ended all square and it''s hard to quibble that Birmingham didn''t deserve a point. City had plenty of chances but were a bit wasteful today. Jerome MOM for a great display of centre forward play and with honourable mentions to Redmond and Murphy who both had the crowd on their toes in the second half.

[Surfer 1,547]

Thanks as always for your reports Ricardo. Knew we wouldn''t have it all our own way in this league, but it''s a sign of our relative strength that we can overcome these poor starts to games. So overall, looking good for the remainder of the season me thinks...

[Making Plans 936]

Good report. There will always be days like this, everybody has them & we will not steamroller every team that comes to CR. A point was fair and it keeps the points tally ticking over.I thought overall we played well.My only complaint about our play is short corners - they never work, we lose the ball more often than not and this invariably causes us problems at the other end because all our defenders are up the field.

[lake district canary 4,531]

Thanks Ricardo. Couldn''t follow the match this afternoon so its good to get a balanced report.

[city-till-i-die 7]

Never good read thnx Ricardo

Agree RE the short corners it drives me mad. Why get all the big lads up just to waste it by pussy footing around.

[city-till-i-die 7]

#another good read

[Dubai Mark 0]

Many thanks Ricardo, really appreciate your reports, and particularly today as no matter how hard I tried I couldnt get a stream to work.

Anyway, yes we will certainly have a few challenges along the way and a few bad days I''m sure, its a long hard season.

Despite our strong start we do seem to have a lot to learn yet with this new set-up settling in, and clearly we do have a bit of an achilles heel in the way we are conceding and falling behind to what are average sides. Anyway, I am sure the management will fix it and am very confident of this squad to have enough, enough of the time.

[ricardo 7,336]

27 shots today but only 4 on target.I think that speaks volumes about where the problem was today.

[a1canary 0]

I was going to mention that stat - 24 shots but today it took on avg 6 of those attempts to get one on target.

Clearly the team have been drilled to shoot and be much more attack minded which is great, really great. Let''s just see if we can''t get a few more on target. I think we need Hooper back pretty sharpish because he is a natural finisher and I think he could get hatfulls in this side. Him and Jerome could be an absolutely lethal combo.

[alan32 0]

sorry have to disagree thought Murphy was very poor. I feel Elliott Bennett would have been a better option.

no end product from murphy at all. if he was not adams love child he would not get in

[morty 0]

I didn''t think murphy had a great game either. He looked ballbagged too after just playing a half.Hoolahan was awful today and surprised he lasted till half time.,

[ricardo 7,336]

Well I thought he had a good half hour and really frightened the Brum defence. I agree that he tired badly at the end. Nervous energy I suppose.

[morty 0]

[quote user="ricardo"]Well I thought he had a good half hour and really frightened the Brum defence. I agree that he tired badly at the end. Nervous energy I suppose.[/quote]He was okay, but have seen him play a lot better. Looked a bit wide eyed at times, which is surprising as he has always struck me as pretty confident.Not sure, is that the longest spell he has played in a first team game?Anyone advocating that he is ready to take Redmond''s place in the team possibly needs their bumps felt.

[ron obvious 1,495]

Many thanks for a great report Ricardo. Made more sense than the awful stream I was trying to watch - bloody customers interrupting didn''t help! GGRRR!

[PurpleCanary 5,553]

I didn''t see the game, but nothing I have read, including Ricardo''s excellent report, has done anything to convince me that Hoolahan can be used, as he apparently was today, in midfield in a 4-4-2.By the nature of the way he plays he will sometimes give the ball away. Doing that as the playmaker behind one striker, with four proper midfielders to provide cover, can work. But when he gives the ball away as one of the four, with less cover, that is asking for trouble. This is the Hoolahan conundrum that Adams seems no nearer to solving than were his predecessors.

[morty 0]

[quote user="PurpleCanary"]I didn''t see the game, but nothing I have read, including Ricardo''s excellent report, has done anything to convince me that Hoolahan can be used, as he apparently was today, in midfield in a 4-4-2.By the nature of the way he plays he will sometimes give the ball away. Doing that as the playmaker behind one striker, with four proper midfielders to provide cover, can work. But when he gives the ball away as one of the four, with less cover, that is asking for trouble. This is the Hoolahan conundrum that Adams seems no nearer to solving than were his predecessors.[/quote]Thee are undiscovered tribes in darkest Africa that know that Hoolahan is hopeless in a 4-4-2 though.I''m disappointed that Adams doesn''t know this.

[Mr Jenkins 0]

I thought the introduction of JM changed the game today. Gave us real pace on both wings and he terrified the right back. Cut in serial times and played some excellent balls into the box, great performance for me.

Amazing to see at the end of the game when he gave the ball away in their half and chased back to cover,just,for the mistake he had made, amazing pace but he looked totally drained of energy as a result, completely spent. A bit odd for such a young man?

[vos 155]

It was game we should have one comfortably but again a lot of poor finishing cost us dearly. I have to say we started full of confidence and saw plenty of quality attacking football. Jerome was running down the channels and causing all sorts of problems. We were making good use of the long ball but time and time again Hoolahan slowed things down by making short passes to players already closely marked and was muscled off the ball quite a lot. I have some sympathy with Ruddy with the first goal because it was a big deflection off Turner and the ball was spinning viciously.

The secondhalf team change was well timed. Murphy had some good forward runs but I agree with others that he looked devoid of energy and lacklustre once he lost possession. But he was an improvement on Wes.

As for Jerome he was a revelation. Always looking for the ball plus two great finishers. Pity he did not get his deserved hat trick. Noticed that he was always encouraging the younger players. On this performance better than Grant Holt at his best.

The coaching staff seem to be getting to grips with Redmond. His crossing and corners being much better. Very dangerous when cutting inside.

Overall looking very competent and organised for this division.

[Phillip J Fry 0]

[quote user="morty"][quote user="PurpleCanary"]I didn''t see the game, but nothing I have read, including Ricardo''s excellent report, has done anything to convince me that Hoolahan can be used, as he apparently was today, in midfield in a 4-4-2.By the nature of the way he plays he will sometimes give the ball away. Doing that as the playmaker behind one striker, with four proper midfielders to provide cover, can work. But when he gives the ball away as one of the four, with less cover, that is asking for trouble. This is the Hoolahan conundrum that Adams seems no nearer to solving than were his predecessors.[/quote]Thee are undiscovered tribes in darkest Africa that know that Hoolahan is hopeless in a 4-4-2 though.I''m disappointed that Adams doesn''t know this.[/quote]

Not unusual though.

I think every Norwich manager who has had Wes at his disposal has tried to play him as a wide player in a 4-4-2 at least once...

Seems to me that every manager thinks they''ll be the ''one'' who is finally able to play Hoolahan in a role other than as an attacking midfielder (sort of like how every manager thinks they''ll be the one to finally sort out Balotelli).

[PurpleCanary 5,553]

[quote user="Phillip J Fry"][quote user="morty"][quote user="PurpleCanary"]I didn''t see the game, but nothing I have read, including Ricardo''s excellent report, has done anything to convince me that Hoolahan can be used, as he apparently was today, in midfield in a 4-4-2.By the nature of the way he plays he will sometimes give the ball away. Doing that as the playmaker behind one striker, with four proper midfielders to provide cover, can work. But when he gives the ball away as one of the four, with less cover, that is asking for trouble. This is the Hoolahan conundrum that Adams seems no nearer to solving than were his predecessors.[/quote]Thee are undiscovered tribes in darkest Africa that know that Hoolahan is hopeless in a 4-4-2 though.I''m disappointed that Adams doesn''t know this.[/quote]

Not unusual though.

I think every Norwich manager who has had Wes at his disposal has tried to play him as a wide player in a 4-4-2 at least once...

Seems to me that every manager thinks they''ll be the ''one'' who is finally able to play Hoolahan in a role other than as an attacking midfielder (sort of like how every manager thinks they''ll be the one to finally sort out Balotelli).

[/quote]This may be the first real test of Adams'' strength of character as a manager. With some many strikers to choose from (especially with Hooper coming back) and Cameron Jerome an automatic choice the temptation must be to play 4-4-2, but then Hoolahan doesn''t fit into that system. Adams cannot keep everybody happy.