Looking average, what's happened?

[swjf50 0]

We possibly miss a spark in midfield, other than Hoolahan.

We''ve been saying for weeks that Martin isn''t a centre back and should be our right back. Surely one of the centre backs that were brought in are good enough! Miguel perhaps?

We are just not scoring despite dominating yet again. So do we need a Kevin Phillips type striker coach?

Other than Thayer I''m at a loss as to what''s wrong with us at the moment..

[Crafty Canary 495]

Perhaps we are finding our true level.

[Branston Pickle 3,632]

IMO poor crossing/delivery is right at the top of my list of what''s wrong - and when you consider the value we got from Snod''s delivery two seasons ago, it is a key thing. We play two wingers but seem to deliver poor crosses all game, we''ve had dozens of corners this season but threatened with far too few. Jos scored 8 for Saints from set pieces the other season, so it does suggest something''s up with the delivery when he''s not come close for us.

[The Judge 0]

For me the issue is and has been most of the season centre midfield.

Play Tetty and Johnson and we are too defensive and don''t have ability to play a decent passing game. Play Howson and Tetty or Johnson we just don''t control the midfield enough to impose our game.

The issue is we have 4 first choice strikers and NA seems to think if he plays 2 of them we are going to score loads of goals - not if they don''t get the ball Neil !

Answer for me is playing a 5 man midfield with 2 of Tetty /Johnson / Vadis ( who looked decent when he came on today) in the defensive roles with Howson or Hoolahan in front with 2 wingers and one up front.

Defensively agree with comment about feeling the need to play Martin at centre back when we 2 others in the squad (other than Turner) that should be in that position every day of the week before him.

The lack of movement and apparent lack of ideas was very worrying today and despite the talk coming out of the manager and players after the last few games he has stuck with the same formation and just tweaked a few players here and there with the same ( if not worse ) performances/results.....appreciate he is learning his trade to some extent but for me needs to show abit more creativity in his formations and tactics rather than just putting a squad on the pitch and hope they do the business for him

[Baldyboy 0]

well according to our manager yet again we were excellent so surely there is no problem!!

[mre2 1]

There is not much wrong with our general play. I don''t see how changing the formation is going to help. The problem is the final ball in to the box. We could tighten up a bit at the back, but that wouldn''t really be a problem if we were getting the goals we should be based on the amount of possession. Maybe we need to go a bit more direct sometimes. Nothing wrong with mixing it up sometimes and we have a proven target man in Jerome to go long to.

[mrs miggins 0]

There is a lot wrong with our general play, the question is - is neil smart enough to figure out each of the detail? Everything from our full backs to the centre midfielders to strikers, there''s a lot to think about in how we can develop our general play

[Mr Jenkins 0]

We lacked penetration tonight, the object appeared to be to work the ball wide but both Murphy and Redmond were receiving the ball in static positions as the build up had been so slow, if this is going to be our strategy then we need more from the full backs to either take players away and create space, or to take a pass and get behind the defence. A bit dissapointed tonight with the slow build up play and lack of any real directness from midfield.

[YellowBlood 0]

Teams are packing the defence against us and we simply don''t have that creative spark to unlock them and we''re constantly giving soft goals away. I think people need to realise that our so called superior squad is nowhere near as good as people make it to be and to be perfectly honest I don''t think we will finish any higher than 10th.

[Clint 221]

Our so called squad, full of internationals and million pound plus players, is superior!

Our subs bench tonight had an England U21 international, £5m striker, £4m Belgium international, £1.5m Arsenal youngster, £3m striker and two midfielders with vast amounts of Prem league experience! Yet I couldn''t name one of Leeds starting 11!!!

[Cheap Cheap Cheap Canaries 0]

[quote user="Clint"]Our so called squad, full of internationals and million pound plus players, is superior!

Our subs bench tonight had an England U21 international, £5m striker, £4m Belgium international, £1.5m Arsenal youngster, £3m striker and two midfielders with vast amounts of Prem league experience! Yet I couldn''t name one of Leeds starting 11!!![/quote]If the squad is so superior then surely it has to be the novice pretending to be a manager thats to blame .

[Dubai Mark 0]

There is absolutely no doubt that our squad is one of, if not the strongest in this league......and it is now severely under performing.

I am beginning to think that those who dont acknowledge this are, and I can understand it, simply doing their best to defend the management team.

The bottom line is, even at this early stage, we should be playing better, scoring more goals and have several more points ...and it needs sorting out.

Had this been CH at the helm, the pictures of a clown would be appearing, he would be "clueless" and it would 100% be his and his side kicks fault............sorry to say this, but it had to be said!

[gabba 0]

With Adams we''re watching a slow motion car crash which may well will end up with us failing to get in the play-offs. We''ll get the usual excuses and Delia & co will emerge blameless on account of most foreign owners being sharks.We failed to strengthen the midfield, relying on two strongmen with little playmaking ability and fast wingers to hammer in crosses. We''ve brought in too many central defenders and a couple of questionable strikers who''d struggle at a higher level. However, with a better and more experienced manager we''d probably get promoted automatically with the squad that we have.We''ve got a novice manager with limited tactical ability who can''t get his teams to pass and move to a decent standard, retain possession or defend properly. We play an outdated direct British style which relies on pace and power, and we play it badly with little in the way of a gameplan. There''s little flair, collective organisation or tactical cunning, the team just goes out there and gets stuck in. Norwich have never had a foreign manager, so maybe it''s time to actually search Europe for one as British/Irish managers with tactical nous who can play a technical passing game are like hen''s teeth. Perhaps like Leeds and Watford we could get someone who originates from one of the south-east European leagues who has experience of winning league titles and playing in European competition.If we sacrifice playing a technical passing game then we''ll just go round in circles for another 20 years. Let''s get a manager with a record of playing in such a fashion instead of talking about it and failing to deliver.

[grefstad 0]

It is pretty clear that we lack creativity in central midfield when Wes is out, and we lack wide players who can cross properly.

As such, our strikers will struggle.

Imho, it is no point operating with 2 strikers in a 4-4-2 when you dont have wide players who can feed them.

We are better off with a 4-5-1 system were all the dillydally passing in midfield finally can carve an opening, and we are likely to be more solid going backwards as well.

Redmond, for all his endevour, never seem to deliver a telling cross. It is a big problem.

Also, Johnson should be out of the team once Odidja is fit, and I can see this happening very soon.

Tettey may well lose his place to Howson too, espescially if Odidja can put in defensive shifts.

Our main problem though is having such a slow defence. When we play a pressing game, our defenders need to play a high line (which they do), and we have been caught too many times on a counter this season, often from the opposite teams only strike at goal, etc.

Martin, Turner, Whittaker....just too slow to play a pressing game with a high line.

For me, our best formation suited to our personell is 4-5-1 (when Wes is fit).

I would even try that formation now with Howson as the tip,

Adams¨s problem is how to keep his strikers happy when playing as a lone striker, and this is probably why he has experimented with strikers playing as wingers, etc. This is a sign of an inexperienced manager.

Another thing, neither Lafferty nor Jerome are known as strikers who score a lot. Grabban, yes, but he is on a dip of form, and Hooper is never fit.

In defence, surely Miquel are worth a start, and Whittaker can be put on the bench until his contract runs out. Or sell him to whoever wants him.

Martin should play rightback, but imho, I would like to see Elliot Bennet converted to a rightback, as he was a rightback in his early days at Wolves.

Ruddy

Martin-Miquel-Turner-Olsson

Redmond-Tettey-Odidja-Murphy (Laffs)

Howson(Wes)

Grabban/Jerome

[Making Plans 936]

What''s happened?In a nutshell we have forgotten how to defend.We would have won last night if we had kept a clean sheet but we didn''tWe would have got a point on Saturday if we had kept a clean sheet but we didn''tWe have only managed 3 clean sheets so far & one of them was against 10 men for 85 minutes.If we had kept a clean sheet in all of the last 6 games then we would have 8 more points now.It''s all very well having 65%+ possession, 20+ shots every game and an up & at ''em attitude but if your defenders nod off every now & again then you get punished.It was always unlikely that we would keep scoring 3 or 4 goals every match because our opponents are setting up to prevent that.Adams needs to get the defense sorted as a first priority.

[Indy 3,283]

In reality we are glossing over the games which we won or came back to draw, we have in patches been superb but at times we have been an average championship club.

There are some tough games now coming up and with this team lacking a leader to up the tempo on the pitch and confidence dropping it could be a tough run up to Christmas.

[Indy 3,283]

But I do see that this squad is capable of so much more.

[Paul101 93]

agree with you there indy

[The Judge 0]

Agree to a certain extent Making Plans. We do seem have tha ability to switch off and make a couple of mistakes a game and are getting punished for it at the moment. In my view their are a number of reasons for this; Martin playing at centre back, no decent right back, lack of pace, and the full backs more interested in getting forward leaving us exposed hen we regularly lose the ball etc

That said it''s too simplistic to say it''s just the defence. Regardless of what the manager said last night, previous games, and the possession stats, we have more than enough attacking threat in the squad / team to score more than the teams we have been up against and we just aren''t creating enough decent goal scoring opportunities. For me this is the biggest area of concern.

As said earlier in the thread and mentioned by a few others 1 up front and a 5 man midfield with Wes/Howson at the tip has to be given a go and then hopefully we will score more than enough to make the odd defensive slip up an irrelevance.

[gabba 0]

Against teams which sit back and defend we''re pressing too high and leaving ourselves exposed. If the players were coached on how to play a passing game then we''d be better at attacking with fewer players, thereby affording a bit more defensive cover for our attacks.Against teams which are reluctant to attack we need to bide our time a bit better rather than let desperation get the better of us and get lured onto the end of a counterpunch. At the moment we seem to resort to a pressing game with lots of crosses and much lumping it forward because we lack passing technique.

[Indy 3,283]

I disagree most of the goals have been as a result of giving the ball away and being overrun at the back.

It''s not as if we were caught up field last night, an unchallenged Turner header played into space where 2 Leeds players running onto.

Just head it out. We sat reakly deep last night and as good as Howson was he looked a lot better going forward.

Just what I saw right infront of me last night from a very average back 4.

[havemyhowsonit 0]

Looked average in every game.

Just we ain''t scoring the goals now

[grefstad 0]

We play well until the penalty box.

The runs of the strikers into the box are not good enough, and the penetration of the central midfielders in support is not good enough either.

Combine it with very poor crossing from very young wide men, we have a receipt for scoring failures

[vos 155]

Looking at the quality of the opposition so far this season I feel the defence is quite adequate. More so when Ryan Bennett returns. Yes we have been hit by a number of soft breakaway goals partly because of the more attacking options we have displayed. Slightly disappointed to see Ruddy has often been beaten from shots outside the penalty area. Part of the problem is he is seeing little activity for most of the games.

Agree our main concern is lack of quality with the final ball in to the penalty area. In this respect we are too predictable and very often a sole striker is covered by four defenders or more. Most teams are struggling to contain Redmond but he still remains poor with his crossing.It was very noticeable last night that Cameron and Lafferty were crying out for the occasional long ball to be played for them to run on to, but it was barely tried.

Once we see some improvement in the final delivery, plus a little more luck, this squad looks much stronger than most of the other sides and should be capable of achieving promotion.

[Making Plans 936]

Regarding our defense & my previous post in this thread. It is interesting to note that while we have failed to keep a clean sheet in any of the last 6 games, by comparison, Derby have managed a clean sheet in everyone of their last 6 games and they have gone top.Never mind about scoring 3 or more goals every game - you only need to win 1-0 to get 3 points