Norwich City vs Hull (Away) Saturday 13th August.

[Number 9]

It feels, very much, that we are still haunted by the ghost of Emi Buendia. Nunez looks an exciting player, and I have high hopes for him, but he isn't Emi. We need to adapt, and move on.

It angers me that we're having this conversation now, when it was obvious months ago.
We should have had new players and a new 'style' in place way before now.
What's the point of playing those preseason games with players Smith has no intention of using during the season?
In my mind, Smith & Shakey knew we'd be relegated months ago and should have been better prepared for the start of the season.

 

[morty]

It angers me that we're having this conversation now, when it was obvious months ago.
We should have had new players and a new 'style' in place way before now.
What's the point of playing those preseason games with players Smith has no intention of using during the season?
In my mind, Smith & Shakey knew we'd be relegated months ago and should have been better prepared for the start of the season.

Maybe Sara and Nunez are part of the evolution, I don't know. But we appear to be trying, desperately, to play to Pukki's strengths, that he doesn't appear to have any more. We can't go on desperately hoping that Pukki finds form that he only ever really had when Emi was in the team.

I guess watching 3 games in a week has really brought it home but visiting teams must be like "Right guys, we're playing Norwich today, the plan is that they will play it wide through Aarons, send one guy out to meet him, everyone else in the box. We'll defend and just wait till they do something stupid and concede a ridiculous goal".

 

[Number 9]

Maybe Sara and Nunez are part of the evolution, I don't know. But we appear to be trying, desperately, to play to Pukki's strengths, that he doesn't appear to have any more. We can't go on desperately hoping that Pukki finds form that he only ever really had when Emi was in the team.

I guess watching 3 games in a week has really brought it home but visiting teams must be like "Right guys, we're playing Norwich today, the plan is that they will play it wide through Aarons, send one guy out to meet him, everyone else in the box. We'll defend and just wait till they do something stupid and concede a ridiculous goal".

It's a bit predictable unfortunately, the only league goal we've scored was on the occasion Max was out on the right behind the defence.

 

[GJP]

None of this is surprising me. I've been saying for some time we've lost our rhythm. And, yes, Buendia is a big part of that but we've lost several other players that weighed into it.

We had a group of players who knew how to play their positions and play those positions to the greater good of the team around them.

Dean Smith hasn't given us much to cling on to. He comes out with the usual manager clichés and never really makes you feel like he cares. However, I'm sure he'd come out with the standard, applicable clichés if we were winning game after game.

There's a long way to go this season. In this league we have some relative financial muscle and some good players but it feels like this current regime might not have enough credit in the bank to absorb this poor run continuing...

 

[morty]

None of this is surprising me. I've been saying for some time we've lost our rhythm. And, yes, Buendia is a big part of that but we've lost several other players that weighed into it.

We had a group of players who knew how to play their positions and play those positions to the greater good of the team around them.

Dean Smith hasn't given us much to cling on to. He comes out with the usual manager clichés and never really makes you feel like he cares. However, I'm sure he'd come out with the standard, applicable clichés if we were winning game after game.

There's a long way to go this season. In this league we have some relative financial muscle and some good players but it feels like this current regime might not have enough credit in the bank to absorb this poor run continuing...

Nah, not having this "inevitable slide into decline" theory based on how we did in the Premier league, I'm happy to basically write that off and consider this season the actual start of Smith's tenure. Its obvious that our midfield was weak last season, which Smith has addressed, and it would be a bit much to expect the likes of Nunez and Sara to make an instant difference as soon as they step off the plane.

I definitely think that calls for Smith's head, are premature.

 

[Gunvald Larsson]

Interesting that an enforced change of personnel against Huddersfield tonight really emphasised Morty's observations. See the other thread for my own observations.