Norwich City vs Sheffield Utd(home) Saturday 20th January.

[admin]

Something else you can do @Fenway Frank is tag someone in a post <---- like so by putting @ then start typing their username. It will give them a little notification in the alerts bar.

 

[Fenway Frank]

@morty @Canaryboy @OldRobert

Oh yeah

 

[Din]

As for the team, hard to know who's going to be fit after the fantastic effort on Wednesday. Good though that at least Tettey has had a rest.

Interesting comments about Marley Watkins in Farke's press conference. He has been shocking this season and at least the manager has identified that and hasn't just stuck with him (like Alex Neil did with Martin, Naismith etc). Perhaps stick him on the bench as he'll surely want to prove a point. That said though considering how he has played so far this season I think I'd rather see Cantwell given the chance.

Shame Trybull is still injured, could do with him in this game. We do have Wes, Raggett, Stiepermann and as I said Tettey to come in though. Maddison, Murphy and Oliveira all played 2 hours on Wednesday so maybe at least one of them will have to drop out unfortunately. Nelson in particular looked as if he was running on empty for the whole of extra time. Shame Edwards isn't ready yet.

As said above a lot will depend on how we recover from Chelsea. Pick up a result here though and our play-off push really looks on. OTBC!

 

[morty]

I thought Nelson was pretty decent on Wednesday but the tank was definitely empty, when they were kicking towards us in extra time I watched him start to chase something and just give up. But fair play to him, he did put the effort in, no shame in being a bit knackered in extra time!

 

[Canaryboy]

@Fenway Frank - Also, if you haven't worked it out already click on 'What's new'' there's a drop down which appears on the forums tab and you can select 'mark forums read', if you've currently got a red notice which says 800 new or similar like I did today, that way you'll be notified of actually new threads going forward instead of stuff from 2015

That 'whats new' thing is a big improvement on the 'activity' thing we previously had in my reign, don't think most people knew it existed for a start as it was hidden away.

 

[Fenway Frank]

“I don’t think he has a problem with me, maybe our bus driver “

 

[morty]

“I don’t think he has a problem with me, maybe our bus driver “

If you watch all of Farke's press conferences etc, he is actually a really funny guy!

 

[dj161]

fancy us today, going for a 2-0 win

 

[GJP]

Well that was sh*t.

Fleck was very impressive for them.

 

[Canaryboy]

Fatigue I reckon.

Some atrocious passing in our own half in that second half, that back pass was terrible.

We're in desperate need of a good striker at the minute, Oliviera just isn't looking like a threat in his current form.

 

[dj161]

no complaints, they were much the better side and probably should of had the game wrapped up by half time, if someone can explain to me why Tettey was blaming Gunn for the second goal when he under hit the back pass that he should of lumped in to the crowd I'd appreciate it

 

[GJP]

Gunn could have got it but his hesitation cost him.

 

[Canaryboy]

no complaints, they were much the better side and probably should of had the game wrapped up by half time, if someone can explain to me why Tettey was blaming Gunn for the second goal when he under hit the back pass that he should of lumped in to the crowd I'd appreciate it

Daryl Sutch on the commentary tried to say it was 50/50 between Tettey and Gunn because Gunn should have been higher up the pitch. Ludicrous comment from him I think, because although he may well have been too close to his goal line... he certainly shouldn't have been in the f'in right back position which is where the ball was played.

Tettey not the only one guilty of some terrible passes today though, there were a couple from him but also a bad one from Zimmermann and a bad one from Murphy. Hoolahan also held on to the ball far too long a couple of times, but he did have a good go at trying to make something happen so can't be too hard on him.

As for the team performance as a whole... think we'd look like a completely different team if we had a dangerous striker with good movement, we've resorted to getting Lewis or Klose in the six yard box as a potential goal source... just because Oliviera is so out of form at the minute.

Could really do with the type of striker who just tries to get on the end of everything, like a 28 year old Grant Holt.

 

[GJP]

Tettey not the only one guilty of some terrible passes today though, there were a couple from him but also a bad one from Zimmermann and a bad one from Murphy. Hoolahan also held on to the ball far too long a couple of times, but he did have a good go at trying to make something happen so can't be too hard on him.

Maddison was the worst. By far. Slowing play down and giving the ball away. He was sh*t.

 

[Canaryboy]

Maddison was the worst. By far. Slowing play down and giving the ball away. He was sh*t.

He was targeted from the first minute for rough treatment though, ref could have stopped that early on by booking one of their players (preferably the one ran his studs down his knee and left a huge gash). He ran the show against them away from home and antagonized them by time wasting, so they went out to nuetralise him and get their revenge.

 

[GJP]

Excuses. He was sh*t.

 

[Fenway Frank]

The disappointing thing for me was that Sheff Utd really aren’t anything special. They did do the simple things well though which is something we really struggled with today. As others have said, our passing today was absolutely shocking. Think I might start supporting Spurs

 

[GJP]

I thought they were quite good tbf. To me they should be a bit of a lesson to DF about different ways to win games in this league.

 

[morty]

Fatigue I reckon.

Some atrocious passing in our own half in that second half, that back pass was terrible.

We're in desperate need of a good striker at the minute, Oliviera just isn't looking like a threat in his current form.

Very much fatigue, mentally and physically. Pinto looked absolutely shot, same as Murphy. Tettey 100% liable for that second goal, I thought he had a poor game generally, very aimless at times. Oliviera didn't look much worse than anyone else, but I just don't think he is suited to the role Farke is asking him to play.

Good to see in quotes after the game that 2 or 3 players expected in in the next few days, today showed just how thin our squad is, as there were players on the pitch today that probably shouldn't have been.

Sheff U were a typical workmanlike Championship side, lots of graft but not a huge amount of quality, they were just quicker out of the blocks than we were and we never really had the energy to claw it back.

 

[Din]

Yeah that was very very poor. Nothing we can do really but hope that it is down to fatigue, but even that is no excuse today. Our passing was absolutely atrocious. Sheffield United as well won literally every second ball and looked far fresher and generally far better a team than we did. Conceding a sloppy early goal as well really didn't help our cause.

As for the 2nd goal, I do feel like Gunn should've been anticipating the pass back and therefore his starting position should've been closer to Tettey. The pass from Tettey was weak and I couldn't tell if Gunn could've got there had he not hesitated, but I don't think Tettey is solely to blame.

Hard to think of anyone who didn't have a bad game. Hanley maybe? Thought he was good but obviously was taken off with an hour gone. What I will say is at half-time I was literally thinking Vrancic and Wes for Reed and one of the centre backs would be the changes I'd make, and 10 minutes later Farke made them! Good to see him make changes early and they did make a bit of a difference, but ultimately I think Sheffield United were always in control. Get some players in during the week and then pick ourselves up and go again against Brentford.