Ah, so he's a capable ref then? So what's the excuse? Mourinho believes there is a campaign against Chelsea in the Premier League. The evidence is mounting up that he's right. I think two incidents yesterday showed that the evidence is mounting up in our case too. A clear and blatant dive for a penalty and the point when the ref and linesman didn't know which way the throw in was - and he went for Norwich getting a crazy reaction from our players. As I've stated previously, we don't get any 50/50 calls. Ever. I can't think of one. We certainly are not the recipients of any dodgy decisions in any game (the Brentford red was a clear red). So what do we assume, that refs are effected by our yellow shirts? Or is it they are advised to not give us anything? Even the players and the commentators are starting to cotton on to this. We are not wanted in the PL, we aren't a big city club like the rest of the top 6 are and have owners who bend the rules. Why would we be wanted in the Premier League?
The free kick he gave against Angella for a shirt pull in the corner in front of the 1881 was embarrassing. The lino (who didn't spot the dive either) was literally 2 feet from it and didn't give it. Either the ref or the lino are incompetent and should be punished for yesterday's game.
Done by a bad decision..maybe the ref felt there was intent to foul even though there was no contact made? But we still had enough time to fight our way back into the match at 0-1 and it was disappointing that we couldn't. It's a bit black and white to say we only lost because of the penalty, bad decision that it was. The last few months have brought one of the strangest sequences of results I can remember in many years supporting the team. To go nearly 20 games without a draw is weird, and to not manage more than 3 games unbeaten is curious too for a side just a few points off the top. It's weird how we seem to have 2, maybe 3, good results in a row, then follow it with a shocker. Two steps forward, one back. So only Derby have more wins than us all season but we've lost more times than any of the other top six. Joka has a very tidy win % but has also lost 8 league matches in charge. It's all very odd. I honestly have no idea how we find true consistency this season. The frustrating thing is, as we all know, it's such a tight division this season, our oppenents are tripping up too, and IF ONLY we could go on a ten match unbeaten run or something similar, we'd really have a chance. Since that defeat at Birmingham, we've never managed more than 3 matches unbeaten. That has to change, but how?
Because its human nature and we like to dwell on misery. How many people thank the government for all the things that are good in our country!
Make some room for me. After a defeat I avoid football like the plague for a while. In this case Tuesday evening.....
I'd say because a lot of fans have invented a disconnect between the club and the players. A lot of fans don't like the amount of foreign players in our team and a large number of fans don't like the manager. This week was all about getting behind the team irrespective of the situation or result. Didn't happen from minute one on Saturday.
Brentford. Top 6 most of the season. Bolton, unbeaten at home since Lennon took over. Blackburn top half team and difficult to play against. Reading away when we had 10 men for the whole of the second half
Wasn't that the Angella 'fall on the ball' second yellow? Ahahahaha, I laugh every time I think about it. No conspiracy here. Move along.
Not sure where you're going with this, Bournemouth was a draw as was Boro. We beat Brentford and in fact we were only narrowly beaten in the other two. So Norwich aside what are you trying to say?
This! It's too black and white, on the back of a defeat, to say 'we can't do that, we can't do this' etc. We won at Brentford, who in their next home match beat Bournemouth. We won at Bolton, who had been unbeaten since November at their place. But as is typical of our season, we follow up a few good wins with a disappointing crashing back down to earth defeat! Leeds have won 6 of their last 8 matches btw, so I'm a bit nervous about that one!
Nigel Adkins has been round to loads of games recently. Beppe being there meant another 3-0 defeat to Norwich and a **** ref was inevitable.
There was definitely something amiss with the atmosphere yesterday. It sounded like a lack of drum in the 1881 area which seemed to appear just before half time. Could it be the additional fans coming back like we had at Wembley who prefer to sit on their hands? Maybe because the match meant so much and things were a bit tense? Dunno, could be either but something was amiss.
For all the talk of the dive and penalty why are people seemingly overlooking the abysmal response by our team from then on in? This wasn't a 90th minute penalty game winner for Norwich. It was the away team going 1-0 up with 25 minutes left (+ 5 added) to turn that around. Yet we fell apart completely rather than using it as motivation. Really? He's certainly improved in 2015 but in a game like yesterday where it was always going to come down to being clinical he is much too wasteful of opportunities. He had the beating of their full back - like most games - but did very little with it. His ability to find an opposition shirt with a cross is unerring. I just find him very frustrating and don't know what the solution is.
I'm thinking that with Anya as well. Frustrates the h*ll out of me as I know he can be so much better. Don't think he gets enough support when he has the ball.
Are people actually happy with our performances against top teams this season? We can add wolves at home as well. Feel free to ram your head in the sand.
Am I right in saying we didn't beat a single side that finished in the top 6 the season we got promoted under Boothroyd?
And of course in Zola's full season we won up at Hull, then saw them finish narrowly above us. We won at Palace and drew with them at home..4 points off them..then blew it at Wembley. We won at Leicester in the league, but lost there 2 weeks later in the play-offs (which would have been costly but for their penalty miss in the return leg). And in Ady's promotion season we lost both matches to Palace and a draw and a loss against Leeds, then dispatched both in the play-offs! Point of my post being this..while obviously it'd be preferable to beat a few teams around us right now, if we do end up in the play-offs, results during the regular season can go out the window. Norwich at Wembley and a bit of revenge might be tasty! Maybe we'd get a dodgy decision in our favour!
I don't think we've played badly against any of them, but equally we haven't played particularly well. They've all been very even, except the games with the dodgy ref's. The loss at Ipswich was a scrappy, ****e goal. Derby scored two worldy finishes, Bournemouth and Norwich were both completely changed by the ref.
I think the only match against a top placed side that we've 'disgraced' ourself in this season was Wolves on Boxing Day. Bournemouth at home came in the middle of all our disruption when Garcia was recovering. The away match was obviously marred by the early red card. Derby was a decent match and could have gone either way. Ditto Ipswich (although it wasn't such a good match on the eye). We got a very decent point at the Riverside, and just about got over the line to do the double over Brentford. Both Norwich games were affected by key decisions going against us, though as others have already said, I don't think we reacted well to yesterday's.
I'm not ramming my head in the sand. You mentioned 6 games but only one you could say we didn't turn up.
So a ref inexperienced at this level is getting three important games, while mid-table matches are being given to others. Seems that it's the allocation of refs that's at fault. I don't think he was biased, just clueless. As were his linos. Incidentally, I was in line with Jerome when he seemed to be brought down by the last man early in the second half. It wasn't shown on the FL Show, but my impression was that we should have been down to 10 then. If we had been, though, I think we would have coped better than we did after the pen, when the Watford players' sense of grievance seemed to make them lose concentration for the rest of the match.
Our biggest problem is at right wing-back, where Paredes is a poor defender, constantly gives the ball away when overhitting his passes forward and rarely puts a good cross in. Why isn't Layun, who can cross, playing there?
Jerome and Ekstrand came together and Jerome quite obviously threw himself to the ground. Jerome even had a quick look to see whether Ekstrand was the last man before he did it. I thought the appointment of this guy as Norwich manager was a strange one, but it's clear that he has the 'win at all costs' mentality.
Considering how nothing of any note happens when Paredes gets the ball, it's alarming quite how much of our play goes through him.
He seems to takes ages getting down the line what are his communication skills like? He pretty much said in the WO that he was having English lessons.
When teams come to stifle our midfield, as Norwich did yesterday, it places extra emphasis on our wide players to provide our creativity. For me, Paredes just doesn't do enough. After a promising debut, he has unfortunately provided very little attacking menace. When given the opportunity to attack the opposition full back, he invariably checks his run and simply hits his 'cross' into the full back who's standing a yard away. Coupled with the fact he typically defends well for 85mins, but not the full 90, he's neither outstanding going forwards, or rock solid defensively. He's not a poor player by any means, but when he's our only width, he's just not providing enough. On the other side, whilst Anya's lack of end product frustrates the life out of me, his pace (which Pudil lacks) is an asset, both in attack and tracking back. I just feel the time has come to move him over to the right, so he's actually delivering the ball on his stronger side. He typically has success beating his man down the outside, so if switching wings, he'd at least remove some of the trial and error that comes with swinging with his weaker foot. In turn, I would then move Layun into his most familiar position, left wing back. He's clearly a very willing runner, and when afforded a little more time and space by playing on the wing, I think the quality which was evident against Charlton would make him a very useful asset. He has clearly been utilised in midfield to try and provide some support to Paredes, both offensively and defensively, but against a robust midfield as we faced yesterday, this clearly isn't his best position (but to start judging him and turning on him...madness!). In the middle of the park, the energy and drive which Guedioura provided has definitely been missed, but our 'dream trio' of Abdi, Munari and Tozser can still absolutely work. I'd just prefer to see Almen given more a free role to go and find pockets of space where he can make things happen, whilst letting Munari do more of the unnoticed, but equally invaluable, donkey work. Tozser's recent form has certainly suffered, and his lack of pace and strength in tackling have been regularly exposed, but if we could make our wide players a genuine strength, the opposition would place less emphasis on hounding our midfield, and all of a sudden he'd be the capable deep lying playmaker we all know he can be. Similarly to Man Utd in our 'promised land', we seemingly have a number of individuals who when faced by mediocre opposition, simply have too much. But when coming up against more capable and better organised teams, still haven't found quite the right balance. To be a real attacking threat, we have to compromise our defensive shape, and vice versa. There's still a long way to go yet though and we still might find that balance. It's imperative we use yesterday's frustration as a tonic though, rather than an excuse.
This needs more explaining unless I've been whooshed here. BRLR, can you go further into this accusation?
