I think Hugill sub was made for that reason as he's great in the air, but they didn't get the memo about the crossing luckily
We won. Yay. Swansea next. Oh. Hoping that the manager will get us using Sarr's pace properly for that or we're going to be in trouble away once again.
I didn’t doubt Xisco. In a weird way, his limited (albeit title winning) experience made me feel more confident that he was being picked for the right reasons. Now I get to say I told you so to everyone who did. Merry Christmas, me.
Pleased to briefly see that rarest of thing, two left footed players on the left. I think despite some notable poor games, Masina has generally performed well for us, and is a big boost to have back in the side. Personally I feel its a great time to give Ngakia a month out of the firing line. I think he's got all the attributes to be a great player, but his decision making is atrotious at times. Kiko continues to have his best season yet, which sadly shows we've persisted with a championship level player for three years. Probably not the only one I could say that about.
Random thoughts... At this level 442 is ok, we give up control of the middle of the pitch and most teams will huff and puff and do little with the ball. In the PL though... I much prefer us 433, although we don't really have the striker for it Foster needs to find the balance between playing short and going long Gray is simply abysmal, and if Perica can't make the right decision 1v1 on a keeper he has no place at this level either The ball over the top of the full backs for Sarr and Sema was simple but very effective Ngakia looked out of sorts on the left Do we honestly not have a single player able to take a decent corner? Brentford are a better side than Norwich
Masina has his limitations. For one and i said this before you rarely see him create an overlap in the attacking third and get balls in to the box. Secondly his distribution out from the back can be poor at times, he would need to cut that out of his game. That totally p***ed Pearson off. Thirdly, he has a habit of tucking in a bit too much for my liking, almost like an extra centre back. Less serious if the opposition dont have an effective right sided attacker but if they do plenty of crossing opportunities from the right. He may be a different animal in this division but by and large that has been Masina up to now. As a tackler, when he is in the right place, he is alrite.
Disappointed at the lack of United discussion on this thread. Come on you Red Devils! Any views on Rowan Atkinson as Maigret?
Wow, damned by (very) faint praise. How many points did his tackling save us yesterday? He also smiles a lot and the Xisco Kid is trying to build a jolly, happy squad..
The myth of Deeney and our squad, from their forum beforehand: “So, Foster in goal for Watford, Capoue in midfield, Sarr also starting for them and Deeny in a two up top. Pretty much a midtable prem team. Gonna be a tough one.“
I thought she was ok. Proved to me you don't have to pay a million plus to jug ears on BBC to tell you what you have seen with your own eyes.
I thought the coverage was actually ok, if that was MOTD or even the Sky Premier league coverage they would’ve just dismissed our latest sacking as madness and laughed about it. They did actually take the time to dig a bit deeper and explain the issues with Ivic.
Putting aside the big debates on here (wet/clap, THE KID/Xisco Systems) that was our best performance of the season. It wasn't perfect and it's not one for the history books, but for the first time, we played like a team who look like they could get promoted. Deeney and Gray are both utterly horrific 'strikers' but the least worst way to use them is to play them together. Sarr is still nowhere near the 25m we decided he wasn't when we turned down Palace's offer, but unconstrained by Ivic's hateful system, he offers much more, especially against a makeshift left back. Norwich turned the screw somewhat for the last 12 minutes or so, and it took Masina performing miracle tackles to save us twice, but given the previous 78 minutes, especially the first 2/3 of the second half, we deserved our luck. I still think our squad is flawed and I still think hiring Munoz was utterly irresponsible. Any one of us would have picked that starting line up tonight from the players available. It was hardly a tactical masterclass. What it shows, however, is just how negative and bloody mindedly anti-football Ivic was. Norwich have looked like world beaters because this division is utter ****. We've really made hard, hard work of plodding our way past some of the worst teams we could face, due to our constipated coach and his stubborn refusal to allow players to play. I think Ivic chose to die on his hill about the squad/left back, right at the start, but it took nearly half a season for the attrition of the performances to justify sacking him. Now, in Munoz we have someone, whose only qualification is that he isn't Ivic. That's all the Pozzos can have been looking for. Anyone who isn't Ivic who we can fly in now. Frankly I'm upset and all of us should be, because in hindsight this was as realistic a chance we'd ever have of managing our team. Seriously, if one of us had known, we could have pitched up at LONDON Colney with a tracksuit and clipboard, ID proving we were not a dour, Serbian Scrooge and probably got the job on the spot. But it's THE KID's job now and as long as he picks 11 players in roughly the right positions and tells them to try and score more goals than the opposition, we will have a chance most weeks.
I think this is harsh. I think many on here, myself included, would have chosen Hughes over Cleverley, and Perica over Gray, but TC's hassling in midfield and Gray's willing running of the channels both played a big part in the gameplan. I also wouldn't have told the players to allow a team like Norwich so much time on the ball but our setup limited them to long-shots and hopeful crosses. That was a risk considering the players Norwich have, but it paid off and Munoz deserves credit for that. Also attempting to kill the game off at 1-0 was a refreshing change of pace compared to Ivic.
Gray was really rather good aside from the bit that we really need him for. In hindsight he was the better option over Perica, who seemed like he could at least finish but actually he can’t either, and he’s not even as fast as Gray.
I like him a lot but think,in view of your first sentence should we consider Ron Atkinson as Maigret?
The Sunday Times and the Wobby both thought Masina's tackle was a nailed-on pen, as did I until I saw the replay. Great reffing. The ST also noticed that Xisco was giving instructions to Kiko in Spanish rather than to Troy.
Of course it’s “harsh”. Moog is still in a dark place and it will take a lot of good results for him to accept that the appointment was just a random punt on an unknown rather than an established quality manager who we could have coaxed here instead. However don’t sniff at the glimmers of positivity in his post.
Ah hah, so finally we can at least have some glimmer of understanding, now that we have found the other side of the coin of your madness. Masina is the ludicrously harsh and unfair yin to your insanely proselytising and delusional Gray yang.
If we’re talking about Caroline Barker, I think she’s just right as a presenter: a nice mix of real fan (she supports Chelmsford) and intelligent journalist. I don’t need her to be “strolling down the catwalk” as somebody remarked. In general the Sky coverage of the Championship is pretty good, including the commentators and co-commentators who seem to do more research into the teams and players than those covering the PL who only really know the big clubs. My only complaint would be with some of the pundits, but even then many of them are only invited occasionally (e.g. Grant Holt last night) and don’t have the comfortable sinecure they do for the PL.
Completely agree, Grant was absolutely awful though. Seemed to just talk complete gibberish that I couldn’t understand, seemed to know just as little about Norwich as he did us as well, but as you say he’s an occasional one, no different to when they dragged Aidy out of the cryogenic state he must’ve been in prior to his performances.
