Two clubs have done the double over Norwich this year - Watford and Bournemouth. Their recent Premier League rivals and, based on current form, the two Championship clubs they're most likely to see in the Premier League next season. I imagine the past two matches have been a bit humbling in terms of their competitive position against tougher opponents. Which is no bad thing.
Absolutely superb performance to a man. Huge credit to Cathcart and Cleverley with big performances after coming into the team. Cathcart totally shut down Cantwell - who while not Buendia has been in superb form over the last few months - progressed the ball really well and even put a couple of good balls into the box, most notably for Gosling’s early header over the bar. Cleverley was my MOTM. I’m surprisingly irritated by how the club left him off the the MOTM vote on Twitter/Facebook. What a performance after over a month out. It’s not just the intensity/pressing he provides, but the whole team presses better and looks more committed when he is leading the press. Good in possession too. Credit also to Chalobah - he slotted in really well and showed a lot of quality when coming on. Gosling pretty decent too - he doesn’t have quite as much quality on the ball, but he didn’t keep cropping up in goal scoring positions by accident did he? Hughes and Sierralta were excellent as usual while I really felt that WTE, Sema and JP (who did a lot of good work dragging us up the pitch, and although his final ball was often lacking, provided a moment of real quality for the assist) stepped up from the last few games. Bachmann didn’t have a difficult save to make but seemed to be more assertive dealing with high balls. Finally, Sarr was superb, particularly in the first half. We’ve seen Luton and Boro do a bit of a number on him in recent weeks, and I was a little worried that Norwich would be able to replicate that - and indeed, they did try and gum up the right side to deny him space. It didn’t really work. He really showed his quality and stood out as the best player on the pitch, even though his opposite number, Buendia, has been the POTS. That was one of the key differences: we starved Buendia and they couldn’t starve Sarr. A lot of credit to Xisco. He’s taken a lot of flack since the international break (some somewhat justified, some not so much) that he’s not up for it tactically and that all he does is dump our best players on the pitch and hope for the best etc etc. He did a number on Farke tonight - and we played the league leaders off the park. Let’s give him the credit he deserves.
Please, please, please. On Saturday, can we just put Millwall to the sword and banish the endless multitude of permutations and combinations of the other fixtures.
Only if Bournemouth beat Millwall by the correct coefficient tomorrow whilst only achieving a moderate improvement in dive ratio.
I'm gonna get a whoosh but it's in the side though I'm surprised the players on the pitch had that many between them tbh
We've won 7 of the 8 league games we've played after losing in the league this season which shows a lot of character and resilience. A fantastic reaction from the players. We put out a much stronger side than against Luton with a decent left back and a much stronger and more championship experienced midfield and it really showed. The time JP took before making his killer pass for the goal was pure class as was the delivery. Here's hoping we can finish the job on Saturday and enjoy playing our two closest rivals without any pressure. Feeling relief more than happiness right now after the nightmare on Kenilworth road.
Whatever Troy did or didnt do before the Norwich game, he didn't F it up. Personally I'm grateful for that.
Minutes per goal (from open play) Championship 20/21 1. Gosling 182 2. Gray 272 3. Sarr 307 4. Pedro 334
To be fair being surprised a Spanish football manager understands tactics is a bit like being surprised an English person can drink 10 pints and still walk home without falling over! I've yet to meet a Spaniard who can do that and I've never met an Englishman, including myself, who fully understands football tactics.
Dont give Gino any ideas or he'll be calling Doctor Khumalo to come out of retirement and be our goalscorer next season based on his incredible record with Kaiser Chiefs 25 years ago.
I think the plan was to play 433 with Deeney up front, then the great Norse Moose God in Valhalla intervened on our behalf.....
Turns out moosegasm was a bot all along, us beating Norwich away with Troy in the stands has triggered a malfunction.
I reckon The Kid reads this forum and why not? I know there is a lot of **** written on here, but there is a fair amount of football sense too.
Our attack still hasn't been that good. Plus had we signed a decent striker in the summer e.g. Toney then even Ivic would have got us promoted.
It's worth watching it back. After the recent slump in performances, this was a return to our best. Norwich were slow out the blocks and we were all over them for 10 minutes and should have scored. Norwich then rallied and came at us. They play some lovely one touch stuff to open teams up but apart from a few moments, our defence stood up to it well. Sarr was back to his unplayable best, given too much space by Norwich. JP's touch was back. Cleverley gave the midfield extra energy and allowed Hughes to move back to his preferred deeper role and cathcart stood up at RB, performing well in a non familiar role.
It would require us conceding the maximum 2 goals per game we've conceded all season and Swansea winning each game by more than 2 goals.
Brilliant performance, perhaps one of our best this season after one of our worst at the weekend. Playing Norwich after they were promoted worked well for us. Clevs and Gosling transformed that midfield, despite the **** some gave Clevs at the beginning of the season, he's been one of our best players. HMS PTL is on it's way to the Norfolk coast.
They've only scored more than two goals in a league game twice all season. Amazing that they're still as close as they are.
Easily, even though we won that game was crying out for a striker in the first half. If we had someone who could finish regularly we would’ve been 3-0 up at half time.
