Style over substance?

[The Great Mass Debater]

There is much talk about Tony Pulis at present. General concensus would be that he would be an effective manager in terms of success on the pitch and getting results. Where people tend to baulk is the idea of watching his 'brand' of football. Complaints about Hughton's style of play became rather irrelevant when the effectiveness of it also flatlined. We were playing both awful football and unsuccessful football. We all want attractive and successful football, but the question is, how long are we prepared to wait for it? If we have to choose one or the other at this moment in time, what takes priority? After a prolonged period of both unsuccessful and unentertaining football, what matters most to you as a fan right now?

 

[Andy]

I just want to go to away games and not feel humiliated on the way home. Is that too much to ask?

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

I just want to go to away games and not feel humiliated on the way home. Is that too much to ask?

Added your feelings as a poll option - please let me know if I misinterpreted your sentiment

 

[Andy]

Added your feelings as a poll option - please let me know if I misinterpreted your sentiment

Ha ha, just feeling bruised after two frustrating away days. Got used to the "bantz" in motorway service stations from Liverpool, Man city & Villa fans etc but taking stick from Leeds fans last night on the A1 was too much!

 

[Yellow Fever]

I'm trying not to be emotional about this. At the moment we have the same number of points as we had after 15 games under Lambert in the Championship, so it isn't time for knee-jerk reactions yet.

I thought the performance yesterday was good, with crisp passing and movement much praised as PL quality on the stream I was watching. I agree with that. I would have liked more attacking play again in the second half when a second goal could have put the match away. It's hard to know if it was Adams changing things or the players becoming more cautious as the second half went on. The Forest goal changed everything. It was well worked and well taken, as was Howson's. Most teams playing away would have settled for a draw at that point, but we pushed forward and could have won it, but a lack of discipline by the defence allowed the successful counter-attack. I don't think that was Adams' fault. 

We now have a gap to make up and I would say that if we haven't got back into the play-off places at least by the end of December, we should be looking elsewhere. The result was sickening, given how we dominated the game, but the performance until the final 10 minutes was much much better.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

A big issue when we discussed Hughtons tenure and when was right to sack him focussed on the window. This was based on the idea that the new man would need time to become familiar with the squad, assess where the perceived weaknesses were, and identify targets - not least to have the whole of the window to try to obtain them. People said Hughton needed to be sacked before January. How much is 'window thinking' an issue here? If Adams is to go, surely best not to fanny around leaving a new guy without the time to get it right?

Think if we wait to sack Adams like we did with Hughton the end result will be the same. Last season was salvageable, but procrastinating meant ultimately it wasnt. We need to learn from our mistakes or we are destined to repeat them. This season is of course salvageable but the decision on whether to stick with Neil or to sack him needs to be taken within November IMO.

Of course window thinking depends on whether you have funds available - that in itself is debatable

 

[Din]

I like the fact that in your poll GMD that you haven't included an option that we play attractive football and go and get back to the Premier League. Seems we can't have one without the other. That said we did have that under Lambert.

To be perfectly honest, I think I would rather have us 'winning ugly' as it were, than have us playing great football but losing more often. The games against Charlton and Rotherham for example, even though we played some good stuff, and created plenty of opportunities, we still all left the games deflated and disappointed because we dropped points. That for me shows that you can play as much beautiful, attractive, attacking football as you want, if you're losing games then it's still not as enjoyable as perhaps seeing your team scrape a 1-0.

With that in mind, I voted for the first option. 

 

[Jimmy smith]

Give me a 1-0 win with a goal of Michael Turners a**e any day over not winning. When we're winning we can discuss playing style.

 

[Suffolk Canary]

Give me a 1-0 win with a goal of Michael Turners a**e any day over not winning. When we're winning we can discuss playing style.

Exactly.  Results first, Style second

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

I like the fact that in your poll GMD that you haven't included an option that we play attractive football and go and get back to the Premier League. Seems we can't have one without the other. That said we did have that under Lambert.

To be perfectly honest, I think I would rather have us 'winning ugly' as it were, than have us playing great football but losing more often. The games against Charlton and Rotherham for example, even though we played some good stuff, and created plenty of opportunities, we still all left the games deflated and disappointed because we dropped points. That for me shows that you can play as much beautiful, attractive, attacking football as you want, if you're losing games then it's still not as enjoyable as perhaps seeing your team scrape a 1-0.

With that in mind, I voted for the first option. 

If I'd have included a 'play great and successful football' option then noone would have voted for anything else! Its what every football fan wants, but probably only the fans of teams like Barca and Real Madrid ever get to see it.

We all loved Lambert because he gave us both, but such a period is often a rare and special thing

 

[splutcho]

We didn't play great football under Lambert, we played effective football. When you're winning most games, it really doesn't matter how you play.

 

[SussexYellow]

I think right now getting back to the premiership must be the top priority. No matter how we get there. The results in themselves now would provide the entertainment.

If and its a big if we get back I would want to be entertained a tad more than we were under Hughton. Having a fairly long journey to Carrow Rd I would hate to think what my cost per goal was last season! And that includes opposition goals. We were actually pretty tight defensively at home under Hughton.

The Norwich way is a thing of legends. I think I know what it refers to, but given the financial inequities in the top flight I doubt if we could ever afford the players to play that style. I realise we are trying to play with a certain style this season. But as we are recognising it is not really working. Entertainment often comes down to how many times dangerous balls are put into the opposition box. Intricate easy on the eye passing does not necessarily deliver that, and also requires clinical finishing to convert the few, but often good chances, created. Without the end product the entertainment diminishes.