Anyone Still Sceptical About Adams?

[Din]

I was just wondering if we still had any fans that still have doubts about Mr. Adams. Whilst I was a little disheartened when he was appointed, as I'm sure most supporters were, he has certainly won me round in the last month. I'm sure though out there there are one or two fans out there who think that Adams is ultimately destined to fail for whatever reason.

Whilst we have started well that is all it is, a start. We still have 40 more games to play. Aston Villa and Swansea are both currently in the top 4 of the Premier League, but everyone knows that they're not going to stay there (at least I hope Villa don't with Lambert there), does anyone think that like those 2 teams we will gradually slide down the Championship table?

Personally I am over the moon with what Adams is doing here at the moment, even if we are only 6 games in. He has improved us in a number of ways from last season, the way we play on the pitch being the most obvious one. As well documented, in the Hughton days we would sit back, let the opposition have plenty of the ball, and try and nick the occasional goal, even in our home games. Yet as we've seen in pretty much every game thus far, this season we are the team that are controlling games. The football we've seen so far has been much more attacking than we've seen at any point since that Villa manager left, and all the players seem to be really confident, and have a real belief that we can not only win games, but win them well. Putting the nature of our win aside yesterday, the fact is that we ended up beating a very good side, who easily have one of the strongest sides in this league and will undoubtedly be up there come the end of the season, away from home, very convincingly (in the end). We did so by going out there and absolutely dominating Cardiff. Yes there was probably a sense of arrogance about Cardiff in the sense that they'd outplayed us first half and had what looked like a comfortable lead, but we went out there and played as if we were the home team. To do that you need to know what you're doing. You can't just send the team out there and hope they do something. He clearly told the players how they needed to change and what they needed to do instead. And sending Jerome on at half time, even though it was mainly down to the fact that Lafferty had already been booked, was an absolute master-stroke.

It's also very clear to see Neil Adams passion for this job. The pictures and footage of him celebrating after we beat Ipswich demonstrate this perfectly. That was something that we saw often when Lambert was at the helm, but with Adams it feels much more real because he has been at the club in various roles for such a long time. This is a huge bonus, to have someone who feels so avidly about Norwich, and it gives the impression that everything he does will be for the clubs benefit. This for me was proven with the sales of certain players. Leroy Fer and Robert Snodgrass clearly didn't want to be here anymore. Adams could've put his foot down, and decided that because they're 2 of our better players we should keep them. But he didn't. He made sure we got good money for them and let them go. Same with Pilkington. He contradicted Adams on Twitter, so Adams sold him, as it's better to get rid of a player than have a bad egg around the club and the rest of the players. And as for Bassong, despite the fact that he was our captain last season, he clearly through his toys out the pram when Hughton left, and hasn't been involved since. Add to that that we've signed some very good players in the summer, that clearly do want to be here, and you can't really argue at all with his transfer business. And finally, so far we're sitting in 2nd. 4 wins from our last 5 league games, playing some great football and scoring lots of goals. What's not to like? 

Got a little carried away there, was only going to write a little bit  . But yeah, any fans who still doubt him?

 

[Andy]

Someone asked the question before the season started " how many games before we judge Adams" or something similar. I said at that time that we should give him a fair crack at it, perhaps until Christmas. Others suggested 10-15 games.

In my view it's too early to form a real opinion of his management capabilities but he's made a pretty good start.

 

[It's Character Forming]

Yeah too early to say it's more than a great start, which is as good as you could hope for.

I like the fact that some of our performances are reminiscent of the way we overcame chelsea away in the youth cup.

Let's just hope he can keep it up.

 

[Keckers]

I was happy from the start. Felt a lot like a Dave Stringer type appointment to me. Very early days but no reason to change my opinion. Very happy and dead chuffed for him.

 

[Branston Pickle]

I guess there will be big tests if/when our form drops and/or we get a string of injuries to key players, but so far Adams has/we have exceeded my expectations. I have always been optimistic but thought we had a tricky start and might take a while to find our feet, so it is great that we have done as well as we have....we need to keep it up, though.

 

[Brian Fantana]

It's a good question and I think that is probably a bit early to say but the signs are good and my concerns from before our first game have subsided somewhat. Neil has clearly set out to introduce / reintroduce attacking football built on short passing and so far I have to admit the results are impressive. I still think we need to build on what we have achieved; at times our passing is sloppy and if we are going to press the ball higher up the pitch we need to do so from the off but there is a really positive foundation there and in a few months, if things continue as they are going, we could really be on course to steam roller the division. That's a big if but Neil has to take credit for putting us in that position and picking the team up after a dreadful year or more under Hoots.

I think the next big test for Neil is going to be managing the squad harmony if we have good players that are not getting a look in, we have strength in depth and I guess some of those who are not being used regularly will not be happy to wait forever. Just looking our striking options there could be trouble ahead - we are playing one up front and we have four strikers who like to play there.

Also, if we hit a rocky patch it will be interesting to see how Neil picks the squad up again.

Having said that I think he has had a very impressive start and I am duly impressed by Neil's style of play and the way he handles himself, I really really hope he continues to succeed!

 

[Salopian]

I never had any doubts, and I always felt that the run in last season was too much for any manager, given the low confidence of the team and leading players. I serious doubt Hughton's claims that he could have saved us.

It was great to see the transformation at half time on Saturday, although I wonder what would have happened if Ruddy hadn't pulled off the great stop early in the second half. At 3-0 down it would have been a very big challenge! What pleased me as much as anything was the fact that in possession terms we were well behind Cardiff in the first half. but by the end of the match we had outplayed them and over the whole match had more possession!This according to the BBC.

We can surely all agree now that we have a good managerial team, able and flexible, and prepared to get angry when the team fails to play as instructed!

 

[morty]

I have to admit I did have my doubts. On the face of it, it did seem the cheap and easy option, and when McNally said they had scoured all of Europe in the search for a new manager, when he was literally a few offices away, did make me think "Hmmmmm, really?"

But everything so far has been impressive, his building of the squad, and particularly who we have managed to retain. Praise has to go to the board also, it would have been all too easy to cash in on the likes of Olsson and Redmond.

Obviously the real test will come when we hit a rough patch, but I really can't see how anyone can criticise Adams in any way.

 

[SussexYellow]

I also had serious doubts when Neil was appointed. But he is winning me over.

But it is still early days so lets not get carried away. We also need to remember that he remains an extremely inexperienced manager, one that is showing a lot of promise but nevertheless inexperienced. So he will make mistakes from time to time as he is on a learning curve. Important that we stick with him through those periods.

 

[Yellow Fever]

I also had doubts, particularly on his experience, but felt he could well be a Dave Stringer type appointment and now feel that is turning out to be the case. He is a motivator, a tactician and a good judge of players as the current run shows. There will be set-backs, but we need to put those into proportion. We are currently 3 points ahead of where Lambert's Championship team was after 6 games. 

 

[ZLF]

He has responded well to no wins in his first 6 games and quickly ditched his preferred diamond following the wolves debacle - since then its just simply got better.  There is little reason to see why it should not continue given the great squad he has kept & built.

6 games into a champs season is still too soon to tell for me (just as it would have been if we had made a poor start) - if we keep going and nov arrives still playing well then we can have increasing confidence - until then its just 1 game at a time for me (even Hughton had us to 10 unbeaten games in the top flight...) but it is looking good

 

[Watling the Gnome]

I am optimistic but I have to say I think the final few Premiership games were poor by any standard and while it was possibly too much to expect him to have an immediate impact, this is clearly what the Board/Management would have expected as nobody would have chosen relegation.  So "underwhelmed" was a polite way of describing my feelings in May through to July.

But to borrow a phrase from one of my many rather dull and tedious managers, "we are where we are" and the positives - team spirit and camaraderie, positive outlook, good form away from home, scoring goals, inventive attacking play - and the more difficult tasks of rebuilding a demoralised squad to achieve all the above - makes me think he's going to be just fine.

He needs to get a suit on though, that training ground gear makes him look like Son of Pulis.

 

[Yellow Fever]

I seem to recall that Lambert preferred the tracksuit apparel, and it did him no harm. As long as we keep going the way we are, he can turn up in any outfit for all I care.

 

[The Ghost of Michael Theo]

I was a skeptic, but I'm very impressed by the start both on and off the field.

However, in this age of instant gratification, we're only ever 3 games away from a 'crisis'. We will go through a bad patch at somepoint this season. This is when we'll see the real Neal Adams, and I hope it's we have the same one in adversity as we do in the boom times.

Long way to go.

 

[LongStrattonCanary]

I was the same as a number of people on this forum. When the announcement was made that Adams was our full time manager, I had mixed emotions. With the calibre of managers being linked and seemingly being close to appointment, I felt underwhelmed. However, I found some of the reaction way over the top. I felt that if given time by both the board and the fans he would be a success. You could see that we had improved in them last 5 Premiership games, albeit we only picked up a point. Naturally you could say that the sacking of Hughton would have provided the necessary reaction as we had hit rock bottom, but I saw a shift in the tactical employment of the team and some much needed discipline.

My only question marks were with his backroom staff (seemed inexperienced), Adams transfer policy and ability to persuade players to sign for us. Judging by the start we have made to the season and the squad Adams has assembled, it seems he has succeeded, however we've hardly seen most of his signings. Beating Cardiff and Celtic to the signings of both Grabban and Jerome shows he has the ability to convince players to join, and this'll only continue with good results.

It'll be an interesting season, with 40 league games to go we are not going to continue this unbeaten streak and it will eventually finish. However with Adams at the helm I'm confident that we'll remain a consistent outfit and will finish at least finish play offs which was my expectation.

 

[TexasCanary]

I certainally viewed Adams appointment as lacking ambition by the BOD. However looks like they knew something I did not or are bigger risk takers this year. Like what I see so far.

 

[It's Character Forming]

Personally I'm delighted but we'll have to see how it goes after a bad result which must happen sooner or later, looks very promising so far

Why do people want him to wear a suit? It's not an office.

 

[shaun_wilkinson]

I seem to recall that Lambert preferred the tracksuit apparel, and it did him no harm. As long as we keep going the way we are, he can turn up in any outfit for all I care.

Yeah I really don't like seeing a Manager in a suit on the sideline. It may sound silly but wearing a tracksuit makes Adams look and feel like "one of the lads". It's a minor detail but I think it makes a difference.

 

[Wiz]

I wanted him as a caretaker when Hughton got the bullet but never really as our full time gaffer, I was a Lennon man.

Wouldn't swap now though.

 

[morty]

It will be "interesting" to see peoples resolve tested on this when we hit a poor patch, a few were pretty quick to roll the eyes and drag up the old negativity when we were a couple of goals down the other day.

Really, discounting last season, as he was really only a caretaker, Adams is actually still only 6 games into his full managerial career, I wonder if some people forget that occasionally.