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Norwich City vs Blackburn Rovers (Away) Saturday 12th December.

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morty

morty

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Hopefully the theme of players returning from injury, rather than getting injured, will continue.I feel though that we are probably still in the position of the first 11 pretty much picking itself at the minute.

Don't know much about Blackburn, but given the results we have pulled out of the bag, in the last month, in very trying circumstances, I don't really fear anyone right now. Though I would feel a bit more comfortable if we could just score a goal or two more, because we still have the odd defensive mistake in us, and games are a bit closer than they need to be.

Anyone see the game Wednesday, and have any input on any possible injuries etc?
 
N

Number 9

Well-Known Member
Every game which passes leaves me shaking my head, opposition teams are missing chances and we're scoring flukey deflections after ninety minutes of struggle.

I know that if you don't shoot, you won't get deflections, but for all the possession figures, we seem to be scraping wins.
I can't help thinking that the next team we play against will score from all the chances we give them.
(Blackburn are the League top scorers)

Also, I can see us having a repeat failure in the Premier League next season because we haven't moved forward enough, it's just Plan A.01.01
 
Din

Din

Well-Known Member
Every game which passes leaves me shaking my head, opposition teams are missing chances and we're scoring flukey deflections after ninety minutes of struggle.

I know that if you don't shoot, you won't get deflections, but for all the possession figures, we seem to be scraping wins.
I can't help thinking that the next team we play against will score from all the chances we give them.
(Blackburn are the League top scorers)

Also, I can see us having a repeat failure in the Premier League next season because we haven't moved forward enough, it's just Plan A.01.01

I think that's quite unfair to be honest. We've won 9, drawn 3 and only lost 1 out of the last 13 games. In a league as tough and demanding as this that's really impressive. You don't do that by struggling for 90 minutes and only scoring dodgy deflections, and in-fact we've scored some brilliant goals and beaten some really good sides in this league along the way. That's before you even get into how many injuries we've had.

Just because we're a relegated side and looking to get promoted again, doesn't mean we should just be rolling teams over and comfortably winning each game. The reason we have so much possession is because pretty much every team in the league sticks 10 men behind the ball and desperately tries to hold out for anything they can get. Unless you're a Manchester City or Liverpool, it is so hard to play against that style, particularly as so many sides in this league are incredibly well-organised and tactically smart.
 
N

Number 9

Well-Known Member
I think that's quite unfair to be honest. We've won 9, drawn 3 and only lost 1 out of the last 13 games. In a league as tough and demanding as this that's really impressive. You don't do that by struggling for 90 minutes and only scoring dodgy deflections, and in-fact we've scored some brilliant goals and beaten some really good sides in this league along the way. That's before you even get into how many injuries we've had.

Just because we're a relegated side and looking to get promoted again, doesn't mean we should just be rolling teams over and comfortably winning each game. The reason we have so much possession is because pretty much every team in the league sticks 10 men behind the ball and desperately tries to hold out for anything they can get. Unless you're a Manchester City or Liverpool, it is so hard to play against that style, particularly as so many sides in this league are incredibly well-organised and tactically smart.
The struggle was referring to the struggle to score.
We have scored one or two exceptional goals but far more deflected efforts, they all count as one goal and if you take a shot, even if it's way off target, it may well take a deflection and wrong foot the defence and keeper.
We know that teams will sit behind the ball giving us possession, choosing the right time to press and counter.

Rather than complain about this Farke needs to adjust his tactics to deal with it better.
For example, wingers going to the byline to cross extensively rather than cutting into the middle congested area and getting bogged down by the twenty players there.
 
dj161

dj161

Well-Known Member
That'll do me, decent performance against a pretty good side who didn't look to sit 9-10 men behind the ball for once, top of the league still, 4 points clear of third, 7 points clear of seventh, plus Ipswich lost too, what more could you ask for

It'll be another tough game against Reading up next but we really shouldn't be fearing anyone right now, especially as we're starting to get some players back
 
G

gerryinromania

Well-Known Member
Thanks for the clip dj161, good to see. A big day for the man in carpet slippers, 100th appearance, 50 goals guess he's enjoying his cake and coffee now
 
Din

Din

Well-Known Member
Absolutely brilliant win. Blackburn are definitely one of the best sides we've faced this season. They really put us through our paces and made us work so hard to get anything out of that game. I don't doubt their fans are absolutely gutted that they haven't been able to get some sort of result, as in all honesty they probably deserved it, but full credit to us for digging in and showing so much resolve again to get another 3 points.

Going forward I thought we were excellent. Should probably have been 2-0 up by half-time as I'm not sure how we didn't double our lead during that move where Pukki hit the bar, but he took his first goal superbly well. I was getting so frustrated though at the amount of times we were getting into ideal shooting positions and then opting to take another touch or make a pass rather than just hit it. Martin and Vrancic in particular were guilty of it a few times, and considering the quality they have you'd think they would've at least been able to test the 'keeper if they had just taken on the shot. Credit to McGovern as well who made a spectacular save at 0-0. Didn't think he had that in his locker to be honest.

While I think Blackburn were a threat in the first half it felt as if we always had them at arm's length a little bit, but they came flying out the blocks for the 2nd half and we were far too slow in responding. They had literally pinned us in our defensive 3rd and no matter what we did we just could not get out, and while McGovern should be praised for the save he made when it was goalless, he has to take some of the blame for his dreadful kick out (something it has to be said he did numerous times throughout the game) where he gave Blackburn the ball half-way inside our half, and one pass later Elliott was through on goal. What a player Harvey Elliott is by the way, if we do go up I'd love us to look at taking him on loan from Liverpool next season. But yeah, I really feared the worst for us when we conceded, because it had just been one-way traffic for the entirety of the 2nd half, but it always felt like if we could get our foot on the ball and bypass Blackburn's midfield we could cause them problems, and when we actually, finally did that for the first time in the 2nd half, we scored a goal from it (albeit an 'unorthodox' one :D). From then on the way we saw the game out was really impressive, and the triple substitution Farke made certainly helped that. The fact that Adam Armstrong, the league's top scorer and arguably most dangerous player, didn't have a shot until the 88th minute, and even that was a tame effort from a wide angle that went straight at McGovern, says it all about how well we handled the side that have had the best attack in the division so far. If anything the winning margin should've been wider, as I'm not sure how Stiepermann didn't do better with that opportunity right at the end after brilliant work from Hugill.

Man of the match is obviously Pukki. Scored two goals, the first of which was brilliantly taken, and caused Blackburn real headaches particularly in the first half. Emi had a quieter game but was still really effective when he did get on the ball. A special word for Sorenson who was constantly having to defend 1 on 1 against Elliott but I thought in general he did really well against him. There wasn't a single bad performance out there though. That is, except for the referee, who was fucking scandalously bad. Fortunately he didn't have any big decisions to make but I'm sure if he had he'd have given them Blackburn's way. EVERY SINGLE TIME a Blackburn player went down near one of ours he'd blow his whistle, and yet when our players were fouled in identical circumstances he'd tell them to get up! There were a few moments where Blackburn players actually fouled ours, and yet he somehow managed to penalise us for it, like when Pukki got elbowed in the face and the free-kick was given against him. It was genuinely unbelievable I was absolutely baffled by some of the decisions he was making in the 2nd half. Thankfully it didn't cost us.

Another tough game coming up next with Reading away, who will have fans in their ground unlike Blackburn today. If we can take at least a point I'll consider this a very successful week, but hopefully we can go one better.
 
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