Norwich City vs Brentford (away) New years day.

[morty]

Does Farke stick or twist with the defence?

 

[Canaryboy]

Does Farke stick or twist with the defence?

Twist.... I want Hanley in at centre back and Stiepermann at left back with Pukki sitting behind Rhodes (until Lewis is fit).

If he insists on playing an inexperienced back four then we at least need Trybull and Tettey as the defensive screen.

Lets go back to basics and work out how to keep a clean sheet again. May make us feel good to look so good in the final third, but irrelevant if we can't stop shipping goals at the back.

We presumably gave Hanley a new contract because we rated him, not to be a backup player.

I know we are good in the final third, but we not quite as good as West Brom and earlier in the season we were actually good on the counter attack and often much more patient in the build up. We seem to be a bit 'manic' at the minute, I wonder whether a bit more experience and composure will settle us.... Hanley and Rhodes in particular.

Just think Farke needs to go back to the drawing board a little bit and make use of what he has in reserve (which admittedly isn't a great deal at the moment, but he does have Hanley, Rhodes and Trybull at his disposal).

 

[OldRobert]

This with knobs on.

 

[Fenway Frank]

I’m going, stick a couple of quid on 4-0 to Brentford

 

[dj161]

I wouldn't be opposed to see us go to a back five to be honest, maybe stick Pinto in at right back, lineup something like this

Pukki

Steipermann Hernandez


Trybull Tettey


Aarons Klose Zimmermann Hanley Pinto

Krul​

McGovern, Godfrey, Marshall, Cantwell, Vrancic, Srbeny, Rhodes

a bit harsh on Vrancic as he's done well in recent weeks, but get 3 centre backs in and play two holding midfielders and it should allow the wing backs to have some attacking freedom without exposing the defence

 

[GJP]

Very harsh on Vrancic. If everyone had played as well as he did against Derby we'd have won it comfortably.

 

[Canaryboy]

Krul

Aarons Hanley Klose Stiepermann

Tettey

Hernandez Vrancic Pukki

Rhodes​

I'm going for the same formation but more experience.

Zimmermann had a shocker against Derby, there needs to be some sort of consequence to a poor performance. Although Pukki should really have hit the ball into row Z for their second.

 

[OldRobert]

What we don't need to be doing is conceding another hatful.

 

[OldRobert]

 

[Canaryboy]

Very harsh on Vrancic. If everyone had played as well as he did against Derby we'd have won it comfortably.

Has been terrible in the first 20 minutes of this game.

Zimmermann completely unconvincing again, don't understand why Farke hasn't dropped him after such a terrible display against Derby.... what does Hanley have to do to get a game?

 

[Din]

Really poor so far. It is literally like we're playing with a hangover. Brentford doing a job on us at the moment and deserving of their lead. We also really need to sort out the way we defend corners, it's costing us a fair few points at the moment.

That all said Brentford are leaving spaces we're just not exploiting them. If we can wake up in the second half then we will get some joy. A few times Pukki has made runs in behind but Cantwell/Vrancic just haven't seen it. Hopefully in the 2nd half they'll start picking him out more. And yeah I agree that Hanley should've started this game.

We've typically been a lot better in the 2nd half this season, so let's we can continue that trend here. OTBC

 

[Din]

That all said, we had a clear penalty turned down at 0-0. 3rd game in a row we've got a ref who's botted decisions. I mean we wouldn't have scored it anyway but it still would've been nice to get.

 

[Canaryboy]

We just looked completely rattled by the Derby game in that first half.

Probably exhausted due to fixture congestion too, we don't exactly rotate do we.

 

[Din]

Yeah not a good performance by any means, but a point away from home despite all our injuries is not a bad result. Owe a lot to Krul as well for two brilliant saves.

We have a nice gap now before our next league game, so hopefully those who need a rest can get one and the injured players can get themselves fit. Huge game next week against West Brom.

 

[Dubai Mark]

For me the huge positive is that even though we were not close to our best and that first half was terrible, it was still so much better than when we were bad last season. So, if that's as bad as it gets then I am super confident for the rest of the season as the squad strengthens up again. Just a mention though for Brentford who I thought had done their homework and played well in that first half and also for Krul for two outstanding saves..

 

[Fenway Frank]

In a way Steipermann going off did us a favour as we were so open in the first half. Tom T didn’t really get going until the second half but when he did I thought he played quite well. Defending from set pieces is still a big issue, we changed to full on zonal where previously it seemed to me to be half of each. Most of those players need a rest now so expect big changes for Saturday

 

[gerryinromania]

We, with others, have had to endure some incompetent refereeing,are the officials still assessed? The standards appear to be as bad as here in Romania

 

[Number 9]

In a way Steipermann going off did us a favour as we were so open in the first half. Tom T didn’t really get going until the second half but when he did I thought he played quite well. Defending from set pieces is still a big issue, we changed to full on zonal where previously it seemed to me to be half of each. Most of those players need a rest now so expect big changes for Saturday

They were stood watching rather than attacking the ball coming in from corner.
That's not zonal or man to man marking, that's just poor play.