Norwich City vs Derby County (home) 28th October.

[morty]

Bit concerned about this, player fatigue, injury, and form at home wise. We really need to sort out being able to see off teams at Carrow road.

Pace is the answer in my opinion, so would like to see us take the game to them with a bit more urgency, using josh and yanic. Sitting back and controlling posession really works better away.

 

[Number 9]

Josh should be fresh and Marley's finished his ban now?

 

[morty]

Ah yeah, forgot about Marley, he should be raring to go!

 

[Dubai Mark]

Its weird that we have become so good away yet at home we struggle, perhaps we need to be less cautious?  Whilst I do understand what DF is doing, and its certainly working away from home, at home I've found myself getting so frustrated by how few players we get in the box when we are on the attack, so often the wide player has so little to aim at, and for me thats the difference when at home, happy to see caution away like that away though. 

 

[ZLF]

I suspect we may have an after the lord mayors show impact on this one.    If all are fit, not rested and focused I dont think Derby offer anything to be worried about.   Add in tiredness,  another big game midweek and nearly 2 months since we last won at home and its a different matter - it could be typical ACN for a 0-1 defeat with BJ scoring the winner. .

However I think Farke will keep us focused and  I am still predicting a 1-0 home win.

 

[Din]

Think one area that may help us in contrast to recent home games, is that Derby will likely be prepared to have a bit of a go at us, whereas the likes of Hull, Burton and Birmingham were more than happy to sit back and soak up pressure. In that regard that may allow us to play in a similar way to how we have been away from home. Obviously it's not ideal playing counter attacking football at home, and from what Farke has said before it's not the way he wants to play. But if it gets results I don't really care!

I said after the Hull game that maybe at home we should start with just one holding midfielder, meaning we can get more players into the box. Against sides from mid-table downwards we should definitely be doing that, however Derby are a good side with a lot of threatening attacking players, and as I said they are likely to have a bit of a go at us, so not sure how I'd feel about playing with just 1 holding player here.

Plus we have quite a few players who played a lot of minutes against Arsenal. Stiepermann and Jerome can directly replace Husband and Nelson. But for me Trybull is the main question mark, as he's probably the only player who we don't have a direct replacement for at the moment, and he played every minute of the Ipswich and Arsenal games, . Hopefully he is fully fit. Then there's whether you play Hoolahan, who only played half an hour in the week, Maddison, who didn't take part in extra time, same with Vrancic. Murphy only played 75 minutes but has only just returned from injury, and then again there's Watkins who is completely fresh. Wildschut has to start for me, as he only played half an hour in the week and is someone who really worries opposition defences. As for the other attacking midfield spaces, I've no idea. Really happy I'm not picking the team

Have about as much idea of what the score will be as I do what the team will be. A win here would represent a lot of progress, and to be fair the team should be high on confidence despite the circumstances in which we lost the Arsenal game. Yet there are so many factors in play here from our side that it's not as simple as we're confident, above them in the league and at home so should win. If I had to predict the result I'd sit on the fence and say 1-1, but obviously hoping that we can do better!

 

[Canaryboy]

"You can't get a red card and sent off by the referee" - Rob Butler, 2017

That was a it of a clanger 

 

[GJP]

Beaten by a good side who will finish in the top 6.

Thought Pinto, Trybull and Gunn did well. Wildschut was a threat. Everyone else average at best and in some cases poor.

 

[hogesar]

Wes and Maddison struggled to have any real impact on the game.

Thought draw would have been a fair result

 Stiepermann should have scored at least one and penalty was blatant. 

 

[GJP]

Yeah Wes and Maddison saw plenty of the ball but wasted it. Winning goal came from careless Maddison pass.

 

[Canaryboy]

I know he divides opinion and burnt his bridges here but I think this squad could do with Lewis Grabban in this squad, shame we didn't sign him in loan in the summer. He's scoring goals in a very poor Sunderland team and I think he'd do well in this side with his ability to turn half chances just outside the box into goals. 

 

[GJP]

Yeah Grabban has got a better touch and links play better than Cam.

Too often now we're seeing Cam playing in the comfort zone. Not putting himself about. 

 

[Din]

Think that our grueling schedule caught up with us. Agree with GJP above that Pinto, Trybull, Gunn and Wildschut were the only players to come out with much credit today. Wes in particular just wasn't at the races, and I thought although our two centre backs did generally very well first half, second they crumbled a bit, and as much as I rate Zimmermann he was probably at least partly at fault for both goals. Performance today wasn't anywhere near what we're capable of, but I did think we at least did enough to earn a point. Problem was though similar to Tuesday is that we missed the chances that did come our way, and Derby took just about the only clear opportunities they had.

That said we really don't get much luck. I admittedly sit at the ever end of the stadium, but it looked like the most blatant penalty going when Carson bought down Josh Murphy. A penalty and a red card there and the game is totally different. Shambolic refereeing lets us down for the 2nd time in 4 days. Also, we bring Oliviera on, and within 5 minutes he's forced to go off through injury. Not only does that mean that a player who almost certainly would've had an impact, can't have an impact, but we have to use our final substitution. Have to say as well taking Reed off left us so exposed in our midfield, although I suppose we were 1-0 down when it happened. Had Nelson not gone off then once we equalised we could've used that final change to bring back on that extra midfielder. But yeah, no luck there unfortunately.

Onto the next one against Wolves anyway, where hopefully we can up it a little bit, though that won't be easy. Still think we're going in the right direction.

 

[Fenway Frank]

I can understand Reed going off at the time as they had just taken Vydra off effectively going down to one main striker

 

[GJP]

I can understand Reed going off at the time as they had just taken Vydra off effectively going down to one main striker

But perhaps a bit naive against a good outfit full of players who have done it at this level and higher.

Should have been Wes or Maddison.

 

[OldRobert]

Mistake to take Reed off imo.  Should have been one of Wes or Maddison, both of whom were ineffective, Wes particularly.  Any news on Nelson?

 

[Din]

To be fair when Oliveira was forced off I think the smart move would've been to bring on an extra midfielder. It was 1-1 at that point, so we didn't need to go all out like we did when we were 1-0 down. Perhaps when Nelson went off we should've put Vrancic on to partner Trybull in the middle, or even bring Husband on at left back and move Stiepermann into holding midfield. It would've looked a negative move but would've undoubtedly made us more solid. Obviously it's easy to say in hindsight but even at the time it appeared an offensive move to do a like for like swap. Unfortunately for Farke it backfired.

 

[Canaryboy]

Farke was caught between a bit of a rock and a hard place, on the Arsenal thread I said I'd basically play our B team to give everybody a rest because of huge fixture congestion (5 in 11 or something like that?).

But a stupid number of Norwich bought tickets for Arsenal. 

So you either rest key players but risk the ire of fans if you then get tanked by Arsenal or for lack of ambition, or you go into the next league fixture 2 days later a lot less fresh than your opponents. I do understand why Farke went for it, but I think we paid the price (especially after the extra time).

Sounds like we made a few sloppy mistakes and fatigue does that. 

It may be time to put a couple of fresh faces in? Hanley the obvious one. We really miss Tettey as a rotation option at the minute, real shame about the Louis Thompson injury - probably need to think about bringing in an extra face for that position in January? 

Depth up front also needed, Jerome Sinclair on loan or something? He's got pace, be nice to have a player who can try and beat the offside trap and be played in with long balls over the top in the right game / off the bench.... that player isn't Jerome.

 

[GJP]

The Arsenal game isn't much of a factor, in my opinion.