Norwich vs Crystal Palace (Home) 8th August 2015

[The Great Mass Debater]

Nick Conrad ‏@NickConradtweet 54m54 minutes ago

McNally: 'can't miss chances like that, striking problems will be sorted on Monday' says source in Gunn Club. @NorwichCityFSC #canarycall

Interesting... am I the only one more worried about the defence after today?

Not sure really. Their first goal was just well worked, perhaps you could question the marking on Zaha. Second goal we were just asleep. Third goal pretty irrelevant. For the most part I thought there was a lack of Whittaker and Brady getting exposed, perhaps because we had so much possession, though Zaha did have a little spell against Whittaker. Thought Bassong and Martin looked ok, was just a bit concerned at how deep we were at times. Wasnt a disaster defensively, but not impressive either...

 

[ZLF]

good noises about the strikers,   but its clear (as it has been since that great wembley day) that the defence is in even great need of strenghening   The faster olsson is back the better and despite alls blind reassurances the right flank in whits and martin is  championship standard at best.

plenty of time to resolve it though

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Anyone been able to find a video of Grabban's miss? I missed it - think my kids were jumping on me. Reports say we missed two great chances (which fits in with the McNally tweet above) - what was the other one?

 

[ZLF]

for me it seems that the key positions we knew were weak pre season (bj, whits, martin & striker) were the ones with problems today.

we have options,  so start to use them and as with redmond use the quality we have;   sign a striker and a cb and we will be able to compete.

 

[dj161]

my main concern today would be the lack of cover we had for our full backs, johnson seemed to offer brady no support on that side, and i dont even no if it was howson or dorrans that was supposed to playing on the right of midfield, it seemed that dorrans, howson and johnson just ran about wherever they wanted and just left the full backs to attack and defend the flanks by themselves

 

[KeiranShikari]

Defence will be a lot better when Olsson comes back in. I know people are a bit split on him but he's a lot better than anything else we have there. I think if Mulumbu was fit he'd have played as would have Redmond. 

There were more pros than cons today. Just have to that new striker can finish.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Defence will be a lot better when Olsson comes back in. I know people are a bit split on him but he's a lot better than anything else we have there. I think if Mulumbu was fit he'd have played as would have Redmond. 

There were more pros than cons today. Just have to that new striker can finish.

Surprised anyone doubts Olsson. In our last Premier League season he was our best player by a country mile IMO

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Was the decision to start with Grabban a tactical decision or was Jerome carrying an injury or something? Looked perfectly capable to me. I dont understand why you would ever start with Grabban over Jerome. Dont rate Grabban at all, not good enough for this level IMO, and a lot of the time wasnt clinical enough for the Championship last season. I keep hearing about his movement, but Jerome for me offers so much more. I havent seen the Grabban miss so I cannot comment, but Grabban doesnt take enough of his chances to be a good enough striker at this level for me. Jerome however has proven himself all of last season and doesnt look to have gone off the boil based on today or pre-season

 

[KeiranShikari]

Grabban looked pretty good to me, other than the chance. We all know that Jerome has been carrying a knock but I think this was tactical, Neil clearly rates Lewis.

Will be interesting to see which one starts next week, I mean Jerome did just score a cracking goal.

 

[The Great Mass Debater]

Grabban looked pretty good to me, other than the chance. We all know that Jerome has been carrying a knock but I think this was tactical, Neil clearly rates Lewis.

Will be interesting to see which one starts next week, I mean Jerome did just score a cracking goal.

Mbokani by the sounds of that quote from McNally

 

[Canaryboy]

Grabban just isn't a clinical striker, but we already knew that. 

Its that Martin-Whittaker partnership that I'm worried about. 

Wisdom replaces Whittaker, single most important signing for me is a quality centre back. If we have to spend our entire budget on somebody quality and go with what we have up front then I'd say do it. 

 

[KeiranShikari]

I have a pretty bad feeling we're not going to bring in another central defender. 

 

[dj161]

makes you wonder, number 9 being left blank certainly says we want a striker, but with Bassong 6 and Martin 5 given those numbers, its like we'll get a center back if one comes up but its not essential, after watching the way defended crosses and set pieces today, i'd say its much more important to bring one in than a center back, I feel that Grabban, Hooper, Jerome and RvW between them can get the goals needed to keep us up, not so sure about keeping them out at the other end though

 

[splutcho]

Just home. I've mellowed with the drive. We weren't awful, but I felt with our defence and their pace there was a touch of inevitability about today and so it was. I don't think we're going to be upgrading which is the worry. I really disagreed with Redmond and Jerome starting on the bench and I still have big worries about Johnson and Grabban starting for us in the PL, but hey, nobody said it would be easy and I enjoyed today. I think we're going to go down barring some very good signings in the next 3 weeks, but it'll be fun!

 

[Killiecanary]

my main concern today would be the lack of cover we had for our full backs, johnson seemed to offer brady no support on that side, and i dont even no if it was howson or dorrans that was supposed to playing on the right of midfield, it seemed that dorrans, howson and johnson just ran about wherever they wanted and just left the full backs to attack and defend the flanks by themselves

absolutely how I saw it dj...Bradley played almost the whole match as a central midfielder (and looked badly shown up there might I add!) and gave Brady no defensive support at all...but much worse for our shape was the fact that the only outlet on the left therefore was Brady, which to be fair he tried hard to offer...but with him at LB in a flat back four that left us very exposed defensively if he loses the ball.  Of course that limited his forward movement so we essentially played nothing really down the left hand side.  Some conclusions for me are

i don't  for one minute believe that we forked out 7million for Brady to play left  back - as soon as Olsson is fit again I am certain he will play left midfield.

we cant play BJ on the left of midfield (in fact I don't think he is good enough to play in this league at all, much as I love him)

we can't have a midfield 5 without Redmond, as it just lacks natural width and means we go through the middle all the time

Otherwise I was not too unhappy...I always thought AN would start with Grabban as he obviously feels he is the best striker we have for playing on his own.  I thought Brady looked tidy, Wes had a good second half and our passing and movement were very decent.  But we must take those chances and can't gift daft goals...which I suspect we all knew already!

 

[Killiecanary]

Forgot to ask, was I the only one hugely impressed by Zaha?  I though his skills at times were lovely to watch.  

 

[splutcho]

Oh I forgot to add, I thought Wes was our man of the match.

 

[dj161]

Forgot to ask, was I the only one hugely impressed by Zaha?  I though his skills at times were lovely to watch.  

He's a talented lad for sure, got some great skills, im not shocked he didn't make it a Man Utd as its a huge step up, it just surprised me that he was never given the chance to prove himself there before being sent back to palace

 

[Boyerboy]

Grabban looked pretty good to me, other than the chance. We all know that Jerome has been carrying a knock but I think this was tactical, Neil clearly rates Lewis.

Will be interesting to see which one starts next week, I mean Jerome did just score a cracking goal.

I enjoy your posts and usually agree with you but I am mystified by this one.  If Ricky had done what Grabban did in the first half the he would have been run out of town.  He was slow to react: often literally a bystander just standing and watching play around him and his first touch was woeful with him conceding possession as the ball cannoned away from him,   He is hardly any stronger and was easily pushed off the ball.   The game was crying out for Jerome's stronger approach and the difference was evident when he came on.

 

[splutcho]

I enjoy your posts and usually agree with you but I am mystified by this one.  If Ricky had done what Grabban did in the first half the he would have been run out of town.  He was slow to react: often literally a bystander just standing and watching play around him and his first touch was woeful with him conceding possession as the ball cannoned away from him,   He is hardly any stronger and was easily pushed off the ball.   The game was crying out for Jerome's stronger approach and the difference was evident when he came on.

Would agree with Boyerboy here. Grabban was a total passenger.