Norwich (a) post-match thread

[yerwot?]

It was de vinci's helicopter not van gogh's. Stop getting your artists wrong ;)

See , goes to prove my point, if leonardo and vincent dont know a chopper from a whopper ????

 

[alexmcity]

I don't and never would think that I could out football Pep, but I do think yesterday and for the Bournmouth match he got it slightly wrong . At Bournemouth he went with Gundog and without a central defensive midfielder, neither Ferdi or Rodri, We saw that one through and looked comfy after an hour when the brought Rodri on. But yesterday the damage had been done before Gundog went and Kev came on. Pep does seem to have a soft spot for Gundog, but I am one that thinks, put out your best eleven.

It's not always possible to do so as rotation is necessary. Otherwise, we will run our star players in the ground and those on the bench will want to leave to get more playing time elsewhere. Besides, rotation worked to great effect in the last two seasons barring an accidental defeat here and there. 32 wins from 38 games two seasons in a row means Pep's decision making has been spot on.

 

[alexmcity]

After the Newcastle game which was mirrored yesterday I think Pep read them the riot act as the run we went in was unreal, as long as we are within 2 points of Liverpool when we play them I’ll be happy beat them and then we will carry on the momentum.

In April 2020. Let's hope it won't be necessary to beat them already in November.

 

[chesterbells]

It's too early to be calling for change but the whole team needs to pick it up quickly and give this CB pairing chance to bed back in.

Ota was arguably the best performing CB in the league two season back and, IMO, too many have a fixed and incorrect view of Stones. Yesterday Stones only lost one duel out of the tackles and duels he was involved in.

Stones needs a run of games and they need a run of games as a pair.

Ota has to get back into playing on the left. The thing with Ota is that he takes some risks and so he will have moments, like he did on the second goal; however the worst error there, in a series of failures, was Walker playing them onside. The mistake for the third though is something that absolutely should not happen; especially when it's clear that Stones is telling Ota to get the ball back to Eddie.

Ota's pass to Stones that nearly led to us gifting them a goal just before that is also something that he has to be taking more care over and is addressable. Let's not get too negative though on that score: Ota and then Stones had the best pass completion of all bar one of our outfield players yesterday (Gundo had 100% pass completion).

A measured, balanced, yet positive post. Nice.

 

[OB1]

Did you even watch that game?

There were a number of occasions where they were straight at our back four after a sequence of passes.

Norwich’s second goal is everything to do with the press. The fact Rodri gets turned in Norwich’s half and there is zero cover for him kind of shows that.

There was cover for Rodri but two players made errors and consecutive errors can be a killer; the fact is we don't make consecutive errors like that often.

Far more often than not we prevented Norwich from getting at us playing out from the back. There was one notable occasion when they had advanced reasonably deep into our half and we then pushed them all the way back to their keeper.

Our team so far this season still averages the fewest shots allowed by their opponents. Norwich did manage to make one shot more than that average. (I think City made 5 shots more than average). 54% of the game, IIRC from an earlier post I made, was played in Norwich's final third and 10% in City's. The average position of all but one of Norwich's players was in their own half and the one that wasn't was barely over half way; the converse was true of City. We also had almost 70% possession.

Undoubtedly, we conceded too easily yesterday and didn't do enough to breakdown their massed ranks but this game was basically played in Norwich's half.

 

[OB1]

A measured, balanced, yet positive post. Nice.

:-)

 

[Blue Maverick]

In April 2020. Let's hope it won't be necessary to beat them already in November.

No but if we are 8 points behind in November it’s all about momentum’s going into December and the Xmas period, Liverpool have a lot of games in December which we need to capitalise on, I still think we will win by 6/7 points because they are two injuries from falling away no way they can have an injury free season like last year.

 

[OB1]

Good post, what was worrying for me with stones and Oto was there awareness around them but that game will hopefully be a wake up call.

It has to be a wake-up call and I'm certain Pep will be all over the analysis of it and addressing key errors with his players.

It is "Typical City" though to go straight into having a game that plays into the hands of those that expect Laporte's absence to be a big problem.

 

[alexmcity]

No but if we are 8 points behind in November it’s all about momentum’s going into December and the Xmas period, Liverpool have a lot of games in December which we need to capitalise on, I still think we will win by 6/7 points because they are two injuries from falling away no way they can have an injury free season like last year.

Dunno about injuries, their star players played much more minutes than ours last season and avoided any serious injuries.This season will show whether it was about luck or they are for some reason just fitter.

 

[SWP's back]

84 pages and not one mention of VAR

That’s because it ignored a good penalty shout against Stones.

If that happens on Wednesday then it’s a penalty due to the different interpretation in Europe.