Ratings and Reactions: Norwich v Villa

[The Fun Factory]

Well I am glad nobody is overreacting.  That said it is remarkable just how goal shy we have been this season given the amount of decent championship standard forwards we have.

On to the next one. At least our home form  is decent, or we would be in the shit.

[darrenm]

It was very bad but I think you can give Norwich a lot of credit for making the most of our limitations.

They stayed very deep and allowed no space to run in behind but also pressed high up the pitch because they could afford to go light in midfield. Every time we got the ball there were 3 Norwich players on them harassing. We didn't work anywhere near as hard so their players had more time.

Tactics weren't right at all. Bruce should be able to do better than this. He's had enough time to figure out that Gabby is ineffective and Hutton does nothing.

Hope Tony's on the phone already wanting to know what he's doing to fix it.

[DJ_Villain]

Need to petition to the club to stop letting our games being shown on Sky...

Got to be something about the cameras because we ALWAYS play poorly

[Harry]

Dreadful performance just like Saturday only this time we lost.

[osmark86]

Anyone can see we need a proper midfield. If we get that in january I still have my hopes up. Bruce got it wrong today, but overall he's been the real deal. Just no more Huttinho or Shabby please.

[Chicken Field]

Norwich were incredibly poor, one of the worst performances I've seen by a team ever, not one of their players played particularly well, but they still performed 15x better than us. AWFUL selections by the manager and how he waited so long to make substitutions is beyond me. awful, the worst performance I've seen for years (luckily missed the liverpool match last season).

[briny_ear]

2 minutes ago, darrenm said:

Hope Tony's on the phone already wanting to know what he's doing to fix it.

Let's absolutely hope he's not. The last time Tony tried to pretend he was in charge of the football side of things he appointed RDM apparently because he had an MBA, and we all know what came of that.

[peterms]

2 minutes ago, The Fun Factory said:

Well I am glad nobody is overreacting. 

Thing is, it's cumulative.  There have been so many dire, dreadful performances over the last five years, so many seasons of transition, so many bright new dawns that turn out to be Groundhog Day, with promises about "bright new fufure" and (laughably) "top six in the world", that people are fed up. 

It's not impatience, nor unrealistic expectations, nor a sense of undue entitlement.  It's being rightly exasperated with a shower of shit served up in return for quite a lot of money forked out.

I'd say the reaction has been overly forgiving, if anything.

[The Fun Factory]

37 minutes ago, ermie123 said:

Kodga needs dropping as he does nothing,

Apart from being our top scorer- about a third of the goals scored his season are by him. Not score dropping him is going to help. Badly need a box to box midfielder in January- but have been saying this every year since Milner left.

[dounavilla]

9 minutes ago, DJ_Villain said:

Need to petition to the club to stop letting our games being shown on Sky...

Got to be something about the cameras because we ALWAYS play poorly

Yes Away know on TV lucky our next is is not on ......oh

well at least we have a 3rd round tie to look for... oh

[BigAl]

Awful performance and certainly the worst since Bruce arrived our retention of the  ball was awful we have so many players who don't look comfortable on the ball and we have players such as Ayew and Kodjia who just play as individuals and run down cut de sacs ,it's hard to understand how our  front men are so isolated when they do get a touch how do we never have players up in support ,it's really worrying there us such a lack of creativity think we need to change it up fir Sunday Bacuna /McCormack and Adomah need to start I trust Bruce he has a track record of getting teams promoted and we have been decent results wise since he came in but the last 3/4 performances have been poor we need to be much better if we have a chance of promotion .

[The Fun Factory]

Or you could say we have been largely getting wins or picking up points under Bruce even though we have not clicked yet.  We are at least hard to beat but we need to be creating more and scoring more.  The away form is a worry though. It is going to take time to turn this mess around and getting on the players back already is not the way forward.

I reckon we will win on Saturday as a reaction from tonight. The Championship is so up and down we just need to be patient and hope that we are still in mid table area by January before we can bring in a  few additions.

[vreitti]

Well that was pretty pathetic, and I'm not surprised given we have useless turds like Gabby and Ayew starting. Bruce got it all wrong, and sadly I don't think he knows it. 

People complaining about Elphick and Hutton is utterly baffling. They're not good enough, I think we can all agree, but they weren't the problem today. In fact the whole defense did fine. 

Problem lies first and foremost in attack. All our forward player only seem interested in dribbling and trying to beat one too many of the opposition. They're simply not playing as a team. There's almost no interchange between our forwards. 

An altogether different problem is a total lack of drive in midfield. We just seem to bypass the entire midfield every single time, just lumping it up field, hoping one of our more creative players come up with something.

Really depressing stuff. This one's solely on Bruce. He needs to come up with a proper game plan, if we're to have any chance. We undoubtedly have concerns, but we also have one of the most expensive sides in this division. No more excuses.

[Kingman]

One of the worst cases of vaginal dryness I've ever seen!.. 

[Derryvillan]

NO pass and move.Not moving to receive from a throw in.Go two at a time to tackle someone leaving another opposition player free.Stand and watch after losing possession.Huttons flicks up the sideline to no one.

Same shite for the last 5 or so seasons.

 

[Derryvillan]

Oh and Ayew and Kodjia need a good fanny slapping for pissing about with the ball.

[rjw63]

46 minutes ago, Lerner's Driver said:

'Atew' MoM only because he doesn't exist and didn't play.

The most disappointing thing about that was the familiar inevitability of it all, we looked just as hopeless as last year.

No fluidity, loose passing, totally outplayed and beaten by a team on a shit run. Major surgery STILL needed. So bloody depressing.

"Anavi" says hi

Keenan must have typed up the MOTM section

[Mat Kendrick's Dentist]

Extremely poor performance. Moved the ball far too slowly, and had neither someone in midfield to build the play, nor someone up top to make it stick. Part of why we create so little is because of our midfielders' inability to play a penetrating pass. Our full-backs give it to our wingers who have their backs to goal and it all to do. We need CMs who can pass between the lines and get our talented players baring down on the opposition's defense.

Gollini 5: Spilled one effort poorly (though did save the follow-up), and showed no anticipation for Oliveira's weakly-struck winner. Distribution not great.

Hutton 3: Par for the course for such a shambolic player. A black hole when it comes to possession and unable to defend.

Amavi 7: Some naive moments, but another good performance, and again our MOTM.

Chester 4: Poor positional sense as always. Badly caught out for Brady and Murphy chances, which Norwich should have capitalized on.

Elphick 4: Poor player. Slow, cumbersome, awful on the ball, and lacking in judgment. Get well soon Nathan.

Jedinak 5: Can't play any passes between the lines, meaning that our build-up is slow and predictable. Good defensively if he has 2 CMs alongside him, but that detracts from our attack even more.

Westwood 4: Poor player who is also culpable when it comes to our ponderous build-up. 2 new CMs are the priority in January.

Ayew 6: Getting slaughtered but he did more than most defensively at least. Have some sympathy for him as he only ever seems to get the ball from the full-back, with his back to goal around the halfway line. Needs to be fed in better areas.

Kodjia 5: Got little service, but did poorly with what he did get. Deserves some slack for a rare off-day.

Grealish 6: Not a great day at the office but at least tried to get on the ball and look for a pass.

Agbonlahor 4: Hard to make any case for him to be starting games for us these days.

Adomah 6: Hopefully not off to AFCON.

McCormack 6: Lively and should have started ahead of Gabby (Kodjia up front).

Gestede 6: At least gave us something to hit.

Bruce 4: Has done a good job, and won't need telling that this wasn't good enough. GK, RB, CB, CMx2 in January please, Steve.

 

[Chewie]

12 minutes ago, vreitti said:

-Snip-

Problem lies first and foremost in attack. All our forward player only seem interested in dribbling and trying to beat one too many of the opposition. They're simply not playing as a team. There's almost no interchange between our forwards. 

-Snip-

Yet we have a creative attacking player in McCormack who can only get on the pitch for 25 minutes, incredibly frustrating. 

It's been a while since I've busted this out, but sums up the performance quite aptly...

 

[maqroll]

1 hour ago, jim said:

Elphick needs to be dropped if Baker is available.

No way, he's the only flair player we have.