Ratings & Reactions: Norwich v Villa

[Skills]

5 hours ago, hippo said:

I just gave up when he brought Hogan on ...to make it worse kjodia was an option.  and then for 20 minutes of the 2nd half we were walking with the ball ?  - Very worried after tonight.

hogan was the right sub to make at 1 - 0 up...   however Hogan's performance was utter tripe

thought El Ghazi coming on for Adomah was the right choice as well after Bolasie effort on Saturday... but he was just as bad as Hogan

hindsight is a wonderful thing

[Ponky]

By the sounds of it, sacking the fitness coach in the off season was not the brightest move. 

[TheMelvillan]

Both goals preventable. Nyland then chessie could have done better. Norwich are a pleasure to watch though and deserved to win. The pundits were singing villa praises at half time which I couldn't understand they were confident second best and lucky to be winning.

El ghazi was compared to Ronaldo when we bought him. I can only assume they meant the Brazilian one - in his current condition

[Biskitt]

One thing I noticed in the second half in particular was how much more confident (technically) Norwich were to us when under pressure of the press. They just seemed so much better at manoeuvring the ball into space or giving a quick 1-2 whereas we seemed to panic.

There were a couple of occasions when we managed to put some decent passing combinations together but in order for Smiths system to work, we’re going to need more technically adept players 

[AVFCDAN]

We lost away to the inform team in the league, so you have to put some perspective on this.

We do worryingly look like a midtable championship team who could potentially beat anyone or lose to anyone though, struggling to see where the consistency of winning 2 out of every 3 games in going to come from. we're just not good enough.

 

[KenjiOgiwara]

For the first time in years it feels like I'm watching a football team. While we lost, we actually tried to play football. But it was easy to see that after Norwich got 2-1 we panicked back into the old Bruceball. 

Our wing play is awful unfortunately. Grealish needs to move the ball quicker. Nyland was dogshit. 

That's all I got out of 90 minutes. 

[AVFCDAN]

4 minutes ago, Biskitt said:

One thing I noticed in the second half in particular was how much more confident (technically) Norwich were to us when under pressure of the press. They just seemed so much better at manoeuvring the ball into space or giving a quick 1-2 whereas we seemed to panic.

That's what 2 years of Bruce football gets you. Apart from Grealish when was the last time we had any players in our team genuinely comfortable on the ball and willing to play out of trouble instead of going for the easy hoof up field. I'm hoping that's where Dean can help improve us.

[romavillan]

11 minutes ago, Biskitt said:

One thing I noticed in the second half in particular was how much more confident (technically) Norwich were to us when under pressure of the press. They just seemed so much better at manoeuvring the ball into space or giving a quick 1-2 whereas we seemed to panic.

There were a couple of occasions when we managed to put some decent passing combinations together but in order for Smiths system to work, we’re going to need more technically adept players 

They've been working on it for a couple of years, we've been working on it for a few days.

[wilko154]

4 hours ago, Skills said:

hogan was the right sub to make at 1 - 0 up...   however Hogan's performance was utter tripe

thought El Ghazi coming on for Adomah was the right choice as well after Bolasie effort on Saturday... but he was just as bad as Hogan

hindsight is a wonderful thing

I don't agree with that.

At this point of the game Norwich were on top and we were struggling with possesion, Abraham was working to hold the ball up when we knocked it long with varied success. Bringing on Kodjia in this situation would have meant the ball could continue to be held up and would have given them something to think about. Instead we brought on Hogan who is never going to hold up a ball and can't control a pass to save his life, it added to the pressure Norwich built on us.

In the right game bringing Hogan on will help us, but in a game like last night it hindered us. When we are on top, holding onto possesion and able to slide passes through the lines he will be very important to us.

[Raver50032]

Norwich, in form, against a Villa side that is yet to really find it's feet this season.

Disappointed with the defeat, certainly. But not surprised. Despite the new manager saying we need to work better with ball retention, some of our passing was poor and numerous times we seemed to get caught in possession or bundled off the ball and turned over. There is a lot of work needed with this squad, so although the 'honeymoon period' is over, Smith will get my patience. All the usual stuff about 'not his players,' 'not been with the squad long enough because of international break,' 'not had a pre-season' and 'not had a transfer window' all apply. It's pointless losing your rag at the manager or the team for this performance. We are what we are.

Small time chanting from the Norwich fans amused me - '1-0 and you fVVcked it up...' Really? Lol at you. Just lol.

Long way to go, but as is, we are nowhere near as good as we think we might be. All the early willy-waving 'promotion is still our target' I hope won't come back and bite smith on the buttocks.

Grealish MotM for that one long looping pass he did towards the end of the first half alone.

Ref, dismal for not treating Abraham's injury with more respect. Even Farke seemed to think it was a triviality.

[TRO]

Too many luxury players.

when we are good, we are very good, when we are bad we are awful.

You have to be up for the fight in this league, I fancy we have too many who are not.....whether that is a fitness issue, I'm not sure, but there again our players in the main are c 30 or 19/20.....They are either getting on or inexperienced.....there are few middle ground age group.

for sure, we have some talented players, but until that talent can be harnessed in to a functioning unit (and not a bunch of individuals looking for a man, like looking for a taxi in Trafalgar square on Saturday night) we are going to struggle.

This is a very unforgiving league and teams like Blues are well aware of it.

I don't know what the problem is, but we struggle to make anything of a second half.....Individual errors still haunt us and they can be energy sapping too. Tammy aside we threaten nothing in the opposing box our work there is very sketchy and unconvincing.....our wingers are tentative and lack confidence.

He has a lot of work to do....and I suspect looking at league tables after every match will only serve to frustrate us.

Edited October 24, 2018 by TRO

[TOTTI-THE-GOD]

Managed to watch most of the first half and thought we were good for the lead, didn't think Norwich caused us a great deal of trouble and thought even with all their possession Nyland had the odd catch to make but that was about it.

Went to pick my daughter up from swimming only to find it was now 1-1 and we'd had 2 players go off injured, gutted.

I think we need a hell of a lot of work on the training field , it's not just fitness it's also the way we use the ball . Sounded like Grealish set piece delivery was crap but with Mcginn suspended and Hourahane taken off we had no one else.

End of the day we're only 2 days away from having the chance to put it right so fingers crossed we can.

[Raver50032]

1 hour ago, TOTTI-THE-GOD said:

 

End of the day we're only 2 days away from having the chance to put it right so fingers crossed we can.

Whilst that is true - I have concerns that QPR just had a decent win and we'll be going there in need of a 'pick me up' performance and result. Struggling to see where it will change a the moment with such a quick-fire rash of games.

[Robtaylor200]

I was on lates and couldn't watch. read all the reports

seems like changes are happening to style of play. just hope it comes quicker

If Deano can do it with Brentford, he can do it with this squad

[choffer]

I was watching with friends over from Canada. Wasn't the best advert for the sport. 

On 70 minutes, I said to them "this is about the time of the match where we really c0ck it up". They now think I'm some sort of nostradamus.

[sne]

Pretty even game.

Our downfall was that we had the 3 standout worst players on the pitch in Nyland, Hutton and Taylor.

 

[alreadyexists]

Thought we played some nice football, and these things take time.

Would I have preferred us to win ugly? Yeah, I suppose I would. But with this loss we see promise of a bright style of play and a better future... so I think we’ll just have to take our medicine and wait to get better.

Edited October 24, 2018 by alreadyexists

[TheStagMan]

10 hours ago, Ponky said:

By the sounds of it, sacking the fitness coach in the off season was not the brightest move. 

Or entirely the right one........

[flashingqwerty]

On 23/10/2018 at 22:08, terrytini said:

No, just an observation.

Actually I don’t think we are as bad as you do, I don’t think we will stumble through, but regardless, he still has to have a plan for when his main plan stops working.

Do you honestly think 10 days is enough to drill 2 new methods of play into a squad of players? 

For him to have clearly gotten one into them is a massive achievement, as the way we played first half was clearly better than under Bruce.

Plan b will come in time, but lets get plan a working first, eh?

[terrytini]

4 hours ago, flashingqwerty said:

Do you honestly think 10 days is enough to drill 2 new methods of play into a squad of players? 

For him to have clearly gotten one into them is a massive achievement, as the way we played first half was clearly better than under Bruce.

Plan b will come in time, but lets get plan a working first, eh?

It’s an observation of what will be needed.

Its just plain daft how people on here see everything as either an attack or a defence.