v Norwich City (h) - 24/02/2024

[Bbrovers2288]

Not too disappointed with a point but we are going to need to churn out a few wins to get us from looking nervously over our shoulder 

[AllRoverAsia]

Just now, yankfan said:

Can’t help but feel the pendulum has swung too far in the conservative direction since JDT left. Lots of balls hoofed forward in the direction of the front three. Midfield playing negative. 
 

if this is our style for next year we should sell Sammy in the summer. The style doesn’t suit him and his value will drop the longer he plays in it. 

It doesn't suit Sammy or Tronstad and makes Dolan and Siggy look more useless than they really are. It doesn't do Moran any favours either.

[B16Rover]

Only as a provoking question 

 

Does jdt do better or worse with the more full strength team JE has 

[Inferi]

The squad has been so weaked by poor recruitment (and getting rid of our best player). Now we definitely look like a relegation outfit, seemingly content with trying to get a draw against any opponent. Aimlessly hoofing it forward and praying. Head coach scared of rotating the squad because the bench is terrible, which leads to exhausted players and maybe increased injury risk. January 1 we were 10 points clear of relegation and now it's 4 points. 

[superniko]

3 points from 4 games now under the new manager. 
I’m told we’re allegedly ‘moving in the right direction, towards mid-table’ - despite simple maths telling us that’s nonsense. 

The next 3 games are huge. Can’t barely see us getting a point after them. 

[martonrover]

2 minutes ago, superniko said:

3 points from 4 games now under the new manager. 
I’m told we’re allegedly ‘moving in the right direction, towards mid-table’ - despite simple maths telling us that’s nonsense. 

The next 3 games are huge. Can’t barely see us getting a point after them. 

Well I had us down as losing at Preston and again today, so you never know.

I think both were good results, but we definitely need to be beating the likes of Millwall and Plymouth at home.

[Groundhog]

14 minutes ago, yankfan said:

Can’t help but feel the pendulum has swung too far in the conservative direction since JDT left. Lots of balls hoofed forward in the direction of the front three. Midfield playing negative. 
 

if this is our style for next year we should sell Sammy in the summer. The style doesn’t suit him and his value will drop the longer he plays in it. 

We weren't scoring when we were trying to pass through the middle either, so f*** knows what we are to do. Just got to get hard to beat and keep working on it. 

[Torgeir]

1-1 a fair result. 'Of course' they score a fantastic freekick against us... 

 

Thought we adjusted well in the second half, and we're a lot more solid now. Great goal by Hyam but he gets found out 1vs1 defensively. At least we have good cover now with three at the back, even though it's a difficult task for our central midfielders. That's why we can't control games... In this system it would be great if we could have one of either McFadz or Hyam to slot into the anchor role when we're on the ball, but neither are good enough for that role. 

Hope we can nick a win here and there to not put too much pressure on the fixtures that stick out.

[SIMON GARNERS 194]

2 hours ago, joey_big_nose said:

Seems very very sparse in Ewood today. I haven't been in since JDT went, seems a lot less?

12,956...lowest crowd by a country mile in the Championship.

[NeilInBristol]

7 minutes ago, superniko said:

3 points from 4 games now under the new manager. 
I’m told we’re allegedly ‘moving in the right direction, towards mid-table’ - despite simple maths telling us that’s nonsense. 

The next 3 games are huge. Can’t barely see us getting a point after them. 

the table after the qpr game(JDTs last game) and below is the table currently, we were 5 points off 22nd now we are 4 points from 22nd...

11 minutes ago, B16Rover said:

Only as a provoking question 

Does jdt do better or worse with the more full strength team JE has 

[Torgeir]

2 minutes ago, Groundhog said:

We weren't scoring when we were trying to pass through the middle either, so f*** knows what we are to do. Just got to get hard to beat and keep working on it. 

We don't have an outlet any longer like we did in Arma, Khadra and Brereton. 

On another note I thought the ref today was soft as... 

[Bronzed A Donis]

We have very little.quality , awful game, but we reduced them to nothing too. The grind to 50 continues

[Torgeir]

3 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

12,956...lowest crowd by a country mile in the Championship.

Waggott out

[NeilInBristol]

3 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

12,956...lowest crowd by a country mile in the Championship.

tbf after tues i won't be rushing to watch us play live again, that was shocking. im sure many fans are turned off too, today was a bit better but a lot of lump it forward and hope gally gets on the end. at least corners have improved slightly but its not entertaining to watch overall 

[superniko]

5 minutes ago, NeilInBristol said:

the table after the qpr game(JDTs last game) and below is the table currently, we were 5 points off 22nd now we are 4 points from 22nd...

And with a game in hand 

[Bronzed A Donis]

1 minute ago, NeilInBristol said:

tbf after tues i won't be rushing to watch us play live again, that was shocking. im sure many fans are turned off too, today was a bit better but a lot of lump it forward and hope gally gets on the end. at least corners have improved slightly but its not entertaining to watch overall 

We need to stay up, but.yes I agree, it's incredible how much we offer going forward, 

[yankfan]

20 minutes ago, AllRoverAsia said:

It doesn't suit Sammy or Tronstad and makes Dolan and Siggy look more useless than they really are. It doesn't do Moran any favours either.

Moran does himself no favors. Thought Buckley was better than him and that includes the foul for their goal. Moran wouldn’t have fouled him only because he wouldn’t have attempted to get in a tackle 

[WacoRover]

32 minutes ago, SIMON GARNERS 194 said:

A point is better than nowt but will it be enough in the long run?

Hit a bad run of results and we are really in the Brown stuff.

Not enough, but we’ve got some good chances to get some wins in March. 
I admit I was content to see a point today. 

[Bethnal]

30 minutes ago, B16Rover said:

Only as a provoking question 

 

Does jdt do better or worse with the more full strength team JE has 

 

[Penwortham Blue]

Given our atrocious record, once going behind, and capacity for shipping more late goals than any other team, I suppose we have to be thankful for the point. 
 

Just noticed Ipswich yet again scored two very late goals to grab the points. I made the point to my Tractor Boy pal that very late goals augur well and by contrast, really can’t remember the last time we managed a late goal, probably Hedges at Huddersfield last season. Last at the death winner I can readily recall was Lenihan at Forest but surely it can’t be that far back 🤷‍♂️ 

[Miller11]

A point against a team bang in form is a decent one. Their forwards were a real handful and although it wasn’t always convincing we dealt with their threat pretty well.

Eustace has inherited a mess and the idea that we’d be footballing our way up the table under Tomasson if he’d stayed is ridiculous. For the first time in a long time we upped our performance in the second half today, and we’ve actually taken a point from a losing position. 

Grinding out enough points to stay up is the only objective. Pretty happy today.

That ref must have been deliberately cheating. I can’t believe he was that incompetent. 

There is no misfortune too vile or horrible that I wouldn’t wish on Ashley Barnes.

[arbitro]

First point I have to makes how inept the referee was. I thought he didn't look interested in the game and lots of decisions both ways were afterthoughts. He just didn't have any empathy with the game and his attitude was questionable, almost like he didn't want to be there. From my view it was a relatively easy match to referee but he made really hard work of it.

I enjoyed today's game and I thought we played more football today than we have in the previous three. It was always going to be difficult against an in from footballing team but I'm pleased we had a go at them particularly after going one down. You could make a strong case for the Norwich keeper being their best player and the number of chances we created was impressive. Lots of good performances today but probably most pleasing was Buckley. Hopefully he has got over his issues and will be the player most of us know he can be. We were quite solid defensively but susceptible to balls in behind given our lack of pace but Pears read the situations well and came out quickly. Norwich have some really talented players so I think today is a decent point and given a bit of luck it could have been three.

for me it was the best performance of the new managers shirt reign as we mixed up the way we played, absolutely the right thing to do in my opinion.

[rovers11]

Very important point today. I thought we'd get thrashed so it's promising that we came back to rescue a point. We'd have gone on to lose that 2 or 3 nil under JDT.

I thought QPR and Sheff W would win today. I did not expect Hudds, Millwall, and Swansea to win though. 

It feels like a tough feat for Sheff W to overturn a 7 point gap and an inferior goal difference against us. Stoke feel like the onea who will be in the final relegation place as things stand. I think we'll grind out enough points but it won't be pretty or comfortable.

Eustace has done well so far to make us much harder to beat and score against. The style of play is awful but needs must at the moment. 

Edited February 24 by rovers11

[arbitro]

First point I have to makes how inept the referee was. I thought he didn't look interested in the game and lots of decisions both ways were afterthoughts. He just didn't have any empathy with the game and his attitude was questionable, almost like he didn't want to be there. From my view it was a relatively easy match to referee but he made really hard work of it.

I enjoyed today's game and I thought we played more football today than we have in the previous three. It was always going to be difficult against an in from footballing team but I'm pleased we had a go at them particularly after going one down. You could make a strong case for the Norwich keeper being their best player and the number of chances we created was impressive. Lots of good performances today but probably most pleasing was Buckley. Hopefully he has got over his issues and will be the player most of us know he can be. We were quite solid defensively but susceptible to balls in behind given our lack of pace but Pears read the situations well and came out quickly. Norwich have some really talented players so I think today is a decent point and given a bit of luck it could have been three.

for me it was the best performance of the new managers shirt reign as we mixed up the way we played, absolutely the right thing to do in my opinion.

[roversfan99]

Not a good watch and a fairly drab game, a point is not something we should be settling for at home so happily, wasting time delaying throw ins, and I dont agree with Eustace that it was a very good performance. Though saying that, a point is better than nothing albeit it is 2 points less than basically all of our rivals so not a good day.

I understand if the intention is to solidify and go from there, but we were far from solid today. Norwich had a field day in getting balls in behind in particular McFadzean whose lack of pace really caused us issues today. Sargent wasted numerous chances one on one and we got fortunate. Also, just blindly punting the ball forward is not sustainable, we didnt really carry a threat ourselves, Gallagher went close twice but Dolan and Szmodics were ineffective. The latter is being smothered by these tactics. McFadzean again is guilty of aimless punts more than anyone.

Its early days and there has been minimal training ground time, as he keeps saying contrary to the no excuse culture he keeps banging on about. But we hopefully will try and actually at least play a bit of football amidst the hoofing, and we still have work to do to solidify. McFadzean is a conundrum, reads the game well and excellent when we are deep and backs to the wall, but so slow and limited on the ball.

Pickerings return (replacing Hedges who seems to have been flogged a bit too much) was a big plus. One of few players we have who can do things with one or two touches and fantastic corner.