FAO sheffieldcanary - yesterday you accused me of being over-reactionary and I have to

admit to being wound up by others on here in the past on the very thing you accused me of. So I just want to put my reaction into context and look at the pros and cons of the current situation.

Board - I have no real beef with the board and believe they have made sufficient funds for wages and transfers avaialble for a league 1 promotion campaign. I do however question both their football and business acumen in a) choosing managers and b) some of the off field deals that look a bit suspect, but I have insufficient knowledge to hold it against them (carpark land, hotel etc)

I do like the fact that they seem to have appointed a good football man in Mcchief and a chairman with a history of success in business who has been a critic of the current regime in the past, and someone who will stand up to Delia and Michael if dubious decisions are being made.

Gunn and co - The positives:

1. He started off well barnsley at home and then wolves away but never really built on that momentum.

2. Quick action in pre season, bringing players in early giving them time to gel

3. Bringing in Crook and Butterworth both should compliment each others defensive and offensive coaching methods and their obvious ties with the club

negatives:

1. Reading, Charlton and Colchester - 3 of the worst most degrading Norwich city performances, in the context of each game, in the 23 years I have supported the club.

2. Gunn has imo very bad media skills, an extreme lack of charisma and doesn't make me feel like I'm watching an authoratitive management figure when being interviewed or on the touch line. I have yet to meet a neutral who hasn't commented on Gunn being a wet blanket and totally out of his depth.

3. So far he has proven to be very tatically naive, both in preparation of and during the game, again in reference to line up and strange substitutions in recent competitive games.

Colchester being the worst example, it took him an hour to decide to change things and even then I'm not sure giving a 17 year old his debut being 5-0 down was the best idea. The formation wasn't working and 3 strikers up front was required, with 2 to play off Holt and make a real effort to at least getting back a bit of pride

4. Everyone harped on about Roeder's discipline alienating players and leaving them out in the cold. Yet Gunn has done this too in particular Rusty and Patty, the latter being frozen out with or without good reason last season, where he could have helped keep us up. Obviously what goes on behind the scenes is all rumours and interpretation but the image I'm getting is that Gunn does not have the man management skills to get the respect of his players.

09-10 Team -

We rightly so gave Gunn respite of criticsm post relegation due to a squad he inherited. We are only 1 game in but a 7-1 drubbing and it was a drubbing, not only goal wise but performance wise, has made us all question things, surely after Saturday it would be wrong not to question things?

I suggested playing a 451/433 formation (the same formation that earnt us a pre season victory against Wigan) you scoffed at this as being ridiculous. I understand you believe that changing things will have an averse effect however can things be any worse than Saturday's performance?

If we compare like for like of the same team you'd like to keep and the one I suggested

Theo - The worst performance ever by a ncfc keeper
vs
Rudd - Some game time for a young highly rated keeper in the league cup

Semi - Has proved last season in particular Charlton away and on Saturday that he's a liability of the highest order, that's a fact and there's no denying this.
vs
Spillane - Let's see if the competition can be an improvement

Drury - You said he was alright on Sat and made some good challenges. The challenges you referred to were bread and butter for a defender and were not strong robust challenges but were simple expected defending, the one you stated where he gave a corner away should never have been a corner, a decent lb would have got that away. His postional sense was poor and his offensive side of the game was absolutely non existent. But i admit he was the least to blame for our demise out of the back 5.
vs
LAppin - Not ideal but he's our only other option apart from the injured Whiggins and the young Habergham

Nelson/ Doc - I have never seen 2 CB's that complimented each other less than these 2.
vs
Stef and Achoo - Stef if still fit, has the ability to be exactly what we were missing on Saturday, someone who can pass a ball to our own team. Achoo should add a little pace and that was definitely missing.

Gill/TJ/Whaley
All 3 were f**king useless on Saturday and deserve to be dropped
vs
Smith/ Adeyemi/ Rusty
A bit of bite, and believe it or not but Rusty is being targeted by a prem club, it proved on Saturday that Gill and TJ were useless and no matter what anyone says he could still do a job for us. No harm in giving a chance to Adeyemi who tried when he come on and Smith who was impressive against an otherwise appaling performace at charlton.

Wes/Martin/Holt - All deserve another chance in another team in another formation, as they proved against Wigan in this formation they're a decent threesome

I believe in the past on this board that I haven't been one of the 10 to 5 Saturday spastics who bemoan every single loss and react badly to every single let down. However I'm at my lowest and have run out of patience.

To me Reading was catching your missus in the street with another man, Charlton was catching her in bed with him and Colchester was her pinning me down whilst her lover f**ks me in the arse. That's how I feel about Gunny currently and the current situation we find ourselves in. Yes Saturday could have been a blip and we go on to be world beaters for the rest of the season and we will alll laugh about this at the end of the season as we lift the trophy at cityhall but for me, all the signs suggest we have nothing abosolutely nothing to feel positive about.

Posted By: stringersrevenge on August 11th 2009 at 12:57:57

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