My thoughts on last night

1. Good turnout from the Norwich fans although we were quite quiet.

2. Its a good stadium with the most comfortable seats you will find. All a little bit "American" though!

3. I was not worried after saturday as I thought we played well. After last night though I am a little concerned at what lies ahead. Ok it was only the Carling Cup and they did not look massively up for it but even so there were aspects of the performance that were worrying. We looked quite good for about 20 minutes but then when we failed to score just looked average. On Saturday we played a lot of passing triangles but they were incisive and stretched Cov. Last night MK just sat off us and we just passed it around in front of them without looking penetrative at all. Too much sideways movement and the passes were too short. In part some of the blame for this has to go to Roeder for the stupidly narrow formation he put out with Russell on the right and Hoolahan playing in the hole. This meant that the central channel of the pitch was too crowded, we had no pace on the right and no attacking width of the left whatsoever. We looked better when we went to 4-4-2 but this was counter balanced by the fact that in switching to 4-4-2 we took off our two best attacking players! The other point of note was that without Stefanovic at the back Clingan had to come deep every time to pick the ball up from the CBs which in my view led to us playing much deeper than on saturday.

4. The more I watch us and think about it the more I am of the view that IT IS AN UTTER JOKE AND DISGRACE that we have gone into the season with out striking options as Cureton, Lupoli and an 18 year old from Gambia who has never played ion England before. I don't care about "clubs making promises" or if we are "working on it" etc etc we absolutely cannot afford to drop more points because of this glaring gap in our squad and it must be addressed before saturday. It should have been sorted by the end of June IMHO.

5. Shackell aside the defence last night was utter rubbish and showed for me that Dejan and Kennedy are a big improvement on what we had last season. Omazusi struggles positionally at CB although still looks a tidy player.

6. Player ratings:

Marshall - 6 - did nothing wrong, had no real saves to make either.

Otsemabor - 5 - more discipluined defensively than usual but did not break forward or overlap the winger at all other than one occasion in the first 15 minutes. Did not look interested.

Omazusi - 6 - him and Shack were struggling as a partnership. Tidy player but needs more positional sense.

Shackell - 7 - the best of the defenders. Worked hard, was up for it and made some important recovery tackles.

Drury - 5 - poor. I suppose giving him the benefit of the doubt he has not played this summer but Bertrand is much, much better.

Hoolahan - 6.5 - some lovely touches and he was definitely up for it but played too close to the rest of the midfielders and strikers meaning he was often just playing 3 or 4 yard passes. Also out attacks were being slowed down by the fact that in the second half every lother player was looking to give it to hoolahan every time they got the ball!

Clingan - 7 - our best player i would say. got stuck in and kept things ticking over. Can't help feeling him and Fozzy are a bit too similar only Clingan looks much more reliable!

Fozzy - 5 - poor. One of those (too regular) games where he went missing and when he did get the ball kept trying over ambitious passes which gave the ball away.

Russell - 6.5 - he tried but was a fish out of water in the first half out on the right. Unlucky with a good shot that hit the post in the second half - at least his shooting seems to have improved.

Koroma - 5 - raw and shows flashes of brilliance but also shows flashes of Pape Diop and is nowhere near the finished article. Missed another 1 on 1 and had a few comical moments!

Lupoli - 6 - good movement as usual but was not quite happening for him and when that happens he looks lightweight. Brushed off the ball ona few occasions.



Subs: Croft - 5 - nearly made an immediate impact and at least livened thinsg up but marked down for missing his now regular sitter.

Pattison - 6 - worked hard and to be fair did nothing wrong aside from a pathetic shot at goal.

Posted By: Jim, Aug 13, 10:12:43