Match Day Thread Norwich versus Sheffield United

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Wonderbah

 

This one was a bit rushed to be fair.

 

Great defending

 

Yes, how to handle a goalmouth scramble with aplomb (and a touch of luck!).

 

You said it Daniel (today's SU match press conference):

Paraphrasing: "Look back over the last 20 or even 30 years, at any league (the Bundesliga this year for example), and you find, with only one or two exceptions, that teams whose promotion campaigns are based on solid defending fare better than those whose success depends on their potency in attack. A team able to defend soundly in the Championship can defend soundly in the Premier League; but when it comes to scoring goals, it's much less easy in the Premier League compared to the Championship."

Don't we know it! What are we going to do about it? One thing we need to do is have people learn that good defending is not necessarily boring, lacking in entertainment, or unexciting!

 

Or sticking obstinately to zonal marking at set pieces ...when you're clearly not very good at it!

 

Zonal marking is pointless, I've never yet seen a zone score a goal!

 

There is a prior question Cromer, namely, have we the players with the physical attributes required to be good at set piece marking, whether man marking or zonal marking? The answer to that -- according to DF, not me -- is basically No! Not only are we short of suitably tall and powerfully-built players, our smaller players don't seem to have the spring-heels that would enable them to out jump much taller ones. As DF said today in reply to a question about our set piece defending, it's difficult when you are "a small team"; his solution appears to be to try to minimise the number of free kicks and corners we concede, though in fact we seem to me to be rather cavalier about both.
And by the way, zonal marking is the system preferred by the vast majority of teams in all top leagues, though if you have a John Terry in your side, you are likely to opt for a hybrid system in which most players mark zonally while your JT has the freedom to attack the ball, bulldozing any opposition player who happens to be in his way in the process.

 

More like this tomorrow would do nicely

 

The Blades lost 2-0 at home to Newcastle Thursday night, so we'll have an extra day on them. They've drawn 6 away matches so far, so a draw could be on the cards. Hopefully we'll be ready from the off this time and get our passing game going. They're likely to use a full press, so getting past that could be critical. They have a height advantage so it could be Marco from the start and Kenny alongside Tettey. Lewis could return at LB as Byram lacks full match fitness.

 

Simon Hooper on the whistle tomorrow.

 

He bloody hates us

 

Not a good start to the weekend for the Canary nation - didn't
need Everton to go beating Chelsea 3-1

 

Bruce engineered the Newcastle win by defending deep, i.e 5:4:1 out of possession. The 1 was Andy Carroll of course, brought into the starting eleven specifically for the Sheffield game. The tactic nullified the Blades's attacking CBs while Carroll provided the out-ball. Given that Pukki is no Andy Carroll this may not appear a realistic approach for us, but in fact it is basically what we did against Man City, the difference being that our counter-attacking relied on swift break outs from deep rather than a long ball to a CF able to keep the ball until reinforcements arrived.

 

What other teams do isn't going to matter if we don't start winning our own matches on a more regular basis. We are almost at the half-way stage and I think we can probably all see that, as we stand, we aren't quite good enough for this league.

 

If we can pass our way out of defence like we did against ManCity then well and good, but we should also have the option of intermediate passes to Hernandez and Cantwell on the flanks against their three at the back, with Stiepermann and Pukki looking to exploit any gaps that creates.

 

Our results aren't good enough but I do think we have the players to compete now that most of the injury crisis has eased. A settled back four will help as will Tettey at DM from the start.

 

Good post, Rick. The extra day gives me a little bit of hope. I like Byram and he probably needs a run of games, but I would be OK if Jamal starts.