Match Day Thread Crawley town v Norwich city EFL Cup Tuesday night special

Yes I was fishing a bit HMQC, but there is a point. First 3 PL games Hanley is Captain and plays at the heart of our defence and although he makes mistakes and we don't always get the results we hoped for the team perform very well and generally much better than most expect. Despite this after ever game some people have singled out Hanley for criticism whilst ignoring the mistakes of others and are desperate to get one of our better CB's (Klose /Zimmermann / Amadou) back to play alongside Godfrey. So last night they get their wish with and both Zimmermann & Klose starting as CB's with Amadou playing defensive midfield, against a team that are 12th in league 2. Hanley isn't even in the squad. I suspect DF is resting him for Saturday as well as trying to get our 2 better CB's match fit!!! Not only do we lose but more importantly our performance isn't great. Is there a link ? I don't know as there are plenty of other variables, but maybe Hanley brings more to the party than the obvious and maybe the reason for some of the mistakes attributed solely to him aren't just his fault.

 

I did wonder if he was!!

Edit - this says it all

 

Where's old Black Rat?

 

He popped up a few weeks ago!

 

Quite right - it wasn't good enough, but it looked like a pre-season match to get players match fit rather than any commitment to have a run in the cup. That said, McLean, Vrancic and Roberts should have provided better service to Srbeny and Idah. That improved when Buendia came on and I had hoped that Stiepermann would replace Srbeny so he could work with Buendia and Roberts to improve things. We hit the woodwork at least twice, but the truth is, the performance bore little resemblance to Farkeball.

The positives were that players got game time and are ready to cover injuries, with Amadou able to cover both DM and CB if needed. Any of these players coming on as a sub in our normal line-up should be able to do a good job. Heise also looked like he could play WL if needed and it must have been valuable debut experience for Idah.

 

It really wasn't what was expected and we should have easily been able to score several goals to progress and give the fringe players valuable game time.
#wemoveon

 

Well at least we know Amadou can play at least 2 positions better than Hanley , currently our 3 best fit centre back.

The defensive midfielder/centre back pairing of Godfrey and Amadou one of the few positives from last night.

 

Well, not quite sure you can compare the threat from Crawley to that of Chelsea or Liverpool, but they did what they needed to do. I still expect Hanley and Godfrey to start at West Ham. If Klose is out for the season though, we'll probably see Amadou used more as cover at both DM and CB, which is a useful combination on the bench. I'm not sure he's done enough to warrant a €9m fee yet, but hopefully he'll improve over the season.

 

I'm expecting Zimmermann and Godfrey

 

I hope you're right, but DF may not feel Zimbo is fit enough to start and it may also depend on whether he's recovered from the knock to his back.

 

They didn't look that bad

 

Plenty of chances.
Looked like own goal to me.
Still should not be beaten.

 

I bet if JWM watched that he'd wish that Towan were as good as Norwich reserves!

 

So, as we approach FT in tonight's Carabao Cup games -
Forest Green holding Bournemouth,
Sunderland 3-1 V Burnley

 

I seem to remember Ipswich fans laughing when we were beaten by non League Luton Town.

Roll on a few years Luton are in a higher League than them stuffing Ipswich 3-1 last round .

 

Bournemouth won on pens.
Sunderland held out to win.
Newcastle V Leicester gone to pens.

 

Those highlights confirmed my belief that we have acquired a real player in Amadou. Depending on what happens on Saturday, I wouldn't be surprised to see him in the starting eleven following the international break (at DM I mean).