So Man Utd apparently have a European game on the 20th and then the cup game is scheduled for the 21st. I am assuming the cup game will therefore be on Sunday 22nd or Monday 23rd rather than the 21st. Has anybody else heard anything else about this?
They have a Europa League game on Thursday 19th so yes your assumption about the Cup game being Sunday or Monday is probably right. Sixth round games are scheduled to take place between 20th and 23rd March. Not sure if that means there will be one match on each day Friday to Monday?
Thank you General! Your caveat "We have been here before" is spot on. The imbalance in our play between attack and defence that accounted for the false dawn under Alex Neil, was all too evident last season and has been exposed this season. I have no hostility to DF; on the contrary, I have supported the Webberlution of which he is a major part, from the very start. I am simply disappointed by what you appropriately refer to as his "stubbornness to change or adapt even when things are clearly not working". Rick thinks he detects adjustment; I remain unconvinced: hence my view is again the same as yours, i.e. that next season will be the proof of the pudding one way or another.
So Robbie, assuming we are relegated, what proof are you looking for that Farke has progressed and become a better manager in your eyes. Clearly winning the Championship again by a comfortable margin and scoring a shed load of goals will not suffice. I assume you want us to concede far fewer goals and to be generally be more defensive minded . What else ? Our 51 goals conceded and being rooted to the bottom of the table is partly due to the many injuries which we have had to contend with.Do you agree with this assumption ? Southampton have also conceded 51 goals and are 13th in the table. Last season Bournemouth conceded 70 goals and finished in 14th. The season before West Ham conceded 68 goals and finished in 14th. In the 2016/17 season Bournemouth conceded 68 goals and finished in 9th . So it would appear that it is possible to have a leaky defense and still comfortably survive in the Premiership. The biggest disappointment as far as I am concerned, is that we have not converted enough of our chances in front of goal. There have only been a few games where we simply did not create enough. If you were Farke , and assuming we are back in the Championship, what would you do differently?
While I acknowledge all the criticisms of Farke, one of the key reasons I reserve judgement on criticising him is that I am absolutely certain we have been wildly unlucky with injuries. That really hurt us in the autumn and I actually thought he did keep trying to change things. Since our defenders got fit, Farke was then promptly shafted by Godfrey getting a red card. I actually agree with Rick that we’ve been noticeably tighter defensively since the beginning of January imo. And, to be fair to Robbie, it has coincided with an uptick in results. The main problem we’ve had is that Pukki has not maintained his finishing boots. So before and since the New Year, I’m not convinced you can confidently point to our results being linked to an improvement defensively or a return of players from injury, or even - and I do think this is relevant - playing teams at a certain point where they are not in good form (e.g. Leicester). So you can point to the manager too. It’s very difficult to say, which is I guess why we are having this debate. However, until Farke is able to pick nearly the same team for ten matches in a row (as Lambert was able to in our first PL season) I am going to stick with reserve judgement. The fact is though, Farke clearly still has the dressing room, board and (most) fans onside. That’s what I want to see first. And frankly, given that we’re six points from safety, that suggests he’s nothing short of miraculous. He makes mistakes on the pitch, sure, but then so did Ferguson, Wenger etc. But the football remains great to watch.
Looked on the Canaries website, and also phoned the ticket office at Carrow Road, the Everton Game which was due to be played on the 21st is now PP but if you have a ticket for that game keep it and it will be valid for the rearranged game. Hope I am able to get a ticket for the Man U game, we beat them & Spurs on our way to the 59 FA Cup Semi, wouldn't it be great if history could just repeat itself again and we went just one step further this time?
I agree pretty much with this, but I don't think it's a coincidence that we have improved since we've had 2 fit CB's available, especially Hanley who I don't think gets the recognition his presence / performance perhaps deserves. I also think many more experienced and higher profile managers would have struggled to have done better with the hand DF has been dealt. We also need to remember that DF like many of our players is young (for a manager) and still learning his trade, yes he will make mistakes, but for me the extent that our young players have improved with him at the helm and the respect that he appears to get from the players, even the ones who perhaps have been adversely affected by decisions he has taken speaks volumes (i.e. Jerome when he left us). No two people think alike and there are always going to be times when people view things differently, but for me DF has done a great job so far, even accepting that he hasn't always got things right, and we would be mad not to stick with him. I struggling to think of a manager / coach, who we could afford, that would be a better fit for the club at this time and have no doubt that DF will go on to greater things once he leaves us.
Completely agree I also think that sometimes having a philosophy and sticking to it, even if it might mean you seem to make mistakes and people accuse you of being stubborn/not learning, tends usually to pay off. Consistency is what pays off in football, rarely chopping and changing at every whim, mistake or piece of bad luck.
Excellent comment above ^ canario DF will have learned loads from this season, as will the players involved. Mixing it with the likes of Klopp, Mourinho, Ancelotti, etc will teach him invaluable lessons as he (hopefully) prepares to do battle again next season. Let's keep our fingers crossed there's not one of these on the horizon " On 14 January 2019, Wagner and Huddersfield Town agreed to terminate his contract by mutual consent, with the team in last place and eight points from safety"
Rob, the emphasis on mitigating factors this season such as injuries, ignores the fact that the defensive frailty was just as evident last season, as I and others have repeatedly pointed out. The way this season has gone was entirely predictable -- and indeed was being predicted by pundits and commentators even before the season began. Also, I think it misleading to focus on Pukki, saying he hasn't maintained his finishing. He couldn't reasonably be expected to do much better than he has against the better quality defending and goalkeeping in the top league. He is equal eleventh among EPL scorers so far this season, and has a higher percentage of shots on target than those above him in the list. Truth is, he had a quite exceptional season last season in the Championship, and in effect bailed us out. Regarding the value of consistency, I couldn't agree more. But that is undermined if the strategy you are consistently applying is flawed. Re. Mike's examples showing that it is possible to survive while leaking goals, yes it is possible, but very much against the odds. That's like arguing that smoking 80 a day is fine because you know of one or two individuals who do it and have survived to a ripe old age!
"Untruths?? This is a football forum where people exchange opinions. Get down from the pulpit preacher man. and stop taking yourself so seriously.
No more irony - please. I'm still chuckling at being labelled "a sanctimonious doom-monger" by a self-styled "SOCIAL JUSTICE WARRIOR"
The game on Sunday March 22nd is live on B.B.C https://www.pinkun.com/norwich-city...cup-quarter-final-details-confirmed-1-6553040