Match Day Thread Norwich vs Spurs

Sort of agree, but the timing was completely wrong especially in the context of the board must have known we had no money in January.

Agree (about the second half, I’ve no idea what the list was like - god help us if it seriously had Lampard top).

Agree he’s a good coach. Disagree he’s necessarily more adaptable - I have not seen evidence of that. He’s got his own style, he struggled to mix it up at Villa when it went wrong.

There are contradictions here. I am not sure people would generally equate attractive authors getting the ball forward quickly, and I am not sure I agree this is obviously his style. I’d say he certainly hasn’t implemented unattractive football at Brentford and Villa, but it’s not traditionally attractive in the free-flowing golden age Arsenal sense. I also haven’t seen much sign of this high press - his Vill team tended to have a forward pressing high, but not usually en masse up high and certainly not all the time. This sounds to me less like how Smith has actually set up and more like a slightly contradictory bundle of wishes as to how we would play rather than a real design of a footballing philosophy and style.

Agreed on time and acquisitions, albeit possibly youth development in it given how it briefly looked like he worked out a way to get the best out of Idah. As for style, I’m not convinced we are there yet given your post above. Saying it “will be much better” is dangerous to the point of stupid - it might be, I have high hopes that it would be, it makes no sense to say it will be as the proof just isn’t there.

Strongly disagree. Every season out of the Premier League is more fraught with risk than one where we are in it, even if we don’t stay up. Such is the sad way of moneyball. Gone are the days where you could implement dynasty and long term success, unless you start lower down the leagues afresh and in any event get significant investment (Brentford, Bournemouth etc the list goes on).

 

With hindsight Lampard would have almost certainly given us a better chance of survival than Smith .

I can't see how we improved in a single area since he arrived .

At least under Farke we knew we had a system it just didn't work , Smith hasn't got a clue .

 

Not sure I can agree with you there Dunc, we had some really really bad games under Farke in the past season. We were having a hoofball and tappy tappy give away at the back/ mistake combo before he won his last game. When he came in I think Smith was getting there until we had an awful covid/ key injuries (Idah) around December. The last few months have been abject, but I think that's mainly because there is no confidence in the team.

 

Lampard kept Everton up with a much better squad, I think he's a good manager but I doubt he would have kept us up .
We will never know

 

Farke came in in the summer of 2017-18. When did the "system" he wanted to establish become evident to you? When did we actually see the "system" start to produce results on the pitch?

 

Championship winning season 18/19, obviously?!? The system worked brilliantly then. It also genuinely looked like it might work in the Premier League, then just when we had Pukki back fit and the team pulling together, with a decent run of fixtures, Covid struck.

The idea that Farke did not have a system is completely preposterous to be honest. The idea that he achieved nothing on the pitch is beyond laughable.

 

I wasn't suggesting for a moment that Farke did not "have a system". My question (to Duncan) was, at what point in Farkes's tenure did he, Duncan, really feel he knew what the system was and see it "for real" on the pitch? This was in response to Duncan's saying "at least under Farke we knew we had a system, Smith hasn't got a clue". There were plenty of people complaining throughout Farke's first season in charge that he "didn't have a clue", and the start to 2018-19 prompted similar comments. I'd say it was about 8 or 9 games into that season that we actually saw Farkeball for real on the pitch. By that time Farke had had a full season, two pre-seasons, and three transfer windows to implement his ideas, bring in players suited to the style, and have it all gel on the pitch -- Championship club pitches at that!

 

Lest we forget Farke was probably a game or two from being sacked if it were not for a come back draw against Ipswich in his second season

 

Fully agree with the above. In Farkes first season we were still transitioning the squad. The game plan in his first season was largely ‘pass the ball to Maddison and watch him ping it in from 30 yards’ he stood out that much, and we finished 14th that year then sold Maddison. I remember how worried I was after making that sale as he was seemingly the only decent player in the squad.
We then made a poor start to the next season, I don’t think we won in the first 3-5 games and Farke was close to the chop. I seem to remember Buendia not playing until 4 or 5 games in and then Aarons starting his first game against Ipswich and all of a sudden everything clicked.
So let’s give DS a chance this season.

 

We did beat AN's Preston at home 2:0 (3rd game). Before that we'd drawn with Birmingham and lost a high-scoring match to WBA: we went on to lose 0:3 at home to Leeds, before drawing 1:1 at Portman Road (Leitner). At that stage we'd taken 5 points from 15 and I remember DF imploring fans to look at the performances not the results ..........