Irish Canaries & Opposition Irish

**SkStu** · 30/04/2016, 5:15 PM

If they do go down, and I agree it looks like it will be them, id put my house on them coming straight back up. They have a lot of quality in the squad from front to back just haven't been able to grind out results. Admittedly, they've been very unlucky this season but I believe that Alex Neil should be fired. Could be the last we see of Hoolahan in the premier league though.

**tricky_colour** · 30/04/2016, 6:24 PM

1-0 down with 12 mins to go.

Mind you I doubt there were expecting too much v Arsenal anyway

Man U Everton and and Watford to come, they may need to win 2 of those, tough task.

**DeLorean** · 30/04/2016, 8:54 PM

Originally Posted by SkStu

Admittedly, they've been very unlucky this season but I believe that Alex Neil should be fired.

Why so?

**SkStu** · 01/05/2016, 12:20 AM

Originally Posted by DeLorean

Why so?

I'll preface this by saying I like him and that I think he's a young manager who will end up doing well for himself in the long run but... the simple answer is he has good players and hasn't been getting good enough results. He has shelled out a lot of money to bring in players this season and it has been, overall, a disaster. He has broken transfer fee records for Norwich and has not given the fans or owners a return on his investments. There's quality all over the pitch but they are not winning the games they should be. I think what bothers me most is their seeming desire this season to snatch 0 points from the jaws of victory (or a draw).

Dorrans, Brady, Mulumbu, Mbokani, Jarvis, Naismith, Bamford, Klose all came in this year and they lost nobody of note. On that basis alone they should be doing better than they are. And I think it's down to the manager.

Now, all that said, it's just my opinion. Norwich seems to be a very well run football club and I'm sure they will give credit to Neil for bringing them up last year in the manner that he did. But they've been on a long slide towards the Championship most of the season so it will be hard to fire up that team of players for a 46 game battle in the championship if he couldn't do it in the premier league.

**Charlie Darwin** · 01/05/2016, 12:58 AM

Originally Posted by SkStu

I'll preface this by saying I like him and that I think he's a young manager who will end up doing well for himself in the long run but... the simple answer is he has good players and hasn't been getting good enough results. He has shelled out a lot of money to bring in players this season and it has been, overall, a disaster. He has broken transfer fee records for Norwich and has not given the fans or owners a return on his investments. There's quality all over the pitch but they are not winning the games they should be. I think what bothers me most is their seeming desire this season to snatch 0 points from the jaws of victory (or a draw).

Dorrans, Brady, Mulumbu, Mbokani, Jarvis, Naismith, Bamford, Klose all came in this year and they lost nobody of note. On that basis alone they should be doing better than they are. And I think it's down to the manager.

Now, all that said, it's just my opinion. Norwich seems to be a very well run football club and I'm sure they will give credit to Neil for bringing them up last year in the manner that he did. But they've been on a long slide towards the Championship most of the season so it will be hard to fire up that team of players for a 46 game battle in the championship if he couldn't do it in the premier league.

Have to disagree Stu. I think they have the worst squad in the league and he's done well to keep them in with a chance of staying up (albeit with the help of Aston Villa and Newcastle being disasters).

**tricky_colour** · 01/05/2016, 2:30 AM

I think in these situations you are probably better off having battlers rather than expensive skilful player.
The good players know if the club goes down they will likely stay up at another clubs, what you need is grafters
who know if they go down they will stay down.

Not that I would claim to be an expert on the clubs involved though.

Anyhow rambling on bit, there is only one team in the Premiership with worse possession stats than Norwich, and that is, wait for it, Leicester!!

Mind you here is an interesting one and it seem reveal the root of the problem, interceptions, Leicester is top of the interceptions table, Norwich is bottom ie 21 v 11, indeed Norwich is slightly adrift of the rest (next is 13.3). also bottom
on tackles.

https://www.whoscored.com/Regions/25...ague-2015-2016

That seem to be the key Leicester have players who work hard as a team to regain possession and then hit the opposition on the break, that way the get good chances. I noticed when Norwich were getting chances the
defence was already for them.

Obviously a bit more to it than that.

Another interesting one is Leicester and Norwich are bottom of the being fouled table, but perhaps for different reasons?

Anyhow looks like Leicester are a safe bet for the title.

**SkStu** · 01/05/2016, 2:40 AM

Originally Posted by Charlie Darwin

Have to disagree Stu. I think they have the worst squad in the league and he's done well to keep them in with a chance of staying up (albeit with the help of Aston Villa and Newcastle being disasters).

No worries on the disagreement. It's certainly debatable about where they sit in the quality list so I take your point. Even if I agree that they're the worst squad in the league, the argument for sacking him was having the purse strings opened right up and not buying wisely enough for him to keep his job.

**geysir** · 01/05/2016, 8:52 AM

Originally Posted by SkStu

No worries on the disagreement. It's certainly debatable about where they sit in the quality list so I take your point. Even if I agree that they're the worst squad in the league, the argument for sacking him was having the purse strings opened right up and not buying wisely enough for him to keep his job.

You saying Robbie Brady wasn't a wise transfer?

I have no real opinions about the merits or demerits of Norwich's squad but they haven't spent very much and over 2 seasons they actually have a decent surplus from transfer activity.

**SkStu** · 01/05/2016, 2:28 PM

Yeah, I haven't looked into their transfer balance very much at all and I'm not here to say the squad is good or bad. Their transfers added sufficient quality to give them a reasonable chance at survival. For a multitude of reasons, I think Alex Neil should be sacked and primarily because Norwich hasn't won the games they should have with the talent available.

**DeLorean** · 01/05/2016, 3:29 PM

Originally Posted by SkStu

Dorrans, Brady, Mulumbu, Mbokani, Jarvis, Naismith, Bamford, Klose all came in this year and they lost nobody of note. On that basis alone they should be doing better than they are. And I think it's down to the manager.

They had a good first half to the season, I'd give him full marks for meeting expectation levels up until that point. I'd disagree with your 'quality all over the pitch' assessment. They have a poor defence and the lack of an out and out goal scoring Premier League level centre forward has been a massive problem all season, two areas that generally determine a teams chances of survival. Basically they're roughly where I'd expect them to be, give or take. He did an amazing job last season considering how poor they had been until he took over and they've been fairly competitive in the PL, giving their status as the third best team in the Championship when they were promoted. Yeah they've made a few signings, who hasn't? There's nothing too brilliant about your list above I don't think. It would be a typical modern football knee jerk reaction to sack him, but I think he deserves better than that, even if the second half of the season has been (slightly) below what they'd have hoped for.

**Charlie Darwin** · 03/05/2016, 12:28 AM

He brought in Timm Klose (Kevin Doyle's mate) during the winter and that seemed to have gone a long way to mending their defensive problems, but he got injured a few weeks ago and they haven't got a point since if I remember correctly.

**DeLorean** · 03/05/2016, 9:02 AM

Yeah he was definitely missing for the last two anyway and the Norwich fans seemed to know they were going to be in trouble without him. I never realised that was the same guy involved in Doyle's injury.

**paul_oshea** · 03/05/2016, 12:30 PM

Originally Posted by tricky_colour

Anyhow rambling on bit, there is only one team in the Premiership with worse possession stats than Norwich, and that is, wait for it, Leicester!!

And they have the second lowest pass completion rate. It kinda goes to show, as Stutts points out on ocassion, that the age old argument of give me stats or stats back up, are often misleading and a "revert to type" in an argument/discussion.

**tricky_colour** · 04/05/2016, 12:42 AM

Originally Posted by paul_oshea

And they have the second lowest pass completion rate. It kinda goes to show, as Stutts points out on ocassion, that the age old argument of give me stats or stats back up, are often misleading and a "revert to type" in an argument/discussion.

Well I guess the expression is "lies, dammed lies and statistics".

Seems Ireland are moving more towards the possession game just when it is going out
of fashion!!

Soaking up pressure and hitting teams on the break seem to be the way to go.

Ireland are at the early stages of that, soaking up pressure and conceding!!