QuoteThis Wagner uprising against his former employer is going better than another one I could mention...
(Too soon?)
Goal for Idah (I think my other thread should be taken out the back and shot)
This Wagner uprising against his former employer is going better than another one I could mention...
(Too soon?
Assist and really nice finish for his goal. Two goals and an assist in 4 sub appearances this year. Great start for him. Hopefully Sargent out for a while. Still hope
In 89 minutes of play, Idah's already matched his scoring record from 1125 minutes last season - our pecking order up front is really changeable - Connolly was being written off but now after 5 goals in nine appearances for Hull, he's back on the radar. Idah's form looked like it might be putting his place in the international set-up at risk, in the short-term anyway - now it's looking like this could be the break-out season we've been waiting three and a half years for (early doors, I know). Sinclair Armstrong has put himself into the mix now that he's starting at QPR. Meanwhile, Troy Parrott's move surely calls his place into question (again short-term). So what does this mean for the upcoming fixtures - Idah holds his place in the pecking order over Keane? Connolly in and Parrott out? Armstrong brought in as a barnstorming impact sub?
Armstrong apparently isn't in contention. I don't think the squad announcement will be particularly eventful in terms of the forward positions (or at all). From the last squad Johnston and Obafemi are out injured, so Ogbene and Keane will probably come back in. Robinson probably hasn't played enough football but might be an option also.
I'd like to see Parrott relocated to the Under 21s and Connolly brought in as an option off the bench, but it won't happen. But then I'd like to see a lot of things done differently that won't be under the current management. Hopefully we just need to suffer it for another few games and then maybe we can try something different. Sometimes different can be worse but that seems unlikely in this case.
Keane O'Shea Given Best Smallbone
Dropped last night after a couple of starts in a row. But came on before the hour when Barnes went off with potential ligament injury.
Norwich have already lost Sergent for a couple of months (maybe till the end of the year) and signed Hwang from Nottingham Forest to fill out the squad. Now they may have to do without Barnes for an extended period too. Could give Idah an extended run in the team (provided he doesn't get injured himself of course), but he's not been great since the couple of early goals (which admittedly is just four games ago). The Pinkun Norwich site said he "again looked good when facing goal but struggled with his hold-up play and suffered with his loose control", which reads slightly unusual as I suppose we'd be more used to seeing him being ok at holding the ball up but fairly weak when facing goal.
Ah I think his hold up play is often poor tbh
Fair enough. I think it's about the only thing he has shown in his time in green, away to Portugal and home to France in particular.
It actually appears to be the better part of his game for Ireland alright !Originally Posted by pineapple stu
I thought Idah's best game for Ireland was probably the away game against Portugal, when he really ruffled the feathers of Ruben Dias and Pepe. Since then, he hasn't really kicked on. Injuries and lack of confidence have hindered him.
One of the criticisms levelled at him from a Norwich fan on the BBC phone-in post-match was that he seemed to be out of sync with the rest of the team, that you could give him another ball and he'd play his own game.
If it turns out Barnes is injured and out for a while, he really needs to step up to the mark and seize the chance.
End Apartheid Now! One Team in Ireland!
His endless cycles of form are getting tiresome. Not sure what the issue is but one would think the international window was good for confidence so it can't be that. Form and injuries are significantly impacting him and his club gametime and output.
Hes only 22. Young players always have ups and downs in form, especially when they are always getting injured. A successful season for Idah this year is just to play the full thing without having to miss 2 or 3 months with injury, that would be a decent starting point for him to kick on. Troy Parrott similarly, at 21 lets see if he can be injury free.
Im not saying Parrott or Idah can be world class, but if you look at Callum Wilson or Ollie Watkins as examples of players who really kicked on in their mid to late 20s I still think the talent is there for Idah and Parrott to become very decent Premiership players.
Even if we look closer to home, most of us had written off Aaron Connolly. Hes starting to show that maybe we dismissed him too soon. Its a long season yet but he looks excellent so far and I wouldnt be surprised to see him get 20 goals this season, a year ago I thought he'd be closer to being back at Galway United by now.
Its really not that complicated!!!
I think the frustration stems from how prolific he was at underage and then he broke through with that FA Cup hat-trick before his nineteenth birthday and we felt almost as excited about him as we do about Ferguson now. but that was three and three quarter years ago and he hasn't become the star we hoped he would be by now. But, as Razor said, he's still only 22 - when you consider the ages that some of our main strikers over the last 35 years established themselves as top flight strikers, then you realize that he definitely still has time - Aldridge: 27; Cascarino: 26; Walters: 27; Doyle: 23; Niall Quinn broke though at Arsenal aged 20, but then spent 3 years as a fringe player.
Right now Idah's career path actually most resembles Shane Long's: early breakthrough followed by a couple of PL seasons as a secondary striker - given more time after relegation but still took a couple of seasons to start to fulfil his potential
Ah yeah, I agree with you overall here, specifically with regards to Idah. A bit of impatience on my part really. In terms of strikers and the timing of their development, you only need to look closer to home for Idah at Ashley Barnes. Barely got to double digits in his travails up and down the football pyramid until he was 30 in the Premiership for Burnley.
Whatever about Parrott, Idah is definitely the sort of striker that comes good later. See also Didier Drogba.
The cycle is just tiresome is all. But natural. Wish he could sustain the spurts for longer.
Some of those comparisons are a bit unfair though given Idah hasn't even established himself as a striker at any senior level yet. Doyle at Idah's age was half-way through 19 goals for Reading in the Championship, Quinn had just moved to Man City after 20 goals at one of the top clubs in England and he hit the ground running at City, Cascarino had about 50 goals (in the third tier) and Aldridge - who always was an anomaly anyway - had played in a European quarter final and was moving up the leagues. Even Shane Long had roughly twice as many goals from twice as many games including twice as many starts by this stage. Walters is about the only reasonable comparison (a League Two player)
I think the bigger concerns are that (a) he still doesn't seem to have a killer instinct in front of goal, as typified by the chance in the opening minute of the France game and (b) successive Norwich managers (Farke, Smith, Wagner) can't really find a role for him apart from as a utility player/impact sub.
Concerns? :-)
Maybe on a personal level. He's had knee problems and has had a long time out of the game - not exactly good that a young player is having these injury issues and a worry for the length of his future career. But I think he has done fine for us to date, even if performances have been inconsistent and a bit up and down. Nevertheless 18 senior caps at 22 is quite a good return. And he's on a goal scoring streak for us atm; 2 goals in 3 games.
I can hear the screams of the stats being tortured from here ifk.
Yes, he has 18 caps, but that's mainly because we're desperate for options up front. Can you name a less effective player to have gotten so many caps for us?
And that hot goal streak is a penalty, and a late goal against a tired part-time Gibraltar side. It's not exactly stellar stuff.
And yes, he's had injuries (but he's had a clear run this year and not been able to nail down a starting spot), and yes, he's two-third of the way to his record league goals tally in a season. So maybe he's improving. Or maybe at some stage we'll have to face the possibility that he's not all that good.
He keeps a clean sheet in every game he plays as well.I can hear the screams of the stats being tortured from here ifk.
Your definition of effective is different than mine. I think he is an effective striker, but a prolific goalscorer he'll never be. But to entertain your thought - Simon Cox? Andy Keogh? Daryl Murphy?
They are goals, and goals in competitive games.
He has 18 caps at 22 years old. Obviously good enough to play for us.
Decent nominations for sure. I'd have any of them ahead of Idah though. Wouldn't see them as being as ineffective as Idah was against Greece and Luxembourg (his two most recent starts before this month)
Talk about damning with faint praise. When Armstrong and Afolabi are next in line, you can see it doesn't take much to get a game for us up front.
Anyway, it appears Barnes may be out for two months, and with Sargent out too, that should give Idah another go at staking a claim for a starter spot. His manager has come out with the obligatory praise of course. But he needs to make hay here though I think.
Last edited by pineapple stu; 22/09/2023 at 1:24 PM.
You'd have Andy Keogh over Idah?
Its really not that complicated!!!
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