BFTG - Norwich home

[Nameless]

If we're in third gear now that means we've got more in our locker

False third gear

It also depends on how many gears we have. We may only have three gears. If that's the case we need more gears. At least a fourth gear anyway.

At least we're not in reverse, like Norwich.

[harry]

I was in Y19

West Stand Man

You're a phoney! A big fat phoney!

Yup! Moved from the upper west to the east about 5 years ago. I confess to retaining the pen name with a degree of fraudulent behaviour.

It's like finding out that Angry Shed Sex didn't actually have a shed.

[Dr_Hfuhruhurr]

Embarrassing/amusing in equal measure how many of our fans had no idea.

LOL. You tit.

I thought we were rather good.
An absolutely nothing 'Boxing Day' first half, followed up by a second half enbiggened by Norwich firstly having a go, and then playing angry after the sending off. The fact that we weathered the storm and came back against an equalizer all bodes well in my book. Didn't think it was lucky at all.

I would say that Norwich are in need of a new manager, though. (*Note to self. Check if this has actually happened yet)

[Sutekh]

To be honest Norwich are one of the best sides I've seen this season. Thankfully for us their utter ineptitude at set pieces saved the day but in the meantime they certainly gave us lessons in how to move a ball about effectively esp. for the first 15/20 minutes of the 2nd half where Reading could barely get a touch and struggled badly to even get over the halfway line.

Liam Moore was man of the match, Kelly did a lot of very hard work and provided a superb assist for Yann. Yann himself also brought a lot to the game, including a rerun of the well worked penalty routine with Garath McCleary (only the other way round this time). I imagine that any striker Reading look for in January has to be similar to what Yann does for us (only perhaps with a bit more pace).

I note also that Alex Neil was unhappy about the injury to Graham Dorrans...

Alex Neil hit out at Paul McShane for the ‘unnecessary’ injury picked up by Graham Dorrans during Norwich’s 3-1 defeat at Reading on Boxing Day.

Dorrans was forced to limp off during the first half after damaging his knee following an incident which saw McShane crash a free-kick into the midfielder from point blank range.

McShane appeared to be frustrated that Dorrans was standing in front of the ball , denying the hosts a chance to take the set piece quickly.

But Canaries boss Neil was angered by the actions of Reading’s skipper.

“I just thought it was unnecessary,” he said.

“There was a break in the game. If they had the ball, laid it down and then Graham got in the way then I could understand the frustration of maybe kicking it.

“But Graham had the ball at his feet and McShane just runs in and takes a pot shot at the ball.

“I found it absolutely bizarre. The fact the referee thought it was OK that the ball was at Graham’s feet and Paul McShane nearly took his knee off I think is ridiculous.

“Graham’s medial ligament went, that’s why he had to come off. I don’t know to what extent but that’s one of our key players now that we’re potentially missing for a ridiculous incident.”

When asked if McShane had apologised to Dorrans, Neil added: “I’ve got no idea, but to be honest who really cares?

“If you’ve done your medial ligament do you really care if someone apologises or not.”

[Sutekh]

Speaking of the ref - how the oxf*rd can he award a free kick off offside (to be taken) in your own half. Twice.

New rule says the freekick is awarded where the ball is touched, not from where the player was originally offside. Ref was right, just one of the first ones I've seen enforce this new ruling.

I know it's unlikely but imagine if a player was in an offside position when a ball is played forward over his head so he turns and legs it back to his own penalty area while the opponents keeper clears the ball downfield. The ball then hits the aforementioned player in the penalty area or in a very dangerous positions outside the box and a free kick is conceded

[harry]

Embarrassing/amusing in equal measure how many of our fans had no idea.

LOL. You tit.

I thought we were rather good.
An absolutely nothing 'Boxing Day' first half, followed up by a second half enbiggened by Norwich firstly having a go, and then playing angry after the sending off. The fact that we weathered the storm and came back against an equalizer all bodes well in my book. Didn't think it was lucky at all.

I would say that Norwich are in need of a new manager, though. (*Note to self. Check if this has actually happened yet)

Who'd be a football manager?
Everyone thinks they can do your job better and if you're having a bad day you get 20,000 people singing "you're getting sacked in the morning".

[Woodcote Royal]

How does JVDB get in the side ahead of Evans ?

Accident waiting to happen

+ 1

Thought he was one of our best signings a few months ago, even though his card collection was always an issue, but has looked off the pace recently while Evans has improved game by game.

[muirinho]

Great to see Swift and Williams back and bringing Evans on for JVDB improved us. Unlike others I thought Blackett was caught out of position too often and beaten for pace too often. I also thought Gunter had a good game and was more positive with his passing. GMac and Moore also played well. So not a great performance but we'll take the three points. I'll be surprised if we get three against a resurgent Fulham next week though! Please prove me wrong!!

I also thought Blackett was suspect, and Beerens was (as usual) not much help. Most of their attacks seemed to be focussed down that side as well, so Norwich were clearly targetting him (I had a look at whoscored.com, in case my reading was faulty, and it has 51% down that side, and 22% on the other. Which is unusually lopsided).

I can see why Beerens gets a start, but am at a total loss as to why VdB gets in ahead of, frankly, anybody, let alone Evans, who is improving all the time. I'm almost hoping he gets sent off in at the tailend of a game we've already won, so we can be shot of him for the following 3 games.

Would definitely take a draw against Fulham.

[sandman]

Disappointing result yesterday, I'm sure Jaap will be fuming after that performance. To only get 48% possession is quite frankly discraceful.

[RoyalBlue]

While the offsides looked bizarre, they were in fact correct under the revised law.
Blame FIFA, the FA, the Football League or the club for not communicating but you CAN now be offside in your own half.
I think it is another daft change, but there it is. i've now seen 3 different refs do this so it wasn't just one official having a nightmare.

I though it was widely publicised at the start of the season. Embarrassing/amusing in equal measure how many of our fans had no idea.

If it was widely publicised then people would have known about it !
No one sat near me knew, and most are pretty knowledgeable football people. Most were aware of some of the other changes (pass back from kick off, players leaving the field after injury) but this one got everyone stumped.
By definition if people didn't know about it it was not properly publicised.
Maybe club's could use their big screens for something useful at the start of the season and show a video explaining any law changes.....

That's a simple and highly effective idea, probably still way beyond the intelligence of the FA though! I agree, each time the laws/rules are changed, the FA should produce some short simple videos explaining and illustrating the change, which could then be shown on the video screens at stadiums and also shared with Sky, BBC, Channel 5 etc. Judging from the reaction of some of the players and coaches/managers, they would also benefit from seeing them.

It's not like they can't afford it and it might also help with the Respect campaign.

[genome]

I'm still scratching my head as to why Neil took off Oliviera. He was causing us serious problems.

Apparently Oliviera was (thankfully) removed from play because Norwich were down to 10 men and Alex Neil felt he needed pace to stretch the game.

As we saw though Norwich fans disagreed a little (as did their local media).

So he brings on Cameron Jerome?

[royalp-we]

There is no question Stam has instilled a team spirit that is driving us forward and has been missing since BMs championship winning side. I cant help feeling though that we are in 3rd gear still and its the spirit that's carrying us. If we can just find a striker/holding front player I can't help but feel the rest of the gears will come easily and start looking more comfortable. Stam has done an amazing job with this squad.

The way Kermorgant played yesterday a striker is no longer needed. Kermorgant was outstanding.

Agree that Yann has been an important part of the team. He's an intelligent footballer and we missed him when he was out.
However I think we need another option. Samuel is different, but as yet I'm not convinced he'd carry us through if Yann picked up a long term injury.
It's icing on the cake though, if the takeover happens and we have money then I'd want another forward. If it doesn't happen then that's ok. Especially with Rakells nearly fit again....

When you have McCleary, Beerens, Harriott & Meite on their game, with one of Kermorgant, Samuel & Rakels to poach / hold up, performances like the last two games makes it difficult to justify not giving any of them minutes. Who do you drop?

As you say, it would be icing on the cake; but certainly not a formality that we need a striker come January

[Stranded]

I though it was widely publicised at the start of the season. Embarrassing/amusing in equal measure how many of our fans had no idea.

If it was widely publicised then people would have known about it !
No one sat near me knew, and most are pretty knowledgeable football people. Most were aware of some of the other changes (pass back from kick off, players leaving the field after injury) but this one got everyone stumped.
By definition if people didn't know about it it was not properly publicised.
Maybe club's could use their big screens for something useful at the start of the season and show a video explaining any law changes.....

That's a simple and highly effective idea, probably still way beyond the intelligence of the FA though! I agree, each time the laws/rules are changed, the FA should produce some short simple videos explaining and illustrating the change, which could then be shown on the video screens at stadiums and also shared with Sky, BBC, Channel 5 etc. Judging from the reaction of some of the players and coaches/managers, they would also benefit from seeing them.

It's not like they can't afford it and it might also help with the Respect campaign.

In fear of going down the reasons why rugby is better than football route - World Rugby do just that and have recently released a video explaining, in decent detail, the change in rules regarding high tackling that comes in on the 1st January.

Is widely shared meaning the fans know the rules before they come in.

[Nameless]

To be honest Norwich are one of the best sides I've seen this season. Thankfully for us their utter ineptitude at set pieces saved the day but in the meantime they certainly gave us lessons in how to move a ball about effectively esp. for the first 15/20 minutes of the 2nd half where Reading could barely get a touch and struggled badly to even get over the halfway line.

You'll need to explain the use of 'effectively'. Norwich certainly played the ball around nicely, but the only way it could have been effective would have been if they created chances, or scored. As with a number of other clubs they played the ball around in areas that didn't trouble us for most of the game.
[quote='sutekh']
I note also that Alex Neil was unhappy about the injury to Graham Dorransit[/quote]

Definitely unnecessary. If Norwich hadn't been standing on the ball every time we had a freekick to slow it down then McShane wouldn't have been making the point to the ref, who had been ignoring it. I think McShane probably hit the ball harder than he needed, but Dorrans didn't need to be stopping the kick. Amazingly when we were eventually allowed to take the kick a Norwich player tried to stand right on the ball again.

[Nameless]

If it was widely publicised then people would have known about it !
No one sat near me knew, and most are pretty knowledgeable football people. Most were aware of some of the other changes (pass back from kick off, players leaving the field after injury) but this one got everyone stumped.
By definition if people didn't know about it it was not properly publicised.
Maybe club's could use their big screens for something useful at the start of the season and show a video explaining any law changes.....

That's a simple and highly effective idea, probably still way beyond the intelligence of the FA though! I agree, each time the laws/rules are changed, the FA should produce some short simple videos explaining and illustrating the change, which could then be shown on the video screens at stadiums and also shared with Sky, BBC, Channel 5 etc. Judging from the reaction of some of the players and coaches/managers, they would also benefit from seeing them.

It's not like they can't afford it and it might also help with the Respect campaign.

In fear of going down the reasons why rugby is better than football route - World Rugby do just that and have recently released a video explaining, in decent detail, the change in rules regarding high tackling that comes in on the 1st January.

Is widely shared meaning the fans know the rules before they come in.

Cricket is also really good at explaining changes, and explaining decisions. Sadly football seems to believe the opinion expressed by a previous poster that fans don't 'need' to know....
Given how much simpler the laws of football are, compared to cricket and rugby, you would think it shouldn't be difficult to make sure everyone understands them. But then when the TV and radio are full of highly paid pundits who don't know the laws you wonder how there is any hope !

[harry]

To be honest Norwich are one of the best sides I've seen this season. Thankfully for us their utter ineptitude at set pieces saved the day but in the meantime they certainly gave us lessons in how to move a ball about effectively esp. for the first 15/20 minutes of the 2nd half where Reading could barely get a touch and struggled badly to even get over the halfway line.

You'll need to explain the use of 'effectively'. Norwich certainly played the ball around nicely, but the only way it could have been effective would have been if they created chances, or scored. As with a number of other clubs they played the ball around in areas that didn't trouble us for most of the game.
[quote='sutekh']
I note also that Alex Neil was unhappy about the injury to Graham Dorransit

Definitely unnecessary. If Norwich hadn't been standing on the ball every time we had a freekick to slow it down then McShane wouldn't have been making the point to the ref, who had been ignoring it. I think McShane probably hit the ball harder than he needed, but Dorrans didn't need to be stopping the kick. Amazingly when we were eventually allowed to take the kick a Norwich player tried to stand right on the ball again.[/quote]

A completely avoidable incident. No-one wants to get a player injured, but he wouldn't have been if he'd played by the rules and retreated the yards. The manager then had a go at McShane to deflect from his own precarious position.

Maybe he can blame us for his player getting sent off as well ... forcing him to make a substitution that the travelling supporters vocally disapproved of.

[sandman]

Rugby fans should be spending more time encouraging their own sport to sort out the way it deals with concussions before lecturing football on it's rules.

[Nameless]

Rugby fans should be spending more time encouraging their own sport to sort out the way it deals with concussions before lecturing football on it's rules.

If you looked at any rugby forums you would find they are doing that. The George North situation has been universally condemned.
What is the football policy on concussion by the way ?
And of course no one has been lecturing football on it's rules, just suggesting that there is an obvious problem with ensuring fans are up to date with changes....

[Silver Fox]

2 points on McShane, firstly 'greed with the posts telling Alex Neil to wind his neck in. If your tactic at free kicks is to stand over the ball then expect to get it kicked at you and in that case don't use a player with poppadom ankles in this way.

Secondly, he was a bit of a shambles yesterday after getting that bang in the head early doors, every time AAH gave him the ball he didn't seem to know where he was. He probably should have been subbed and I wouldn't be surprised if he misses Friday with concussion

[Stranded]

Rugby fans should be spending more time encouraging their own sport to sort out the way it deals with concussions before lecturing football on it's rules.

If you looked at any rugby forums you would find they are doing that. The George North situation has been universally condemned.
What is the football policy on concussion by the way ?
And of course no one has been lecturing football on it's rules, just suggesting that there is an obvious problem with ensuring fans are up to date with changes....

What he said.

Wasn't lecturing in the slightest merely citing an example of where a sport does all it can to ensure all those involved in the sport are aware of rule changes.

How hard would it be to put together a video like this to explain the change to offside for example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p6SKgwx7syo