At home but where is the comfort?

[PaulWinch again]

This isn't just an issue at home, but I'm concerned by how much our attacking play has regressed and how many players are playing worse than they did last year.

[Irish villain]

This isn't just an issue at home, but I'm concerned by how much our attacking play has regressed and how many players are playing worse than they did last year.

They might have been found out? they were only good from mid February to early May? They didn't rip up any trees before that really and the last two games of the season were pretty average. I think some of them have been figured out and also that the Newcastle result has knocked them back.

Funny, Newcastle look like they could be a bit of a surprise package this year as it happens.

[eastie]

Today was a game between two very poor sides - we may survive again because there are a few bad sides down there but I'm hugely disappointed with the lack of creativity again his season.

Weimann one goal all season , and if benteke doesn't score then its hard to see where goals will come from - depressing.

We have scored 9 goals in 10 games but 6 came against arsenal and city - a paltry 3 goals in our other 8 games.

[SoccerHQ]

This isn't just an issue at home, but I'm concerned by how much our attacking play has regressed and how many players are playing worse than they did last year.

Same for me. Last season we ended with goals galore and looked like we were going to score everytime we crossed the halfway line. I can't believe just the threat of relegation was the sole reason for this.

Even the first 3 games of the season I was pretty happy, 3 goals at Arsenal, could easily have scored the same against Chelsea and Liverpool we still created a few chances even if we generally struggle in that game.

Since the international break and the awful Newcastle game things have regressed even if we're still picking up points. It is a grind to watch us atm bar the second half of the Man. City game where things went for us and Everton first half, rest of the time we have not had any fluency going forward. It is a concern, a creative midfielder can't come soon enough for me.

[Ads]

We're a midtable team playing mid-table football. If that is a grind? Well then boo fucking hoo.

[supertom]

Weimann desperately needs a spell out. The lad fluffs at least one decent chance a game. He's scored one goal which was very fortunate and just seemed to trickle over the line. We'd have hoped that would start things rolling for him, but not so.

Benteke is literally our only goal threat and if he's off the boil we're in trouble.

We're in a scrap again sadly. This boils down to not having enough quality in the team, or in the management sadly. Plenty of potential but there's too much that needs ironing out in the here and now. I'm all for a long term game plan but not at the cost of relegation. If you flirt with it too often, it will get you. We're right in it with the bottom 12. There's virtually nowt between all these sides, bar Palace and Sunderland who look even worse. Besides those two, pick any one out of 12, including us, to potentially join them.

This isn't good enough at all. Our attack is unskilled, unimaginative, disorganized and totally limp. Home and away.

As for playing mid-table football. We're not that good at the moment. We're playing bottom end football and we're on a slide. Again, it's not a case of scraping a lower-mid-table finish this season. We should be doing better. We're a club quite capable of finishing above anyone currently in the bottom 12. If you consider below 8th as the best of the rest. That should be us. Top 10 is minimum, but I think we'll probably end up between 12th and 16th again.

Something major needs to happen in january. 2-3 decent players have to come in. Our midfield is complete wank.

[Ads]

Yeah we're mid-table. Obviously in a relegation scrap. Sack Lambert at the end of November.

[supertom]

Yeah we're mid-table. Obviously in a relegation scrap. Sack Lambert at the end of November.

After three years running scrapping relegation and the way we're playing recently, you can't hear any alarm bells then? We look incapable of scoring. Weimanns playing like Unlucky Alf. If he fell into a barrel of boobs he'd come out sucking his thumb. We've seen in previous years what happens when we're too reliant on our few quality players and we have injuries, or when we're going out with a team of boys, week in week out. If we don't pull it round soon in our so called "easy" run, then we have the usual congested Xmas fixtures and we've all seen how badly we can fall into a slump. If you spend as much time as we have fighting off relegation and you find yourself sitting in the bottom half in a bad run, I don't care how early November might seem in the grand scheme of a season, you're in a relegation scrap. The sooner we get out, the better.

I want Lambert to succeed. He's got the right ideas in principal, but implementing them is another matter. He doesn't seem to learn in certain regards. If he gets sacked at the end of the month I won't shed a tear. He's in a dog eat dog, results driven business.

[eastie]

Weimann desperately needs a spell out. The lad fluffs at least one decent chance a game. He's scored one goal which was very fortunate and just seemed to trickle over the line. We'd have hoped that would start things rolling for him, but not so.

Benteke is literally our only goal threat and if he's off the boil we're in trouble.

We're in a scrap again sadly. This boils down to not having enough quality in the team, or in the management sadly. Plenty of potential but there's too much that needs ironing out in the here and now. I'm all for a long term game plan but not at the cost of relegation. If you flirt with it too often, it will get you. We're right in it with the bottom 12. There's virtually nowt between all these sides, bar Palace and Sunderland who look even worse. Besides those two, pick any one out of 12, including us, to potentially join them.

This isn't good enough at all. Our attack is unskilled, unimaginative, disorganized and totally limp. Home and away.

As for playing mid-table football. We're not that good at the moment. We're playing bottom end football and we're on a slide. Again, it's not a case of scraping a lower-mid-table finish this season. We should be doing better. We're a club quite capable of finishing above anyone currently in the bottom 12. If you consider below 8th as the best of the rest. That should be us. Top 10 is minimum, but I think we'll probably end up between 12th and 16th again.

Something major needs to happen in january. 2-3 decent players have to come in. Our midfield is complete wank.

Very good post , we have seen how we need that creative midfielder for a while but lambert has spent more money on another striker to add to helenius and Bowery .

I will not be at all surprised if we enter February still without creative midfielder or experience heads to help steady the boat.

[Ad@m]

For those suggesting Lambert should go what do you think is the reason for our troubles?

There's a lot of references to three seasons of struggles. Well Lambert wasn't around for two of those. In those three seasons we had three completely different approaches to life. Given the continual chopping and changing of managers is it any wonder the squad isn't the finished article?

Have some patience for heavens sake. What happens if we sack Lambert now? We get someone else in, he changes the team and we're back to square one. Whilst I don't think that changes our chances of relegation this season I don't think it helps build better long term prospects.

[Ads]

No I don't have any alarm bells. If I were a Norwich fan, having seen fifty million spent over two seasons on what was a mid-table side, then I would be very worried.

Its not a case of finding three teams worse than us, its plain to see their are quite a number of poorer sides.

The past two away games, we haven't played well, yet we kept clean sheets. I take that as a positive (as I value a positive result away from home) and an improvement.

[eastie]

Changing manager every year or two is of course no good in the long term - what we need is the right manager in charge and to stick with him .

Regarding lambert , after 18 months in the job i still haven't seen enough to convince me either way that he is or isn't the right man long term - I was filled with hope as we got off to a flying start of the season following on from an encouraging end to last season.

It is true to say we have had tough fixtures but we seem to have lost some of the momentum from that spell and while the away form is good the home form must improve and fast .

The next few weeks will go a long way to seeing where we stand - some very winnable games but also potential banana skins in there - lets see where we are in the new year .

[eastie]

No I don't have any alarm bells. If I were a Norwich fan, having seen fifty million spent over two seasons on what was a mid-table side, then I would be very worried.

Its not a case of finding three teams worse than us, its plain to see their are quite a number of poorer sides.

The past two away games, we haven't played well, yet we kept clean sheets. I take that as a positive (as I value a positive result away from home) and an improvement.

Norwich are expected to be struggling and for them survival is success.
I would hope a club of our size and stature have greater ambitions than Norwich - I would view a bottom 8 finish this season as very disappointing.

I prefer to look at everton who are similar in size and stature and the sort of club I would expect to be competing with around the top 8.

[Ads]

I don't agree with that. When Lambert left them they were mid-table. The side needed refinement, not an overhaul, and they have spent funds on six or seven players that you would think would allow consolidation and then to kick on a little.

[eastie]

I don't agree with that. When Lambert left them they were mid-table. The side needed refinement, not an overhaul, and they have spent funds on six or seven players that you would think would allow consolidation and then to kick on a little.

Norwich had a good 1st season back in the top flight , with a lot of managers they like to bring in their own players and style- I think mid- table was punching above their weight that season - our ambitions should be much higher than theirs .
Whilst 14th will be relative success for them , for us it would be disappointing.