Who cares what a bunch of disinterested hacks have to say when you can get the skinny direct from those to whom it matters most? Well, good news: Football Burp‘s very own Jonny Forumer, lurker extraordinaire, is here to collate choice message board analysis so you can get the lowdown from the people who really know what they’re on about! Here’s what Norwich City and Chelsea fans had to say in response to the two sides’ 0-0 draw at Carrow Road on Saturday…
“Whole team fantastic. In particular Whitbread (who I thought not strong enough, but getting better every week), Pilkington – first half particularly, wonderful tricks & ball control, Grant & Moro (although Moro tired in 2nd half). But really, once again, it was the TEAM wot did it.
We did look tired towards the end, but the point was well deserved.
Lambo just on, saying that character is “paramount”. Therein lies by far the biggest ingredient in our success.” – ron obvious
“Thought Pilkington was awsome Today. He was up against the (supposedly) best left back in the world Today, and beat him most of the time! Showed great pace, strength and skill, he hasn’t really been at his best over the past month or so, but Today he more than made up for that. What do everybody else think? Him, Whitbread, Ruddy and Surman were exceptional in a very good team display Today. Well done lads, you did us proud!!” – ryan1992
“I thought we looked good yesterday, on the back foot most of the second half, but that is always going to be expected agaisnt Chelsea.
I think we have improved as a team as the season has gone on, mainly our shape and defensive unit. I had Chelsea and liverpool at home this season as our chance of taking a win against won of the ‘top’ teams, mainly because they are not as quick and creative as Arsenal, Utd and City. i think this suits our players better, Chelsea and Liverpool don’t have the same quality wingers and are not as quick in their build up play. I think to beat Arsenal you need to play more direct and better them, Stoke style, or outpass them, as Swansea did- i don’t think we suit either of those styles. Utd and City just have some real quality, will be hard to beat one of them, but you never know, we could turn Utd over!!” – priceyrice
“Fuck I enjoyed that. Despite having the worst view of the game in the whole of FCR (directly beind the river end goal, at pitch level) and being surrounded by f**king chattering kids and imbeciles, that was brilliant.
I dont think 90 mins (plus stoppages) of football has ever passed so quickly. I thought in the first half “well this first ten mins had been terrific, I wonder if it’ll calm down now they’re getting into it”, looked up at the scoreboard and it was bloody nearly halftime.
I had an absolutely fantastic view of Torres’ hilarious miss. I though it was in when it dropped for him. Didn’t even bother to look where the ball went, just stared ahead thinking “it would be you, wouldn’t it?”. It was only when everyone around me started braying Nyerrrr! that I realised he’d spooned it past the post, the bellend.
Ayala and Whitbread were phenomenal, particularly Whitbread’s positioning and reading of the game, to allow him to step up and make interception after interception. Centre-half masterclass today, they could do worse than showing the DVD to the academy scholars.” – Arizona Bay
“First clean sheet but Whitbread & Ayala are clearly our best centre backs & both have missed a large part of the season, when BBC were feeling sorry for Newcastle against us I had no sympathy we had been at that point without our first choice defence all season.” – lovely old job
What did you think of the match, Norwich fans? Have your say in the comments section below…
“I’ve officially gone off AVB. I’m not calling for him to be sacked, but the only time he’s impressed me this season were his tactics against Valencia at home.
The subs he makes are strange, and are always left too late to make any real impact. He seems to make the changes at the 75th minute mark. I think we can all agree that yesterdays game needed changes at half time, or at least the 60th minute. But when he finally made the change, it was a petty irrational like for like change because of Torres’ missed chance. Daniel Sturridge had to be the the player to come off, he was absent all game.
The wingers don’t run to the bylines anymore. You can tell they’ve been instructed this way. Bosingwa had so many chances to run the ball down there, but it was like there was some invisible shield stopping him. I think we went down there twice the whole game, the first time led to that Torres chance, the second time was that Lukaku run. It’s obvious to me, that things happen when we’re allowed to run down there. Chelsea struggle to defend crosses from the byline, so why isn’t it obvious to AVB that this is a good form of attack? Use it!
Why wasn’t Cahill playing? surely he’s match fit, he was playing for Bolton last weekend. Why buy a player if you don’t know where to put him? again, i scratch my head.
Then at the end of the game I find out that the team are now catching a flight to Spain for a team building exercise. What on earth is going on in the camp? I’m not expecting a good return against QPR next weekend.” – Rowley87
“I don’t think it is a specific instruction not to get to the by-line. On the right, we have Sturridge who’s about as confident crossing the ball with right foot (which he’d have to do from that position) as I am crossing with my left testicle. So it’s a position he doesn’t want to get into. Bosingwa is a defender and getting that far forward is a bad idea for defenders in general as you get caught that far up, you have no chance of getting back. Against certain sides that’s not too much of an issue, like yesterday it wouldn’t have been too much of a problem, but it tends to be something that Defenders don’t like doing (Notable exceptions being Alves and Cole on our other side, but I’ll get to that in a minute). The times that Bos was willing to get to the by-line, he had Sturridge or Ramires behind him to cover, so it was an option.
On the other wing, we have Mata who doesn’t stay there very often, but when he does is certainly willing to try and get there, but he isn’t there often enough for it to be a main route of attack. Cole has to provide the width, but a lot of the time he’s all we have on that side. So he’s usually got two men to beat to get to the by-line or failing that he’ll at least have no cover which makes it a big risk for the counter.
Cahill wasn’t playing for two reasons. One, he’s going to have to adjust to our system. Two, he wasn’t going to be needed today. We were always likely to have a spare man at the back, so why not have a more attacking centre back to take advantage of that. Incidentally Luiz was excellent today.
On to the subs, in general they have been lacking in terms of invention, but today he was forced into making one early on which changed his options and meant rolling the dice too early could leave us down to 10 men if we had another injury. I don’t think his timing of substitutions in general is an issue at all and the actual subs he makes is limited by the options he has, although this is compounded by him not trusting Kalou and Malouda, but plenty on here would agree with his assessment there.” – Eggy McMuffin
“I’d say Sturridge and Mata were both reasonable if not spectacular. Below their form so far this year but not bad. Mata was involved in everything we did that was good and the two combined for a wonderful flowing move that forced a good save from Ruddy. I love how hard Mata runs to get the ball back after he passes. Wish we had have bought Parker to have two blokes in the team who run hard to get the ball back after passing.
Bosingwa, Meireles and Ramires were the main candidates for criticism from me. Too often they took two many touches, or in Bosingwa’s case sat there faking and stuttering trying to beat a man one on one when it came out to him, rather than circulating the ball back in again when it was clear he was cornered.
I felt immensely better when Essien came on. His return is one reason I am still confident we will finish top four. You forget just how good he is deep in midfield, circulating efficiently. If only his bloody knees weren’t so bad.
Luiz had his best game this year and Torres was entirely serviceable, looking more confident, and without joining the apologists, his miss wasn’t a sitter. Ruddy had the post covered pretty solidly.” – Spiller86
“The thing that seems to be letting this team down is the belief and will to fight till the final whistle.. the Chelsea teams of past gone had this belief that no matter what they will triumph .. players like Lampard(Who still has them … still scores those late late winners) , Drogba, Ballack , Essien, Gallas, Carvalho, Terry, had so much belief and determination.. and I compare there replacements honest triers they maybe but mereiles, bosingwa, torres, romeu, dont seem to have it to go on relentless… if I look at the Norwich match bosingwa atleast 10 times tried to cross the ball without much success in the first 60 minutes,.. and finally gave up trying to cross the ball even when totally free..
I know a lot of it is also to do with the team not being a able to put a consistent run together but I still feel they need to start believing that they are better than they are.. if that sounds a little weird.. then what I mean is for coaches like Mou, Hiddink to succeed they instill this belief into these players.. they make them belief they are the best and this seems to take their player performances on a new level… whereas coaches like AVB, Raineri seem to be much more pragmatic and rarely ever praise a player.. not saying that style is not effect .. just that maybe before the big games you need to give your sides Messiahs to carry you through…” – jangz
“It really irritates me to see all the assumptions made by members on this forum without grasping the situation in its entirety. ‘Why doesn’t AVB do….blah blah blah’.
The manager has a long-term mandate to construct a fluid, attacking team as per Roman’s instructions. He has had to do this with largely the same old Chelsea squad (bar Mata, Meireles and Romeu who have been very good additions). The football played at the beginning of this season (with the high line) was undoubtedly better than we are seeing now, but senior players could not adapt to the system and pressing style. While trying to mould the team, AVB still has to garner the trust of the senior players and we’ve already witnessed how a consummate professional like Lampard has acted to not being a regular starter. It is surely tough to manage this transition and still try to keep the team competitive. He has had to be diplomatic for the sake of the team. By this time he obviously has an idea of what the team needs, but now (mid-season) is not the time for hasty changes.
Supporters questioned his approach for left-back Pereira and now complain about Cole’s diminishing quality. We’ve seen quite a few encouraging signs (Sturridge, Mata, Romeu, Luiz), but this season just needs to blow past, with the hope of the team achieving a top 4 place, and then I fully expect to see some really interesting changes next season. Just give the man time.” – venom2011
“I am starting to worry now that AVB has read every book about coaching, seen every video about coaching,been to every seminar on coaching and has become some sort of coaching psycho-babble spouting automaton.
I fear he is filling the heads of the players with jargon like his favourite “transition” instead of kicking some of them up the arse and putting a consoling arm around others.
Whilst I understand he is really up against it with the squad (and I use the word advisedly) that he has inherited I am struggling to sit and listen to the twaddle he spouts after each and every disappointing result.
I get the feeling that one word is never enough when he can say the same thing with 35 and get the impression that he would call a fork a “hand-held nutrition conveying implement”.
Watching from the sidelines I have learned over time that the players bar one or two are deeply, deeply stupid and waffle and gobbledegook are really not what they need.” – Mark Kelly
What did you think of the match, Chelsea fans? Have your say in the comments section below…