Norwich 2-1 Saints - Match Thread

[James G]

36 minutes ago, BarberSaint said:

Who is this player and why don't we play him?

Yah, I looked back. I'm wrong. He's the probable reason for three at the back. 

[Paul_B]

4 hours ago, Osvaldorama said:

Bit harsh.

 

6 wins in 8 since he came in. Refreshed the whole team. Would have got a point today if the ref had seen the handball.
 

We are not good enough to win every single week. 
We looked very good first half, and I have to say I am starting to think that Will Still fucked up pre-season fitness training.  

I normally agree with most of what you say, but we really did not look good first half. And it just got worse. 

I've come to realise that we're just shit most of the time, and pretty decent some of the time. Which is not enough for anything better than mid-table. Which is fine. We just need to not be so arrogant as fans to think we are going to smash everyone or be anywhere near promotion this season like a lot on here still seem to think. As we are clearly not. We should be due to budget/player value etc, but when it's drilled into them to play it around our own 18 yard box at all expenses then we deserve nothing. 

[Chez]

12 hours ago, James G said:

Some players are Russballed

Tonda seems to want them to play in and out from our own six yard box too. And we've scored a couple of brilliant one end to the other team goals as a result. At championship level, it's possible for our players to do it.

The question I have is can we switch it up a little, like Liverpool do, going through the two CMs, or pinging it straight up to the attackers and play off them, or playing a ball over the top/in between cb and full back?

If a team nullifies our formation, can we do something else or do we keep banging our head against a brick wall? 

[Chez]

13 hours ago, macca155 said:

That 2nd goal summed up all the issues. It was right in front of us, so no hiding.

Manning completely out of position allows their guy to get a cross in. Stephens loses his man, and then Bazunu is beaten easily at the near post.

 

I wonder if five at the back by its nature allows crosses? If you want to stop crosses you need to double up on the flanks a bit more, but you don't have the bodies out there to do that.

[lambtiss]

13 hours ago, skintsaint said:

Just seen the highlights and knew AA will put the penalty that way, think thats 4 in a row going that way now. Vary it up man.

That's not the answer, give the penalties and all free kicks to Scienza

[Harry_SFC]

9 minutes ago, lambtiss said:

That's not the answer, give the penalties and all free kicks to Scienza

Exactly. He's probably the best player in the league. He should be on them all. 

[macca155]

Been good to read this thread, as there is a real consensus building. Take away the frustrations with individual players, and we can all see clearly where the issues lie. Why in earth can't they see it.

The return of Russball is very alarming, have they learnt nothing. Clement is an average manager, but he knew exactly how to deal with it.

That whole game hinged on the penalty miss. Norwich gained self belief from that and the crowd got behind them. Saints are a dangerous team, but old frailties returned. All is not lost yet but that defence is a disaster at the moment.

Bragg looked good again when he came on. Game was lost by then, but that's a small positive to hold on to.

Really tough set of games coming up. Need to avoid being bullied by these teams.

 

[SWLondon Saint]

35 minutes ago, Chez said:

I wonder if five at the back by its nature allows crosses? If you want to stop crosses you need to double up on the flanks a bit more, but you don't have the bodies out there to do that.

It doesn't, but you need to have a plan for who goes out to help. Usually it's the CB on that side, but our 3 seem glued to within the width of the 6 yard box. That definitely does leave us wide open to crosses as at the moment we're forcing either the wide one of the front three or one of the 2 CMs to help. I am pretty sure this is why we fade so badly in 2nd halves as those 4 players - CMs + wide attackers - are forced to cover a huge amount of ground.

[AlexLaw76]

14 minutes ago, macca155 said:

Been good to read this thread, as there is a real consensus building. Take away the frustrations with individual players, and we can all see clearly where the issues lie. Why in earth can't they see it.

The return of Russball is very alarming, have they learnt nothing. Clement is an average manager, but he knew exactly how to deal with it.

That whole game hinged on the penalty miss. Norwich gained self belief from that and the crowd got behind them. Saints are a dangerous team, but old frailties returned. All is not lost yet but that defence is a disaster at the moment.

Bragg looked good again when he came on. Game was lost by then, but that's a small positive to hold on to.

Really tough set of games coming up. Need to avoid being bullied by these teams.

 

This is such a ridiculous statement people keep making. 

If you (or others) cannot see why are are faced to plod it around the back at the moment, then open your eyes.

[saintant]

20 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

This is such a ridiculous statement people keep making. 

If you (or others) cannot see why are are faced to plod it around the back at the moment, then open your eyes.

Well I think it is a kind of Russball. We try to play out from the back and get THB (mainly) to hit a pass to AA or Fellows who have dropped to receive it and get on the turn to move us up the pitch. When we are allowed to do it it looks great. The problem is when teams decide to stop us doing it by committing more players into an aggressive high press so we end up pinned in with no out ball other than a long punt towards a diminutive forward. West Brom did it for the whole second half and more and more teams will be doing it. 

[macca155]

36 minutes ago, AlexLaw76 said:

This is such a ridiculous statement people keep making. 

If you (or others) cannot see why are are faced to plod it around the back at the moment, then open your eyes.

Hold on Alex what am I missing. To me they are resorting to old ways as there is no outlet for them. A thin midfield and a static front line offer little opportunities. Add to that players who have a predilection to passing backwards and you have what we saw yesterday.

 

[Saint Billy]

Teams seem to be well prepared to cope with our style of play. They know that we will hit them hard in the first half but they also know we will tire quickly in the second. I saw little panic in the West Brom game even though they were 3-0 down and they were unlucky not to save the game.

We are a one trick pony at the moment and need to change it up. Get the guys fitter and be a bit more savvy with formation and subs as nothing seems to change when we make sub changes second half.

[Toussaint]

14 hours ago, stfrancisofbenali said:

Too many players below par today, Jander in particular who has generally been magnificent. Norwich were the first team to work out how to nullify Scienza and were simply hungrier and more aggressive than us. We had 30 mins after they scored their second and didn’t even try and lay a glove on them which is worrying. 

They nullified Scienza by booting him up in the air every time he got the ball, and the ref let most of it go. The ref was appalling yesterday and played a huge factor in the result. 

[sadoldgit]

38 minutes ago, Saint Billy said:

Teams seem to be well prepared to cope with our style of play. They know that we will hit them hard in the first half but they also know we will tire quickly in the second. I saw little panic in the West Brom game even though they were 3-0 down and they were unlucky not to save the game.

We are a one trick pony at the moment and need to change it up. Get the guys fitter and be a bit more savvy with formation and subs as nothing seems to change when we make sub changes second half.

Something does change in the second half. We look more confused and disjointed. Aribo, Archer etc get stick for not changing things for the better when they come on but with the team looking less coherent (lack of fitness?) it is like turning up to a kids game on a playground where people have a vague idea of what they are supposed to be doing but not doing it how and where they should. We rarely play to Archer’s strengths. Robinson showed signs of being a decent player but has now regressed to another bit part player who doesn’t add much when he comes on.

There was a lot of talk about clarity when Eckert got the job. I saw little of that yesterday or during the second half against WBA. Perhaps we just sign mostly thick players who can’t work things out on the pitch?

[Toussaint]

1 hour ago, sadoldgit said:

Something does change in the second half. We look more confused and disjointed. Aribo, Archer etc get stick for not changing things for the better when they come on but with the team looking less coherent (lack of fitness?) it is like turning up to a kids game on a playground where people have a vague idea of what they are supposed to be doing but not doing it how and where they should. We rarely play to Archer’s strengths. Robinson showed signs of being a decent player but has now regressed to another bit part player who doesn’t add much when he comes on.

There was a lot of talk about clarity when Eckert got the job. I saw little of that yesterday or during the second half against WBA. Perhaps we just sign mostly thick players who can’t work things out on the pitch?

I’m not sure players are “thicker” than they ever were, it seems most likely that the over coaching we have seen predominate over recent years has had the unintended consequence of players not  thinking and adapting in game, when the managers plans are not working. 

[Football Special]

12 hours ago, saintant said:

Yeah, they worked out that if you kick him all over the pitch and the referee doesn't get his cards out you nullify him.

Not just the players, felt like their fans really made him a villain after the pen and were giving him loads of abuse, especially when he went over to take a corner, unlike Norwich fans to be so up for it 

[Midfield_General]

17 hours ago, Sheaf Saint said:

It's crazy when you think that at the start of the 2022/23 season, he was packed off on loan to that tinpot club down the road because we thought we had upgraded the position with ABK. We all breathed a big sigh of relief at the thought that we wouldn't have to put up with his ball-watching and general crapness ever again.

3.5 years later and not only is he still here stinking the place out, he's been made captain and given a contract extension. And said tinpot club are now riding high in the PL while we flounder around in mid-table of the Championship after the second worst attempt at a PL season in its history.

Nothing exemplifies our falling standards since the SR takeover more than this.

Spot on. 

From Svensson, Fonte, Lovren, Alderweireld and Van Dijk to building the club around Jack fucking Stephens. 

Absolute comedy gold. 

[Obstacle1]

6 hours ago, lambtiss said:

That's not the answer, give the penalties and all free kicks to Scienza

I just know he'll try a panenka 

[Challenger]

On 13/12/2025 at 13:41, Saint In Cornwall said:

I thought Phil Lynott was dead?

Other people have mentioned that, however I don't believe a word.

[stfrancisofbenali]

Jamie Carragher just made an interesting point on Super Sunday about defending away from home. He said that as a defender that’s where you knew you could win the game for your team, whereas at home is when the attackers win the game for you. On the evidence of yesterday, our defensive unit don’t have this ingrained into them. They were all over the place and Coventry will rip us apart if we don’t tighten up and show some positional nous. 

[sledger]

there is no real spine in our team,from keeper to centre backs to midfield and up front hence when the going gets tough we fold,it is the brilliance of 2 or 3 players that is carrying us at the moment.

[Football Special]

8 hours ago, lambtiss said:

That's not the answer, give the penalties and all free kicks to Scienza

Not seen outfield players directing the keeper before 

 

[Tommy Mulgrew]

1 hour ago, stfrancisofbenali said:

Jamie Carragher just made an interesting point on Super Sunday about defending away from home. He said that as a defender that’s where you knew you could win the game for your team, whereas at home is when the attackers win the game for you. On the evidence of yesterday, our defensive unit don’t have this ingrained into them. They were all over the place and Coventry will rip us apart if we don’t tighten up and show some positional nous. 

You say our defenders were all over the place whereas, according to Carragher, they should have won the game for us.  Coventry might well rip us apart but we play them at home next Saturday.  That’s when, again according to Carragher, our attackers will win the game for us.  Our defenders will probably still be all over the place but the logic that you seem to accept suggests that the key to us winning lies not with our defence but with our attack.  Nothing is ever as simple as that, however; we shall need every player to be on their game to get three points next Saturday.

Sorry to be so picky, 😇🫏🐑🐓🦆🐺; I just could not understand your logic.

[Football Special]

16 minutes ago, sledger said:

there is no real spine in our team,from keeper to centre backs to midfield and up front hence when the going gets tough we fold,it is the brilliance of 2 or 3 players that is carrying us at the moment.

Agree, made this point many times on summer transfer window  , Spors managed to do an interview last week after hiding for last couple of months , but still hasn't addressed the recruitment failures 

[stfrancisofbenali]

45 minutes ago, Tommy Mulgrew said:

You say our defenders were all over the place whereas, according to Carragher, they should have won the game for us.  Coventry might well rip us apart but we play them at home next Saturday.  That’s when, again according to Carragher, our attackers will win the game for us.  Our defenders will probably still be all over the place but the logic that you seem to accept suggests that the key to us winning lies not with our defence but with our attack.  Nothing is ever as simple as that, however; we shall need every player to be on their game to get three points next Saturday.

Sorry to be so picky, 😇🫏🐑🐓🦆🐺; I just could not understand your logic.

Carragher wasn’t taking about us specifically but it was an interesting point in the context of an away performance in which the defensive side of our game meant that we would need to score three (again) to have any chance of winning. True that defence AND attack needs to be at the top of our game to get a result on Saturday. The wider point is that (home or away) our defence is not providing a solid base for us to grind out results with only one clean sheet in eight.