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POST-MATCH THREAD: Norwich City v Charlton Athletic: Boxing Day 2025: KO 15:00
Comments
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Too many players having an off day. Nathan Jones didn't instruct James Bree to waste countless dead ball situations or instruct players to play within themselves, not making runs, not making tackles and not creating chances. As Garrymanilow stated, we would have been the happier walking to the dressing room at half time, I think the substitution of Bell would have been the only thing that would have placed a spanner in the works but we still hadn't created anything up to that point and James Bree was well into his personal nightmare when Bell left the field. It's down to a number of players not playing at their max for whatever reason, I expect that not to be the case against Pompey and I expect changes to ensure it isn't.3
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I think if we can just start playing better and scoring more goals than the other team, we'll be alright.2
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Being an optimist, I thought I'd compile a list of positives:
👉 Bell is on his way back from injury and we got a reasonable half out of him.
👉 Young Gough did well and hasn't been Charltonised yet.
👉 There's a transfer window just about to open and we saw nothing today that would persuade the money men that they can get away without a spend up.
👉 I had a nice chat with some old friends who now live in Norwich.
👉 Roads were pretty clear. Easy to get home.
👉 Err, that's it. Everything else was rubbish.2 -
Our strikers can't hit the target with an open goal face on easy tap in... Meanwhile... https://x.com/i/status/20046173671508869520
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As much as I have supported him, I think Nathan Jones had a stinker today. I know it's easy to second guess but after pretty well holding our own in the usual ugly style, the first substitutions messed it all up.
Further - and this is what I marvel at - it seems pretty clear that Bree is not 100% recovered from his groin injury. We all saw what he can do before he got injured.
If you have to play him because there is no alternative, why the hell do you also make him kick dead balls when he can't get the ball up in the air?
It was blindingly obvious and yet the manager sits on his hands and makes him keep doing it.
Seems pretty brutal.
Now wondering if this thinking was why Dr. Will Abbott left.1 -
Chelsea will make mincemeat out of us on that showing, another fun heavy defeat at home to endure.0
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Bree's delivery today was so bad that I could only assume that he'd been instructed to play the ball low because that was a perceived Norwich weakness.
I just can't understand how a player can go from looking like a masterstroke loan signing to looking like he's got a clubfoot.0 -
Including the Soton game that was the worst performance of the season for me. Soton was one of those horrible one offs and I know Stoke immediately afterwards wasn’t good, but we were in the midst of the Hernandez at Left Wing back nonsense and a lot of injuries.
Today, given the context of playing a rival team in the bottom three, they were embarrassing, particularly going forward. Norwich deserved the win, but we just rolled over. Individually and collectively it was very weak - bar Gough and Kaminski.There were signs of that lack of quality going forward against Oxford, the wrong pass, Oloafe missing that one on one, until Kelman came on and showed what we were missing. Oloafe completely slicing that ball in the first half after getting in behind his defender and that miss against Oxford, he should be dropped for Pompey. I like him, but these are the games he should be nailing a performance to make a statement to Jones about starting him. He hasn’t.Bree was awful which was a shame as he had a good game against Oxford. Anderson was too slow on the ball, and Bell offered little going forward (I do appreciate he’s only just returning from injury). Campbell was poor when he came on and Carey had another anonymous game.Very frustrating given the last 2 results. Given our style of play, we also need a bit more from our attackers in general. We soak up a lot of pressure and press. It’s too much to expect the defensive side of our game to sustain holding a team for 70 odd minutes for the rest of the season.Finding that real quality going forward is tough and it’s why we occupy the bottom 8. Overall the season has gone well so far given our squad, but there are some questions about what we have in the locker from an attacking point of view for me. Big game on Monday now - we cannot have a repeat of y’day0
