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Interesting analysis from Leroy Rosenior and Tony Thorpe on City that I think our forward line could learn from, particularly the bit about movement in the box.
Kolli not scapegoat - he asked Marti to come off - had been ill midweek. His stats show this : 7 touches in 45 mins ; won zero duels ; no shots; one pass to a teammate. Alfie while not perfect made 27 touches and just caused more havoc to the City defence. Koki was nowhere near his best, Andersen poor, Kolli not his best. No wonder our midfiield was struggling: they had to keep winning the ball back / often had no outlet to pass to.
I agree about corners. Love Illy but baffled at how a generally good player technically is often so poor at corners.
Fair enough but I do think he's doing more off the ball work than we had earlier in the season. Also Varane is winning more ball in midfield. My main point is when we let in goals it's not just down to the defence and nor is it when we keep clean sheets.
As I always say you defend as a team . Our midfield has been much improved and we're playing three rather than two which makes us much less open through the middle. Saito and Smyth are doing a much better press than earlier in the season so our fullbacks rarely deal with wingers on their own which means the CBs are not having to deal with so many quality crosses. Also we've started scoring so the defence aren't having to constantly defend a nil scoreline.
That's exactly what I thought. We've never been great at managing the high press and that was the high press on steroids. Also they did play a lot of heading it up in the air which we got involwed in too and we tried to hoof it up the field and Kolli just doesn't have the physicality of Frey to win those battles so the ball kept pinging back. When we did best their high press they just fouled.
Those kind of tactics are anti-football and lead to a very boring spectacle. But they tired, we dealt with it better then once we scored they had to abandon it as it's a bit pointless when you're trying to score yourself.
Jack Nicholson was once asked to explain his success with women. He pondered for a moment, then replied: "I turn up."
Off topic but disingenuous from Jack. He was a beautiful man with a sexy as hell voiice, a stunning smile, a great sense of humour and he seemed like he actually liked women. Can't see him loading the dishwasher though so not perfect husband material.
Seems odd given he took over when they were a point above the drop zone and finished in 13th comfortably mid table.
Surprising they're not waiting until the end of the season. Wondering if they'll be the recipient of this year's annual Championship Birmingham City memorial trophy for shooting yourselves in the foot. Oh dear, never mind.
Yeah the bookings we got was a puzzler. Don't get why they didn't have more and as you say some potential red cards. Also he allowed them to harrangue him all match without booking them for dissent. Not just one player but often three at once shouting in his face and gesticulating.
For balance their fans thought he gave every decision our way.
Also jusr read on their fans forum that their LB Fisher who had a torrid time with Smyth is right footed and struggles playing there. Might explain some of the fouls.
I don't think we can completely compare the two based on one admittedly very good performance yesterday. Although Kolli did very well only two teams have let in more goals this season than Norwich as well as Norwich being much worse away from home. I thought their defence was poor, allowing us more space and not doubling up on our players as much as other teams do, suggesting their attackers don't help out enough at the back. Normally Celar's playing against two CBs and gets nowhere near the space Kolli had yesterday.
I'd like to see him play against better defences before being entirely sure of his hold up play.
Also give a shout out to two players who didn't have much goal involvement but still influenced the game, Smyth and Saito. I think their fullbacks were terrified of Smyth's pace in particular which pinned them back and brought other players in to help out leaving more space for Kolli among others to exploit. He was fouled five times officially and probably should have got a couple more. They should have had at least one booking - four fouls against him from the rightback alone - but also a blatant kick off the ball not noticed by either of the officials nearby could have resulted in a red card but wasn't even given a yellow.
Their fullback lost all seven of his duels - Smyth won 9 out of 13 of his.
Sister pointed out both Field and Varane nearly on five yellow cards and suspension. Bit of a disaster if both booked in this match and suspended together before Colback returns.
I agree with you that to some extent Nourry and Marti like all people in their respective roles have slightly differing priorities. Like all managers they have to think of today: their standing generally depends on right now. Immediate results are key. Nourry has to consider now but also the future. His brief is also to find the next Eze or at least the next Cook, Chair or Colback but at FFP prices. Hayden isn't worth the PL cost in my view - look how we got in hock with Johansen and Austin and screwed up the next two years FFP recruitment cycle. I think Varane is showing signs of being a much better long term prospect than Hayden but on a budget.
Unfortunately we have had the perfect storm of losing our best player, Chair, plus our best left sided defender, Clarke Salter, our best hold up striker, a very experienced DCM, our best back up CD, while introducing a shed load of new players, meanwhile at the same time some of our better players from the end of last season like Andersen and Dunne playing like dog shit.
That's not all down to Nourry. Personally I think he hasn't considered the physicality of the Championship: too many nice boys and short asses. However I think context is also relevant.
Lee Hoos also was future focused. I think the achievements of getting the training ground delivered given the Warren Farm debacle was pretty heroic. I was pretty impressed with him and his willingness to engage with fans. While I agree our fans at the ground have been incredibly patient I also see from his position it's a normal stance to encourage them not to boo the players, particularly those who have threadbare confidence.
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