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Do I want to poop this party? Of course not, but just be warned…

30th November 2007 By theexpert Leave a Comment

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I make my apologies here in advance.

Now don't get me wrong. After what we've just witnessed in these last two games it's perfectly understandable that everybody is jumping through hoops at what has remained an excellent turnaround from the Canaries.

Glenn Roeder's appointment has certainly put a rocket up the backsides of certain players and his judgement in the signing of the loan players cannot be questioned.

And accordingly City supporters are now afforded every reason to be optimistic this season. Definitely so.

And just for the record, here's a list of some of the recent things that have been pleasing to see, to say the least:

i) City holding a higher defensive line in general

ii) Both full-backs getting forward more

iii) Strikers reducing the number of times they are needlessly caught offside

iv) The team playing ? to borrow a Peter Grant quote ? on the ?front foot? much more

v) Set-pieces finally producing goals

But I'm sure that no-one is na?ve enough to think that it'll all be sweetness and light from hereon in and that City are about to destroy every team in their path as they surge up the Coca-Cola Championship table.

It's only a start. A desperately needed and absolutely terrific start I concur, but nothing more.

So taking a couple of steps back from the understandable excitement generated in the past seven days and closely scrutinising City's most recent performance at Blackpool on Tuesday night, what will Glenn Roeder have identified when he watched the DVD of the game, and what will he subsequently try to improve on the training ground in order that his side can continue this welcome upward trend?

Well, there were a couple of aspects of City's performance at Bloomfield Road that might need to be addressed if they aren't to be punished by better teams than Blackpool.

Firstly, as good as they both were against Coventry last Saturday, Darel Russell and Mark Fotheringham were given a tougher time of things in mid-week.

Too often the pair were dragged apart and the distance between them was too big at times to enable them to try to stop the Blackpool midfielders running though the middle of the park.

Look at any highly successful central midfield partnerships and you'll find that they are based on the players staying in close proximity to each other.

When gaps appear and the distances between players in the ?engine room? of the side increase, you're in trouble.

That's why Russell and Fotheringham found it difficult to get close to their opponents in midfield ? especially in the second-half on Tuesday ? they lost their positional discipline too easily.

Roeder will also have felt that his side could have passed the ball better.

Granted, the energy and desire was present to try to retrieve the ball when possession had been surrendered, but I'm sure he'll want higher standards as a matter of course to avoid City unnecessarily being placed on the back foot for too long games.

Possession has, and always will be the key to all success, and although Norwich have undoubtedly made progress in these last two matches their ability to retain ball definitely needs to improve.

Sorry to appear to be the party-pooper, but as the great Franz Beckenbauer once said: ?If you're not improving, you're dying…?

Everything points to Norwich being given a much sterner test against Stoke at the Britannia Stadium tomorrow than they were at Blackpool in mid-week or at home to Coventry last Saturday.

And given this welcome recent upturn in form it is hard to envisage anything remotely approaching another five goal thrashing being inflicted on the Canaries again tomorrow in the manner it embarrassingly was in the corresponding fixture last term.

But there is still room for improvement just the same.


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