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Be interesting to see just what effect the gaffer’s ‘quiet chat’ has had on the boys…

18th January 2008 By theexpert Leave a Comment

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There were many disappointing aspects of the Canaries' performance in the FA Cup at Bury in mid-week, ranging from a basic inability of the players to pass the ball from A to B when put under no pressure whatsoever, through to a distinct lack of creativity against an opposition that hadn't won a game in ages.

Most concerning of all though was the noticeable failure of experienced players to come up with the answers to the elementary questions that were being asked of them.

I'm talking about the manner in which Bury dropped off deep into their own half and positioned ten men behind the ball at every opportunity when they were defending, and thereby creating a classic case of attack versus defence in the Canaries' favour.

City were presented with a situation that takes a bit of craft, ingenuity or guile to unlock the defensive door, because all the Norwich players could see in front of them when they were in possession in midweek was a wall of well-disciplined white shirts that needed to be breached.

But as City leisurely and predictably moved the ball from one side of the pitch to the other, with the players basically passing the buck to each other in the hope that someone would eventually come up with a bit of magic to break their opponents' defensive lines, so the Bury team just slid accordingly across with it.

You could almost see the City players wondering what to do next?

There'd probably have been no problems if it'd been a more open game, as on the occasions in other matches this season when spaces have appeared on the pitch for City to exploit, we've seen that Norwich have been only to willing to attack their opponents whenever the opportunity has arisen and they've not looked a bad side at all?

?But at Bury they were totally lost for ideas.

It's certainly something for City boss Glenn Roeder and his players to work on, as while it's highly unlikely that Norwich will come against similar blanket defending tactics for 90 minutes on too many occasions in the Coca-Cola Championship, there'll inevitably be periods in games when City are in the ascendancy and looking to take the game to their opponents.

But unless they can cope with the situation better than they did on Tuesday night against a bunch of out-of-form League Two players, they'll risk squandering many precious points.

Roeder was honest enough to admit that he could offer up no excuses for his side's failings in mid-week, and hinted that he'd more than likely be summoning a few of his players to his office for a quiet chat!

Now whether that ?chat? would follow along similar lines as did the one for the entire team at Barnsley last Saturday ? (which just happened to coincide with the Canaries returning from their dressing room at half time and producing their best 45 minutes of football for a long time and this after they had gone about their business in the first half the same uncertain and hesitant manner as they would do at Bury four days later) ? is the big question.

Let's hope so, because the fact remains that City are enjoying an excellent run of form in the league and are undoubtedly heading in the right direction, and the last thing they need now is for one decidedly off-day to pull the rug from under their feet.

Ched Evans' availability again is a major boost, as aside from Dion Dublin the other City strikers are experiencing a bit of a tough time at the moment.

Last season's golden boy Chris Martin is hardly getting a look in; Ryan Jarvis hasn't produced anything to force the manager to continue to select him; and things haven't exactly been going Jamie Cureton's way in front of goal lately either. Whereas Dublin has hit two goals in his last two games and Evans was undoubtedly the pick of the bunch in the last league outing at Barnsley last week.

If Dublin and Evans do spearhead the City attack tomorrow against what remains an unimpressive Leicester side, you get the feeling that the Canaries will have every chance of erasing the bad memories of Gigg Lane and returning to winning ways.

But it'll still need a significant improvement on the creative front from everyone in a yellow shirt tomorrow all the same.


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