I don’t think the pink dressing room theory works. Preston displayed at least as much testosterone as we did throughout the match and were only dissected right at the end by a brace of finishes applied with surgical precision.
Alexander Tettey said after the game he had “enjoyed” his worst performance in a yellow shirt. Alex mate, I’ve seen over 60 per cent of your appearances and you are right on the button. That atrocious square pass that set Callum Robinson free to whack the underside of our bar being Wednesday’s lowlight.
But if we were starved of entertainment for 75-plus minutes, things changed and in no small part due to Alex.
I cannot praise Jamal Lewis enough for the cheeky stepover and feed to Teemu Pukki and boy did our fine Finn do the rest. Declan Rudd is probably still wondering what was wrong with his positioning. Nothing Declan, he drilled it across you with a marvellous sense of awareness. Pukki seems to be two-footed as well, which is a more than useful attribute for any player.
Then of course a late corner is cleared but only as far as Tettey. It bounces once and with one swing of that left peg Rudd is marmalised. When Alex scores his seasonal goal they tend to be belters. Even the toe-poke against Man U, which qualifies as a worldy simply because of who it was scored against.
Of course, Alex then showed his maturity by whipping off his shirt in justifiable celebration. Don’t you attract enough bookings as it is? However, no-one really cared, including Daniel Farke.
Disappointments? Yes, a few. Moritz Leitner is a player I just cannot make up my mind about. Is he an under-rated genius or a guy with the ability to pick a pass but with nothing else in his locker?
My mate and I had an interesting little half-time ramble in which he compared Leitner to Ian Crook. I countered that Leitner couldn’t hold a candle to him and in the end we both agreed we were probably looking back on Chippy Crook through rose-tinted glasses and should give Leitner more time to express himself. We also agreed that when it comes to pace both the aforementioned would be put to shame by a geriatric sloth.
I wasn’t over impressed with Ben Marshall either in his further forward role. He appeared to offer not too much, as they say.
However, there were two mighty positives. A fine display from Tim Krul. We can only hope his confidence and form grow from hereon in. And the first time I’ve seen Emilio Buendia in a yellow shirt. He looked useful although obviously there wasn’t a lot of scope to judge timewise.
Of course, we’ve also got Kenny McLean to come back as well and hopefully Mario Vrancic isn’t that far away either.
With that first win under our belt things feel a lot more comfortable. I’m looking forward to the two games before the international break although I doubt they’ll be over-friendly encounters either on or off the pitch.
Finally, my award for “I hope it isn’t true” rumour goes for “Wes to Fleetwood and Joey Barton”.
We love you Wes, please don’t do it!
Hi Martin
Well I watched the game on Sky via the red button as they were showing all the championship games.
As like your self I found the first half very disappointing and possibly one of the worst I have seen in many years.
Leitner could he be returning to his usual self he has had about 4 moves and impressed for short periods then back tracked, I have seen a few players over the years do similar things once they get a permanent move they think that’s that and nolonger have to impress I hope he just had a bad game.
Tettey was honest enough to admithe was happy with hisperformance, but a good goal so we can forgive him a bad game.
Klose his on off transfer is now to expensive for Hannover at £3m do they city to give him away.
will we see the experience of Tettey on Saturday against Dirty Leeds or does he need to recharge his batteries, Will Farke go with a back 3 to many people will knock the team selection no matter what do roll on the next game and please a more team like performance.
Hello Alex
There are more questions than answers, as the old song goes.
We were NOT that good last night but got there in the end.
The Leitner issue continues to confound me. There IS a player in there but…
Dirty Leeds always worry me and I don’t expect Saturday to be any different. Maybe a dose of hubris and they’ll come unstuck – but they are flying, so we’ll see.
Thank you.
IT’S an enigma how some players i.e. Sissoco player brilliantly at Newcastle and for the Frence National Team but rarely turns up for Spurs I just hope Farke can get him performing on all cylinders again as he will be a major asset to the team
Have to say that although Leitner did not have his best game (along with most of the others) i thought his commitment, desire to win and delight at the goals showed a really good attitude. Nothing like the suggested backtracking.
Yes agreed. Attitude spot on.
The biggest question for me was why the half-time switch of Hernandez from left wing, where he was outstanding and the most likely match winner for us, to right wing, where he simply disappeared..
A very fair point Mike. Ben Marshall did very little going forward on the right as well.
But at least Farke made some changes (in terms of both formation and personnel) and we crossed the line with a bit of style. Eventually.
It’s gonna be a long old season, for sure.
The fact that Preston played with as much testosterone as us doesn’t mean the pink walls didn’t work-my daughters playing in the garden when they were eight displayed as much machismo as many of the NCFC displays over the last few years; perhaps they came down to our level.
Ha! I used to have to take my daughter to Wei Wei Wong’s ballet class at the old Blofield Court House, resplendent in bright cerise. Rachel, not me.
Wei Wei suggested I could sit and watch the kids dancing.. As the Kings Head was a two-minute walk away I declined her kind offer although a few of the mothers remained in situ. What a dump that place was..
Playing in the garden was great and when Josh hit six we even bought a proper net and guess who was always keeper? Yep, dad.:-)
well Martin up here in the North it is now Wigan that are trying to sign Wes H so he just might turn out against city unless he pulls a sicky we the teams sre to meet.
City should use him to scount potential targets in Ireland and pay him a wage
Actually Alex if Wes joined Wigan I would be pleased for both club and player.
Ignoring Wigan’s meteoric start to the season (which will not last) I reckon he would be ideal to help them re-establish themselves in the Championship. Even at 36. But we had to let him go.
If you love somebody, set them free.
Even if only because Delia no longer wishes to pay that level of wages.
It remains though that to be devoid of Pritchard, Maddison and Hoolahan in just a few short months is a bit of a blow. To many supporters, anyway.
yes Martin I fully agree and Maddison it was a very difficult decision to leave city but needed to prove himself at a jigher level, Never a word from Pritchard on his leaving City and with Wes we had the best out of him but sorry to see him go but it had to happen sometime.
I reckon the pink dressing room had its effect in the last 15 minutes.
More seriously, I like Martin’s half-time conversation with his mate and its conclusion. I’m a Leitner fan (as I suspect Onel Hernandez is), but I understand the debate.
Hi Stew
It was somewhat strange to compare the two players but we enjoyed running on about them. Some great memories!
Could anyone really hit a 30-40 yard pass like Ian Crook? Dunno.
Leitner remains an enigma to me. Yes he is instrumental in releasing Hernandez on occasions, but an enigma he remains; to me, anyway.
It’s fair to say that Leitner’s passing is better than his finishing!
Players like Chippy, Wes and Leitner get remembered for the brilliant things they do/did, and that memory is that they did them week in week out. Hucks too. But in reality there are games that they get strangled out of it, and it sounds as though last night was a case in point.
It’s much the same when England play internationals against well-organised but stubborn nations, the likes of Estonia or Lithuania. They frequently turn into games like that. Even the Lalanas and Dele Alis of this world find it hard to play through tight midfields and defences whose main aim is containment.
Hi Keith.
Yes that’s true enough plus every player has the odd stinker from time to time though not all have the honesty and good grace to admit it a la Tettey.
We mostly tend to recall the good times and forget the aspects that you rightly highlight.
Preston were certainly not shrinking violets!
I think the pink dressing room is a mistake. It would be better done in dull browns, greys and black, get the opposition into a depressed state. Not sure if colour psychology works, anyway. The best tactic is to flood the away dressing room floor with icy cold water, no heating in the winter, and only cold showers! However, that might just invite retaliation when go to visit their grounds!
To be honest Jim I’ve been in enough dressing rooms in my time and I can honestly say I can’t remember the colour of any of them. And I know none of the people I played with have even noticed the décor at the time.
I suspect it’s a bit of pseudo scientific hokum – straight from the US of A.
As for your tactic, Hackney Marshes was ALWAYS like that. For all the teams! Me and my mate used to change in the car – not easy if it was my turn to drive as I had an Austin Healey Sprite at the time:-)
Great summing ups by both Gary and yourself Martin (when are they not??).
Like I suspect many others, I was tearing out what little hair I have left every time Tettey got the ball for the first 80 minutes; than he scores (another) worldy. Hats off to the guy for his own honest summation of what was a poor, poor overall performance from him.
Whilst I can understand the possession based system of Herr Farke, I do wish that our back four would play the ball to each other with rather more pace than we saw last night. So many soft and underhit passes were crying out to be punished, but luckily were not. When our opponents play this way the passes always seem so much more purposeful and played with pace.
Hernandez had a decent first 45; Pukki looks a genuine 2 footed player, and I suspect Rhodes legs are black and blue today, so say nothing of the continual pushes into his back. Krul looked more composed, Lewis more creative (but sometimes getting in the way of Hernandez), and on the evidence of last night’s cameo, we definitely need to see more of Buendia.
A further 6 points before the international break and we’ll definitely be a glass half full club!!
O T B C
Hi John
You make some very good points there.
Rhodes certainly got a lot of “attention” You’re spot on about Lewis and Hernandez, but the head coach is paid to sort that type of thing out and I’m sure he will. Quicker the better:-)
The toing and froing with Hanley and Co is perfectly okay with me actually because it invariably takes place too deep for even a high press to shut it down as Krul is always available to join in the fun. However I would not like to see this “philosophy” in motion on a cut-up pitch in the middle of February!
I found last night a quite interesting experience in an analyitical way. Yes it was a dull first 75 minutes but it was in no small part down to Preston making it so. They pressed high, denying city space to play the ball forward and waited to capitalise on any mistake we would (and did) make in our final third. It was a painful thing to watch through my yellow and green spectacles but because of the dire nature of this attritional contest it made me notice far more the body language, demeanour and techniques of our previous and present coach/manager side by side. For me It was an interesting comparison. Alex Neil I’m sure starts with a plan but as things change or deviate, he reverts into being a “shoot from the hip” kind of guy, a reactionary who attempts to deal with what’s in front of him as it happens.
In certain quarters that’s an admirable quality, however in football that only lasts a certain amount of times before it stops working and when it doesn’t work anymore changing direction long term is a harder thing to do.
Daniel Farke however seems to have a plan and rigidly sticks to it. His demeanour last night remained on a much more even keel. His appreciation of a team trying to mess with this system was met with efficient changes at the right time with the minimum of fuss. I’m starting to finally get it and I see it’s longevity.
I just hope the self funding model doesn’t stifle its progress too much (although I feel it might)
I know football is an impatient universe these days and I succumb to this feeling often, but last night, in the midst of a poor game I saw a glimmer of some positives beyond just the result in “plan Farke.”
Saturday will be another stern test when Leeds come to Carrow road, but I’m glad we have the present manager/coach and not the last at the helm.
Hi Chris – great post..
To be totally honest I was pretty bored too but it never occurred to me to compare the body language of the two managers. A bit difficult from the Upper Barclay in any case! We would have got the poker dice out if anybody had brought any.
Farke is indeed as cool as they come and although I don’t know for sure, I would dearly love to think most NCFC supporters infinitely prefer him to his predecessor.
Self-funding is another issue for another day. I know what I think but we’re all enjoying our first three points of the season so I’m not going to ruin the atmosphere by running on about lack of investment:-)
Cheers Martin, that’s why I briefly mentioned finance! I’m sure before the season is out the subject will surface one way or another ?
It will:-)
Stuff Leitner, I’ve seen more obvious sticks insects. Buendia totally changed the tone of the game with just a few very slick touches and turns, giving the others the belief to push on (which they did). If this entirely trite system is to ignite any sense of adventure, he will be central to that.
I agree Buendia looked very sharp when he came on. Obviously I’d never seen him before and was pleasantly surprised.
Leitner must be the first footballer in MFW history to be referred to as both a geriatric sloth and a stick insect in the same article. Shades of Dali.