Norwich match report - player ratings and summary

Summary points:
1. I said to my wife before the game that it would be decided by wingers and it did prove so. Norwich’s wide men won it for them – in truth, almost single-handed – ours didn’t do the same for us on this occasion.
2. We need to think about how we defend as a team when the play is all against us. On this occasion, we actually did need two players to block out the dangers of Croft and, in the second half, Huckerby – one player couldn’t do this and I felt sorry for both Hassell and Williams, especially in the second half, when they were so exposed and lacking in cover against such skilful players.
3. We needed to be clearer about the change of structure after Kay went off – it looked confusing to me and to the players and we lost our grip because of this.
4. We have had a wonderful storming start – we need to think whether we would accept that we might visit some places like Norwich and focus first on defence and containing the game/frustrating the opponents to go on to seek on breakaway winner. Would we change the attacking football for that style if it meant coming away with a point? Last season we did so well because we built from the back, defending in numbers and selecting teams sometimes to defend and frustrate firstly, then attack later if necessary.
5. With Kay out, do we now need to get an experienced defender, or a young premiership loanee? Do we need to strengthen elsewhere? Might this be at the cost of the excellent team spirit which has done so well for us so far?

Player ratings:

Colgan 6: could not fault him with anything. Two excellent saves when 1:1 with Earnshaw, or it could have been more.

Hassell 5: He showed he could handle Huckerby with confidence before the sending off and did well when moved to central defence, but he was taken apart by Huckerby in the second half (although he lacked the cover support he needed), so he has to be 5 and will need to think about defending against the higher quality of forward.

Reid 6: Played solidly in the middle, one tackle on Earnshaw in particular saving a certain goal. Cannot fault him for the goals, really, especially as he was on his own in the middle at times.

Kay 5: There will be much debate about the sending off and the penalty and I will suspend judgement until I have seen action-replays. In effect, the sending off cost us what looked like a well-contested game in which we more than matched Norwich early on. I would rather have seen Earnshaw score and keep eleven players, as this would have given us best chance. However, I might concede that Kay was hard done-by if that is what the evidence shows.

Williams 4: He would have been spit-roasted by Croft regardless of the sending off. Croft did to him what Devaney did to Bale last week. It won’t have done his confidence much good, but he looks sharper than last season and won’t want to lose his newly-won first team place. He lacked cover support when it was obvious that Croft was the danger man throughout the game.

Devaney 5: For our match-plan to work in matching Norwich blow-for-blow and taking the game to them, Devaney had to do to Drury what Croft did to Williams. It didn’t happen, except for fitfully in one or two moves. I longed for him to take on Drury and get towards the by-line to cut back the crosses for Richards, or Hayes – it didn’t happen enough. He also had to get back as a wide midfielder (don’t forget, in our formation, he is not a striker, so is needed to track back) to give cover support for Williams against Croft. Croft could have been marginalised to the touchline, or find he always had a second player to beat. He may not have been given these instructions, but it was fairly obvious the way the game was going.

Togwell 6: Battled well in the midfield and involved in some of our good moves early on. Spent the time from the sending off fighting a rear-guard action, sometimes in midfield and sometimes at full back.

Howard 7: Another assured performance. His attitude didn’t drop even after the fourth goal, which is what the whole team needs. Again looked a class player who is going places. Kept up the high standards of ball play to the very end.

McIndoe 5: Roughly the same comment as with Devaney, although the need for him to cover back was greater as Croft gave Williams a hard time right from the off. He also didn’t get past Colin to provide the crosses we needed in answer to the two Norwich wide men. His match also seemed to get confused by the positional change which switched him from wide left to left midfield with Hayes coming in on the left. I think he lost his focus because of this.

Hayes 5: Again, well held by the Norwich back four. When moving to wide left, he needed to get back to support Williams/Tonge and he needed to take on Drury. Got on the end of Richards’ ball for a deflected goal.

Richards 6: Good header early on and made the goal for Hayes. Lost time, space and other players to play with him late on. Kept trying. Another whose head didn’t drop.

Tonge (sub) 7: given the clear instruction to cut Croft’s threat out, although it was a bit late. He only had ten minutes to do so before Croft was substituted (he might have been anyway), but he did cut out the threat and carried his instructions well. Had he been on earlier, we might have cut some of the threat down our left.

Wright 5: put himself about in characteristic manner and didn’t give up. I though he played better than previously, mostly keeping possession and snapping away at the defenders. Won a couple of corners.

Healy 5: the game was gone by the time he came on and he could only try to keep the possession game going. He looked a sound player, but the circumstances did not allow him to show his worth.

Conclusion: How the management and the team respond to this will be crucial. If things are allowed to fall apart, it will be bad news. In truth, there is no reason why they should. We were magnificent through much of the first half and the quality of football on show had Norwich chasing shadows – I was proud of the players and the team. We now know we have our first risky need to cover Kay. Do we bring a player in, or loan someone, or do we give Atkinson a chance. What will all this do to team spirit? We were a bit naïve out there. Over the next week, Ritchie will need to get the team to think how we defend first in such games and look to attack on the break. We were promoted last season partly on the strength of sound defence and clean sheets. We need to get back to the same basics, but without losing the capacity to play the wonderful attacking football which has been so refreshing. I don’t think I would want to be a manager in these situations, but Ritchie and Holden need to get the team ‘up for it’ again for the Stoke match. At home, so attacking will be the first thought and defending the lead the second.

Keep the faith! I was proud of the team (which didn’t deserve to go down 5-1) and was proud to be part of the excellent support today. We were not shamed, but were a bit naïve, albeit with the disadvantage of having to make do with ten men.

For comparison, my Norwich player ratings would be: Gallagher 5, Colin 5, Shackell 6, Doherty 6, Drury 6, Croft 9, Safri 5, Etuhu 6, Robinson 5, Huckerby 8, Earnshaw 8.

 

"Keep the faith! I was proud of the team (which didn’t deserve to go down 5-1) and was proud to be part of the excellent support today. We were not shamed, but were a bit naïve, albeit with the disadvantage of having to make do with ten men."

Agree with that. The support today was amazing especially all the guys who were sat behind me who really didn't stop singing the whole game. Well done to them

 

Devaney vs. Huckerby

I think you hit the nail on the head (although I was not in attendance today). Your ratings of the respective forwards speak volumes. I have to say that I was a bit worried when there was a chance at either end within the opening minute.

It's no disrespect to ANY of our players, but you cannot go slugging toe-to-toe with teams like Norwich and expect to get away with it.

In an open game (like today), quality will ALWAYS win through.

 

Good post.......I like the conclusion

 

Sorry mate...

But if we were 'magnificent' your marks don't even come close to reflecting it.

Guy I know who goes to every game had just arrived in toen when I was setting off home. He said "We tried, but..."

Nice to know, but not going to win us games. Norwich are lightweight. Play good football, but will struggle to make the play offs.l

 

'Norwich are lightweight'...............yes they are not in my top 6

I think Norwich will be in top 10 but not top 6
Top 6

Birmingham
Southampton
Leeds
WBA
Crystal Palace
Cardiff

 

RE: 'Norwich are lightweight'...............yes they are not in my top 6

Leeds!!!!!you really are bonkers(clown)

 

I was just thinking that myself.

 

So why do you keep banging on about experience then?

When its quality that we actually need.

 

good post

unlike the man city hammering a few years we back we still kept trying. long day of travelling for me yesterday but still immensely proud of the lads. had a boro fan in the pub trying to take the piss yesterday in the pub when i got home and i still argued like **** with him

 

That is an excellent post. I wasn't at the match so I can't comment on the players, except from someone else's (commentators) perceptions of how they played. However, your summaries do seem to match what came accross on the radio. That being the case, I don't have a major problem with the players. My problem is that, I think it was naive for our management team to think that we could go to Norwich and think that we would get away with an all out attacking policy, when we had 11 men. For them to think that we could still do it when we only had 10 men, borders on lunacy in my mind. Especially when their immediate answer to the sending off was to weaken what has become the strongest part of our team this year, by taking Togwell out of mid-field and playing him at full back. Had we brought another defender on and played with one up front, our only major weakness would have been in their penalty area, not ours and it may still have been possible to get at least 1 and possibly 3 points from the game.

 

I thought McIndoe had a decent game....

Especially in the first half, he was all over the place.

Pity we tried to walk it into the goal everytime we went forward, a few more shots would have been welcomed.

Disco had a shocker, as did Williams. Hassell I thought coped well under pressure, Richards was fairly cluless and could not hold up the ball when we did manage to break upfield.

We looked clueless at the back on occasions and gave Croft and Huckerby far much time and respect. I lost count the times that Huckerby started his attack on the half way line and either when past Reid/Williams/Hassell or were only eventually challenged just outside the box when it was too late a la third/fourth and fifth goal.

I thought we played so well in the first half but lost the plot in the second half when they started spreading the ball wide and maiking the extra man count.

We won't go down if we keep fighting like that. The locals were full of praise on the local radio saying how open we are at attacking and never gave up, that is a double edged sword with hind sight as you are either getting back in the game like the first half or leaving you wide open to a drubbing in the second half. Lots of things for Stritchie to think about but everbody should not be so glum.

 

"The locals were full of praise"

It's pretty easy to praise the opposition when you've just stuffed them 5-1. I'd be much happier if they were complaining about what a dirty set of so-an-sos we were and we'd come away with a scrappy draw.

 

That there hindsight thing again but you are not wrong.

We should not be down though, life goes on and a bump on the head we have had.

Pick ourselves up against Stoke, there is more rubbish in this league if what we have seen so far is any reflection.

Just think if you were a Sunderland/Hull (and lesser Colchester) fan right now, we are playing decent attacking football and can score goals, OK we are letting in goals but laws of averages say that by scoring goals we will win as many of not more than we will lose which is more than you can say right now for the above.

 

After the crap we read in the so called....

National (and often local) press, it is a refreshing change to read such an in depth, critical evaluation a football match which is indicative of how Barnsley fans should discuss results such as these. This supportive tone is often forgotten by the moaners and whiners who cannot see past the '5' in the scoreline. Thanks for this, lets try and get more people thinking like this rather than the 'goobers' we get on praise and grumble.</p>

Chris</p>