Monday 19 October 2009

Vs Leeds United - First questions about the manager

Let's not blame the keeper for the loss today at Leeds. For me there were the first real question marks over Paul Lambert's decision making.

With 75 minutes gone, Darryl Russell should have been sent off. After already being on a yellow card stupidly gained for a pointless lunge, Russell spent the last 15 minutes carrying a passenger in midfield who could not make a challenge because he knew the next foul he did would be punished with a red card. What was the result of this ? A total lack of bite in the midfield and 15 minutes of hanging on which led to the Leeds goal.

The Sky commentators were raving about the Leeds sub ignoring the fact that in effect Norwich were playing with 10 men.

What did Lambert do ? Stood their with his collar up whilst three midfielders sat on the bench until the dying seconds.

I know the keeper will take the blame, but Lambert needs put his hands up and accept he got it wrong.

P.S. And let's also not get carried away. Leeds United are far from being a great side. If only every Norwich player except Holt didn't need at least two touches before shooting, the game would have been well won before the 92nd minute.

PPS. And less than 20,000 fans at Elland Road. A pathetic attendance. I wonder how many glory hunters will turn up if they go up ?

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Presumabley you would have posted the same thing had Forster not made such a terrible mistake and we ground out a draw?

Nich Starling said...

If you look at the time it was published you will note that I had started writing this whilst the game was still on, indeed, the game was on 87 minutes when I started writing it. It required some editing very quickly (the references to a valuable point) but yes, I would certainly hav said it.

What about addressing the point I made ? Why was Russell still on. He was anonymous for the last 15 minutes and Smith was sat on the bench. What a waste.

I failed to mention Otsemebor with his back to goal for the Leeds goal. I always tell my school team "We defend our goal from our goal kicks", clearly Otsemebor doesn't !

Anonymous said...

all that said i thought our performance was fantastic against Leeds, heads held high and hopefully three points from the next game

D.Thomas