It’s hard trying to write a match report when there’s nothing to report on. What’s going on? After witnessing that shower last week v Leicester, we came away thinking we’ll have the home advantage, plus the players will want to give the fans the lift they needed so surely we’ll have more than half a chance….
10 minutes in, I thought we looked OK on the ball. The urgency was there and we were winning duels in the air. I must admit though, the Norwich wingers did have a threat about them, but the two full backs were handling them (Sort of…)
They scored their first and you could physically see heads drop all over the pitch. Only a few managed to pick them up. The second goal went in, this time nobody picked their heads up. I’ll open myself up to criticism here, but I was disgusted with Cattermole. I clocked him walking back to the center circle staring at the ground. I kept my eyes on him and that was it, he just wasn’t in the game. A captain should be revving the lads up, not getting subbed after 30 minutes against Leicester, and being so lazy yesterday that he didn’t listen to the whole stadium shout man on, and give a goal away.
M’Vila looks the part, though. He was strong in challenges and won the majority, he got us out of trouble a few times and set the wingers away. I do like the look of him.
Half time came and so did the chorus of boo’s. I didn’t know how to take that with it being the first game of the season at home, but you can understand why when we’ve only had 10 wins at home in 3 seasons.
The second half didn’t start any better either, and it wasn’t long until the 3rd went in. Kaboul looked very poor, almost as if him and Coates weren’t talking to each other at the back. He has a thing for doing a JOS, hoofing the ball into no mans land and hoping for the best! And of course, upon the 3rd hitting the net, thousands of fans left. The media seem to like picking up on this when it’s us, but not a jot was said when the Arsenal fans did it against West Ham last week. Strange
The crowd suddenly came to life with probably their first attack against Ellis Short…’Are you watching Ellis Short….’ Was he there? No. Will he listen? Probably not. I believe the true problem is FFP, and the fact we have the 8th highest wage bill in the league. Look at our team and the technical quality in it. How have we managed to rack up the EIGHTH highest bill!? When we talk technical quality, I don’t believe Larsson or Cattermole have places in the team but we are stuck, there is literally no backup. Larsson runs and runs, that’s it (Albeit he likes to point at something every now and then). Cattermole sticks a tackle in, that’s it. When I think about it, it’s absolutely crazy that our fans cheer so loud for a tackle. Tackles don’t win matches. We are purely blinkered by the apparent affection they show for the club, and that goes for the lot of them.
The crowd once again came to life when we all saw young Duncan Watmore take to the sideline. He was about to make his debut in the Premier League, and good on him, he got a goal. He looked like he was on cloud 9 when he wheeled away to celebrate, something I haven’t seen in quite along time now.
Other than that, I don’t know where we are going to go from here. We look extremely poor all over the pitch. PVA was non-existent again. Billy Jones – don’t know why we bother. The strikers failed to receive any service, again. The list goes on. They aren’t playing as a team.
We all say it’s too early to set the alarms going with only two games gone, but it isn’t. That’s the same core team that has nearly been relegated for the past 3 years – perhaps our stay is finally up. The close of the window is almost upon us and we are still without that certified goalscorer, the main item on the list that we actually need. We probably need another midfielder and defender too on the face of things now, but is there actually any money available?
Swansea up next, how fun.