Some interesting draws in the 4th round of the Carabao Cup…
Mansfield vs Port Vale
Ipswich vs Fulham
Manchester United vs Newcastle
Bournemouth vs Liverpool
Chelsea vs Blackburn
West Ham vs Arsenal
Everton vs Burnley
Exeter vs Middlesbrough
At least one League One team will go through, and at least three Prem teams will be eliminated, one of them being Arsenal.
Boro’s fans will have to undertake quite some journey… about 750 miles to Exeter and back?
Such fine margins. We lost to Bradford on penalties. Bradford lose to a Boro side currently there for the taking. Boro then get Exeter.
Quite a bit of analysis to work through.
I’ll agree he played 4-2-3-1 to start many games and this seemed to revert to 3-5-1-1 later on which was marginally the better of the two set ups.
With regard the 2 midfielders covering I would go back to my original point that he lacked the quality of players rather than a fault in the system.
Our first promotion under Alex Neil was, although disappointing, better than any of Farke’s because the 2 holding midfielders were Alex Tettey and Jonny Howson who were better players in those positions than any available to Farke. Tettey was still at Norwich but at the end of his career.
Had we have purchased two or three proven replacements rather than a raft of young hopefuls in the hope we’d find a Maddison I’m sure we’d have proven to be a more competitive team.
The naivety of the system was the holding players never saw the danger that Tettey and Howson would have done and so we ended up wide open to a counter attack.
I do think too much is made of systems rather than the skill and athleticism of players combined with the man management of the manager.
I watched Jonny Howson playing for Middlesbrough last year in cup matches against premiership clubs and though at the end of his career still looked a class player (if only).
The Athletic article literally details how many times he played each formation and what happened. Impressive detail. Have you read it or were you just responding to my comments. You really should read it. It’s superb.
I think your point about athleticism is an interesting one. Nowadays people do tend to get hung up on formations as though they were some rigid thing. Sometimes the only thing you need is a better player. When we used to play 433 many of our fans craved 442. The arguments still rage over what Flynn’s one winger formation was twenty years down the line. At the moment the BBC insists we’re 442 despite being 352 for three years. Many of our fans say we play 532.
The reality is that in possession we’re 3322 and out we’re 442 or 532. What has actually made the difference is better players.
At the end of last season our captain Luke Young was displaced by Andy Cannon. The latter was allegedly a more attacking upgrade. Never yet seen a 90 minute performance from the latter. He started this season and entire teams walked through our midfield. Young, a player supposedly not good enough for league two, and that slightly more defensive mindset knitted everything together.
The biggest difference I noticed between the championship and the premiership was the athleticism of the players.
They were generally stronger and quicker than I expected and the midfield of premiership teams seemed to shrug our players off with ease.
I expected a gulf in skill but the strength and speed difference was an eye opener.
When we went up for a second time under Farke we were expecting our sporting director to buy strong, capable, holding midfield players to overcome our previous mistake, which he readily admitted to following our first relegation.
The fans were desperately disappointed when we bought wide players and youngsters who were never going to compete with say a Crystal Palace midfield.
Premiership players who looked impressive on tv appeared to me to be even more impressive when attending matches.
That’s interesting. We’ve had years of “the gap between non-league and league two has narrowed significantly.” Plenty of people willingly bought into that wholesale as part of the narrative demanding three up three down rather than two.
In some seasons you could even argue it was true. I’ve certainly seen at least one season when the whole of the top ten in the National League were capable of competing in League Two, but, it was the one season and the primary driver of raised standards is money whether that is Crawley, Fleetwood, AFC Fylde, Stockport and Notts County or ourselves.
Standards in general are not narrowing. Absent money and with fan ownership we faced year on year budget cuts and a general decline in the standard of player recruited and the style of football. Money didn’t guarantee success but it did give us the chance to compete and I don’t think buying Championship standard players is illustrative of a narrowing of standards so much as an example of how easy it is for the rich to over-spend and how hard it is for clubs in the Championship to compete absent a parachute payment with clubs like ourselves.
And yes, the step up to League Two has been a shock. The players are bigger, far more physical and faster. There are also far more teams with coherent tactics to beat the opppsotton rather than just stop them playing. Of the teams we’ve seen so far only Bradford in the Carabao looked poor and that was likely because the now back Cook was injured. We thrashed Grimsby but that’s because they spent 45 minutes with the wrong tactics.
Incidentally allied to that brilliant Athletic article I noted an “I” article talking about the really disturbing thing with Norwich not being their recent tendency to come straight back down but rather the fact that it was relatively easy for them to come straight back up by some points distance because of the parachute system.
The parachute question is one that stirs everybody.
Although Norwich have benefited I’m not altogether in favour of them as I believe it leads to sloppy contract management.
As I recall the parachute payments were to aid the income transition but in reality I believe they just increased players wages.
In recent times relegated clubs have lost their best and presumably highest paid players upon relegation as they will not wish to play in the championship.
The payments have then been used to give relegated teams an edge over others in the championship. It’s also subsidised poor owners who otherwise could not afford to maintain a championship side.
I honestly expect the premiership to adopt the American model and become a closed shop for their members based on the franchise system.
I watched Inter Miami lose 2-1 to Houston in the US Open Cup Final last night (on TV, sadly). No Messi or Alba, and it could easily have been 4-0 at HT. But Miami had a strong second half.
The atmosphere was fantastic – so noisy, amazing drumming, and the full-on Latin experience. If you get a chance , try to catch one of the Miami home games on the telly.
The proliferation of American owners certainly points in that direction.
I think I missed your Stockport match report, Mike 
@Andyblain that would be because I was unable to secure tickets and had opted instead to attend a Manchester Nystagmus Network event at which I would have been one of the experts. Unfortunately that didn’t happen for me either as I contracted what is presumed to be post Covid bacterial pneumonia and within a week and a half that has been followed by a series of pulmonary embolisms which have put me off work for the next month and feeling fairly grateful for being alive.
Thus far I have missed two games; two gigs and a Manchester Literature Festival event last night with Naomi Klein. Regrettably I expect to be missing a whole lot more as I have tickets for Mitski, PJ Harvey and our away games at both Bradford City and Crewe and I’m having to accept I’m simply not up to it. Have at least two other MLF events I’m missing.
I will allegedly be fit to travel to Berlin at the end of October but we shall see.
I didn’t notice the edge we had last season & we are doing our best to hide it this season so far.
The Norwich sense of fair play…Give the opposition a chance.
Jeepers. Hope you’re on the mend. Best wishes
If only we’d bought two or three quality players rather than umpteen wide players who were too small to compete.
With Delia in charge it’s all about gambling on a Maddison I’m afraid and don’t mention the premier league to her!
Ahead of Saints’ home game with Leeds tomorrow, the Southampton local paper has an online article where Leeds manager Daniel Farke praises the managerial skills of Saints’ Russell Martin. There is a comments section below. One comment:
“He’s a great coach ! So is a Volvo 9900 and that knows nothing about football either”
My earlier quote was
I’ve a horrible feeling this is beginning to be borne out. He appears to be a decent man manager with the relevant badges and when his teams attack they do so attractively but they don’t do it enough or seem capable of doing the right things when they don’t have the ball despite his commitment to both passing and pressing. He doesn’t really seem capable of executing the ideologies to which he has committed.
His managerial finishes have been 19th, 13th, 15th and 10th each pair being with different clubs. I suppose there’s an argument for incremental improvement there but is that acceptable in the world we live in? It ought to be but I suspect it isn’t.
Weird thing for me is his connection with the likes of Luke Williams. This is his first job without him and it’s been interesting as a Wrexham fan to see the Notts County style of play. It’s an absolutely extraordinary high line. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Away they battered us for 45 but second 45 we pressed and they were in all sorts of bother. In the return, which effectively decided the title, they were given around eight offsides which TV showed very clearly to not be so. On the day they were lucky to only lose 3-2. They’re doing well at the top of the table which goes to show that limited styles can work at that level. I can’t help but think that Martin is what you get when you try that higher up.
The three clubs he’s managed all made increasingly odd and arguably cost cutting related appointments before and after him so one can only presume he gives good interview and is perceived as a cut price Pep or some such. Such is his weird career trajectory that it’s only a matter of time before a bottom half EPL team come calling.
Interesting interview with Nathan Jones in The Times today. Perhaps not as interesting as it could have been.
Well, The Mighty Whites, high on confidence, travelled South to meet Southampton, currently in the doldrums, to continue their resurgence in the top six.
Instead, it was Saints who came out with fire in the belly, and they absolutely battered us in the first half.
Too many Leeds players looking lost out there, and that big green grassy area which is supposed to contain Calamity Cooper was once again strangely empty, which is becoming an all too familiar occurrence these days.
Second half started out a little better, but before long we were back with the aimless passing and accusatory stares.
The ending of a false dawn, or just a bad day at the office?
Hard to say, but either way, I can see us dropping right back down the table after the final results come in later this afternoon.
Today’s school report reads “Tries hard, but could do much better”.
Heads up, chaps, and we go again against QPR on Wednesday.
M.O.T.
Sorry ‘bout that Dave……
No, really……
Honest……
'Course you are. 
No worries, it’s always been a regular part of the joys of supporting The Mighty Whites down the years.
M.O.T.