http://www.andrewmogford.com/?p=383A blog of a Liverpool fan who has a Norwich season tickets. His view of Pacheco's debut:
Well, first of all some background about me and what I hope to achieve with this, and where I hope to take it (if people are interested).
I am a lifelong Liverpool fan, well since I was ten years old anyway, who lives in Norwich and in his quest to watch regular live football, has a Norwich season ticket. I like watching Norwich. They play attractive, passing football, and the ground is an enjoyable place to watch your football.
Since Norwich signed Dani Pacheco on loan, I have been telling anyone who will listen about just how good this player is. They thought I was saying so because I was a Liverpool fan. After today, they believe me
I thought I would post this on my blog, and also on the LFCTV forums. The idea being that I can keep people up to date with how Pacheco is doing in the Championship. Before today, there were eight games left, four home and four away. I will only not be able to see two of them, as the other two away games are on TV. The two which aren’t are on satellite beamback at Carrow Road and I may well go and watch them too.
Anyway, today Norwich played Scunthorpe. Norwich kicked off second, whilst Scunthorpe were second to bottom. However, Scunthorpe actually have a very good away record, having won six on their travels. It is at home they have struggled. Add in a new manager and it was a potential banana skin.
Pacheco started, which to me was quite a surprise. He seemed to be playing just off Grant Holt up front, although they would often exchange positions. Pacheco also played slightly left of center, almost half way between the center point and the touchline.
He didn’t touch the ball for the first 5 or 6 minutes, and then dropped deep, received a difficult ball at thigh-height, controlled it well, and laid it off to the full back who was bombing on. Pacheco immediately sprinted diagonally out wide, and received the ball by the byline, at the edge of the penalty area (this is on the right). He put in an absolute peach of a first time cross towards Holt, which landed in the dangerous area between penalty spot and six yard box. Only a desperate lunge by the defender diverted it for a corner.
About five minutes later – Pacheco won the ball on the edge of the area, and put in a lovely little lay-off. He immediately ran into the penalty area and received a great reverse pass inside the defender. He drove to the byline, looked up, and picked out Holt with a lovely pass which was converted for the first goal.
After about half an hour, Pacheco was playing deep centrally and spotted Holt on a run. He slid the ball through on a slide rule to Holt, and the defender had to bring Holt down for a penalty and a sending off. 2-0.
By now the crowd were really warming to Pacheco and he was being roundly cheered everytime he went near the ball! He showed some more good touches but did fade out a bit as the first half wore on.
I wasn’t expecting him to come out for the second half to be honest. The game was won, the opposition were down to ten men, and there’s a huge game next Saturday. But he did come out, and very quickly showed himself at his best and worst. He won the ball deep inside his own half, and Holt went off on a run level with the last defender. Pacheco should have played the ball through (as Lansbury did later on in the same situation, which resulted in a goal) but instead Pacheco spotted the keeper off his line and tried a chip from the half way line. He got a cheer for it, and it was good awareness, but he should really have passed it.
He then hit the post with a great shot, narrowly missed several other opportunities, and played one other fantastic slide-rule pass to Tierney which also resulted in the post being hit.
He was taken off on the 70th minute to a standing ovation from the whole ground and a fantastic hug from the manager Paul Lambert.
I was really looking forward to watching him play. He may not have scored but in every other aspect he exceeded my expectations. A great performance!
