Ive noticed this season our players chatting a lot to opposition players at the end of games and even in breaks in play. After Bury our lot didn’t look gutted, they just chatted to their Bury mates. Obika in particular seems to know everyone. Obviously you’d talk to ex colleagues at a work do, but I bet Westley’s Stevenage didn’t chat. A symptom of us being too nice and lacking the will to win?
Too nice?
- Thread starter werthersoriginal
- Start date
Think an example of this is in game with the treatment Thomas gets most weeks, defenders seem to rough up him up early, hands in the back the kind of the stuff that's a borderline foul but doesn't tend to get given at this level. Our defenders don't seem to enjoy the physical side, Mous especially. He might be good technically but he's poor in the air and I never seem him getting rough with opposition and he doesn't seem to want to get into a physical battle, e.g. Walsall's second goal with a player half his size. Big difference from Dunkley last year.
I think we're definitely missing a nasty streak in the side - in the past few years we've had the likes of Hylton and Maguire, players who would rough up and annoy the opposition. I think it's a reflection on the managers too, Appleton you could always tell had the ability to have a nasty side to him if the players weren't putting in the performances, but Pep didn't have that.
This is a good thread. It reminds me of a chat I had with Hugh Curran a while back. More often than not an opposition player was targeted for special treatment as he put it. In this particular case Hugh was playing for Norwich City (probably mid sixties) Anyway, the opponents were Birmingham City with a chap called Herriot between the posts. Hugh and "Big" John Manning were given specific instructions to rough him up a bit. Before long he was off the pitch with a bad head wound. A little later he returned with his head heavily strapped, to a standing ovation. Trouble was he was scared to come off his line. Crosses were whipped in to the far post where Hugh and John were waiting. 1,2,3,4 up in no time at all. It takes a bit for Hugh to laugh but he began to giggle uncontrollably and soon had the place rockingwith laughter. As he said, no time to have weeks on the sidelines. Pain killing injection and get out there..I do think we have a soft underbelly.
Agree about leaders on the pitch. Whenever they make a pathetic error, they all just shrug their shoulders and walk back. No player has a go at them. Jake Wright wasn't the most demonstrative but he would bollocking players for needless, stupid errors on the pitch on occasion. The most demonstrative I've seen a player this season was a few home games ago when Carroll was demanding the ball from Thomas (iirc).
Good thread! Quiet teams win 'nowt and this season not enough players are geeing each other up or demanding that heads stay up after conceding a goal.
And we definitely lack the presence of someone who will step up and inject a bit of aggressive energy.
I don't mean that players should court bookings, but pretty much every player in the squad could be playing closer to an edge.
It's not the full story, but we are at number 17 in the League 1 'fair play' table (where 1 denotes the worst record).
And we definitely lack the presence of someone who will step up and inject a bit of aggressive energy.
I don't mean that players should court bookings, but pretty much every player in the squad could be playing closer to an edge.
It's not the full story, but we are at number 17 in the League 1 'fair play' table (where 1 denotes the worst record).
