blandy Posted January 5, 2012 Moderator Share Posted January 5, 2012 The gap between our best and worst performances is way too big. I think the reasons for this, or some of the reasons are fairly straightforward. 1. Small squad - without the ability to properly give players a rest, cover fully for injuries or loss of form or suspensions the team (and results) are at the whim of fatigue and loss of confidence. We're very dependent on a small number of players to get reasonable results. 2. Youngsters - we have a fair number of younger players, prone more to fluctuations in form and confidence and misdemeanours and because we're relying on them, things will go up and down a lot. 3. Some of the older players are not as professional all the time as they should be. There's too many of them smoking hookah pipes, getting drunk on team building courses and generally not representing themselves properly. 4. Focus - During a time when the club is consoloidating, as seems to be the case, there's no kind of "ultimate goal". We're not and haven't been, chasing the league title, the aim realistically is not to go down. That's not much of an aim to get the blood stirred. Not the sort of thing to induce real highs and top level performances. So we end up drifting about, having a go, form time to time at teams like Chelsea (and also Arsenal) but also giving up before we start against the likes of Man U and Spurs. And then in games against "lowlier" sides than them, we either bully them, because they're rubbish (Blackburn) or we underestimate them (Swansea). When you combine those kind of universal factors with the style of play and managerial quirks we have, the reason for the big variations in performances, I think Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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