Having now calmed down a bit since Sundays poor performance, I've been trying to understand just what the problem is. We have a group of very talented individuals, assembled by spending a lot of money. How can it be that they train all week on say defending set pieces yet we still perform like a Sunday league team. One thing that I suspect is that our squad of individuals have little or no team spirit. During our promotion season the spirit was there for us all to see. When the going got tough the "team" got stuck in and ground out the results. It would appear that the current group are lacking the "team" ethic. Even towards the end of last season the previous seasons spirit helped us to some wins. It now seems to have been lost altogether. Maybe we should play Derry? Or am I missing something? One things for sure, the Manager is responsible for building a team spirit.
I was thinking the same thing Sussex. When I think back to the transfer windows and all of these great players suddenly appearing on our radar, my initial thoughts were ' Us?..linked with them...No way.' After the trepidation of whether the likes of Hulse, Smith, Vine and Connolly would eventually sign for us?..... Two seasons on, we were now entertaining the signatures of World Cup Winners and x2 CL winners. Christ almighty! After year upon year of purgatory...we have finally arrived. With this kind of quality in our side, anything less than a top ten finish would render us a failure. We had established quality players signing for us, Cesar, Bosingwa, Granero, M'Bia, Hoilett, Park, Green, Johnson, Nelsen, ( anyone notice how long this list is getting? ) .....Da Silva! In hindsight, it would be very difficult to bring in this many players along with those from January and those from the season before's window and be able to build any team spirit and collectiveness. We are definitely the sum of all of our parts. A collective mass of mercenaries. Hughes thought he new better, and most of us trusted him and bought into it. Losing against Swansea was a pivotal moment in our season.
Establishing Nelsen as skipper and Granero as vice captain with full authority on the pitch and training grounds would add loads to our stability and organisation. Both of those look well able to hone team spirit, to me anyways.
Spot on Brix, these two are undoubtedly intelligent men (only recently found out that Nelsen qualified in law from Stanford Uni in the US, getting dragged into professional football at the same time) who seem to crave responsibility. Granero in fairly constant discussion with refs as well, must be talking sense as he is not getting booked. Re discipline, heard Robbie Savage ( a man I am surprisingly beginning to respect, very good analysis) talking last night - he had 140 bookings in his career and .......1 sending off. Simply listened to refs and didn't make the same mistake twice. Like him to give a little talk about self control and personal accountability to some of our lads.
I agree. I find it quite surreal at the excitement we garnered when signing these players. Onouha.....(please Mrs Onouha, let your talented little boy sign for us. ) wow, and then he did. Top signing! Park, quality ManU CL winner. Ta very much. Ditto... Bosingwa et al. Exciting times.... And then you get to watch them in the flesh ...
No......possibly one of the daftest things I've heard for a long time. Brix has it in one, Nelsen as skip & Granero as vice skip.
It was funny though, innit? Like this video: [video=youtube;W8L2dGOEkI4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W8L2dGOEkI4[/video]
Spot on Brixton, I agree totally. Thinking about it how could we expect anything but the current situation when the Captain's name seems to have been decided by how many replica shirts he can sell. I have nothing against Park as a player, I hope he does turn out to be an important part of the squad (yet to be proved though), but as a CAPTAIN, absolutely not!!!!! He seems to hardly speak on the pitch. I've watched him when we are defending (term used loosely) at corners and he just doesn't organise or talk. He's not vocal.
I think Granero should be captain next season. Hes going to be here for a while and the obvious choices like Hill and Nelsen will leave so Granero is my choice unless we sign an obvious captain next season.
Maybe I am, or should be, but as things stand we need some steel and organisation in the side, even if its only for the first 60 minutes of the game. Against the fakes our organisation at set pieces was abysmal. At one point Reading were lining up for a short corner, Hoilet, moved across to cover and shouted for the 2nd man to help and no one responded. the result was a dangerous cross into our box. Derry can give us something, he hasnt become a bad player overnight and last season he played a part in us staying up.
Faurlin is far superior in ever dept, plus hes far better in the air which is the biggest problem we had against Reading. The example you gave is down to coaching or the lack of it. Every player should be assigned a person to mark or a place to be. No one should have to be told to cover a 2nd man.
Our lack of organisation at the back is why we need Hill playing CB. Like Derry he hasn't become a bad CB overnight, but unlike in Derry's position the alternatives aren't great - I wouldn't play Ferdinand, don't rate him,. I'd play M'bia and Clint normally, but I suppose it has to be Hill and Nelsen at Stoke - we will need speed at full back and defensive mid to cover their lack of it. In Derry's DCM position there are better alternatives - Ale, Diakite and Granero.
I agree that Faurlin is a better player than Derry, although I wouldnt necessarily agree that he's better in the air (I cant say that I've noticed), and I also agree that coaching, or maybe lack of, is an important part. But once the players cross the white line its down to leadership on the field, by the Captain and the most vocal players. My original post had a questionmark against Derry, maybe I'm clutching at straws, but something isn't right at the moment as the results show. The example I gave about the corner was just one example of numerous occasions where we just did not do the basics when defending. Schoolboy errors.
i agree with you but this isnt a pub team where things have to be done at the time. Hughes should have his players knowing exactly what to do, who marks the big CF, who marks the CBs, whos on the posts, in front of the posts and who closes down a short corner. Ive even seen Taarabt run back from the halfway line to mark someone because no on was on them. Its just very poor coaching. Set pieces are always down to coaching.
Against teams like Reading, Stoke and Southampton etc. Derry and Hill would be ideal choice. Those teams dont excactly dazzle with skill, but they fight every ball in the air and on the ground. We dont need more of skill to this team. We need team spirit, fighting spirit and tactical avareness......Sorry to say but the latter could be impossible task to achieve with sparky in charge.........
I agree Flyer. Yet we had the bulk of the team in place well before pre season started. Its very depressing. I didn't realise that "Gelling" took so long
