...are two things desperately needed and severely lacking at the moment. Lacking time as we need to start racking up the points pronto! Also I see a few already showing signs of losing patience with Harry. That seems a little hasty to me. One win and a loss...albeit a disappointing lackluster loss to Newcastle (and a long way for fans to go to see it!). However, please let's give Harry our full support for a little longer. My sincere hope is that we will see significant movement in January with the odd new face, but I would be equally pleased to see dead wood moved out. Seen a few venting at him already and I to an frustrated at what we all saw today, but give him time and I have faith that he will make the needed changes so we will see improvements.
I'm not sure people were particularly "venting", Dave. But it is fair and reasonable to raise the collective eyebrow at the team selection today; Ferdinand at right-back was odd and did not work. Perhaps there was a sound footballing or selection reason for this, but there cannot be any doubt that it didn't come off. That the team put in a performance today as abject as any under Hughes is a huge concern. Col is correct to a large extent when he attributes this to low confidence, but the Rs arrived at St. James Park unbeaten in four and with a first win under their belts; and facing a Toon side not without confidence issues of their own. I strongly suspect Harry knows the full extent of the challenge now, that there are players with little stomach for the fights, probably some dressing room unrest with fingers being pointed etc. It is a travesty that the indomitable spirit of the squad that won promotion was torn asunder so quickly.
I dont think people are losing faith or support for Harry - its the countless mercenaries that we have in our squad. As Swords pointed out on another thread - one win in half a season!
That confidence thing is a red herring and cuts little ice with me. As you say Uber, our tails should have been up having won last week and facing a side who were on a run of 6 defeats in 7 games, IE a bad team. And so it proved - they are a bad team, Newcastle. But as Judo points out, its nothing to do with confidence. Its to do with not trying. And that, gentlemen, is simply inexcusable.
And, as has been said by most on here, we are lumbered with the shirkers till January. We need a minimum of four points from the next two home games to keep us just in touch before new faces are brought in, if we lose the next two it will be a rebuilding job for next season's Championship...
Very good post and as wrong as i have been we still have a very talented squad full of the required composure to do this. Very disturbed tonight ... i stripped off and ran around the common earlier and later i plan to eat my foot
Confidence comes from either self-assurance (in your own ability) or being in a successful side, but you can only be successful if collectively you give a damn. So I concede that it's more to do with attitude than confidence, although both are clearly important factors.
Given he is watching the same games as we all are, redknapp hopefully is seeing the mercenaries for what they are, and not just their big names. Lets hope some are moved on and replaced by players with mackiesk hunger and fight.
For those crazy enough to starting already having doubts in Harry.... There is absolutely no reason AT ALL to start having doubts in Harry. The only thing he can do is reshape an already murky squad, and today, he couldn't reshape it to allow us to get at least a point. Move on. You should be happy that we went on a 4 game unbeaten run, which got us 6 points.
How did that work out DT? I'm heading back to the UK for a week with family over Christmas, so any coping mechanisms gladly welcome...however severe they are.
