Got to say I think Guru does make some valid points here, I think teams do get worked out, or more accurately players do... over time technical flaws get spotted and worked on in training and i think its no coincidence that quite a few goals against us recently have come from player errors... is this because teams have targetted certain of our players and created the errors? I do also think that there is something in Momentum or rather call it confidence. In any sport self belief is key to outstanding performance and once you get beaten a few times this does start to dip ... just look at what happened to Tiger Woods! Having said that on a positive side I think other factors will play in our favour... I think PL is learning all the time with every game played he knows a little more about the players and the other teams. It's often said you only really learn things from defeats, winning doesnt teach you very much at all. I also have great faith that PL will find more gems in the summer to add to our squad which is already substantially better than last years squad. We also have a number of our best players out injured, arguably Whitbread & Ayala are our best centre backs and both have had extended absences. Ryan Bennet has tremendous potential, but is still learning and very young, so yet another positive for the future. The average age of the squad is low so most of the team have yet to reach their peaks, so will be better next year than this... Eliot Bennet & Pilks have shown themselves to be Class and improving with every match... I thought even against Citeh, Pilks embarassed Zabaletta on several occasions and that for me was a huge plus and encouragement for the fiuture. Above all else the stability of the Management team with McNally at the helm and committed, lifelong Norwich fans on the Board gives us such a boost over other clubs who simply cannot have the passion and dedication this brings. Finally, we really do have the best young British manager in the game today, he will move onwards and upwards sometime, but not yet, he is building something special in Norwich and wont leave until that begins to deliver it's potential I'm convinced. All in all, yes some risks and perils which may trip us up, but more positives than negatives I'd say! Never Mind the Danger! OTBC
Now Guru's gone, I will come back. I certainly agree that momentum or confidence is a factor, but I don't think its a major factor and its certainly overpowered by other factors - like quality of players, injuries(we've had a shocking run in our defence) and obviously form. You could argue that momentum and confidence are determined by form, I suppose.
TBH i'd have to say confidence and self belief are crucial to a succesful team. Success in itself of course brings confidence, but a run of poor results can equally reduce it and make it harder to win. In our case though building players confidence and motivating the team is PL's role and one that he manages extremely well. I think I'm right in saying this is the first time we have suffered 3 straight defeats in the league under Lambert, so it will be very interesting to see what kind of a reaction he gets on Saturday at Highbury.... I've just got a sneaking suspicion that we might, just might, pull off something quite unexpected !
Ok let me explain myself better as it does look like I said confidence is not a major influence, in fact I did say it isn't This is of course utter drivel. I don't think momentum - or at least the momentum Ipswich fans are talking about - goes hand in hand with confidence, so I don't believe that momentum is a major factor in how our season as a whole pans out. For instance, I don't believe for one second that if we lose our next two games - and end up losing five games on the bounce - we will go into next season with poor momentum. More players will come in during the Summer and injured players will return, so when the players come back for pre-season, they will be raring to start the new season without thinking about how they got on in their last five games of the previous season.
One of the interesting (this may be subjective) is that self confidence and self belief are not solely determined by success and failure. It is often more important that the individuals maintain belief in thier own abilities. It would be very easy for a team to lose several games on the bounce, but for the individuals to maintain very high levels of self belief. There are many models of confidence in sport and individuals derive confidence from many sources, and most of these are not dependent on the opponents. In fact, there are many many examples of how defeat and approporiate management of the players involved can enhance self focus,and task oriented coping, resulting in heightened performance. In other words, helping players to identify their poor coping repsonses and replace them with more adaptive ones can faciltiate perfomance regardless of the results. The hypothesis proposed by Guru is over simplistic and fails of convery the complexity of sporting motivation.
Regarding confidence & self-belief, there was little evidence of any lack of it at the start of the season, which is precisely when you might have expected it. City were odds on for relegation, and everybody was going on about lack of Premiership experience, lower league players, etc. etc. So what happened; the team has confounded the pessimists and doom-mongers and had all but mathematically secured Premier League status for another season with five games to go, with the best performance of the season away at Tottenham. What makes people think that losing the last three, or even five, games, on which nothing critical hangs, is going to dent confidence in any way? The message is "We've done it!" and there is NO implication for next season whatsoever. PS. Wonder what the mood is in the ITFC dressing room (a much more interesting and pertinent question if one is thinking about next season).
Tierney, Whitbread and Ayala three of our top defenders. I think we'll be OK if we strengthen in particular area's but if we don't it's at our own peril as I think a lot of teams have sussed us out. At the moment we're running out of steam. It's a matter of rooting out the championship standard players in this squad and getting in some quality we're nearly there 7 or so changes. I have faith in the club at the moment unlike previous seasons.
I dont think it is a fitness thing, the past couple of seasons we have really turned it on at this stage and bearing in mind we have had less games... The difference is that we have relatively little to play for, both the last couple of seasons we have been needing points for promotions. I am not saying that the players are not trying, just that there is a certain 'edge' missing that was there earlier in the season. the margins in the prem are very small and that 'edge' for me is the difference. The extra half a yard for a player fighting for his future. As for the team selections, I think Lambert is looking at who he wants at the club next season. I think there are certain players he might have question marks over and so is picking them to see them in competitive action. Pre season friendlies are one thing, but it is never as good as a proper prem game.
Confidence or momentum, its the same thing really. If you have loads, the 50/50 tackles normally go your way, you get that extra spring in step, that extra yard of quickness. when your on a downer, you lose these and it makes the games harder. I'm quite surprised that supers doesn't agree on this subject, since he was so anti booing of morison and how that would affect his confidence. The proof in the pudding can be seen in last nights result, and what a poor result you guys had against Liverpool and how easily other teams are beating them.
i disagree enormously with you because momentum and confidence are not the same thing! and frankly, to compare our result against liverpool to the shambles of a team dalglish stuck out last night shows you have no idea. he dropped 9 of the team that beat us - it wasn't even close to being comparable.
I have come to terms with the fact that Ipswich fans are just trying to wind us up, as they have no real reasons to critisise what our club is doing or what its done. I mean, look at Guru's last post regarding Liverpool's result last night. Any football fan with half a brain would realise that their home form is considerably worse than their away form, and that's with a full strength team and not one with nine changes! Until they actually start making sensible and honest posts about our team I will just ignore them, as its like talking to a brick wall. See our posts about how many points we've picked up from losing positions.
Guru; give it up mate, they are not the same thing, go and educate yourself, there are lots of journals of sports performance I suggest you read some, instead of spouting ****e.
just read that passage carra re: points won from losing positions - i mean how much do they want to twist things in their favour?! basically, i've long argued on this thread and others that our club is currently one of the best run in britain. we have everything in place in our foundations to progress as a club. should at any stage we have to go backwards, ie go down, or lose our manager, or lose a key player, then there is a plan in place for those too. everything has been planned and the fact we've jumped well ahead of our 7-year plan means that its raised expectations a little too high a little too early. we as fans should have absolutely no worries about our club be it on the pitch or behind the scenes. we are literally a million miles ahead of our neighbours, and they don't like that. they waved their cash at us four years ago - i thought at that time that by now they would be established in the top flight and we'd be in either league one or league two. frankly, we've embarrassed them both on and off the pitch and they must be monumentally pissed off about it. i would be. but there is nothing they can say that makes a shred of difference to the situation.
Why are the binners soo obsessed with us ? I would have thought they had far more to worry about with their own team of also-rans. One can only put it down to envy please log in to view this image
Ok, perhaps i was wrong about the liverpool result, I didn't know there was so many changes. ILD, comes up with a good point about Wigan and what i'm saying about confidence/momentum. They get that 1st win against the big boys and that confidence/momentum has been carried forward to get the other results. So there is further proof, that it is a big thing and not just a wind up! regarding this supers, I would like to know why you were so against the booing of Morison (not that i condone booing of a player just because he is on the teamsheet) how do you think it affected him?
i was against the booing of morison in particular because he is an individual who clearly suffers from lack of confidence. when he has his pecker up he can scare the living daylights out of defenders - when he's off it he is really off it! by singling him out it can only affect him in a negative way and will not help our cause or his short or long term. not sure what relevance it has to be honest... he's an individual. if we had a team of players who ALL suffered from the same trait then you might have a point, but the reason morison stands out so much is because he is the only one like that
