I'm one of the ones who has to get what they feel off their chest. Unfortunately for you lot, I vent my anger on here.
I think players have off days like anyone else, but yesterday the whole team's equilibrium was disturbed. Our team is based on everyone knowing what the others are doing/will do. In theory they are all trained in the same way and you can make one or two substitutions if needed, but I think doubts crept in yesterday. P.s. You can have off days regardless of your wages. These players are used to their wages...not like they were offered a vast sum to specifically win one match.
Do I think they did it on purpose? No, but they didn't make enough of an effort to change the things that weren't working. Most of the players were lethargic and we were second to almost every ball, as demonstrated by the huge discrepancy in the number of fouls committed by the teams (15 by us, 3 by them). We kept passing it back to Kelvin who repeatedly hoofed it straight out of play. How can you get any sustained momentum when that happens? Lambert looked frustrated and ponderous again, and his late miss was symptomatic of that. Guly did nothing at all, and was left on until after the hour mark. That is not a sign of ambition or motivation to win. It was an abject display by the players and management and they deserved to lose that game. We have so few games like that these days that it's very difficult to believe it's simply a coincidence that it happened in "the game of the season" as several of the players described it. That they clearly didn't mean that, given the lack of effort, is frankly insulting to the fans.
Irrelevant. Whether I've been paid 2o quid or 20 grand, I have had several days where I have performed differently. It happens. We played badly, we lost.
or how you feel? or what your boss says. My points is that we all seem to expect top level performance every time; sometimes that doesn't happen.
Sometimes your team loses. Provided they do their utmost to put that right during the game, that's never been a problem for me. Our manager clearly thought that who he was fielding would be strong enough to get a result and gave them the chance to do so. He gave them the whole of the first half to prove him right and then another ten minutes after going behind. Then we made changes and our pressure in the last 20 minutes was very significant with most of the team pushed forward, resulting in a real end to end cup tie, albeit one lacking in quality. There is an enormous difference between a lack of quality and a lack of effort.
That's OK as nobody gets hurt in the process and you can always apologise after the event, but don't feel that the rest of us are any different we all feel the same way, but we just get over it pretty quick and move on.
PTF, I agree with what you have said mostly, but I just don't get the way people take one really bad, lethargic performance and deliver messages as if that's the norm. Yes, we were poor and all the things you said above are correct and I agree with, but some people (not necessarily you) can't ever accept that some days things go wrong. Yesterday everything went wrong; the selection, the execution of the skills (passing, etc) and there is nothing that can be done. I am not sure that you can say they didn't make enough of an effort; we don't really know that. They played bad and kept making wrong decisions, but they may not be down to effort and even if Sunderland seemed to want to it more and won those second balls, that can also be just the way things go; low confidence in that moment can equally be the reason. It may have just been one of those days when everything they touched turn sour; that does happen and when it does things go from bad to worse. That terrible game yesterday doesn't mean that they are suddenly bad players. I feel sorry for the fans that went, but I also feel sorry for people like me that sat in hope that we were en route to Wembley. Maybe I just don't understand why people react on a forum the way they do and I should just ignore the forum a few days after a bad game, and maybe I can view things with a little less angst.
I accept that everyone can have an off-day, but what they were saying about how motivated they were, and how important the game was, just wasn't reflected in the performance (of the players or the manager). That's the galling thing, everything I saw on the pitch said that they didn't care half as much as they said they did. I don't normally react badly to defeats but that was the worst performance, in the worst circumstances, that I can remember.
Let's be honest it seems that for whatever reason Pochettino has little interest in the cup competitions. He seems to almost pass all responsibility for these games to a Jesus Perez (press conferences, pre and post match reaction etc). I think the main reason for the flat (to put it lightly) display must have been the confusion from the players. In all interviews leading up to the game the players talked of how much they wanted to win the cup and that this was the biggest game of the season. But when the manager selects the team he did it must send out the wrong message to the players. I would think the likes of Lallana, Lambert, Shaw must be just as frustrated as the fans when the team was announced. Not to mention the players who were rested. I wouldn't go as far as to say the season is over, there are plenty of points up for grabs and still targets to aim for. With Lovren, Ramirez coming back and the managers full focus on the run in. I see no reason why we can't aim for a premier league high for position and points. I think I'm right in saying 8th place and 52 points is our best since the introduction of the prem, to beat both is achievable. We are all frustrated with the limp way we went out yesterday but don't lose the faith.
Oh and the other reason for not bringing on the Summer, once that transfer window opens I reckon we are in for a hell of a bumpy ride with regards to players being linked out. We have no idea how this window is going to go under the new leadership, for that reason I am really not looking forward to the summer and would quite like this season to go on indefinitely!
