This might be a dangerous thing to do, but I just wanted to give bobby a little bit of praise. It is fairly evident that this season has been a steep learning curve for what is a young team (albeit a team with a fair bit of dead wood) and a young manager. Last season we played at a canter. From the moment that Bobby bagged his first win we were majestic, swotting aside teams with ease. In the most part, our momentum was too much for most of the mid table dross and the relegation scrappers, and we all know this is where you need to take away points. Things weren't always this easy though. If you remember, our first 3 results were fairly abject. A 2-2 draw was followed by two 0-0 stalemates. Sound familiar?
Despite only accumulating a meagre 3 points here, the foundations of our season were laid down. We set out with the intention of being tough to beat, making sure that we always got something out of a game whilst maintaining the philosophy.
This season, we lost that ethic. We started off with an arrogance, but a sloppy arrogance. We know we have a good squad but we have been mentally fragile all season, and have always looked likely to concede. We were not helped by a difficult set of initial fixtures but that cannot be an excuse. The simple explanation is that, we have been too easily beaten. As a result, the fans have lost faith in the ability of the players and the players lost the ability in themselves. Confidence was low.
This is where I think a little praise is due. In the last month, I have seen a change. We have become the team that we were at the start of last season and that is very much to the credit to Martinez. I think he has identified that we need to redress the mindset and he has very much done this. We have been a different side since new year. Resolute without neglecting the other aspects of the game. We have become a carbon copy of the side that started last season and certainly not a coincidence.
OK drawing games is frustrating. The West Brom was frustrating. The confidence of certain attacking players was not quite there, and therefore we didn't create as much as we could've. Importantly though, we never looked like loosing. We controlled the game and if you play like that throughout the season, you will end up at the right end of the table.
If we keep on playing as we are, confidence will grow, the fans will get off the players back and we will turn things around. People just need to calm down and have a little faith.
Despite only accumulating a meagre 3 points here, the foundations of our season were laid down. We set out with the intention of being tough to beat, making sure that we always got something out of a game whilst maintaining the philosophy.
This season, we lost that ethic. We started off with an arrogance, but a sloppy arrogance. We know we have a good squad but we have been mentally fragile all season, and have always looked likely to concede. We were not helped by a difficult set of initial fixtures but that cannot be an excuse. The simple explanation is that, we have been too easily beaten. As a result, the fans have lost faith in the ability of the players and the players lost the ability in themselves. Confidence was low.
This is where I think a little praise is due. In the last month, I have seen a change. We have become the team that we were at the start of last season and that is very much to the credit to Martinez. I think he has identified that we need to redress the mindset and he has very much done this. We have been a different side since new year. Resolute without neglecting the other aspects of the game. We have become a carbon copy of the side that started last season and certainly not a coincidence.
OK drawing games is frustrating. The West Brom was frustrating. The confidence of certain attacking players was not quite there, and therefore we didn't create as much as we could've. Importantly though, we never looked like loosing. We controlled the game and if you play like that throughout the season, you will end up at the right end of the table.
If we keep on playing as we are, confidence will grow, the fans will get off the players back and we will turn things around. People just need to calm down and have a little faith.
