Big Game Charlies?

[Graz]

I want you to explain why we've been poor against lower placed teams please.

I think it's more to do with the way we play. It seems to have been this way for the last few years.

Bottom half teams are more likely to try and defend first and nick a goal. We've not really had any players who can unlock a defence and break through when the opposition is 'backs to the wall'.

If it's an open, end-to-end game, we're more likely to find spaces.

Or we've just had a string of managers who can't motivate players well enough for supposedly easier games.

 

[Jeff]

If the majority of top half teams were doing better against top half teams than they were against the bottom half teams, wouldn't the bottom half teams mostly be in the top half (and vice versa)?

Yes.

 

[Mike - True Blue Tinter]

Bottom half teams are more likely to try and defend first and nick a goal. We've not really had any players who can unlock a defence and break through when the opposition is 'backs to the wall'.

If it's an open, end-to-end game, we're more likely to find spaces.

Agreed. When teams attack us we find spaces and do well. When they park their bus in front of the goal we struggle and often let them nick a goal on the break.

 

[David Gwilliam]

The reason for the difference may be style of play.

A lower half team may concentrate on stopping us playing.
A top half team may be willing to let us play believing that they could play better than us.

In Nigel's first incarnation he built a team that could not be bullied. This went with Sousa and Sven. I am taking it that this time next year Nigel will have created a team thast kind grind out wins the way that the Deane-Dickov team did the last time we got promoted.

 

[Ike O'Noclassed]

LCFC Pearson Mk1 - Very rarely conceded in the last ten minutes, almost never "lost" points because of late goals.

LCFC ever since - fails to grasp that a match lasts 90 minutes.

 

[Brown Nose]

The club have made some fatal errors in terms of inflating our players ego's.

Having a couple of big name managers (Paulo and Sven) without Championship pedigree
Getting Real Madrid here for a friendly and whooping it up
Paying way over the odds in salaries and luxuries
Taking the squad to Thailand where they're treated like kings

This sort of thing will tend to make people think that they're billy big times (bbt's). This of course is fine if the bbt's then perform like kings. As we know all too well, a problem arises when the ego exceeds the true ability level. Indeed, even if the ability level is pretty good, it's going to piss off many of the opposition we face who are used to far less glamorous circumstances and therefore determined to wipe the smug grins off of bbt's faces.

Therein lies our dilemma. NP is the opposite of bbt. He appears to abhor any inference of bbt thinking or behaviour. He's now got a bunch of players who've been made to believe that they're kings and are now being told to stop acting like soft twats and graft.

The poor cherubs are confused. The likes of Watford shouldn't be any match for kings. But the boss says that the kings are not kings, they're serfs.

When they play kings they feel at home (are Norwich king enough for them?). When they play in the sewers they can't cope.

And then their new manager keeps telling them that they must love the sewers. But they don't want to. They want caviar and champagne.

No wonder we're inconsistent.

 

[artic fox]

Would have taken me longer than 10 minutes to find that Jeff!

 

[Blue Maniac]

I am taking it that this time next year Nigel will have created a team thast kind grind out wins the way that the Deane-Dickov team did the last time we got promoted.

I don't think anyone could accuse me of being pendantic, but the last time we got promoted Brian Deane was not involved.

 

[Redditch Fox]

Brown Nose is broadly right - I can't think of many bigger contrasts than Sven & Pearson. The change was bound to set us back in the short term because of the change in approach.

In the end I think it will be all worthwhile. At present Pearson can't being himself that promotion is not going to happen this season, I suppose its difficult to acknowledge for commercial reasons. I actually think that the writing off of promotion will be a step forward because it will open the way for getting on with the re-structure and shaping of the squad for next season.

I guess that were not too far away in personnel terms. He needs a ball winning midfielder who takes no prisoners and to focus on keeping the decent players like the keeper and I'm surprised to be saying the striker partnership which is now working.

 

[Mike - True Blue Tinter]

I don't think anyone could accuse me of being pendantic, but the last time we got promoted Brian Deane was not involved.

I will. The context of the thread, and the inference in DG's post is that he was talking about promotion from the Championship to the Premier League.

 

[OldGit]

Theory gains more credence today!

 

[Izzet 6]

It certainly does.

Though today brought a lot of joy, it just underlines the frustration the fans feel when they see below-par performances on an all-too-frequent basis.

 

[Macky]

Yeah, but who the **** is Charlie and what the **** has he got to do with big games?