CirclePoint

Thanks. It's been so long.

...played against Ip**** while at Norwich? It's been so long that I can't think of any. I ask because the game is coming up and I'm not sure the players understand what is at stake.

Exactly. It depends on where you draw the line. Meaning it’s three wins in ten games.

This. I worked with an ex-capt of a men's national team and his motto was, "You can make chicken salad with chicken 5hit."

I’ll take two of what he’s having. Thanks.😂

I have not read Nelson’s book. But it’s now on my Christmas list! Thanks for the recommendation!

Easy there. That's one heck of a conclusion to jump to. To assume that my entire coaching philosophy is based around scoring goals is extremely narrow-minded. My single comment about scoring goals first and style points second was in response to TheGunnShow's post that winning isn't always elegant and efficient. My coaching philosophy, and the philosophy I encourage the other coaches to adopt is primarily focused on the players 'enjoyment' of the game. In fact, I tell the parents I'm not here to coach their kids to have 'fun'. Why? Because the moment the game becomes 'unfun', the players begin to quit. Therefore, my philosophy is to coach the young players to 'enjoy' their experience on the field. That way, win lose, or draw, they come away having learned something about themselves as a person and have grown as a football player. With that said, I do encourage winning. Why? Teaching a group of younglings to work hard in a coordinated effort to achieve a specific goal is a huge life skill, and, even though winning isn't everything, it sure feels better than losing! As to your response to my restaurant analogy, no, complaining solves nothing. Constructive criticism solves problems and helps to overcome challenges and improve. Incessant and repetitive complaining only serves to demonstrate one's psychological or pathological issues.

This. I always tell the teams I coach (I oversee a youth developmental program from U8 - U18) to score first, we can work on style points second. Yes it’s easy on the eye to make five passes from the back to the attacking third and have a shot on goal, but sometimes, for whatever reason, that’s simply not in the cards. So I’ll take a win and the rest can be worked on in training. I applaud the team for grinding out a win yesterday. They’re professionals. They’re humans. They know they’re in a rut at the moment and I trust they’ll figure it out. Not saying it’s comfortable or entertaining as a fan, but that’s where we are at the moment. Fans who are incessantly complaining about it are not helping in the slightest. Think of it like this, what would you say to someone who was sitting next to you in a restaurant eating the food, yet constantly complaining about how bad it was? It’s not pretty at the moment and in fact, very demoralizing to watch us play, but I do believe that when we are injury free, the season will turn around.

Elon Musk style

Agreed. The level of desensitization towards apathetic action has subdued the fans into blind acceptance. Lethargy is the main driver for most. Good managers have come and gone. Great players have come and gone. But nothing has really changed. The way this club has been run is abusive to the fans emotional commitment. The word for me that best describes NCFC is ‘squandered’.

I have a NCFC ball singed by all of the players from that season.

Exactly. Simply put, we were complacent in the first half.

All the love for the Quag. I still live in hope. I think I’ll look into having a bench placed around CR in his honor.

mic drop

Absolutely agree. But I wasn’t about to get into the weeds as to how the formation was more fluid than a simple 4-2-3-1.

Absolutely agree. When I coached I played a 4-2-3-1 with two DMs that were the workhorses and corner stones of the team. In an ideal game, the DMs would be the beginning of the attack out of our third and the interrupters of any momentum coming at us. In this formation every player had a passing option without breaking formation and the one up top was always accompanied by another player, which was determined by the flow of play as dictated by the DMs.

Utterly saddening, on multiple levels.

Did you see the save that kept Sarge off the score sheet? It was a world class save.

I don't think there's a hedge bid enough for that bet! 😉

Indeed! in fact, if you removed all of the posts where ‘fans’ slated players, the NCFC server would actually be about 3kgs lighter!

Well said.

Bravo.

And not to forget the horrendous string of injuries during our last two seasons in the PL.

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