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Ray

What's Gone Wrong & Why?

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Recently AN said it is not a psychological thing, based on what I have seen recently, I beg to differ, as I did then.

There is something wrong somewhere and it falls to those in charge to identify what it is and sort it.

There is a line of responsibility which starts with the individual players, goes through AN, then the so called Football Board, then McNally and ultimately the board and the owners.

So, where lies the problem? The owners appoint individuals with ‘football experience’ (CEO, Football Board, etc.) to identify and appoint others (Manager & Coaches) with ‘football experience’ who in turn decide on the line up, tactics and manage and motivate the team. So it could easily be argued the responsibility stops with the owners, which I guess ultimately it does, however essentially the owners are fans and are not steeped in ‘football experience’, yes they have business decisions to make, which could include replacing anyone down the line, however they are advised by the CEO, so it all gets a bit messy.

Someone needs to identify why we have gone so far backward (even though we have apparently brought in 4 new first team improvements) who should that be, who is responsible, who should be taking action and what action should they be taking?

I have my own views, one of which takes me back to my first point, attitude, mindset, motivation, etc. are all psychological aspects of performance and I assert performance is 80% Attitude and 20% ability. You may not agree with that statement, but it was Didier Drogba who said, “90% of my game is in my head”, but whether or not you agree with the percentages is somewhat irrelevant, some part of performance is driven by attitude (mindset) and I believe this is where things are going wrong and the club needs help, not just with the players but probably the manager and above.

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Shocking summer transfer window which cannot be made up for in January as players don''t have time to gel or bed in. Board to blame for most of our failings.

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I''m afraid there is no direction, the players don''t seem to be playing to any system that they can understand, we sit very deep but then don''t pick the players that can hurt the opposition with a fast break.

Spurs game was the first time I could see real confusion on the field about who was playing where, how we were covering the full backs, Jarvis was tucking in when Ollssen seemed to be expecting him to stay wide, we have lost direction.

It''s the sort of situation where AN would benefit from a break and a bit of time to sort things out in his head, but unfortunately he doesn''t have that luxury.

We will now see if he does really have what it takes. I''m reserving my judgement, my fear is he may be overtaken by events, I really hope that doesn''t happen but the prize is so big we must give ourselves the best possible chance of hanging in there.

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Lack of any sort of consistent system or style of play. Constant chopping and changing of personnel. Playing players out of position to try and shoehorn them into the team.

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Also, extremely negative tactics (lack of width and pace) giving poor teams the impetus to come at us, coupled with very poor defensive errors.

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Neil has bought in too many new players over too shorter a time and now the balance and harmony among the squad has buckled. Competition should be healthy, but if you change a squad too quickly it can seriously backfire. That is what has happened at Norwich. Too many new players all trying to mold and find their place. We are lacking cooperation and understanding all over the pitch.

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Despite having good quality personnel & resources, the biggest problem is AN doesn''t think the problem is psychological.

Very limited old-school thinking in one so young...

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AN lacks a mentor; or any colleague with PL experience.

We should have tried much harder to retain Mike Phelan; or at least have properly replaced his experience.

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Manager lost his footballing identity after the Newcastle match, changed the teams philosophy from attacking to defensive playing to our weaknesses. He said in the press it wasn''t the way he ultimately wanted to play, so if he doesn''t believe in it how does he expect his players too, especially when we need them to be more than the sum of their parts.

Don''t want AN to go, he just needs to get back to having the courage of his convictions. If he can get back to that even if this season is too late I see no reason to change, although I have to say I''ve not been impressed to any great extent by majority of his signings but that may be down to current scouting system.

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I wonder if Neil himself expects too much. He hasn''t so much as named names, but he has constantly bashed the players in post match interviews, even when we''ve won.

And yes, a lot of the time the players deserved it and it''s refreshing to hear some honesty. But you also need to play the game a bit. Players now are delicate little flowers and if their egos aren''t massaged they simply won''t put a shift in, never mind battling against the odds when your backs against the wall.

It''s something I''ve always wondered, even last season. I fear it has become the case and now Neil has lost the dressing room.

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Of course there have been a number of mistakes made, that happens everywhere all the time, and our current position doesn''t have a single simple explanation.

But I do think that one of the most important mistakes was a decision by AN that most on here seemed to agree with at the time - the decision to throw the cup tie with Man City.

Its a very common fallacy nowadays among both managers and fans that it is sensible and beneficial to concentrate on the league at the expense of the cup, but in my experience it is just that, a complete fallacy.

Although we went through a pretty dodgy spell after the Newcastle game we picked points and momentum over Christmas and the holiday period, and were looking good to survive.

Since we decided to ''concentrate on the league'' we''ve lost 6 out of 6, conceded 19 goals, and seem to have dug ourselves into a hole we''ve no idea how to get out of.

Confidence is the key and a month ago we had it and were on course to stay up. Today it is completely gone and very difficult to see a recovery that can keep us up.

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Taking Tettey off in the Newcastle game. He acknowledged he made a mistake in a match we were still very much in.

Now I don''t think he knows the best way to play in this division and which team to pick. I think he''s a little lost. Go back to the philosophy that got you hired Alex, because that''s what the board was attracted to in the first place.

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Now I don''t think he knows the best way to play in this division and which team to pick. I think he''s a little lost. Go back to the philosophy that got you hired Alex, because that''s what the board was attracted to in the first place.

👍👍

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I agree with the psychology element Ray; and its clear we are at a low ebb.

We have too many players from the previous relegation repeating the same issues, no leadership, confidence at or near all time lows, not taking personal responsibility and poor decision making week in and out. When there is a core like that new additions to the squad will be affected over time.

I do think alex has been diverted from his own footballing philosophy, trying to plug the metaphorical dam by sacrificing his attacking midfielders and creating too much distance between the strikers and remaining midfield, while the defence needed a complete overhaul. We have some of that overhaul now, but the psychology rebuild needed will take more than a couple of weeks to heal.

Those players not prepared to push themselves out of a n apparently very safe comfort zone will take us down; and need to be dropped before its too late.

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Creative Midfielder wrote: "Although we went through a pretty dodgy spell after the Newcastle game

we picked up points and momentum over Christmas and the holiday period, and

were looking good to survive."Correct. I posted the relevant stats some days ago, showing that the change of tactics since the Newcastle game, far from being a disaster, had proved effective in improving our points gained per game and, if maintained would put us on course to survive comfortably with 42 points. People pointing the finger at AN''s change of tactics simply haven''t looked at the facts.

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I agree with Fuzzar''s comments.

The problem is that 38 games is far too small a sample to do any sort of statistical analysis with so many variables at play.

In the end you have to come to your own conclusions as to the success/failure of the team.

Ultimately I would simply rather see us relegated by giving it our all, rather more like pre-Newcastle Tettey sub, than try for a calculated "clever" strategy which only seems to induce nervousness & even more errors. As Parma said on another thread, once we stop playing instinctively we''re in trouble.

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Since I started this post there has been a great deal written, on this thread and others, by a great band of supporters with a massive number of opinions and whilst they don’t all fit what I am about to say, a large percentage do.

The following words, and many similar, have cropped up all over the place; confidence, passion, belief, motivation, courage, honesty, etc. and in pretty much all cases, it was bemoaning the lack of.

None of these emotions, feelings or whatever you want to call them, exist in your right or left foot. Your right or left foot behave in the manner the brain instructs them to and the brain is the only place any of the aforementioned ‘emotions’, or their opposites, can be found.

Also a ‘negative’ emotion can, and often is, far easier to create than a positive one, furthermore they tend to hang around longer too. Just think back to the last time you went from a positive mood to a negative one, it probably happened very quickly, whereas, how long did it then take to get back to a good mood, a lot longer I suspect.

Obviously I have no idea what is going on in the heads of our players, management, directors and owners, but from what I am observing, there appears to be a lack of expecting success and certainly the players appear to have dropped out of the ‘unconscious competence’ style of play (the zone) into the conscious competence style of play, which in golfing terms is called the yips, or dartitis if you are The Crafty Cockney. I’ve a feeling the manager may also have dropped out of the zone of expecting success and is trying to avoid failure and the way the brain works, trying to avoid failure brings on failure. As is often said, be careful what you wish for, because the subconscious does not recognise the negative, so saying I mustn’t miss translates to I must miss, the subconscious pictures the miss and sends the appropriate messages to ensure a miss. The only way to overcome this is with conscious thinking, which besides being much harder work is slower, hence the yips.

What can be done to overcome this? I know what I would do, our players are all professional footballers, so missing a couple of days on the training pitch will make very little, if any, difference to their performance, spending those two days working on how to improve the nature of their thinking may make a difference. It guarantees nothing of course but it may just tilt things in our favour a little and every little helps.

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We have the smallest budget in the league so we have the least power to get the best players. No moaning or blaming will change that

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[quote user="westcoastcanary"]Creative Midfielder wrote: "Although we went through a pretty dodgy spell after the Newcastle game

we picked up points and momentum over Christmas and the holiday period, and

were looking good to survive."Correct. I posted the relevant stats some days ago, showing that the change of tactics since the Newcastle game, far from being a disaster, had proved effective in improving our points gained per game and, if maintained would put us on course to survive comfortably with 42 points. People pointing the finger at AN''s change of tactics simply haven''t looked at the facts. [/quote]

I agree the more defensive tactics did work for a time that doesn''t mean they were the best fit for the team long term though, there are other factors involved aswell. Such as suiting the paying style of the oppositions over that period, the element of surprise that we weren''t playing the way we had been under AN before that. Also we played some teams who at the time we played them were on bad runs aswell, Swansea, Southampton and Villa. However IMO we didn''t get the balance right in either period, but I preferred the style we showed earlier. The big problem is we now arnt dong either side of the game very well.

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The problem is staring us in the face and has been all season. No amount of guff about tactics and formations can hide it. We have the poorest defence in the league and conceding almost two goals per game is a certain recipe for relegation.

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Re. psychology, two quotes, the first familiar to all Norwich fans, the second from Villa''s new chairman when appointed a few weeks ago"Relegation [from the EPL] is a fate worse than death.""We don''t fear relegation."Feed your fans with what they want to hear and heap pressure on the team; or tell the fans to wise up and take pressure off your team? I know which I think shows better leadership from the top.

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So, the responsibility lies firmly with all those players who didn''t want to come here - unless we paid them enough to bankrupt the club (although it appears some wouldn''t come at any price).

NCFC will always have a problem consistently attracting top quality players. Until we get a billionaire owner of course. Which itself may prove to have unintended consequences.

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[quote user="ricardo"]The problem is staring us in the face and has been all season. No amount of guff about tactics and formations can hide it. We have the poorest defence in the league and conceding almost two goals per game is a certain recipe for relegation.[/quote]

This is it. And given that almost all fans knew it before a ball was kicked it is just beyond credible belief that the defence wasn''t bolstered in the summer. Heads should roll for the disastrous summer window.

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In time Klose will make a significant contribution, I expect, and Naismith also. Otherwise we have a poor defence, and I am puzzled by the omission of Bennett, who was present in the one or two games when we kept clean sheets.

There seems a lack of commitment, and players fail to turn up. One or two, Redmond for example, seem to have little enthusiasm and are not contributing much in a positive way.

There seems an inability to understand what the game plan is.

Much of this has to be laid at the manager''s door. He must do a number of things:

1) Be prepared to drop any player who is not trying, and be more prepared to play younger players, who will be keener.

2) Pick a new captain who understands the game plan and drives his colleagues out on the pitch.

3) Make the game plan clearer.

4) Stop tinkering and needless changes.

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Salopian,

To be pedantic your point 3 undermines your point 2. If the game plan isn''t clear enough how does the captain understand it?

To add another point, I think he should ask for help (and there are many forms of help), there is power in recognising you need assisitance and asking for it, it''s a sign of strength not weakness. He may not see it that way of course.

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Using the old adage of "keep it simple, stupid" I think part of AN''s success at Hamilton was he had a small squad and was therefore limited in formation and style of play by the players he had (which worked for him). As a team Hamilton were always far greater than the sum of their individual parts due to high work-rate, high pressing, double coverage, etc.

 

He needs to pick a new captain, decide on a style of play which best reflects our strengths (and stick to it) and keep a consistent team selection to fit the system.

 

Apples 

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