The Tactician
Well-known member
- Feb 18, 2013
- 1,054
I have to say, I'm rather shocked by the extent of the reaction to what was, without doubt, a very poor night. Now a majority calling for CH to go, lots of comments flying around, some of which are certainly justified. Some, on the contrary, are in my view, completely incompatible with what I'm seeing on the pitch. A bit of perspective is required - and not the 'look how we've come' kind.
With a wave of negativity, comes with it a variety of soundbites which are simply not true, or with very little evidence to suggest this is the case.
1. Hughton has lost the dressing room, the players don't want to play for him anymore. The first 15 minutes of the game yesterday, with Pascal back in the side, the team started well. A few early shots, some great movement, Bruno looked a calming influence. If we're honest, we started looking good. We should have had a penalty, stonewall by all accounts. After conceding, the team's confidence slumped badly. It's clear to me that the players are extremely nervous, they look desperate to succeed, but it's not translating onto the pitch quite the way we want and need it to. The point being, anyone who watched the opening exchanges: Did we look like a team that didn't want to play for the manager?
2. The players don't care This is a really interesting one. I have seen thousands of comments claiming "The players don't give a toss", "They're all overpaid and lazy, they don't care at all". The fact is, the players were stupidly overpaid when they won promotion, they were stupidly overpaid when we beat Palace (twice) and they've been overpaid for every single game over the last few years, whether they've played good or bad. It's an irrelevancy, we know footballers earn too much - no one seems to care when things are going well. And as we know, things can't go well all the time. Referring back to the first 15 minutes or so, did the players really look like they didn't care? I saw effort, I saw urgency, but critically, I also saw nervousness and as the game went on, desperation.
People are absolutely entitled to be frustrated, to be disappointed, but words matter. What you actually say matters. There's nothing, not a shred of evidence, to suggest 'dressing room unrest' - it's easy fiction made up to accompany a run of terrible form and lack of confidence. The players, to my mind, look devastated with themselves. They don't look like they don't really care, like they didn't want to win the game. They know they're underperforming, and they can't muster the confidence given the pressure. Worth remembering, everyone seemed to expect Cardiff to go down, so they enjoy a privileged underdogs tag. Now we appear to have hit rock bottom, maybe one bit of luck, one bit of magic, can spark a surprise - and we can prove to everyone, including vast swathes of our own fans - that the team won't give up, that we deserve to stay in this league.
Hughton IN
UTA
With a wave of negativity, comes with it a variety of soundbites which are simply not true, or with very little evidence to suggest this is the case.
1. Hughton has lost the dressing room, the players don't want to play for him anymore. The first 15 minutes of the game yesterday, with Pascal back in the side, the team started well. A few early shots, some great movement, Bruno looked a calming influence. If we're honest, we started looking good. We should have had a penalty, stonewall by all accounts. After conceding, the team's confidence slumped badly. It's clear to me that the players are extremely nervous, they look desperate to succeed, but it's not translating onto the pitch quite the way we want and need it to. The point being, anyone who watched the opening exchanges: Did we look like a team that didn't want to play for the manager?
2. The players don't care This is a really interesting one. I have seen thousands of comments claiming "The players don't give a toss", "They're all overpaid and lazy, they don't care at all". The fact is, the players were stupidly overpaid when they won promotion, they were stupidly overpaid when we beat Palace (twice) and they've been overpaid for every single game over the last few years, whether they've played good or bad. It's an irrelevancy, we know footballers earn too much - no one seems to care when things are going well. And as we know, things can't go well all the time. Referring back to the first 15 minutes or so, did the players really look like they didn't care? I saw effort, I saw urgency, but critically, I also saw nervousness and as the game went on, desperation.
People are absolutely entitled to be frustrated, to be disappointed, but words matter. What you actually say matters. There's nothing, not a shred of evidence, to suggest 'dressing room unrest' - it's easy fiction made up to accompany a run of terrible form and lack of confidence. The players, to my mind, look devastated with themselves. They don't look like they don't really care, like they didn't want to win the game. They know they're underperforming, and they can't muster the confidence given the pressure. Worth remembering, everyone seemed to expect Cardiff to go down, so they enjoy a privileged underdogs tag. Now we appear to have hit rock bottom, maybe one bit of luck, one bit of magic, can spark a surprise - and we can prove to everyone, including vast swathes of our own fans - that the team won't give up, that we deserve to stay in this league.
Hughton IN
UTA