Best of a bad bunch!
Got something to say or just want fewer pesky ads? Join us... 😊
[Albion] Alexis Mac Allister - *** New Contract Until 2025 ***
- Thread starter ChazzyBHA
- Start date
Best of a bad bunch!
warmleyseagull
Well-known member
Really. So why not say 'best of a bad bunch' rather than 'only natural Premier League goal scorer'.
To be fair over the last 3 seasons he’s in good company in terms of the only players to have scored more. I think in all parts of the team we should always look to improve, but also be careful what we wish for.
Personally I think the bigger problem is lack of goals from midfield (Biss - 1 a season is poor etc) and given how much space our big centre backs get from set pieces 1 or 2 goals each is poor
Very much this.
Ooh it’s a corner
Well-known member
Maups seems far better to me when he doesn’t have time to think about it much - I’m hoping Undav might be a natural finisher
Ooh it’s a corner;10313829 said:
That's what we're all, from Mr Bloom down, hoping.
Ooh it’s a corner
Well-known member
Undoubtedly has a lot to do with honing a skill. There’s still some natural ability involved though. I suspect you were far too young to see Jimmy Greaves but he was the best finisher I ever saw and I think some of that was instinctive
Clickbait? Post count?
NATURAL ABILITY honed by thosands of hours of practice. Without the first, ZILLIONS of hours of practice wouldn't make a PL striker.
Well it is with "natural ability" like with "the soul"... plenty of people talk about it, plenty of people believe in it, not one fecker is able to point out where and how this alleged piece of magic works.
I believe in training. Yes, you might be born with some physical and psychological traits and advantages, but 99% of skill comes down to training IMO. "Natural ability" sounds like a poor excuse made by people who were too lazy to put down the required amount of effort to become something.
Last edited:
Baldseagull
Well-known member
David Beckham perhaps is an example of diligent training forging a top level career, but however hard he trained, he would never be Zidane. Hundreds of lads with the athletic ability train hard and never have a pro career, there is something else, the way the brain is connected maybe,
Could be that way.
Could also be that they in the early 80s took a look at themselves asking "why are we shite?", decided - 20 years ahead of pretty much anyone else - to build excellent training facilities and academies like INF Clairefontaine, improve education for coaches, invest money in being able to offer professional surroundings and more training opportunities for young players, and then about a decade later became one of the main exporters of great footballers. Nothing magic about it. They went from shit to great through improving training. No messing around with the DNA of the players, no brain surgeries to make the brain connect in a different way - just training.
Baldseagull
Well-known member
Of course training is valuable, and better quality training gets better improvements, no elite level of sport is reached by just having an innate ability, but the difference between the very best, and the rest is vast, not 1%, which your statement, "99% of skill" suggests should be the only difference between the average and the great, as long as they both have access to good training and put the effort in.
I wonder why City want to spend money on Cucurella, when they could just train anyone to play at least 99% like him?
You could say the same about Gary Lineker - it was an innate ability to be in the right place at the right time. Lineker himself says that when he was coming through the ranks there were players with no more natural talent than him but he worked hard and became the scorer he was.
I'm reminded of my mate who was at the same school as Mad Dog Kennedy and played in the same team with him. He said that Kennedy wasn't even in the top three footballers in that team ... and yet forged a professional career. There's clearly something more than natural ability.
I think you have to have some kind of natural ability, No matter how hard I tried, or better coached I would never get to the levels that pro footballers get to. Clearly there is something more. Training helps, but so is a dogged determination to work exceptionally hard, never give up (even when you have setbacks) and never believe that you have made it - always something to learn.
Its the final one that possibly kyboshes quite a few careers - with large sums of money for trainees not helping.
Its the final one that possibly kyboshes quite a few careers - with large sums of money for trainees not helping.
I've said it before, most of the time your posts are quite reasonable; some I agree with, others I don't. But as I've also said before, sometimes you come up with a piece of absolute bollocks. This is one such occasion.
You couldn't take anybody and turn them into an elite footballer, not with all the training, practice and dedication in the world. You could improve a rubbish footballer, but make them a great footballer if they were not also naturally gifted? Complete bollocks, not a chance!