Originally Posted by
SmiffyPie
You coach confidence and concentration into them by practice practice practice. You recreate each scenario (as far as possible) with your attacking/midfield players and if player X continuosly gets caught if the ball comes to him under pressure then you practice getting the ball to him quicker or his actions if it is a late ball (row Z if that's all he can do). A skill is taught/learned by repepition and that repetition breeds confidence. We all know this and it started to show at Stockport and the following games (we played a quicker ball out of and across the defence and players gave the defence more options for a quick pass, it was a Eureka moment!) but went to pieces when Tranny pushed us because our defensive players have always been asked to do something alien to them (retain possession and recycle the ball at all costs). You can see them trying their best but sometimes under pressure make avoidable mistakes all due to their uncertainty with "You have to keep possesion at all costs". That Tranny game (and others when we have folded) said to me there couldn't have been enough time on the training ground instilling confidence. And there has been 18 months with basically the same group of players. They should be ticking like clockwork by now but if that's the price LW was prepared to pay then so be it (history now). All my opinion of course.
I fully agree with Woody below.
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