Belief (or lack of)

[MillersTime]

Just watched last night's post match interview and the word that often crops up with the boss is belief. Do our players simply not believe in themselves enough?

Take just the last two games for example. Sat off both teams for the first half and got absolutely run ragged, letting players play and being well and truly outplayed. Second half in both games we change personnel, we change tactics but most importantly we change our mindset. We rush, harry, press, compete, tackle, dare. To nick Tottenham's motto, to dare is to do. We will never score if we dont believe we will, we will never win a tackle if we dont go in believing we will win it etc. Once we have pressed teams this season and over the last two games we have won the ball, won free kicks, created chances.

I know it sounds silly perhaps and a bit 'modern' but maybe the lads should be shown when they've played well and what rewards they have got from that. When they actually do stuff right. Rightly we are all a bit miffed (putting it lightly) with the first half, as is the boss quite clearly, but we, they, together, we have to believe in what we can do. It's easy to say we aren't as good as most in this league and perhaps we aren't but believe that we are and who knows where that extra few percent will take us....

[Brin]

Millertime, good sensible post.

My only problem of late is 'application' not belief. For the first time this season we saw the real Michael Smith last night..why? He should be applying himself like that in every game not just when he feels like it. I am not just singling Smudge out, this applies to others like Crooks and what's happened to Barlaser since he got a 2 year contract?

Freddie doesn't get enough game time so is so ring rusty and he fluffs easy tap ins and chances. You have to start picking 'regular' forwards and cut out all this swapping over. If you play 16 players in a game it will never work/gel. I get there are a lot of games but, other teams aren't using 5 subs and still win games, why?

Belief or mis management? Fine lines indeed.

[Yak]

We do have an inferiority complex.
Even the commentator on I follow keeps saying we are battling we should be pleased we aren’t getting outplayed.

If we don’t believe we can win we won’t.
Without wanting to preach I have always been taught and believe it’s a state of mind. I genuinely believed and still do believe I can beat anything or anyone if I want to.
We shouldn’t fear anyone yes respect them but never fear anyone.
I posted last night we’re trying but not quite good enough and I posted that because we don’t believe we are.

Millertop disagreed with me he was correct to.

We can beat these teams if we believe we can.

Problem is though I don’t think the Manager thinks we can and that transfers to the players.

[CASPER-64-FRANK]

You can add a lack of leadership on the pitch to the confidence.
Not being able to see the first half out last night at 1-1 and conceding two in 1st half injury time is a lack of professionalism.
All they have to do is hang onto the ball, even if it means passing acrossways instead of hoofing it up front only for the ball to come straight back.
We have some decent players, unfortunately at present some are under-performing.

[millertop]

We do have an inferiority complex.
Even the commentator on I follow keeps saying we are battling we should be pleased we aren’t getting outplayed.

If we don’t believe we can win we won’t.
Without wanting to preach I have always been taught and believe it’s a state of mind. I genuinely believed and still do believe I can beat anything or anyone if I want to.
We shouldn’t fear anyone yes respect them but never fear anyone.
I posted last night we’re trying but not quite good enough and I posted that because we don’t believe we are.

Millertop disagreed with me he was correct to.

We can beat these teams if we believe we can.

Problem is though I don’t think the Manager thinks we can and that transfers to the players.

Imo your spot on with the manager, a few times himself he’s said we can’t complete with some teams, maybe he’s right but keep it to yourself and set the team up to win games not lose them.

You aim for the top and see how far you can get.
Every team is beatable (we all have off days) and that’s what you need to believe in.

I know we have games coming thick and fast but you’ve got to put your best squad out where possible, you should know now who/what works best.

Fans might not expect us to win the next two games but management/players should and set up to win.

I don’t blame it all on management, players have to also take some responsibility.

Send some rockets for their backsides 😉

[MillersTime]

Millertime, good sensible post.

My only problem of late is 'application' not belief. For the first time this season we saw the real Michael Smith last night..why? He should be applying himself like that in every game not just when he feels like it. I am not just singling Smudge out, this applies to others like Crooks and what's happened to Barlaser since he got a 2 year contract?

Freddie doesn't get enough game time so is so ring rusty and he fluffs easy tap ins and chances. You have to start picking 'regular' forwards and cut out all this swapping over. If you play 16 players in a game it will never work/gel. I get there are a lot of games but, other teams aren't using 5 subs and still win games, why?

Belief or mis management? Fine lines indeed.

Agreed Brin. The management must be scratching their heads though when it comes to the application. Like warney alluded to last night, he brings players on who then play well, plays them in the next game and they are poor (I think he meant Clarke most of all as he hauled him off). Why? If they seem to play well, train well so you pick them and they dont turn up what can you do? He has to change it at half time again, crooks comes on with an edge, a bit of bite and looks a lot better than he has but when he has started this year he has been poor. Our subs look hungry and desperate to impress but when they are in the starting eleven they just dont perform to the same level. 100% about smithy also, hopefully he hits a bit of a streak, once he gets going.

I couldn't agree more about picking a settled side but once he does that they dont perform and he has to switch it around and we are going round in circles...

[MillersTime]

We do have an inferiority complex.
Even the commentator on I follow keeps saying we are battling we should be pleased we aren’t getting outplayed.

If we don’t believe we can win we won’t.
Without wanting to preach I have always been taught and believe it’s a state of mind. I genuinely believed and still do believe I can beat anything or anyone if I want to.
We shouldn’t fear anyone yes respect them but never fear anyone.
I posted last night we’re trying but not quite good enough and I posted that because we don’t believe we are.

Millertop disagreed with me he was correct to.

We can beat these teams if we believe we can.

Problem is though I don’t think the Manager thinks we can and that transfers to the players.

100% minus the last line Haha. I genuinely think that he does believe, truly believes in them but is finding it elusive in getting that into their minds and then into the legs so to speak.

Respect but dont fear, absolutely right

[Grist_To_The_Mill]

"Problem is though I don’t think the Manager thinks we can and that transfers to the players"

There's more than a bit of truth in that statement.

Our manager ticks a lot of boxes in that he's a good fit for the business model at RUFC, he's predictable, steady and doesn't demand huge transfer budgets. He gets on with the Chairman and as a general rule the fans love him.

But there are negative points.

1. He's a nice guy in the tough world of football. It's a nasty sometimes cheating game where niceness gets crushed

2. He develops "a great bunch of lads" with a family ethic. This sounds good but players can get too relaxed knowing that the manager will give then a smooth ride and there's little chance they will be shown the door

3. The niceness also works itself onto the pitch, there will never be a place for a "Gerry Gow" in a Warne team nor a place for a Branston

4. Loyalty to players is stretched too far with long standing squad members playing when performances don't warrant it

5. Tactics and team selections are "safe" concentrating on not losing. Our best periods of play have been when Warne's kick off choices have had to be changed to rescue a result. They weren't chosen they were forced on him

6. It's still clear that the bulk of the training concentrates on fitness and physicality. If set piece routines are practiced there's very little evidence that it's effective

7. The nice family, no bad eggs, ethic can also have odd comebacks. We lost Richard Wood during an international break period with the mysterious "hammy" injury. This injury being days after him completing a 100km charity bike ride. I can think of many managers that would have said "no way Jose" to the suggestion that a player takes part in such an event

8. To keep the "good bunch of lads" happy the manager chops and changes the team selections, particularly the forwards, nobody gets a steady run of games to get fully match fit. To us supporters it looks as though the manager doesn't know what his best line up is. Plus whoever is chosen the team will play a variation of 4-5-1 ending up with square peg in round hole performances


Going back to PW being a good fit from the Chairman's point of view and as such we admit to ourselves that PW is safe regardless of results then why not employ experienced coaches to the management team? Somebody to bring new ideas not somebody that's just going to carry out the usual Warne plan?

We have become predictable, we are a nice team, we have some decent players that fail to impress, we should do better.

We've got to break that pattern, play more than one up front, get more aggressive and pressure teams from the kick off and not just when we are chasing a lost cause.

I think we have the players, the management team though I'm not so sure they are getting the best from them.

[MillersTime]

Grist

1. Agreed
2. Agreed. We have sleepwalked into stagnation.
3. Agreed
4. The issue at the moment is not many really warrant it. Long standing or not there is no flow, I have no idea who will play each game, good to a point but due to a lack of clear direction rather than it being tactically fluent I fear.
5. If I could know one thing it would be whats said before a game. Surely surely surely surely he doesnt tell them to go out there and stand off, be passive, we want to win but dont want to concede (not so subtle we will take a point) type stuff. Surely that doesnt happen?! I dont know however, what I would be intrigued by though. I like to think, maybe naively, that the players just arent showing the intensity early thats wanted because otherwise we have a deeper issue.
6. HUGE letdown. Vanished overnight. Alternatively, on a positive spin (bare with me), if / when we get it working again it will add to our threat immeasurably. Definitely missing that with crossing a big factor
7. Agree. Poor decision seemingly
8. I think we have agreed over the last few days that we should play two up front to lead the press and link up so once again I agree with you. In particular ladapo has to play for me. He can be frustrating but say he has 4 chances and scores 1. Not great BUT others in the same game would (or wouldnt) get into positions to have say 0 or 1 chance. Likelihood is off that one they wont score so ladapo is better statistically in likelihood to score. The moneyball approach. Have I made sense there?! Haha

[MillersTime]

Imo your spot on with the manager, a few times himself he’s said we can’t complete with some teams, maybe he’s right but keep it to yourself and set the team up to win games not lose them.

You aim for the top and see how far you can get.
Every team is beatable (we all have off days) and that’s what you need to believe in.

I know we have games coming thick and fast but you’ve got to put your best squad out where possible, you should know now who/what works best.

Fans might not expect us to win the next two games but management/players should and set up to win.

I don’t blame it all on management, players have to also take some responsibility.

Send some rockets for their backsides 😉

Told myself it looks like aiming for 21st but then checked it. Cannot go with that approach. Like you say, aim for 1st until that isnt possible and so on