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Fine Margins on the Pitch in the Mind


Legod Third Coming
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Yesterday we were poor for a good 75 minutes, but watch the game again and look at the nervousness of Blackpool playing the Champions in waiting for the first ten minutes or so.

 

Then they play one ball in behind Butterfield and their confidence rises three notches, four, five maybe.

 

They realise it is possible to do us, to get in behind, to play against the Champions elect as easily as they can against any other team. They're young, they remember, they have nothing to lose, most of them are the in team becuase the boss ditched the first team...

 

Then we get the golden chance to remind them we're there for a game, and we gift it back, raising their confidence levels again...

 

The football pitch that is most important for us right now is the one between the players' ears!

 

Most football matches are settled by fine margins, but mostly by what goes in in the players' heads.

 

We were no poorer yesterday than at Millwall - and that match mirrored yesterday. Ahead on points, then ahead on goal, then gifted the impetus back to the opposition.

 

As long as the player's remember that they can outplay anyone in this league, we're home and hosed. THAT is what we need to be doing in training this week. And nothing else. (Well maybe penalties if Rickie is still out...) ;)

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More like it took them 10 minutes to realise just how rubbish we were and realised we were there for the taking. There was no fine margin about it. They were by far the better side.

 

And yet we could have scored three goals as easily as they did.

If the penalty goes in, our confidence goes up, theirs goes down, different game, different result.

And yet all that changed was one goal chance and we lost by three.

That is why football is all about fine margins.

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If Gully gets his early effort on target instead of just wide and Sharp converts the Pen then we are 2 up within 15 minutes and game over. As it was we gave Blackpool all the imputus and confidence and they made full use of it. They also were more mobile than us and as I have noticed before any team that close us down quickly usually prosper. We did miss RL badly for his hold up play and bringing others into the game, Sharp is not a Ricky,(And I am not talking about the penalty),he is more of a poacher and cannot lead the line like Ricky. Looking at the team overall yesterday I wouldn't have given any off them pass marks , A very bad day at the office that might prove to be a lesson well learnt

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By missing our opportunities, we most definitely gave them all the impetus they needed.

 

Just goes to show how events influence games. Here we all are, dissecting an awful result when had the pen gone in, we could have been sat here talking about a completely different game and result!

 

Game of fine margins indeed.

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imagine looking on the watford message board when we gave them 3 and saw their fans saying "oh, it was close...we could have won if we had 8 inches"

pretty graceless IMO

 

we got well beaten by the better team on the day

 

This.

 

We started okish, but were criminal at the back and gave away so many errors. Poor show all round, we just didn't turn up at all.

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not really....we were rubbish....no disgrace in that. we got beaten fair and square.

 

move on

 

^^This^^

 

I see what LTC is saying - we get a pen and miss - up the other end and they get a pen and score. Jos didn't put the header away they go up the other end and put their chance away but, at the end of the day we were not firing on all cylinders and they were - simple as that.

 

Lets not forget tho that we are where we are on merit - one bad result/showing does not make us a bad team. NA will be expecting a better performance against that lot down the road (and so will I/you) on Saturday.

 

UTS

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By missing our opportunities, we most definitely gave them all the impetus they needed.

 

Just goes to show how events influence games. Here we all are, dissecting an awful result when had the pen gone in, we could have been sat here talking about a completely different game and result!

 

Game of fine margins indeed.

 

You could see how it was going to go when Guly didn't hit the target before we had the penalty. That goes in and the pen 5 mins later and it would have been a totally different story but they didn't and it wasn't so lets dust ourselves off and move on - yesterdays game has gone - can't do anything about it now but we can do something about the next one!

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I don't know about you guys, but I sort of knew Sharp was going to miss the pen. Body shape, length of run up....something not right, whereas their penalty taker, longer run up, confident posture, felt like it was going in all the way.

 

LTC's right, a lot of it is in the head....

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I don't know about you guys, but I sort of knew Sharp was going to miss the pen. Body shape, length of run up....something not right, whereas their penalty taker, longer run up, confident posture, felt like it was going in all the way.

 

LTC's right, a lot of it is in the head....

 

That's how I saw it. I knew he wasn't going to score. Why didn't Lallana take it?

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I don't know about you guys, but I sort of knew Sharp was going to miss the pen. Body shape, length of run up....something not right, whereas their penalty taker, longer run up, confident posture, felt like it was going in all the way.

 

LTC's right, a lot of it is in the head....

 

I agree. I thought Sharp's sideways look was indicative that he wasn't 100% confident where he was going to put it. He took it way too quickly after the whistle. Penalties are not just about hard and low, or hard and high. They are also about outwitting the keeper...

 

As for the 'we were well beaten brigade' yes we were.

 

We were outplayed EXCATLY as we were at Millwall. The game was almost a carbon copy in the way we handed the impetus to the opposition. Momentum is key in sport and we (in three of the last four away games) have handed it to our opposition and yesterday it caught us out. If we go one up it most likely is a totally different game and result.

 

Hence the fine margin.

 

But we have to get back (to my original point) to the players NOT giving the impetus away. Either they're a touch too complacent or nervous, but the early season confidence simply is not there at present. And we need it back because we are the best football team in the division on our day. And we need more days between now and May - SIX to be precise!

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