Optimist or Pessimist?

[skinnydipper]

I'm a football schizophrenic so I'm both

This morning I was an unbridled optimist

But at the moment I'm not

[Stadt]

I've changed my mind

[Stand UP...]

most pointless thread i have ever come across...i guess that means i am a pessimist

[Zingari]

[skinnydipper]

That confirms it

I'm a Super Pessimist

Those cups are more than half empty

And are not even half full

We're all doomed, doomed I say.

[Thracian]

I've long advocated a passing style of football and far more commitment to attack and saw much to enthuse over in the game against Middlesbrough. But the more I see and hear of Team Sousa's way of going about achieving our transition the less impressed I am.

I'm always sceptical of employing managers - essentially communicators - who have ttrouible speaking our language and of personally getting their message across. It seems to have been a majopr problem for Capello and the same looks to be the case with Soussa.

Many's the coach or manager who's had good ideas but who couldn't get them across or personally inspire his charges.

I really do look to the likes of Revie's Leeds, Ferguson's United and Shankly's Liverpool as offering examples of how a to make passing football work. Because all three teams - while invariably good to look at in possession, fought quickly and tenaciously to win possession in the first place.

From watchiung yesterday we seem to have a holiday camp atmosphere and there is no way any players I managed would have got away with doing their own thing while a warm-up session was in progress.

Quite apart from anything else the whole thing looked shoddy and not at all as if we had a united, committed team preparing to go out and give their all.

As for Soussa's assessment of what happened in the match, it was fantasy from where I sat. Far from being the better side, it looked like a game of 9 men against 11 for much of the time cos we were swamped in midfield, were second to the ball all over the park, and had at least four players who barely competed. We didn't close the opposition down with anything like the commitment shown by Burnley and couldn't even make the simplest of passes, there was far too little movement or wanting of the ball and we showed no ideas or imagination with either our general play or our dead ball situations..

How much worse could it be?

It is abundantly clear that Soussa needs to introduce fast, efficient and competitively reliable people into his squad as quickly as possibe - and the use of substitues Lamey and Moussa offered some hope of that for the future - but most of the starting team looked like tired, inefficient, cumbersome and outdated steam engines waiting for the scrapyard.

I truly lost count of the times players failed to control the ball with their first touch, got the ball stuck between their feet or misdirected a 10-yard pass.

I've nothing against a manager looking elegant so long as he presents a team that looks as if it's turned up to work. Sadly though, yesterday's City team was a such a mess I'd have been ashamed to have had them representing me.

And if it doesn't change dramatically (Soussa should know that half our matches are played away!) then there are few grounds for optimism at all.

And already I think we've no chance on Earth of a top two finish.

You cannot give the better teams in the Championship a 6-8-point start and seriously expect to make up the deficit when you still haven't got a club what your best side is, and while you still carry people who look less than fit and less than committed.

[Stig the Lawnmower]

That confirms it

I'm a Super Pessimist

Those cups are more than half empty

And are not even half full

We're all doomed, doomed I say.

I'm an optimist

'don't panic Mr Mannering!'

[davieG]

[ozleicester]

eternal optimist.

We will play football and win.

We will make the playoffs this year.

[marbelladave]

Seriously for a moment...

Optimist. Sousa is trying to change the way we play and understandably this will take time, on saturday we were missing key players, Fryatt, Dyer, Gallagher and possibly Vitor all not present. There is lots of work to do on fitness, teamwork and integrating new players, at the end of which we will be a better footballing side ready to make a real challenge for promotion...

Pessimist. Above all else our lack of determination and fight on saturday is deeply worrying. Our body lanquage was poor and we looked lethargic, even complacent, absurd for a team without a win in the league. It was not a question of qutting, we simply never even got started...

Both the above are actually genuinely considered views, I alternate between the two of them regularly and often...

[deepbluedevil]

Something just feels wrong with the club at the moment, things just not fitting properly...

[evs_the_fox]

With the number of injuries racking up and the points made by Thracian (holiday camp etc.) I'm still looking back to my initial horror when I saw that all pre-season was done with a ball.

As for the takeover; I'm yet to be convinced.

Three points on Saturday will, of course, change all that!