Passion!

[Charl91]

Heard quite a few people moaning that some players don't seem to show enough "passion" when playing. I'm genuinely interested in how many people actually think it's an important attribute in a footballer!

[My first poll, so could be epic fail!]

[RumbleFox]

PAAASSSHHHUUUUUUNNNNNNNNNNNNNNNN! i like, yer know, dunt care how gud a player is or that I just want um to show sum pashun! Get Waggeh on aneh day of the week rather than the Yak cos all the Yak does is score bloodeh goals! What a crap striker on. Can't remember the last time Waggeh scored but he runs around alot! PPPAASSSHHHUUNNNN!!!!!!

X

[davieG]

Passion or do you mean workrate, determination, commitment. Either way many attributes including passion are not always visible in a player making it difficult to determine who is or who isn't passionate about playing for LCFC.

Besides most footballers have their 'own' clubs they support and are passionate about, I don't really expect them to be passionate about LCFC in the same way I am.

What I look for is ability, commitment, determination and a belief in their manager, in their team mates and their own ability to succeed.

[Webbo]

A passion for what? The club and fans that they are playing for or a desire to win no matter who they are playing for?

[Fox92]

If players haven't got a passion for football, then they shouldn't play.

[cc_star]

People need to be motivated whatever their line of work

Some people are motivated by money (do well, get paid more) some prospects (do well, play at a higher level with or without our club) & some motivated by recognition (fans favourite etc)

Does it matter if the end results are the same?

Fans like someone who puts lots of visible effort effort in, perhaps making a crunching tackle, making a 50 yard run to put in a tackle, spending 90mins covering every blade of grass is just easier for us to identify with, we certainly need players like that, but would it work as a team without the flair players who are perhaps a bit less obvious & more enigmatic making the occasional elusive run which creates space, does a cheeky backheel etc

some of the most memorable legends during their time with the club are people like Walshie, Speedie, Savage... players who put tons of obvious effort in, but the more enigmatic players who are perhaps more inconsistent who form an equally important part of the team slip under our radars

We can't carry a team of 'so-called lazy' players but we can certainly carry one if he gets the ~25 goals that fire us into the prem

[Les-TA-Jon]

I always find it odd that passion is demanded in professional players for sports - particularly football.

Football is surely like any other profession - in the sense that there's the normal proportion of people working within that profession that are passionate. So i'm sure that you get players that are good technically and talented, but just see it as a job, a money earner, but nothing more. In the same way that there are Shankly's and Ferguson's and Cloughs saying "It's more important than life and death".

Passion is important for some players and not for others. Whilst it can generally be said to have a direct effect on some player's success - i'm sure there'll be other players where levels of passion have no bearing on the ability/form.

Don't get me wrong - i love to see passionate players in the LCFC shirt. But i'm just saying that it's crazy to demand it of all players, and it also doesn't guarantee success either (Waghorn)

[Haydos]

This sums the problem up for me

I don't even think you mean 'passion'. It's a stupid word that the braindead fans of this club use to measure whether a player chases down loose balls. I for one am sick of seeing the word 'passion' or 'PASHUN' written on the fooking board.

[Dan]

"Pashun" is on par with Tekkers, cringeworthy as fvck.

[Babylon]

This sums the problem up for me

I don't even think you mean 'passion'. It's a stupid word that the braindead fans of this club use to measure whether a player chases down loose balls. I for one am sick of seeing the word 'passion' or 'PASHUN' written on the fooking board.

I think I suggested the other day the word should be banned.

[Babylon]

"Pashun" is on par with Tekkers, cringeworthy as fvck.

It's on even on par with Tekkers, LAD, banter, clunge, jizz. Anyone using them should be shot at dawn.

[The Doctor]

It's on even on par with Tekkers, LAD, banter, clunge, jizz. Anyone using them should be shot at dawn.

So how long before someone puts all those words in a single post in an attempt to be funny?

[acooling08]

So how long before someone puts all those words in a single post in an attempt to be funny?

*I wasn't just about to do that*

What's Tekkers by the way?

[The Doctor]

*I wasn't just about to do that*

What's Tekkers by the way?

Technique in reference to tricks i think.

[Guest Col city fan]

Passion or do you mean workrate, determination, commitment. Either way many attributes including passion are not always visible in a player making it difficult to determine who is or who isn't passionate about playing for LCFC.

Besides most footballers have their 'own' clubs they support

and are passionate about, I don't really expect them to be passionate about LCFC in the same way I am.

What I look for is ability, commitment, determination and a belief in their manager, in their team mates and their own

ability to succeed.

I think you are right dave. Passion as a concept is defined as being 'adoration' or love of something that makes someone behave in a certain way. Some Football fans can certainly be described as being 'passionate' about their club.

It's therefore different to commitment and determination in that it implies something more deep than this..in fact spiritual in it's purest form.

Therefore unless a player has a club 'in their blood' so to speak (perhaps Scott Parker could be seen as passionate

about west ham?) then it is unlikely that that player will be playing with passion. In this way it is often used incorrectly.

[Donut]

Its impossible to quantify ''passion''

Is a player who makes lung busting runs everywhere more ''passionate'' than a player who makes runs more sparingly, perhaps more intelligently, perhaps less 'obviously'?

Is a player who jumps into tackles everywhere at 100% without regard for the consequences more ''passionate'' than a player who stays on his feet, shows a player wide of the goal, tackles sparingly?

Is a player who is very creative in an attacking sense but doesnt contribute anything defensively less ''passionate'' than a player constantly looking to break things up and destroy?

For some players, 'passion', or more 'passion' would add absolutely ZERO to their game, in fact it may even make their game worse

Our discussions on passion are only in a 'visible' sense, i.e our interpretation/judgement of factors mostly such as players work rate/determination/aggression/bravery/stamina

we do NOT associate the attributes such as creativity/flair/vision/technique/intelligence/touch in the same way when talking about passion.

[Bert]

If the player gives his best for the club whilst he's playing for us, that suits me. They may not show PASHUN, and may even look lazy, but if they do their best whilst they're on the pitch, that's good enough for me.

[Mikey]

Don't think there has to be passion for the club, but there does have to be a passion to play football.

[Kitchandro]

There's 'trying' and then there's 'passion'.

A player can 'try' but all they are doing is going through the motions. That Norwich game was a perfect example, some players weren't trying, most were going through the motions but no one showed any 'passion'. Passion is your mentality, where you show determination and are putting everything in it and feeling that if you are going to lose, you are at least going to believe that you can win if you grit your teeth and really go for it. It is often obvious when a player is showing this and when he is not. A number of times this season we've been losing and players have been closing down and running in a sense, but you could tell they had mentally given up.

I love the idea of people hating a word because they don't umderstand it

Does anyone want me to explain what 'technically gifted' means?

[Donut]

There's 'trying' and then there's 'passion'.

A player can 'try' but all they are doing is going through the motions. That Norwich game was a perfect example, some players weren't trying, most were going through the motions but no one showed any 'passion'. Passion is your mentality, where you show determination and are putting everything in it and feeling that if you are going to lose, you are at least going to believe that you can win if you grit your teeth and really go for it. It is often obvious when a player is showing this and when he is not. A number of times this season we've been losing and players have been closing down and running in a sense, but you could tell they had mentally given up.

I love the idea of people hating a word because they don't umderstand it

Does anyone want me to explain what 'technically gifted' means?

But this comes back to my first post......... Not all players are going to show their ''passion'' through tireless running, tackling, chasing etc, these are the attributes that VISUALLY play a significant part of our interpretation of passion.

A player with, for example, clever movement, intelligence, technique may have a more profound impact on the result of a particular game than someone who has covered a lot of distance but ultimately contributed little. It would APPEAR the player who covered a lot of ground would have had more impact on the game.

How does a flair player display his passion/determination?

Secondly i dont think technically gifted has a definition.......to me the idea of 'techinally gifted' is someone who has a high degree of competency with the ball in terms of his touch, ability to use both feet, his control, his passing over various distances, his movement offthe ball and his decision making on the pitch. It most certainly IS NOT being able to do ridiculous things with the ball that are totally irrelevant and showboating around the pitch.

[Kitchandro]

But this comes back to my first post......... Not all players are going to show their ''passion'' through tireless running, tackling, chasing etc, these are the attributes that VISUALLY play a significant part of our interpretation of passion.

A player with, for example, clever movement, intelligence, technique may have a more profound impact on the result of a particular game than someone who has covered a lot of distance but ultimately contributed little. It would APPEAR the player who covered a lot of ground would have had more impact on the game.

How does a flair player display his passion/determination?

Secondly i dont think technically gifted has a definition.......to me the idea of 'techinally gifted' is someone who has a high degree of competency with the ball in terms of his touch, ability to use both feet, his control, his passing over various distances, his movement offthe ball and his decision making on the pitch. It most certainly IS NOT being able to do ridiculous things with the ball that are totally irrelevant and showboating around the pitch.

It all depends on the individual. Like I said, it's often obvious when players are really going for it and when they're just going through the motions. Likewise, it's obvious when a player is being intelligent and when he's just being lazy.

I'm aware this thread is loosely based on Yakubu, and on the subject of him, it's easy to see the difference between games where he's really going for it and games when he's not willing to go that extra mile for his team. In some games he has looked up for it, away at QPR, at home to Millwall as two examples, but plenty of others where he hasn't. Sheffield Utd was a perfect example of why he's frustrating - we were very under the cosh, what we needed was someone who would at least try and make something out of the clearances up field. Now yes the midfield was poor that night and so was the service but there were several balls he could have chased down to at least give our under-siege defence a chance. But his lack of effort made it difficult for us to get out our half.

I'm not saying he should be running around all the while, but there are times when he should be and he's not always doing it when he should be.

I like your summing up of technically gifted

[Donut]

It all depends on the individual. Like I said, it's often obvious when players are really going for it and when they're just going through the motions. Likewise, it's obvious when a player is being intelligent and when he's just being lazy.

I'm aware this thread is loosely based on Yakubu, and on the subject of him, it's easy to see the difference between games where he's really going for it and games when he's not willing to go that extra mile for his team. In some games he has looked up for it, away at QPR, at home to Millwall as two examples, but plenty of others where he hasn't. Sheffield Utd was a perfect example of why he's frustrating - we were very under the cosh, what we needed was someone who would at least try and make something out of the clearances up field. Now yes the midfield was poor that night and so was the service but there were several balls he could have chased down to at least give our under-siege defence a chance. But his lack of effort made it difficult for us to get out our half.

I'm not saying he should be running around all the while, but there are times when he should be and he's not always doing it when he should be.

I like your summing up of technically gifted

Why thankyou

I think this threads been an interesting debate

[ajthefox]

Passion isn't really the word.

As other have said it's about the work ethic, the motivation, the determination and the commitment to the cause.

Someone could have no "passion" or love for City but if they bust their gut for 90 minutes and give 100% in everything they do then thats good enough for me.

And it's worth noting that too much passion could probably be a hindrance. There's still a part of me -and there probably always be- that dreams of walking out of that tunnel for real wearing the our blue shirt with 30 thousand City chanting, but I imagine the passion I and indeed many other City fans have could actually be an inconvenience in some cases, so it's actually good that players are a little distant sometimes.

[SOCCERROO FOX]

[All i want to see is a bit of commitment to win each game a bit of old fashion ticker.