Where did it all go wrong this season?

[shearfox]

My hope is that Pearson looks at the way we played up until the end of October and goes back to that style of football. We changed the way we played for whatever reason and that was the turning point...

[yorkie1999]

I just hope that they learn from this season and play the u21's in the fa cup.

[Fox92]

Three points I think -

. Players being dropped constantly is something I posted weeks ago, and I stand by this. Marshall and Knockaert play one week, the next not, the next week playing etc. Not good enough for any player.

. Players that arn't good enough - the likes of Dyer, Konchesky mainly.

. Midfield not strong enough, especially King who is too lightweight for me. We need a new central midfielder to partner James.

Also, we didn't take enough chances in games. Additionally, not playing with width, and not playing out from the back is sometimes annoying.

We need two new full backs, right and left, a new midfielder and maybe a poacher.

[Matt]

I just hope that they learn from this season and play the u21's in the fa cup.

But playing devils advocate say we playeda full strength team v Huddersfield and we progress to the next round, but we still had this bad run, wouldn't people be moaning and blaming a bad run on that we 'focused on the cup too much', should have 'gave our full stength team a rest'?

It's all if's and but's (Words I absoloutely despise, you can change fact and truth with the words) but what if? We won't know, obviously, but have to question this point.

[yorkie1999]

But playing devils advocate say we playeda full strength team v Huddersfield and we progress to the next round, but we still had this bad run, wouldn't people be moaning and blaming a bad run on that we 'focused on the cup too much', should have 'gave our full stength team a rest'?

It's all if's and but's (Words I absoloutely despise, you can change fact and truth with the words) but what if? We won't know, obviously, but have to question this point.

Maybe so, but the question is where did it all go wrong, and for me it was that point in the season. If we exclude the fa cup from next seasons thinking we don't have anything else to blame except poor players and management which negates the what if's and buts.

[Kitchandro]

I don't believe it was Hudders away that did it, just because he change a few players, I don't believe it was Peterborough either, I think there has had to be something bigger go on or our self destruction be a result of a string of things that was set of with a catalyst.

It's not those games alone that 'did it'. The point being made is they were the first snags, for different reasons they put us on the back foot mentally and we never recovered from then.

Before the first Huddersfield cup game, we were in great form. We ground out a win in the Middlesbrough game where we didn't play that well. We had already started to go off form performance-wise but that wasn't yet a major issue - it was one game and we were working out how to win games when we weren't out our best. In the short term, this is not a huge worry, in fact it's a good thing. We had 5 wins in a row, things were great.

What you have to do is use those wins to build momentum and build back into your good play and confidence in the following games, but we never did that, we kept playing badly and it was always going to result in dropped points. We dropped players for that Huddersfield game and played badly, our winning run ended, and it was inevitable that this would disrupt our rhythm. Against Wolves we were second best for large spells of the second half and were fortunate to hold on.

But we still needed to start picking up performances or we would pay for it. Had we beaten Peterborough we would have been something like 4 points clear, but defeat was a real blow and if I remember correctly we just held on to second due to other results.

But we had chance number 3 to turn things around. Nigel would put his first team out against Huddersfield, a team we'd already outplayed twice and thrashed on one of those occassions. We'd play good football, we'd win comfortably, we'd march on to the 5th round and we'd use the result as something to build on. But no, we played a weakened team again, played absolutely abysmally, lost in front of our own fans, and confidence, which already looked low at that point, took another blow. And worse, now the fans were pissed off. Pressure was going to get heavier.

The most important thing you do when the mood is low is to get it high again as soon as possible. Pearson ignored this, our players failed to address the situation, and things just got worse and worse. We didn't really try to win against Huddersfield, that's why it was a significant tie. Suddenly, we'd forgotten how to win, and it spiralled out of control. Had we tried to win that tie, in either game, we may have kept the rhythm going when we had the chance, and we may have had a winning mentality, instead of a losing one.

Success breeds success, we didn't seem to realise that. We let the rot set in.

[Kitchandro]

But playing devils advocate say we playeda full strength team v Huddersfield and we progress to the next round, but we still had this bad run, wouldn't people be moaning and blaming a bad run on that we 'focused on the cup too much', should have 'gave our full stength team a rest'?

It's all if's and but's (Words I absoloutely despise, you can change fact and truth with the words) but what if? We won't know, obviously, but have to question this point.

Maybe, but those people are idiots. They do not realise how athletes work, or how people's mentalities work. A confident, winning team cannot wait to play the next game and that is how you keep a team confident when they've had a bad result. You move on, you make them forget about it asap and get them thinking about winning the next game. Remind them as soon as possible what winning feels like.

Rests are overrated when it comes to professional athletes. Athletes who train properly do not get weaker the more they exercise, they get stronger. Their bodies get used to it. Unless they are injured. Mentally, a rest can help, but it certainly doesn't help when youre in good form, like we were before the cup game, or when the rot was starting to set in and they needed a lift quickly, as was the case before the replay. Rests should be considered only after the other avenues have been explored.

Besides, though this is not important to the thread question, the FA Cup should be taken seriously. I've never been a believer that it should be treated as second rate, just as I've never believed a cup run badly affects league form. Our season, if anything, proves that losing leads to more losing, more than the claptrap about 'focusing on the league' and 'it's only the cup'.

[Langston]

Huddersfield in the cup seemed to kickstart this abhorrent run.