The players are losing belief 18:54 - Sep 14 with 1131 views | Ifonly | The worst thing about today, for me, was that it said that the players are losing belief. We started well and seemed to have improved, but after the penalty (which was taken with no conviction) we just fell away and looked resigned to defeat. The team's confidence couldn't even survive the slightest dent. It's a bit early in the season for a team to be losing hope like that. I'm sure RM believes in what he's doing, but I don't think the players share that belief. A team that had belief would have been encouraged by winning a penalty and kept going. They showed in the first 30 mins that they could compete if they played positively. The only thing that explains the change in performance after the penalty is a change in mentality (for both sides to be fair). It will be very difficult to build that belief by playing PL games. If we were a stubborn defensive side, we could grind out some nil-nils and build from there. But any Russell Martin side is going to concede goals. A Russell Martin side has to rely on scoring plenty, but it is difficult to see how those goals will be scored when there is no belief in the side (except for Dibling who was terrific). Although it is early in the season, the game against Ipswich may be RM's last opportunity to convince the players that we have a chance of surviving under him. He needs a win to change the mentality of the team. If he can't stop the rot quickly, it will just get worse. | | | | |
The players are losing belief on 19:17 - Sep 14 with 1029 views | A1079 | Can't disagree with any of that ifonly. The Ipswich game has now become very important but they are no mugs. | | | |
The players are losing belief on 21:02 - Sep 14 with 820 views | Southamptonfan | I thought there was a lot less passing around the back today. We got the ball forward much quicker than normal, with Dibling and fernandes making lots of forward runs. We were playing some good stuff, then missed the penalty, and the team just got p!ssed off that a great opportunity was missed. United scored and it was game over. The Ipswich game is a massive game now, lose that and we know that we are doomed and can't win games in this league. Win it and it will give us hope that we can at least win in this league against the lesser sides. Forest won at Liverpool today, Brentford are decent, so are Newcastle so it's been a tough start. Bournemouth away after Ipswich. We need at least 4 points from the next 2 games. It's going to be a struggle regardless. [Post edited 14 Sep 21:03]
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The players are losing belief on 21:10 - Sep 14 with 779 views | TimSaint | To put it simply.... Goals change games We missed our penalty They scored We were poor there after | |
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