Players Concentration

[Glenn_Purvey]

i think the reason for our failure so far this year is not down to the coaches or managers but is down to our players. How many games have we thrown away in the last 5 minutes.

fulham (3-3) - 2 points lost
liverpool (2-2) - 2 points lost
Blackburn (2-1) - 1 point lost
Birmingham (3-2) - 1 point lost
Sunderland (1-0) - 1 point lost
west ham (1-1) penalty miss - 2 points lost.

thats 9 points dropped, we have only scored once i the last 5 minutes and that rescued a point for us against villa so lets say we would be 8 points better off. That would put us up to 10th in the league still no where near our expectations but a lot better than we are now.
:bang:

 

[davros]

I largely agree. We've not been great at defending leads and seeing games out. Hopefully Ramones is working on this. I am pretty sure we've taken points with late goals, too. Off the top of my head I remember Villa. Wasn't our winner in Europe last week pretty late?
I wouldn't put Defoe's penalty on the list either. We didn't have the lead in that game and there is never any guarantee that a player will score from the spot.

 

[41john]

i think its unfair to blame Defoe for the penalty miss.

But i said a similar thing in the birmingham official thread.

We dont have a fitness problem, players just arnt doing obvious things late in the game, like closing down, marking and clearances. our passing and possession also seems to get worse, and from games we have totally dominated like fulham, birmingham and West ham to name a few they started attacking back near the end.

To be honest we only deserved a point against liverpool, it was only a matter of time before they scored. you missed off the Arsenal game, where we were 1-0 up. but they were all over us for much of the second half so i suppose it was only a matter of time.

 

[SpursManChris]

To be honest we only deserved a point against liverpool

:bs:

 

[yiddotilidie]

The last minute thing is down to concentration, but thats down to our poor fitness levels. Fitness improves mental strength, and a fit player is able to maintain concentration levels longer than an unfit one.

Its pretty obvious watching our level of enthusiasm and determination suddenly drop towards the end of matches. Give it time tho, Ramos will get our boys fit and our fortunes will change.

 

[41john]

:bs:

well i think its all we deserved anyway. we didnt dominate play, was a fairly even game, both had chances and it ended 2-2, i was gutted by the late goal, of course, but a lot worse shit has happned to us of late. fulham and birmingham being the worst in my opinion. though it hurt being turned over late against the gooners too.

If someone said we deserved something away at man ure then maybe i would agree, possibly even the win?

 

[HertsYid]

didnt the commentator say last night that we have thrown away 19 points from being infront this season? im sure he did.

thats a shocking stat.

 

[SpursManChris]

well i think its all we deserved anyway. we didnt dominate play, was a fairly even game, both had chances and it ended 2-2, i was gutted by the late goal, of course, but a lot worse shit has happned to us of late. fulham and birmingham being the worst in my opinion. though it hurt being turned over late against the gooners too.

If someone said we deserved something away at man ure then maybe i would agree, possibly even the win?

Yeah, exactly it was even. Liverpool were in no way the better side. We equalised and we lead. 2-1. We were an unhopeful team going to Anfield with expectations to loose. The underdogs would have won fair and square. Of course we would have deserved to win it, we didn't deserve to concede last minute. How can you say otherwise? :shrug:

 

[joey55]

i think the reason for our failure so far this year is not down to the coaches or managers but is down to our players. How many games have we thrown away in the last 5 minutes.

fulham (3-3) - 2 points lost
liverpool (2-2) - 2 points lost
Blackburn (2-1) - 1 point lost
Birmingham (3-2) - 1 point lost
Sunderland (1-0) - 1 point lost
west ham (1-1) penalty miss - 2 points lost.

thats 9 points dropped, we have only scored once i the last 5 minutes and that rescued a point for us against villa so lets say we would be 8 points better off. That would put us up to 10th in the league still no where near our expectations but a lot better than we are now.
:bang:

It's a good post, but it's too late. This is stuff that was all said before, but largelly ignored earlier on in the season. Don't forget we lost to Everton because Tony Gardner switched off and they had a free kick that took a lcuky deflection of Zokora. We lost to Newcastle because Dawson switched off at a corner and then he and Kaboul couldn't make the right decision to deal with a simple long ball. We were beating Arsenal, until Robbo made the most bizarre attempt to collect the ball and Adebayor scored. Our season is down to a catalogue of individual errors. If coaches could really stop players making poor decsions and losing concentration then Tony Gardner would be the best defender in the world. It's taken for a new coach to come in for a lot our fans to realise this. People can claim we haven't conceded from set pieces, but that is just down to luck. McCartney had a header saved off the line and Cole had header over the bar, both from set peices. On both occassions our defenders lost concentration and allowed this to happen.

 

[thfcsuperyid]

were very bad at keepin a lead...thats down to Concentration .

 

[TheChosenOne]

I largely agree. We've not been great at defending leads and seeing games out. Hopefully Ramones is working on this. I am pretty sure we've taken points with late goals, too. Off the top of my head I remember Villa. Wasn't our winner in Europe last week pretty late?
I wouldn't put Defoe's penalty on the list either. We didn't have the lead in that game and there is never any guarantee that a player will score from the spot.

Bent scord in 66th minute, we got three goals in a little over 20 mins

 

[tony0379]

whos to blame ????

 

[jambo]

If you watched the last 2 games especially it was evident that as the game wore on the amount of space opposition players had in the middle of the park was unreal. With alvares in the setup i agree that fitness is not an issue, its the concentration of players slipping.

 

[LadieK]

Is it just down to contentration though? I started a thread last season about passion, who was REALLY trying HARD yesterday? Keano - for sure! Bale, Steed - the usual suspects.

Berbatov, one of the best strikers in the world, looks like he's gone missing at times! The more I see their third goal the less I blame him for it, but, there are other times when he's flapping his arms about - energy that would be better spent on getting stuck in!!

It's not just him though, far from it, Chimbonda is of course another one - Mr I want to be a striker'.

I dunno, I can see that Ramos will get it right but it's certainly frustrating watching these players who claim to love the team, the fans and the game putting in what looks like such little effort.

 

[Real_madyidd]

whos to blame ????

Immigration.

 

[Glenn_Purvey]

the whole team is to blame, the captain should lead by example that is why i would never have a striker as a captain but keano is the only player i who i can say has played brillant this season and that i believe is partly down to him being a skipper.

s*** i am confused. i also believe that our defence has had no support from our midfield men, lennon cant tackle either can steed.Zokora only makes a challenge when juande puts him centre half and Jenas is only good going forward.

we need 2 centre solid midfileders and 1 solid centre half..

 

[PT]

This fixation on lack of fitness - compared to when? For the last two seasons under Jol, claiming fifth on both occasions, I cannot recall once when the team's fitness was called in to question. There may have been remarks about lack of concentration which has always been a weakness and therefore indirectly a consequence of match fitness. But the media has climbed aboard a comment which hs since been discredited from Ramos that the team needs to lose shed loads of weight.

I suppose if you look at the goals we concede late on and llook for the solution, an answer would always crop up of concentration, or lack of. But basic defending drills may also sove the problem. A regular back four would help nothwithstanding lack of form and injury, both issues with which Jol and Ramos have had to contend.

 

[N10toN17]

Just goes to show how easily some people are influenced by a bit of media gossip that our players are not fit? What a load of rubbish, we hardly, if at all, lost a game last year on the sunday after playing in the Uefa on the thursday, often playing teams who have had their feet up for a week waiting, we are losing matches this year because our players, ie defenders, are not playing well enough, with too many individual errors.

 

[yiddotilidie]

Its nothing to do with the media.

I studied and qualified in Sports Psychology - lack of concentration is associated with a poor level of fitness.

 

[SouthLondonSpur]

Fish Oil, thats what they need.

Omega 3.