Why are we the only relegation battlers that are playing like we don't care ?

[marcymarc666]

I can't put put my finger on this one. You look at the like of Forest and Leeds and even if they're losing they're playing like their lives depend on it. Where as we look like we're taking a stroll in the park. 

Your thoughts....

[Matt_Lcfc]

As players do not have any accountability.  The problem is that very few of them will suffer any repercussions, we will go down and most will be fire sold in the summer. It's a sad state of affairs, but one that is completely our own doing. Look at players like Maddison and Tielemans. I like Youri, but he is a perfect example - we did not offer him a large contract when our stock was high and he will walkaway on a free in a couple of months time. It's the same with Maddison, he will leave for a low price due to his contract situation and he will remain a PL player. I don't care about his persona in the media, he is not fooling me, he does not care.

 

Like any disaster, it is not driven by one factor though. I also think that for some unclear reason, the club downed tools after winning the FA Cup. On and off the pitch it has been a disaster since then, they got away with it last year because the memory was still fresh, but the warning signs were there. It genuinely felt that after we won the FA Cup, there was no incentive to keep progressing. It is what frustrates me. It should have been the opposite, it was a great opportunity to establish ourselves as a 'big' club and we messed it up.  

Edited 10 May 2023 by Matt_Lcfc

[FoyleFox]

Because our team doesn't care

[Cala Bona Fox]

5 minutes ago, marcymarc666 said:

I can't put put my finger on this one. You look at the like of Forest and Leeds and even if they're losing they're playing like their lives depend on it. Where as we look like we're taking a stroll in the park. 

Your thoughts....

Because our delusional bunch of posers think that they're better than they are. They keep going on about how much talent there is the squad when they're talking about themselves. When they said that "we're targeting the games against Leeds, Everton and Fulham" they truly believed that they just had to turn up and get 3 points. That's why the performances were so lacking in "hunger" according to James Maddison. What he really meant was " we think we're better than these and so we're guaranteed the points.

[Mythyaar]

We don't care or they don't?

 

If the latter, it's because a lot of them really don't care. Certainly not a fraction of what we do.

[RowlattsFox]

The manager and a couple of senior leaders drag others through in times like these. We have neither. They create the atmosphere and the confidence. 

I like to think players do care and none of them want to get relegated, even if they are leaving (contract situation obviously doesn't help) but it certainly doesn't come across that they do. 

 

 

 

 

[lee7]

Just now, FoyleFox said:

Because our team doesn't care

Literally so true. 

Top didn't seem to care as he watched as Brendan run us into the ground this season and that sense of not caring appears to have filtered down through the board, players and fans.

 

You look at our relegation rivals and see the passion that their players and fans show to get them out of the mess they're in and then compare that to us....miles apart. 

[whoareyaaa]

3 players are off in the summer however Soy has put a proper shift in the same can’t be said for Youri or Maddison imo. The midfield is non existent.

 

plus there have been way to many individual errors no team togetherness or leaders 

[The Guvnor]

1 minute ago, FoyleFox said:

Because our team doesn't care

There you go a chant for the remaining games.

 

Our team doesn’t care

Our team doesn’t care 

Why are we bottlers

Cause our team doesn’t care.

 

 

[adejo92]

Most just aren't good enough, and those that are, don't seem interested.

 

I don't particularly think that Leeds look like a team that are fighting for their lives either though.

 

Everton are clearly fighting to stay up, as are Forest. There's something different about those 2 though. It pains me to say it, but the players have more fight and the stadium has more atmosphere.

 

Every part of this club just seems content with going down without so much as a wimper.

[ParkerPen]

I've never disliked a group as much as these.

 

in the 2000's the players were all shit, so you could understand the poor levels.

 

this lot got not fight in them, no balls

[RoboFox]

Second rate signings + players running their contracts down = Nosediving club 

[Noahfence]

Because nearly all of them know they won’t be here come pre season in July 

[ClaphamFox]

20 minutes ago, marcymarc666 said:

I can't put put my finger on this one. You look at the like of Forest and Leeds and even if they're losing they're playing like their lives depend on it. Where as we look like we're taking a stroll in the park. 

Your thoughts....

The thing is, I wouldn't say this was true of Smith's first four games. In those, the players did look as if they cared and were much more resilient. We went on a three-game unbeaten run and showed some spirit in coming from behind in all of those games. The quality wasn't always there and Smith's tactics were questionable at times, but team spirit seemed much improved.

 

I have no idea why all that went out of the window on Monday. Was it nerves? Complacency? Has Smith's new manager bounce faded already? Was it a one-off, or is that what we're going to see for the last three games? It was just baffling.

Edited 10 May 2023 by ClaphamFox

[shiv]

When your starting XI contains 2 out of contract players and 3 players that have been quoted as likely to leave in the summer you can see why there’s zero motivation. Couple that with a manager that has sucked all their confidence, ruined their fitness and tactically got them pissing about with the ball without really doing much it’s a recipe for disaster.

[Lesta Legend]

5 minutes ago, shiv said:

When your starting XI contains 2 out of contract players and 3 players that have been quoted as likely to leave in the summer you can see why there’s zero motivation. Couple that with a manager that has sucked all their confidence, ruined their fitness and tactically got them pissing about with the ball without really doing much it’s a recipe for disaster.

Yep it’s just a culmination of years of slowly eroding what worked and now you’re left with players who are halfway out the door. Whatever Smith does he has to stop playing the players that don’t try or care, if we’re going down let’s actually see a little more effort. But I think this malaise is set in across the squad, only relegation and a total gutting will do. 

[Les-TA-Jon]

• 7 players out of contract in summer 2023
• 7 players out of contract in summer 2024
• Manager who continually publicly said a lot of them weren't good enough - eroding confidence
• Manager who publicly said we would not and could not compete, eroding 'disrupt the top 6' mentality of first half of his tenure
• Manager who coached some players into decline/away from their strengths (Ndidi, Vardy)
• Manager who refused to play his best players due to pride (Iversen), personal issues (Soyuncu) and unfavouring people inexplicably (Kelechi)
• Groups of players who were frozen out and didn't get the move they wanted, stuck at a club and under a manager they don't want to be with (Soyuncu, Praet, Vestergaard)
• Loss of leaders and model professionals who have left and not been replaced (Kasper, Evans, Morgan, Fuchs, Albrighton)  

 

Edited 10 May 2023 by Les-TA-Jon

[sacreblueits442]

18 minutes ago, Matt_Lcfc said:

Like any disaster, it is not driven by one factor though. I also think that for some unclear reason, the club downed tools after winning the FA Cup. On and off the pitch it has been a disaster since then, they got away with it last year because the memory was still fresh, but the warning signs were there. It genuinely felt that after we won the FA Cup, there was no incentive to keep progressing. It is what frustrates me. It should have been the opposite, it was a great opportunity to establish ourselves as a 'big' club and we messed it up.  

...a lot of people felt the same way, the fanbase has said as much!!!

Why anyone should have taken that attitude within the club I do not know, but for the supporters, especially the older ones, you could understand to a degree that the yearn

for the F.A. Cup would have taken the monkey off their backs.

  The next goal should have been put in place for the club to strive for, someone was waiting for someone else to come up with the idea and no one did.

[Finnegan]

I find it weird how quickly some of you decide that players "don't care" or "aren't trying."

 

I'm not really sure what you're looking for or at that tells you they don't. 

 

It gets levelled at Madders and Tielemans a lot, for example, and both seem like they've been working fairly hard all year. If anything I'd say Maddison looks like he's trying too hard at the moment to do things himself. What looks to me like he's lacking confidence in the team and the plan apparently gets perceived by a lot of you as he's being "selfish" and showboating to promote himself? 

 

I just think that's a weird take and I don't really understand it. 

 

We've looked all year like a team with no confidence with a manager who has been eroding their self belief for eighteen months. 

 

Meanwhile Forest look like a bunch of guys with a manager they like playing like they have nothing to lose because half of them probably didn't expect to stay up anyway. Everton have a manager fairly well known for getting his players fired up and believing in themselves even if he's tactically limited in the extreme. 

[filbertway]

Years of unaccountability and false sense of superiority built into the squad by a manager that will say anything to make people like him. 

 

Hard to turn players into fighters in a couple of weeks when they've been living a holiday camp life under a manager for months/years.

[Muzzy_no7]

For me it’s a combination of the amount of players who will be leaving this summer and the coaching the squad has had over the past few years. 

[Guesty]

I think a big problem with Rodgersball is all the players have to be technically gifted. Throughout their entire lives they've always been the best footballer on the pitch (or one of them). Whenever they've been in a team that's struggled they've probably been told something like: "We'll do the hard work, you go out there and work your magic son." 

 

Always relied on others to do the graft and hard yards. But now our entire team is like that; there is no one to do the graft and this lot aren't capable. I'm not even sure it's that they don't care, just none have them have the skillset or have ever been in a position like this before. 

 

N'didi used to be able to it. But it seems 4 years under Rodgers has destroyed that side of his game. His downturn is baffling. 

[st albans fox]

I wont accept that this squad isn't good enough

player for player we are better than half the league 

 

the other clubs simply have better tactics and motivation

 

and now our players are right in the mess, they don't have the confidence to play effectively.   

Edited 10 May 2023 by st albans fox

[don_danbury]

too long under rodgers.

[StanSP]

Players focused on the moves they're making. 

 

Soft mentality. Weak mentality. Confidence has taken a battering. No consistency. 

 

I wrote this in another thread a while back and it still applies... 

 

Someone on Talksport said a good phrase, to describe Southampton's downfall, and the same applies to us.

 

When the general and colonels can't get things right at the top, that filters down to the 'soldiers' lower down the hierarchy.

 

Top/Rudkin/Whelan have failed at the top, and now that's filtering down to the players failing on the pitch.