i used to be sc_owl

The game has been broken for years and every change or “improvement” just breaks it further.

I've been thinking about the current squad and the need for a clear out, and I've had a penny drop moment. We have a lot of players out of contract and many players who will have doubts over their future at the club. Now, imagine you are one of those players who has no real connection to the club. Why would you bust a gut now when you know you will get another club in the summer? You could run yourself into the ground and injure yourself, putting your next contract at risk. I know that in an ideal world, all players will give 100% in every game. In the real world I would think it's very likely players coming to the end of the contract who may have already have tentative discussions with other clubs might just go through the motions. Maybe the players are just not trying because they know their futures are elsewhere. Not even saying this is necessarily a conscious thing, but it could be subconscious. How many of you have coasted in the last days in a job? I know I have.

We’re years away now. It’s going to take at least four transfer windows to wheel and deal our way to a decent squad. We also need an entirely new approach to signing players.

The whole club situation, apart from the Bruce appointment sickens me. Can’t wait until there is a massive clear out of the squad.

I agree completely. The prices stink though due to several years of unwise spending. So now, rather than paying top prices for top football, we are paying top prices to repair three years worth of overspending.

The multi year ticket looks less attractive each year, especially if we are in for a few years of rebuilding.

Last time I had a ST it was non transferable. No f*****r would have it for free when I couldn’t go.

When I move to Romania I’ll bring that zero up to one.

Yeah definitely. The corner one was very surprising. Although I enjoyed the content, I wasn’t too keen on the writing style.

Be surprised if we ever find out how many were sold.

Anyone interested in football statistics should read The Numbers Game. It's a bit dry in parts but there are some interesting stats about the game. One that stood out to me was that the average team scores from a corner once every 9-10 games. The argument was you are probably better taking the short corner, keeping position and trying to fashion a chance by passing rather than a hopeful cross into the box. Another point that stood out was that you get more points by investing in defence than you do attack.

Agreed. The take home message was that you can’t look just at stats. Context is key.

I studied Sport Psychology at Undergrad and one of our lecturers worked with some Premier League clubs. He told us a story about a particular club that relied heavily on stats and pass completion rates in particular. They had a midfielder who had a terrible pass completion rate, but he was responsible for many of their assists because he would try the difficult defence splitting passes. It might only come off once every few attempts but when it did, it normally created a goal scoring chance. When the new management team came in, they hammered him for his pass completion rate and the lad took a massive hit to his confidence. He started avoided those defence splitting passes and started passing sideways, or backward all the time. His pass completion rate soared as the team fell down the table. Stats are useful but they are only useful when interpreted in the right way.

Going to start a new thread to reply to this. Think of the chaos.

You’re welcome @Lord Snooty