Ian, paragraphing lehh....read untill the eyes look up down left right, read the same sentence again & again, skip one line, two lines etc.......
You are one of the few that has very good work rate, no doubts about it.
To win the game, it takes the other 10 players in the team to gel and work together. My feel for the last game (only the 2nd half) is that you were trying very hard to do too many things for a good cause.
I understand your concerns in the midfield area but let the midfielders/strikers perform their roles. When we fail, let us do our reflection
and change things that we are weak in rather than having the other players do that and compromising their own positions. Let us pinpoint the weakest link in the midfield and striking areas. If we are not certain about the problem, how to remedy?? Give the midfield a chance. We are trying our best to play to the best of our abilities and strength.
Ian, every position has got a Primary role......No 1 priority.......other than that, anything else is of secondary importance. For your case, ur primary role will be defending the left side of our defence line. I have been very happy with our defence which I felt is the only department in our team that is stable.
You are right in saying that we should play in the opponent's half rather than our own half. Whenever we attack, we move up but defenders should not be caught losing sight of the opponents behind them. That would mean that the defender has failed to perform his primary role which is to defend. At the same time, it also compromise the positions of other players. In that sense, we will not be playing effectively and it becomes very messy.
Playing effectively could mean that if you have the ball near the keeper's box and you see that Derrick is free in the left midfield area. It's more effective and efficient to pass the ball to him from where you are rather than running with the ball towards him, tiring yourself in the process.
There is an existing problem in our midfield area which I am targetting to improve. If there is also a lapse in our stable defence line, I will have more worries. I am still narrowing down the specific players that are more suited as defenders, strikers or midfielders (still observing)
Guys, can all of us REMIND ourselves that we are only about 5 months old!! I am not saying this to comfort ourselves but to be realistic in meeting certain expectations that we may be setting too high for ourselves too quickly. Adapting to changes in style of play, positions, understanding each other takes time. As the manager, I am starting to feel the intense stress/pressure in our team. I juz hope it is not affecting us from enjoying this beautiful game.
Ian, I hope you did not misunderstand that I was saying that you are a prima donna. You are not!! This is just something that I wanted to say to the team after talking about your issue.
At our level and as the manager of the team, my focus have always been on a few basic things:
1) Having some basic discipline in the team (on & off the field) such as turning up punctually for games, no ill discipline on/off the field etc
2) NOBODY is better than anyone in OUR team (yesterday, I juz happen to use Russ as an example as he was standing next to me
). To me, all of us are of about the same level. If anyone thinks otherwise, you should then ponder on why you are not in some club team at this stage of your life
3) Everyone in this team will get a fair share of the game no matter how good you are. Other than Charles, Jeremy and Colin/Robin keeper, everyone has been given an equally fair share of the game unless there were insufficient players in certain areas. Currently, there are plans to rotate Charles and Jeremy as well but it's still in the pipeline. Unless, we have 22 players, there bound to be some players in the team playing a longer time.
4) Players should enjoy playing the game and be committed to the team with the right attitude.
At this point of time, my apologies to those whom I may have been too critical/harsh with
(especially Lancer boy - make sure you study hard and pass your 6 papers if not you are barred from playing in the team!!).Nothing personal.
I also hope that there are no lines drawn just because I am the manager. If I am not playing well, do let me know what I am not doing right. I hope that I can improve in holding the ball longer and spreading play to the flanks, not forgetting my defensive role (something that I hope to achieve in the long run).
See ya guys this weekend.