What's new
PNE Online
Welcome to PNE-Online. Why not register a free account today to become a member! Once signed in, you'll be able to participate on this site by adding your own topics and posts, as well as connect with other members through your own private inbox! You can also join up as a forum Patron to help support in the running costs of the forum.

Players dont care...

york white said:
Harsh. They do care. If anything our players are too "nice" - for last 10 years we have prided ourselves on signing players of good character. Which is laudable.

However, I'm starting to wonder if nice guys win nothing. Do we need a few arseholes in there who want to win and push the squad on? A Foriestieri on a free (delusional pay cut accepted, but you get what I mean).
Click to expand...

Agreed, none of our players (including Pearson) would put any fear into me, on too many occasions it’s looked liked boys against men.
 
If it's clear to us we needed the squad strengthening in certain areas, and it has been clear the manager wants to strengthen in those areas (look at the pre-season comments from Neil last year) and it's clear that targets have been identified especially at left back and up front yet nobody arrives to improve the squad 18 months since cashing in our pacey target man then surely the players will be as disillusioned as we are?

They are professionals and will no doubt have the same discussions about what the team needs. They must know that they need a fast, strong outlet running the channels to ease the pressure on our defence too. They must get so pissed off that our only two options are to hoof it for a small wideman to get beaten to in the air everytime or towards a willing but static L2 lump who isn't mobile enough to get near an aerial challenge.

The same assurances about the training ground and squad investment will have been made to the players that were made to Alex Neil, and with their contracts now in the final year their heads have been turned by natural career progression at clubs who do invest in the facilities to improve players and reward them financially.
 
Brianjohn14 said:
I think they do care and will be very disappointed but there is something not right behind the scenes its like the players have lost respect of the management and owner
Click to expand...
You see i just don't understand comments like this.
I agree with you that the players care but how does a shit performance translate into them having no respect for the management and owner?
 
Getting back to the original thread title, I personally think it's awful for so.ebody to say something like that - how do you know what has happened to the players during this break? We lost a football match, 1 football match(to a decent team btw), as did Blackburn, as did Swansea. We drew away last week to a team with a new manager, who also beat a promotion contender away from home yesterday.
To say the players don't care and are happy to pick up their money etc etc is a disgraceful thing to say - not just on a football basis, but on a humane basis too.
 
MrHodgeheg123 said:
You see i just don't understand comments like this.
I agree with you that the players care but how does a shit performance translate into them having no respect for the management and owner?
Click to expand...

One shit performance doesn't. Multiple shit performances in a row however....
 
ZeusHam said:
Some very good points made & I totally agree. We need more of an ‘edge’ to our game. What player has a bit of a nasty streak, a bit of a chip on their shoulder? Mr Pearson! If we had more with his attitude, we’d be a stronger side. Same with Fisher to a certain extent. Maybe a case for Ledson to get more game time, but his issue is a bit shotgun approach & less controlled aggression...
Click to expand...
We're regarded as 'shithousers' in the championship by most clubs. I don't know what the origin of this horrible word is, but I understand it to mean we are masters of the 'dark arts'. We (were) hard as nails this season, we've bullied many a team and took the piss to be quite frank.

But this shit housing has disappeared along with the complex tactical approaches we employed many times up until approximately Christmas where we genuinely beat teams in tactics, quality, fitness, spirit, and gamesmanship. It's evaporated. Gone. Tactics game management it's all gone, only player who has maintained this is Pearson, he's a credit to himself and will go on to have a brilliant career.

I have no idea what has happened but the team before Christmas to now is chalk and cheese, but I don't think we should assume we're a soft touch etc because on our day we're quite the opposite, and very good at it too.
 
ZeusHam said:
Some very good points made & I totally agree. We need more of an ‘edge’ to our game. What player has a bit of a nasty streak, a bit of a chip on their shoulder? Mr Pearson! If we had more with his attitude, we’d be a stronger side. Same with Fisher to a certain extent. Maybe a case for Ledson to get more game time, but his issue is a bit shotgun approach & less controlled aggression...
Click to expand...
Surely you’re not suggesting that Attitude is more important than Ability?
 
Schemer said:
To be honest, I don't know, but I'd be surprised if he was as bad as some make out, due to the fact that Grayson signed him and Alex Neil was apparently interested in bringing him back to Deepdale. I doubt either Grayson or Neil would tolerate a player whose attitude would be so bad as to be disruptive.
Click to expand...
He upset the crowd when he taunted them after equalising for Sunderland which left a sour taste in the mouth for many.
Was great for us though. Just what we needed at the time and what we could do with that kind of flair now..... desparately.
 
taxipete1 said:
I hope they bloody care because they've been getting fully paid through all this when many players at other clubs have been shafted. Hope we're not returning to the Chaplow, Carter and Mellor days, now that would be worrying.
Click to expand...
Good point, you can have all the ability in the world, but if your attitude isn’t right, then you don’t give your best.....
 
kbd_pne said:
They do care and most of the players run themselves into the ground whenever they are selected.

They seem to lack self-belief and lose confidence quickly. 1 loss always seems to spiral into 3 or 4 in a row.

A large section of the squad also lack quality, especially our strikers who shouldn’t be playing at this level. It’s not their fault that they’re here and they were signed though.

All our best teams in the last 20 years have been like this. Good set of lads. Hard-working. Great team spirit. Good manager. But that extra bit of quality that’s required is never added to the group. Then it all starts to unravel.
Click to expand...

Part of me thinks its not the strikers fault, its the old, 'you can hammer in a screw with a hammer, but it would go in better with a screwdriver'.

non of them can play up front by them selves, we need to play 2 up front, or a 1 and 1 right behind. solo men dont cut it
 
GloucesterPete said:
Good players with natural ability don't need to be told how to play football.

It comes naturally to those that have the ability and composure to exhurt themselves.

You've either got it or you haven't.

When you have it, the game flows but you need similar players around you.

This is why Pearson will not be a PNE player next season.

He will excel at a bigger club.
Click to expand...
Not so sure
More will be expected of him
Currently the side around him for sure make him appear like Pele !!!!
 
2444666668888888 said:
Part of me thinks its not the strikers fault, its the old, 'you can hammer in a screw with a hammer, but it would go in better with a screwdriver'.

non of them can play up front by them selves, we need to play 2 up front, or a 1 and 1 right behind. solo men dont cut it
Click to expand...
It isn’t their fault they simply aren’t good enough at this level. And never will be. Patience and hope are lovely virtues to possess but so is a dose of honesty
 
No Danger said:
He upset the crowd when he taunted them after equalising for Sunderland which left a sour taste in the mouth for many.
Was great for us though. Just what we needed at the time and what we could do with that kind of flair now..... desparately.
Click to expand...
I think a lot of us were hoping that Sinclair would be that flair player. Maybe he will 🤞
 
Henry Weston said:
I think a lot of us were hoping that Sinclair would be that flair player. Maybe he will 🤞
Click to expand...
Has shown brief flashes so far. Great goal against Swansea and a decent finish at Luton.
Might have had a penalty yesterday and had our only worthy effort on target.
Hopefully will start to shine through on a regular basis but in terms of this season time is running out.
I remember Beckford (albeit in league one) had a slow start and then fired us to promotion.
A long shot I know.
 
The real shock for me yesterday was, on two or three occasions, players ran at the few gaps in the Cardiff defence and good opportunities / options began to unfold. It became clear the player with ball at feet just froze between the ears and in the absence of any understanding of what others were doing or even where they were they did ....... nothing and the opportunities were gone.

A particular example in the 2nd half saw DJ get the ball 25 yards out, Sinclair came storming up his inside with his arm fully extended pointing to exactly where he wanted the ball played. Instead of playing him in, he delayed, Sinclair ran past him into the area and DJ played a sideways nothing ball into the centre of the park which - as usual - came to nothing.

Good managers (head coaches) take players and make them better. It seems pretty clear that AN fails that test miserably. I may have it wrong but, which player is performing better than he was under Grayson? or in the case of signings, which player has performed better at PNE than the club he came from?

It is difficult to see how the brooding presence of AN on the touchline, doing little more than spitting a phenomenal number of little pearls into the turf, could be motivational to those on the pitch. This team needs motivation, and judging by this board so do the fans

As we head for the third successive post January collapse, it seems that whatever masterplan AN comes up with, it doesn’t involve understanding in the final third and it is ‘white noise’ to the players.

It would be interesting to see what Gareth Ainsworth or Graham Alexander could do with this group of players. Why these two? Because both have proven themselves, albeit at a lower level, (Ainsworth has achieved a minor miracle with Wycombe tbh) both have personality, both have been top level players and both have an almost fan level genuine passion for PNE.
 
Top