This negativity

[ScottishBlade93]

The negativity on this board is absolutely unbelievable. Yes we had a poor performance on Saturday and dropped points but we are still well in the race for automatic. Granted we probably need to win all 4 games which is a tough ask but if we do that I think that will be enough as hopefully Leeds will lose to either Brentford or Villa. Let’s get behind the lads instead of moaning about how we’ve blown it? They have had a fanstastic season and deserve an amazing atmosphere for the run in starting with forest on Friday. All we can do is win our last 4 and see where it takes us. If we do that should hopefully be enough for automatic but if not we go into the playoffs in good form. As always UTB!!

 

[Lmaobob]

People who are optimistic are entitled to their thoughts and opinions

People who are pessimistic are also entitled to their thoughts and opinions.

 

[Stretch]

Saturday was just a huge kick in the groin area. That pain is normally acute and lasts for a long time but goes away eventually.

Come Friday midday the vast majority on here and in the ground will be over it and ready to spur the boys on, for 90 minutes at least.

We have a select few who will remain quiet if we win but will be out twisting the knife if we don't, they alwsys do.

But I don't think we are hugely different to any other fan base overall.

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

Worry and fearing the worst, leads to apprehension and a worried atmosphere on match day, which will in turn will affect the nerves of the squad and will lead to possible mistakes, cageyness and less believe.

Worrying about the worst could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Show belief, and the squad will too.

 

[Jon P]

The negativity on this board is absolutely unbelievable. Yes we had a poor performance on Saturday and dropped points but we are still well in the race for automatic. Granted we probably need to win all 4 games which is a tough ask but if we do that I think that will be enough as hopefully Leeds will lose to either Brentford or Villa. Let’s get behind the lads instead of moaning about how we’ve blown it? They have had a fanstastic season and deserve an amazing atmosphere for the run in starting with forest on Friday. All we can do is win our last 4 and see where it takes us. If we do that should hopefully be enough for automatic but if not we go into the playoffs in good form. As always UTB!!

It’s been realism rather than negativity the last few days in my view.

 

[Sheffsteel]

It’s the nature of social media.
In order to make you point carry more weight and receive more attention there is this need to exaggerate.

There are different motives
From attention seeking, self help getting your negative feelings out instead of keeping them negative feelings in. Also there’s this trend to feed the footballing Gods, if we’re too positive they’ll be listening and plot a new cruel way to punish our optimism,

The danger is this closed minded black or white thought process sometimes shows the ugly side of human nature.
I see some posts on Facebook which really remind me of the uneducated old pitch brigade.
It’s a form of bullying, Wilder might be down and struggling and some people can’t wait to stick the boot in.

Also some harsh opinions are honest/ valid cold realism, we don’t know the individual posters so we’ll never know their motivation for being negative.

 

[pommpey]

The negativity on this board is absolutely unbelievable. Yes we had a poor performance on Saturday and dropped points but we are still well in the race for automatic. Granted we probably need to win all 4 games which is a tough ask but if we do that I think that will be enough as hopefully Leeds will lose to either Brentford or Villa. Let’s get behind the lads instead of moaning about how we’ve blown it? They have had a fanstastic season and deserve an amazing atmosphere for the run in starting with forest on Friday. All we can do is win our last 4 and see where it takes us. If we do that should hopefully be enough for automatic but if not we go into the playoffs in good form. As always UTB!!

Do you think that it is possibly asking a bit too much to presuppose we win our last four matches and other results go our way? Your homily there contains 'Granted', 'tough ask', 'hopefully', 'either Brentford or Villa', all of which if we thread into an equation of probability, make our chances possibly less than zip. The reason everyone is moaning is that we have form for bottling it and now it is firmly expected. To confound that would be simply bloody excellent but given the 'reality' of three key players injured with no firm news from BDTBL of condition or progress, Wilder showing he is possibly blinking first by making the players not play in the shit-or-bust fashion which has got us here and finally our dismal history when faced with such monumental events in the club's history, you'd forgive people for maybe not holding great faith in our progress.

And no one yet had even mentioned that McCabe and HRH are about to go dick-fencing, the result either way will possibly mean player sales, gash recruitment and low self-belief in the playing staff.

pommpey

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

Let's be honest, it's the difference between:

1. "Oh, we've blown it now, wellw never catch Leeds, and if they go up and we don't, we'll never hear the end of it". Or...
2. "Fuck it, we've nowt to lose - let's fucking catch them. Let's get them shitting themselves!"

Self-belief, gives you option 2.

 

[I should coco]

no one yet had even mentioned that McCabe and HRH are about to go dick-fencing, the result either way will possibly mean player sales, gash recruitment and low self-belief in the playing staff.

You have.

It's a valid concern but now is not the time to be throwing it in to add to the negativity. Can't we just get behind them on Friday and see what happens?

 

[Large Mendonca]

Worry and fearing the worst, leads to apprehension and a worried atmosphere on match day, which will in turn will affect the nerves of the squad and will lead to possible mistakes, cageyness and less believe.

Worrying about the worst could be a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Show belief, and the squad will too.

I think this theory carries weight - it's the only explanation for why shit happens to us under different managers & players. You can see it visibly lifting our players when the crowd get vociferous and urge encouragement. We need to shake off this negative culture the club has and the crowd can play a major part. I'm with Ricky on this one generally - other than a bit of chanting for the first 5 minutes, our general support is crap. Football in a library indeed

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

Why are people who are realistic always labelled as being negative?

It's now very unlikely that we'll finish 2nd.

Pointing this out isn't a crime.

 

[Bladesman]

Could be worse...

 

[madeinsheffield]

If ours and Leeds positions were the other way round, some would be saying "I bet we fuck up, we're in front and up there to be shot at" Leeds or the pigs in third position would be saying "we can do this, we've nothing to lose, we might even take Norwich".

Keep some faith, until it's mathmatically impossible we need to stay positive, us, management & players.

 

[pommpey]

You have.

It's a valid concern but now is not the time to be throwing it in to add to the negativity. Can't we just get behind them on Friday and see what happens?

Jeez. There will be no one more sweary and arms in the air on Friday when we hopefully whup Forest, believe me.

I hope (again, that word) that our change of formation brings about the effect it needs and we get the three points we desperately need.

But here comes the doubt. We should have beaten Birmingham and should not have lost to Bristol City. That five points, and the dismal loss of two more last Saturday, don't fill me with confidence and certainty we can do this, especially against a Forest side a bit keen (hah) to make it's mark.

pommpey

 

[I should coco]

Why are people who are realistic always labelled as being negative?

It's now very unlikely that we'll finish 2nd.

Pointing this out isn't a crime.

In so many ways in life I'm a pessimist and agree with your first line, but this is different.

The thing is that our support can really help the team. We can't guarantee a goal, but an outpouring of raw supportive emotion can add a few % to each player's game. For that reason, we need to put all the 'woe is me it's the playoffs' bollocks to one side and shout ourselves hoarse on Friday.

Of course, if you are looking forward to your 'I told you so' moment, then please feel free to boo the lads from the off.

 

[RedandWhite]

I think people are just dissapointed, we know what this team is capable of and for the most part of the season we've been the best side in the league. But now at seasons close where it all matters, we've been extremely poor and hit a bad run of form at an awful time. I know we would of all taken this position at the start of the season and the players and staff and fans (away) have been brilliant, but it's disappointing for sure.

3rd place rarely ever go up, 3rd place usually only a few points away from second and get hit by the blow of not getting automatic. Their is usually one team in the playoffs that hit form at a great time and win it (villa)

 

[pommpey]

Of course, if you are looking forward to your 'I told you so' moment, then please feel free to boo the lads from the off.

I'll trade that happily for a 'we did it' and 'we got promoted/actually won the playoffs'

But, in the mysterious Blades Way, the court case doesn't make things suddenly better.

pommpey

 

[Tezza1889]

Last week I was bothered that Leeds would have an advantage because we play before them in the run in, I thought it would give them a lift knowing how we’ve gone on before they kick off, after the weekend and things turned in their favour i now think it favours us in terms of applying pressure to them...

Knowing that we have (hopefully) won and that they can’t afford to drop points could affect them..

I’m not giving up just yet, and the Leeds fans I know don’t think it’s over too..

 

[Beans]

3rd place rarely ever go up, 3rd place usually only a few points away from second and get hit by the blow of not getting automatic. Their is usually one team in the playoffs that hit form at a great time and win it (villa)

This only goes up to 2016, but the 3rd place team win the playoffs 2x as often as any other placed team:

 

[Tezza1889]

I'll trade that happily for a 'we did it' and 'we got promoted/actually won the playoffs'

But, in the mysterious Blades Way, the court case doesn't make things suddenly better.

pommpey

Winning in the playoffs has replaced my lifelong dream of winning the FA Cup, in my lifetime I wanted us to win something, up to now a league one trophy is all, but as a kid I dreamt of the cup... due to our history, it’s been replaced, playoffs to the premier league is way bigger to me now.

Could we overcome this jinx?

 

[Kozzy_is_my_Dad]

I think this theory carries weight - it's the only explanation for why shit happens to us under different managers & players. You can see it visibly lifting our players when the crowd get vociferous and urge encouragement. We need to shake off this negative culture the club has and the crowd can play a major part. I'm with Ricky on this one generally - other than a bit of chanting for the first 5 minutes, our general support is crap. Football in a library indeed

It's basic psychology and the nerves spread like wildfire, I completely agree with all you say mate. The pessimism, whilst understandable given all we've witnessed over the years, only breeds further apprehension and nerves. It's based purely on old memories from previous campaigns under different managers and totally different squads. Those memories have no connection to the current squad whatsoever, yet we carry the worries with us, it leads to apprehension and then the ground gets tense.

Again, show belief and squad will too -there's no reason why this squad can't finish 2nd or win the playoffs. Like you say, when we're at it, the atmosphere is second to none.

Otherwise, it's less of a library and more of a quiet, anxious watchful waiting.

 

[PeterNdlovu081]

In so many ways in life I'm a pessimist and agree with your first line, but this is different.

The thing is that our support can really help the team. We can't guarantee a goal, but an outpouring of raw supportive emotion can add a few % to each player's game. For that reason, we need to put all the 'woe is me it's the playoffs' bollocks to one side and shout ourselves hoarse on Friday.

Of course, if you are looking forward to your 'I told you so' moment, then please feel free to boo the lads from the off.

I'll be there cheering the lads on as always on Friday.

I just hope Madine and Hogan can get the goals for us now Billy is out injured.

I was still positive after the Bristol City defeat but now it feels like it has slipped away from us.

 

[BushBlade]

We need to ditch the victim mentality. All this Balotelli ‘why always me’ shit. Other clubs fail too, regularly. They’ll be a dozen clubs that consider this season to be a success and a dozen that will consider it a disaster. You still occasionally hear City fans saying ‘we’ll blow it, it’s the City way’. FFS.

 

[blademark]

I'll be there cheering the lads on as always on Friday.

I just hope Madine and Hogan can get the goals for us now Billy is out injured.

I was still positive after the Bristol City defeat but now it feels like it has slipped away from us.

Billy has scored just one goal since the 8th Feb.

 

[Beans]

We need to ditch the victim mentality. All this Balotelli ‘why always me’ shit. Other clubs fail too, regularly. They’ll be a dozen clubs that consider this season to be a success and a dozen that will consider it a disaster. You still occasionally hear City fans saying ‘we’ll blow it, it’s the City way’. FFS.

The amount of times I’ve heard “you know how it is with Manchester United, we never do it the easy way” in the last 20 years... FFS indeed!

 

[SouthEssexBlade]

It could be years of disappointments, play-offs. It could stretch back over FA Cup semi-final defeats (back to Leicester). It could be last day unexpected situations (Birmingham, Walsall, Chelsea, Wigan). Whatever, there seems to be a strong fatalistic expectation of failure to deliver amongst our fan base.

Fans of all clubs have this to a certain extent, we seem to have more than most that quickly revert to a default setting of 'that's it, we're fucked'.

Maybe that list above has developed this as a defence mechanism. Don't think it will disappear, unless we have a decade of unbridled success.

 

[S1blade]

We've a glass jaw after when Wilder goes defensive, even at 0-3, and I pray he now knocks it on the head for the 4, 6 or 7 matches we have left, and we try and smash teams for a full 90+ minutes. It's hard for opponents to score from their own half.

With the exception of Hull in the semi-final, we always turn up at Wembley (or the Millennium Stadium) with the fear factor, and it never, ever ends in success. With that in mind, Millwall might be a blessing in disguise. UTB.

 

[Barney]

People who are optimistic are entitled to their thoughts and opinions

People who are pessimistic are also entitled to their thoughts and opinions.

Said the sensible man. That goes for all topics on the forum.

It's ok to be one or the other or both, it's what makes a forum a forum and not an echo chamber.

 

[hidesbehindapseudonym]

We'll be fine. Leeds will drop a couple to Brentford.
We wouldn't want to go up the easy way with a buffer of 7 or 8 points like last time. Would we?
UTB -12 more points for the taking.

 

[Akinbiyi]

It’s been realism rather than negativity the last few days in my view.

100%

I’m not a negative poster but I’ve been very honest since Saturday.

Some things I’d bottled up (the fact we haven’t played well since the Villa game for example) I decided it was time to air.

I feel better for doing so.