Attitude?

[ucandomagic]

Looking at the table below, something struck me.:-
We are doing OK against the top 7 sides - 4 wins from 10.
We are doing OK against the bottom 10 sides - 11 wins from 15.
We are doing shit against the middle band (8-14) - 1 win from 12.

Is it a mental thing - that we are better than the bottom teams and outplay them.
We are really up for the fight against the top teams and go into battle.
But we mentally approach the middle teams the same as the bottom teams - and lose the battling spirit, which many of them bring against us.
Is it in this area that it is more about motivation than about management?

 

[DronnieBlade]

No. It isn’t.

You just have good and bad days at the office. Often chalk and cheese in back to back games e.g. Boro / Cov.

Biorhythms much at the centre of this. Almost impossible to understand and have any control over !!!

UTB

 

[JJBlade]

Our problem is injuries
Full strength and were amongst the best in the division

Most teams can carry a couple of injuries here and there, but we are dead men walking

We are having to play the fittest eleven, even if that eleven isn't 100% fit themselves, this is making things worse and worse each week.

Positions, formations and tactics are becoming secondary to fielding a starting eleven

 

[Cheesebored]

We are where we are on merit. We were poor under Slav and picked up markedly under Hecky but we've been undone with injuries unfortunately. Don't believe there's any correlation between performances and opposition teams league position.

 

[LS16Blade]

The group of 5 clubs that have settled between 10th and 14th are notable for the make-up of their teams being United’s kryptonite - direct sides with height and physicality characterised by energy and running rather than any great skill or flair.

We invariably struggle against those sort of sides, and perhaps our most surprising result this season was that we managed to win at another one of them - Cardiff.

Fortunately, the last 9 games contain only 1 fixture against ‘one of those sorts of team’ - Cardiff at home. In the other 8 fixtures we should at least be safe from being ‘bullied’ and it’ll be a question of whether we can outplay the opposition.

 

[Ned the Donkey]

Looking at the table below, something struck me.:-
We are doing OK against the top 7 sides - 4 wins from 10.
We are doing OK against the bottom 10 sides - 11 wins from 15.
We are doing shit against the middle band (8-14) - 1 win from 12.

Is it a mental thing - that we are better than the bottom teams and outplay them.
We are really up for the fight against the top teams and go into battle.
But we mentally approach the middle teams the same as the bottom teams - and lose the battling spirit, which many of them bring against us.
Is it in this area that it is more about motivation than about management?

View attachment 132551

p-hacking ;-)

 

[Panini]

Looking at the table below, something struck me.:-
We are doing OK against the top 7 sides - 4 wins from 10.
We are doing OK against the bottom 10 sides - 11 wins from 15.
We are doing shit against the middle band (8-14) - 1 win from 12.

Is it a mental thing - that we are better than the bottom teams and outplay them.
We are really up for the fight against the top teams and go into battle.
But we mentally approach the middle teams the same as the bottom teams - and lose the battling spirit, which many of them bring against us.
Is it in this area that it is more about motivation than about management?

View attachment 132551

It's possibly skewed by Blackpool, Coventry and West Brom being part of the top 7 when we first played them (picking up only 1 pt from those 3 games) but those teams now being in the midtable group today.

 

[bonobo]

If you look at the style of football those mid table teams play..Coventry, Millwall, Blackpool PNE. Strong physical aggressive teams, who overcome their lack of resources through good organisation and teamwork, all strong at the back.

 

[Varkanoid]

Our problem is injuries
Full strength and were amongst the best in the division

I think must people are forgetting this and moaning when the team doesnt do well.

We dont have a settled consistant regular first team side.
We are putting out a pretty much C team side made up of what we can cobble together against teams who are playing with most of their regular fit first Team A type players.

Realistically where we are now is pretty amazing to say we spent nothing, have what 13 good (!?) players out injured, had two different managers.

I`m at the stage now knowing we are safe in the Championship, if we lose as the team hasnt played well so be it. I mean Norwood was giving the ball away lots last night but I`m not going to moan or slag him off it is what it is. If we get into the play offs, bonus. If we go up this season will probably rank as one of the best weirdest ever.

To be completely honest Blackpool were crap if they couldnt beat us last night. We even managed to get the ball in the net twice, offside. They couldnt do it once. Moan about the defence, moan about Hecky. Blackpool didnt win !

 

[ISZA ⚔️]

The second half last night worried me. Just not much tempo to our play. The sort of performance we wouldn’t get away with at the Lane. I know we’re knackered with injuries but there seemed a lack of desire to take the game to them and grind out what would have been a huge 3 points.

 

[Champagneblade]

I put a lot down to injuries too.

Those superior players, the game changers, have been consistently missing in key positions. For a handful of matches, we were the Bogle show. He was either scoring or assisting. He was basically playing like a Championship TAA. Baldock is very capable but not as effective going forward and now we are just playing someone who is a good pro there but totally out of position.

Then up front we have no options to change it up. McBurnie has been woefully unimpactful, be there COVID illness related, isolation from close contact, knocks or out of form or match practice. You really needed him to be pushing Billy all the way. Then Brewster and McGoldrick, both capable of producing a bit of magic and changing a game are out. We also got rid of Mousset when at the time it made sense, but now he'd walk into the marchday squad and often the XI.

My worry is that of the XI who is going to come back that is a game changer?

I'm concerned by the rumblings on Baldock. It doesn't feel like he's days away at all but fingers crossed. Also Goode being back with Brentford sounds a pessimistic current state; he hasn't worked out at all.

Hopefully after Barnsley, we can call on Davies, Basham, Baldock and Stevens as well as McBurnie and Fleck and it won't look like a makeshift team anymore. Getting Stevens back will also mean we can rotate Norrington-Davies out through tricky spells and it frees up Osborn to contribute as an attacking or midfield option. Getting Fleck back will mean we can get the best out of Berge.

It is a pity McGoldrick, Brewster and Bogle are sitting it out but if we end up with the above back, then I'd be confident we could get minimum top 6. We really have to be ruthless at home though and we could do with at least one of Gibbs-White, N'Diaye or Berge hitting top form again. It's only a pity the latter got called up. A good rest would have been far better.

 

[100% part time blade]

We are where we are on merit. We were poor under Slav and picked up markedly under Hecky but we've been undone with injuries unfortunately. Don't believe there's any correlation between performances and opposition teams league position.

Agreed. Looking at the OP again, I'd say it's an interesting theory, but an interpretation is rarely that straightforward.

I had to look up "p-hacking", but I see what you mean.
It's probably more fair to just split the table into 3 groups of 8 anyway, with a top 8, middle 7 (because we're in it), and a bottom 8.
Top: 4 wins from 12.
Bottom: 9 wins from 12.
Middle 3 wins from 13.
There's a slight difference still, but it's not massive. Obviously there's a bigger number against the bottom sides: we've tended to beat poor teams / we've beaten teams which has helped pushed them down the table.

I suspect that the time we played those clubs is more likely to tell the story of why results are as they were, rather than a correlation to who we're up against and the attitude of the players based on that:
A) When Slav was manager.
B) When Hecky had a full squad
C) When Hecky was putting out a threadbare team