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severnside gull

Well-known member
May 16, 2007
24,540
By the seaside in West Somerset
It seems that a small percentage of our fans need to have a scapegoat or two when things are not going well. It happened with Murray and Barnes but has now moved on to CMS, Baldock, and Forster Caskey.

Give it a rest.

Top post :thumbsup:

Sadly not going to happen though.
 






Dec 15, 2014
1,979
Here
Isn't one of the points of a message board like this one to enable people to discuss their opinions on the relative merits and de-merits of players / tactics / managers, etc?

Actually it seems that at times it is mostly to discuss everything in the world EXCEPT what is going on on the pitch
 




e77

Well-known member
May 23, 2004
7,268
Worthing
There was a guy on the Daily Show promoting his book last week or the one before that. He discussed that experiment. It wasn't just that simple. Introducing contrary views changed things, as did other variables.

In a fan base such as ours, there are always contradictory opinions.

That's the one. I am no doubt simplifying greatly.

Contradictory opinions are perfectly natural but there does seem to be some players that attract an almost irrational degree of hatred (I don't think that is too strong a word) from the baying mob.

Not unique to Brighton fans. Arsenal fans never really rated Jens Lehmann, for example.
 




1066familyman

Radio User
Jan 15, 2008
15,185
I can't necessarily agree with the OP here.

Personally, I never had it in for Murray, Barnes or JFC. However, I did say as soon as we signed Baldock that it was an underwhelming signing and that he's a good League One striker, a repeat of CMS essentially. When we signed CMS I was much more excited and put any nagging doubts about his ability in The Championship to the back of my mind. Sadly, over the years I've given up on CMS and resigned to him never cutting it in this division, but at least he works hard I suppose.
 












Icy Gull

Back on the rollercoaster
Jul 5, 2003
72,015
Seems a lot of fans, rather than providing legitimate arguments against criticism of players, simply dismiss any criticism as scapegoating players citing examples of players for who good arguments were made in their defence.

People could point to the things Barnes and Murray did on the field to defend them, they could provide explanations for some of the more legitimate complaints.

People's defence of JFC is that he gets picked to play. Picked by Poyet and Garcia (only when they didn't have a full complement of midfield players to pick from), England under 21 coach (who picks him to play against other kids), Hyypia (who has been roundly criticised for his team selection and tactics in general so using him picking a player as a argument in that player's favour is a bit inconsistent). No one points to what he does on the pitch to defend him. Some argue he is being played out of position, he is an attacking midfielder and should be played as such, but he has had plenty of time to grow and adapt to a more defensive role, and this natural attacking talent never seemed to leak out the way it would be expected to if attacking play is so natural to him, and there hasn't been much of a sign of improvement since moving further forward.

People's defence of CMS is that he is coming back from an injury - which he actually returned from 9 months ago. The other main argument isn't that he's actually really good and fans are just missing it, but that we don't play to his strengths. There's an inherent acknowledgement in that argument that he isn't producing the goods for us. Fine, maybe he could do better if we change everything just to cater to him, but that isn't happening, so it's fair to criticise his contribution as it is, not what it would be in some other hypothetical circumstance.

Baldock, has only recently become a point of criticism and agree that it is unfair to criticise him just yet. There is a genuine defence regarding his injury as he was out with one last month, he has been in and out of the side and not had a chance to settle, he doesn't get to play in his preferred position and hasn't had enough time playing an unfamiliar role to actually show a great deal of growth (unlike JFC), and that he needs time to settle into the squad and the system in a way that CMS and JFC didn't as they've been with us several years.

By far the best and most thought through post on the thread.
 


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