For me, the decline started in the 95th minute at Newcastle...

That utterly galling and completely avoidable defeat, snatched from the jaws of victory, seemed to be the catalyst to creeping self doubts and a confidence sapping loss of energy. For those of us watching it was gut wrenching enough so I'm sure it had ten times the impact on the team.

It's no coincidence that, since that night, the slightest whiff of a team gaining momentum has seen us crumble.

I put last year's decline and eventual relegation down to that similar gut wrenching experience at Carrow Road against Liverpool. That result knocked the stuffing out of the team and the club, never really recovered.

Why so mentally weak? Why can't these experienced players handle a so called 'big' game like today's? The stats show that there is never a great difference in performance between us and other sides, but it's that extra 1% at critical moments. That's the difference so why haven't we been able that ability? What is it on the mental preparation side that we haven't done well?

When we went up last time confidence was sky high, everyone was soaring and everyone thought they were invincible. We need to be able to recapture that and I'm not sure Alex can.

He appears to have an untold depth of confidence in himself, but why can't he transfer that belief to the team? I think he's a great manager, but what we need is a great leader... and they're completely different creatures. A manager develops skills and processes and juggles resources. A leader creates a vision, inspires belief and makes everyone feel like they are a key part of it.

A good leader;
Knows me
Focuses on me
Cares about me
Inspires me

In return I'll;
Know what's expected of me
Focus on doing the right thing
Care about the result
Intuitively work as a team

(Sorry, too many words)

Posted By: Worthing Yellow, Mar 4, 22:39:21