So are our players good enough then?

[MC BLUES]

Some on here have been saying our players are simply not good enough for this league. Others have said we do have the talent in the squad. we have just been unlucky.

Our team have just beat some of the best players in the world. Even independent observers seem to acknowledge this was no fluke.

So, have we just been unlucky in the league so far or has it been down to some other factor, ie, poor tactics, or poor players?

For Those who have claimed our players are essentially league two standard, and this is why we have struggled so far, do you still believe this or are you willing to concede you may have been wrong?

 

[Tilly hates yellow boots]

They are good enough, but i can't see any team playing to the level of performance we did on tuesday. Luck has been a factor in loses so far this season, but playing badly has as well.
Hopefully with the turn of luck will now come a turn of performances.

Up the Blues !

 

[shrimper_sam]

yes - Still need new ones.

 

[palexander]

As high as we all are about the result and as fantastic as the boys did, lets keep our feet on the ground.

They created 4-5 good chances and hit the post - we had 2 shots on target I think?

Like I say, taking nothing away from the boys performance and not sounding like a damp squib, but it could easily have been 5-1..

I say, we still need better quality!!!

 

[BrettieAngell]

We definetely need a couple more players especially a centre midfielder but I think the majority of our first team can cope at this level we need to stop conceding sloppy goals though

 

[Beefy]

We've still got a core of lower-league players in our side. Thats not an opinion, its a fact.

Belief carried us through a lot of last season, and the early part of this season. Once we started on our first serious run of poor results that belief quickly, and naturally, vanished. Several times this year we've looked dead as soon as we've gone behind, and thats all down to a lack of belief. Tuesday won't make the players any better than they are, but what it hopefully will do is give them back that belief in themselves and in the fact that they can compete with anyone in this league on their day.

 

[MC BLUES]

Quote[/b] (Beefy @ Nov. 09 2006,19:11)]We've still got a core of lower-league players in our side. Thats not an opinion, its a fact.

Belief carried us through a lot of last season, and the early part of this season. Once we started on our first serious run of poor results that belief quickly, and naturally, vanished. Several times this year we've looked dead as soon as we've gone behind, and thats all down to a lack of belief. Tuesday won't make the players any better than they are, but what it hopefully will do is give them back that belief in themselves and in the fact that they can compete with anyone in this league on their day.

Then is there any difference between lower league players with belief, and better, more gifted players with no belief?

If (as you claim as fact), we have a core of lower league players, are you suggesting that with belief these same players could compete at a much higher level?

 

[shrimper magic]

Quote[/b] (pboreham @ Nov. 09 2006,18:01)]As high as we all are about the result and as fantastic as the boys did, lets keep our feet on the ground.

They created 4-5 good chances and hit the post - we had 2 shots on target I think?

Like I say, taking nothing away from the boys performance and not sounding like a damp squib, but it could easily have been 5-1..

I say, we still need better quality!!!

We had a parried freddy shot, Maher's effort right at the end and also Sodje's header that he should of done better with,
cap that with the fact Eastwood had 2 goalbound shots blocked.

to think that we created these chances against a quality back says to me that we can compete if we really want too.

 

[Beefy]

Quote[/b] (MC BLUES @ Nov. 09 2006,19:24)]

Quote[/b] (Beefy @ Nov. 09 2006,19:11)]We've still got a core of lower-league players in our side. Thats not an opinion, its a fact.

Belief carried us through a lot of last season, and the early part of this season. Once we started on our first serious run of poor results that belief quickly, and naturally, vanished. Several times this year we've looked dead as soon as we've gone behind, and thats all down to a lack of belief. Tuesday won't make the players any better than they are, but what it hopefully will do is give them back that belief in themselves and in the fact that they can compete with anyone in this league on their day.

Then is there any difference between lower league players with belief and better, more gifted players with no belief?

If (as you claim as fact), we have a core of lower league players, are you suggesting that with belief these same players could compete at a much higher level?

Players like Mills, Legwinski, Earnshaw and hundreds of others are playing for Championship sides ahead of League One and League Two sides for a reason. When they've been moved on from their previous clubs, thats the level of football that they've been able to stay at. Our core, most important players are all players who found their level in the lower leagues. Players don't just slip through the proverbial net anymore. Scouts from Championship and Premiership clubs didn't just fail to spot Kevin Maher, Adam Barrett, Mark Gower, Darryl Flahavan and others as being diamonds in the rough in all the years that they were playing football in League Two and even below.

The exception is, of course, Freddy Eastwood. But, had we lost in extra time against Lincoln and were still in League Two, does anyone on here think for one second that he'd still be playing for Southend? I don't.

At the end of the day the old cliché about football being a game of 11 men against 11 is true and that will always give us a chance. Just as it did on tuesday. I thought we were the better side on the night, but surely no one would suggest that we are a better side than Manchester United? Our players played to the limits of their abilities, they chased every ball, they got some luck, they had the support of a loud (and positive) crowd and most importantly of all they avoided making any silly defensive errors. And ultimately we won the match. But over the course of a long season none of those factors are as important as sheer ability, which is why the best team always wins the league.

Staying up is a massive ask for this group of footballers. The spine of our side, from the keeper to our first choice strikers via the centre-backs and central-midfielders (and our most creative midfielder, Gower) were all in League Two just two years ago and they now have to compete over 46 games with players of a greater pedigree than they have. But I think we can stay up and will stay up, so long as the players keep believing that they have a chance in every match, and thats where tuesday night comes in.

 

[Jonesy]

When you compare Tuesday's night performance against the ones against Ipswich, Hull and Brighton (yes we were 1-0 down for most of that match and playing aweful) then I must say I was watching totally different Southend teams. Tuesday night there was passion, commitment, concentration , belief, individual brilliance and yes some luck. Apply that every match, we may still struggle but we should stay up. Equally I don't know how Man U would get on if they played that team in every premier match (still only 2 started that played on Saturday and they do seem to have the wobbles when they do this sought of thing). Be interesting to see what the other big clubs do in the Quarters

 

[Barry's Boss]

Fantastic performance by all the players and one of the best evenings I've had supporting the Blues - wish they were able to repeat this every week - but sorry after 16 games the league table doesn't lie.

 

[Southend Elvis]

Part of me thinks our players have short changed us this season, after seeing them perform on tuesday that proved to me we can play well as a team, even with these players. So please lads more of the same..

 

[MC BLUES]

Quote[/b] (Beefy @ Nov. 09 2006,20:02)]Our players played to the limits of their abilities, they chased every ball, they got some luck, they had the support of a loud (and positive) crowd and most importantly of all they avoided making any silly defensive errors. And ultimately we won the match. But over the course of a long season none of those factors are as important as sheer ability, which is why the best team always wins the league.

I think it is difficult not to agree that the best team always win the league....

I would however challenge the suggestion that therefore the best team always have the players with superior ability. I think based on this premise there were a few teams last season in league one who should have won the league but didn't.

Alternatively, based on your view, we must have had the players through the long hard season with the necessary sheer ability, which is why we won the league..?

I suspect you will suggest we rode our luck last year and are now being exposed for our true worth? I'm not convinced either way at this point. Although I don't think our team of last season were quite as lucky or technically limited as some would claim.

 

[palexander]

Quote[/b] (MC BLUES @ Nov. 09 2006,23:29)]

Quote[/b] (Beefy @ Nov. 09 2006,20:02)]Our players played to the limits of their abilities, they chased every ball, they got some luck, they had the support of a loud (and positive) crowd and most importantly of all they avoided making any silly defensive errors. And ultimately we won the match. But over the course of a long season none of those factors are as important as sheer ability, which is why the best team always wins the league.

I think it is difficult not to agree that the best team always win the league....

I would however challenge the suggestion that therefore the best team always have the players with superior ability. I think based on this premise there were a few teams last season in league one who should have won the league but didn't.

Alternatively, based on your view, we must have had the players through the long hard season with the necessary sheer ability, which is why we won the league..?

I suspect you will suggest we rode our luck last year and are now being exposed for our true worth? I'm not convinced either way at this point. Although I don't think our team of last season were quite as lucky or technically limited as some would claim.

This is EXACTLY the point me and my mate have a long standing argument about.

He is adamant that the league position is the true barometer of a side and last year we were the best team in League 1 as we finished top.

I do see that viewpoint, but I cannot agree we were the best side in the division. I still rate that Swansea side as a very good footballing team with a great set-up that should be Championship level at least.

And there were one or two others that, if we played against 46 times, we would probably come unstuck more times than not.

Weird isn't it!?

 

[Beefy]

I think overall we were worthy winners of League One. The spine of our side that I keep talking about all played to the absolute limit of their ability throughout the season and, in Freddy Eastwood, we had the division's stand-out talent.

Last season, all of our players played to their potential, which helped to nulify the lack of mobility of the likes of Maher and Gower, the lack of size of Flavs and the lack of technical ability of Adam Barrett. This year that is not proving enough, as even if they play to the peak of their potential they're still not as good as a lot of players at this level.

Last year we weren't that solid at the back (other than the run of home matches after Sodje signed). We gave the ball away just as often as we are this year and we got pulled apart at the back a fair number of times too, but we weren't punished because teams weren't able to convert their chances as clinically as they are in this division. It seems like in the league now, every time we make a defensive mistake the ball ends up in the net.