The Foster Paradox

[WazzaClaret]

It's obviously been an absolute crap start to the season and a lot of that has come down to such an overhaul of the first team. A lot of them don't look good enough at moment but I can't help but think of how foster was last year. I didn't think in a million years foster would become our best player in the premier League after his performances from last season. Is there an argument that if by some miracle we stay up we could see the same effect next year? Tresor is the main one that springs to mind.

Maybe I'm clutching at straws but I've seen glimpses so far to suggest there's plenty of gears these players can go through.

[clansman]

I think you are clutching at straws though I admire your optimism. The reality is this group of players are talented but don’t have a clue how to win or even manage the game.The Foster situation is mysterious. He is our hope plus 2 good experienced signings in January!! 17th is the target. Who knows with a little luck we might make it!!

[Spiral]

Bags of potential all over this team, but you look at something like their first goal, that's just raw inexperience from Beyer thinking he can get away with defending at 90% intensity. Whistle to whistle you've got to fight for every inch like your life depends on it in the prem. Tresor has shown some of this slackness at times this season, Amdouni has at times, AAD, too, the list goes on...

It takes time to step up and make that required intensity and concentration an automatic thing. You can get away with a few players making small errors if they're surrounded by experienced players covering for the mistakes, but when you've got a chain of five players involved in a phase of play and they're all inexperienced, all their small errors compound into goals being conceded, and we can never get a foot in a game because of it. If it ever clicks this season and we start actually dominating against teams who are properly going for it (unlike Palace today, who just turned up and happened to win), it'll almost certainly be to late to do anything about the league position.

[spt_claret]

Bags of potential all over this team, but you look at something like their first goal, that's just raw inexperience from Beyer thinking he can get away with defending at 90% intensity. Whistle to whistle you've got to fight for every inch like your life depends on it in the prem. Tresor has shown some of this slackness at times this season, Amdouni has at times, AAD, too, the list goes on...

I increasingly think that a good 70-80% of football is about the mental game, with technical coming behind athletic.
Not just footballing intelligence & vision but mentality, workrate, bottle and will to win and improve and the ability to concentrate, focus and stay alert and hungry. A mate of mine was a nonleague player, he was on the books at a few league clubs but never made the grade, he has technical ability but there was just something lacking (he's not the brightest so could be that). At university there was a lad on the team who was brilliant, absolutely magical with the ball at his feet he'd run rings round everybody twice over, one game I got an assist just kicking it from defensive midfield to him and watching him take off. Never even tried to convert to pro because he didn't understand the need to pass to technically inferior players, and ultimately it was just a favoured hobby to him and never something he seriously considered as a job.

Practice can train up technical ability, you can't turn Chris Ronald into Cristiano Ronaldo but you can improve him a lot. And footballing intelligence comes with experience. But there's some innate mental and personality aspects that you just can't coach. You start to see the wisdom of Dyche's approach in prioritising the 'group of lads' and player mentality above anything, it's the foundation of everything.

[Spiral]

I increasingly think that a good 70-80% of football is about the mental game, with technical coming behind athletic.
Not just footballing intelligence & vision but mentality, workrate, bottle and will to win and improve and the ability to concentrate, focus and stay alert and hungry. A mate of mine was a nonleague player, he was on the books at a few league clubs but never made the grade, he has technical ability but there was just something lacking (he's not the brightest so could be that). At university there was a lad on the team who was brilliant, absolutely magical with the ball at his feet he'd run rings round everybody twice over, one game I got an assist just kicking it from defensive midfield to him and watching him take off. Never even tried to convert to pro because he didn't understand the need to pass to technically inferior players, and ultimately it was just a favoured hobby to him and never something he seriously considered as a job.

Practice can train up technical ability, you can't turn Chris Ronald into Cristiano Ronaldo but you can improve him a lot. And footballing intelligence comes with experience. But there's some innate mental and personality aspects that you just can't coach. You start to see the wisdom of Dyche's approach in prioritising the 'group of lads' and player mentality above anything, it's the foundation of everything.

Mate, I'm going 99%.

Personal anecdote. I'm out doing a 5k. I've set a PB in the past, never seemed to be able to better it, no matter how hard I try. I'm out in the evening, it's getting dark, I'm on this long stretch of road on my route, and I go round a bend and there's this lass our running same direction as me, and she's fast A.F. Now, she's running alone, it's a quiet road, it's getting dark and I'm bigger than her. In my mind I'm thinking, "oh $hit, I'm worried that this might be scary for her to have a bloke running behind her when it's getting dark". I don't wanna seem like I'm chasing her like some horror film, but I don't wanna stop either because I'm running a stopwatch. So I decide I'm gonna cross to the other side of the road, run with a really heavy footfall so she hears me and doesn't get spooked, and just try to get ahead of her. So I pick up the pace, get in front of her, and realise it'd be weird to slow down to match her pace again, because that itself is probably creepy, so now my head's full of Peep Show-esque neuroticism, and I decide I'm just gonna leg it and get as far in front as I can.

Absolutely smashed my PB, all because I didn't want to scare the $hit out of someone. It's all a mental game.

[ervi34]

The good thing with Foster last season was the fact that there was no real pressure on him, although we spent a lot to buy him. We pretty much knew we are going up when we signed him and there was no rush for him to start scoring. Kompany was patient with him; gave him some minutes from bench first, then a start in cup, then a start in league and so on.

This season however, we simply bought too many players who have a lot of potential but are too young and have zero experience in top football. PL is a lot tougher and their goals/assists are needed at the moment so they don't have luxury to adapt. On top of that, they are not robots. They are very young, moved countries, changed cultures of living and so on.

[BurnleyFC]

We really, really need a fit and firing Foster at this present time.

Let’s hope we have him back soon and the rumours about his mental health issues resurfacing are just that.

[CoolClaret]

Mate, I'm going 99%.

Personal anecdote. I'm out doing a 5k. I've set a PB in the past, never seemed to be able to better it, no matter how hard I try. I'm out in the evening, it's getting dark, I'm on this long stretch of road on my route, and I go round a bend and there's this lass our running same direction as me, and she's fast A.F. Now, she's running alone, it's a quiet road, it's getting dark and I'm bigger than her. In my mind I'm thinking, "oh $hit, I'm worried that this might be scary for her to have a bloke running behind her when it's getting dark". I don't wanna seem like I'm chasing her like some horror film, but I don't wanna stop either because I'm running a stopwatch. So I decide I'm gonna cross to the other side of the road, run with a really heavy footfall so she hears me and doesn't get spooked, and just try to get ahead of her. So I pick up the pace, get in front of her, and realise it'd be weird to slow down to match her pace again, because that itself is probably creepy, so now my head's full of Peep Show-esque neuroticism, and I decide I'm just gonna leg it and get as far in front as I can.

Absolutely smashed my PB, all because I didn't want to scare the $hit out of someone. It's all a mental game.

Look at Phil Bardsley.

Playing at 36 in the Prem for us when no other team would really have him even in the Champ but still managed to put in performances that won us points.

Heck even at 32/33 his inclusion and tenacity dug us out of a hole a few times.

I’ll go to MMA - McGregor.

When he was dominant he’d won a fight before he even stepped into the cage. He’s miles off ability wise than Jose Aldo or Max Holloway but he had more belief in himself than both of them put together!

Only when he has his first loss and the invincibility factor went/belief went is when he then couldn’t win a fight for toffee.

Same as happened at United.

Far more too it than data points and plucking players and expecting it to work.

[Fenwick]

To answer this you"ve got to put him in a sealed box with a radioactive isiotope trigger of an unknown half life