Other than the struggling itself, the thing I hate most about the team struggling is all the carping that it always brings out in this group. Yes, they are struggling. Yes, we're not getting enough quality shots off. Yes, we're not putting it in the net. But we don't really have to replay all the "Kraft doesn't care", "if only we had Jones", etc., etc. stuff whenever the team struggles, do we? I guess that question answers itself. ---- This was a pretty dismal result. That's a bad team we lost to. I don't even mind the goals given up so much, but the fact that we can't even get off some quality chances ... I hate to keep harping on refereeing (and Alan Kelly is the best we're going to get), but the PK foul should have been called on the edge of the box. Since when do referees come out with a ruler to determine whether a foul is in or out of the area? In a non-scoring situation, with a very light foul, inches into the box, reasonable referees have almost always taken the pragmatic approach of spotting it on the edge, rather than awarding a near-certain goal out of a non-scoring, non-malicious situation. One of the best things about the sport has been that the referee has been able to use judgement, not rule like a robot. This was a robotic call that was totally out of the character of the game. We are seriously squandering points. This team is better than this.
Funny, I was going to reply with "Do you really have to replay all the "harping on the refs" stuff whenever the team struggles? But then you answered that question for me. Seriously though, this team is the Boston Celtics, a bunch of good players who work hard, but make mistakes. They do well enough in the regular season to sneak into the playoffs, but can't win a playoff series without a superstar to lead them. Jones took less money to play in COL, which means the Revs messed up the negotiations big time. But hey, we got a top five SuperDraft pick in return (ha), those are gold, right? We've got three top-5 picks on this roster already: Rowe, Farrell, Neumann. None of them comes close to bringing what Jones brought. Meanwhile, COL has more wins in the two games Jones has played than the Revs have all season. Why is it that every "face of the franchise" the Revs have ever had has walked away with hard feelings?
Yeah, why do people get unhappy, and complain about the owners, and FO decisions, and the coach, when the team doesn't do well? I'm sure no other fans ever get upset when their team doesn't do well, I've certainly never seen any other fans of any other teams ever complain or protest about their owners or coaches, what's wrong with us? Why don't we concentrate on good things in life, like how it's a nice sunny day out, or think about ice cream, and what a great invention that was, and what about puppies and kittens, aren't they just the best? If all of you so called fans out there would just stop caring about the Revs and ignore the team whether they won or lost, you'd be so much happier, and the team would be so much better off too. ---- C'mon, you can't have been serious with that. Oh, and btw, if people shouldn't complain when the team does poorly, then you shouldn't praise them when they do well. To do otherwise might seem hypocritical.
My point was, it's not like we haven't aired these complaints before many times. Sometimes we don't win because of refereeing issues, sometimes because of bad breaks, sometimes because we made critical mistakes, sometimes because of a poor game plan, injuries, poor finishing, etc., etc. Instead of focusing on those things, it becomes a repeat of the old litany of complaints - Kraft doesn't love the team, we let Jones go, we don't have 3 assistants, yadda yadda.
Your point was clear, you wish people would stop talking about those things. So you want us to focus on the small picture things from each game, and you're tired of people talking about the bigger picture complaints. But everybody else is just as tired of talking about those big picture, structural problems with the team, those people really, really, wish those problems would be fixed. But the problems won't go away if we just ignore them. Plus, for the those making the complaints you're tired of, the in game things you mention as fair game for critique are seen as rooted in the poor ownership or poor management, other than the referee obviously, things like poor finishing, teams comprised of players who continually make critical mistakes, poor game plans, can be traced to poor hiring decisions and poor organizational setup. If there are lots of small problems with an organization that are caused by one or 2 big problems, wouldn't it make sense for people to want to focus on and fix the big problems, rather just looking at all the small ones? If you follow the world game, you must be well aware that fans of other clubs who are unhappy with some aspect of the club don't just complain about about that aspect temporarily, and then just let it go, if that aspect continues in place. Some current examples off the top of my head just from England, Leeds, Cardiff, Villa, and Blackpool spring immediately to mind, along with the previous regime at Liverpool. Those are just the biggest examples of fan unhappiness with ownership, but there are plenty of other clubs whose fans are unhappy to a lesser extent with owners, such as the growing movement among Arsenal fans wanting the owners to get rid of Wenger, would you dare tell those fans that after a while, they should just stop talking about the off the field problems, and only talk about things that happened during matches? I get that you disagree with many of the big picture complaints, but I don't get how you could try to argue that people should stop talking about the big picture just because they've been complaining about it for a while, if those people believe those problems still exist. Problems don't tend to just go away if you pretend they're not there.
I have to say that I understand both points of view here. <Dr Jeckyll>I think that we sometime fall back to memes rather than analyzing the real underlying issue -- it's easier to say measure 9 times than it is to say we should've signed a striker in the offseason who better fit Heaps' one-striker model (I know we do both, but the preponderance of meme-reliance it pretty high here)</Dr Jeckyll> <Mr. Hyde>The team should've fixed this stuff then we wouldn't have to complain about it.</Mr. Hyde> Neither part of my split personality (Help me, Doc!) thinks that the team is doing the right thing, it's just a difference in how I express it.
I actually agree with some of the "big picture complaints", but choose not to roll them out every time the team is struggling. And, I actually didn't say anyone should stop talking about x and y; I did say that one of the worst things [for me] about the team struggling is that those familiar complaints start filling up the forum topics. I know people are going to do what they've always done here and that's not going to change. You said it much better than me - thanks!
I thought you might say that, but seriously, when someone says something like this: the clear implication is that the person believes others shouldn't bring up the things that are mentioned. Yes, I know it's a free country, and I know you can't order people around and stop people from saying things, and no, I wasn't offended or anything similar, I just thought it was a little silly, and I said so. But if you want me to treat the question seriously, here goes: Do people need to bring those things up when the team struggles? Well, if people honestly believe that those things are a directly related to the struggles, why shouldn't those things be brought up? I honestly can't think of a reason for a person to not talk about something he or she thinks is directly related to why the team is struggling. Furthermore, not having Jones is hardly some subject that's been played to death, he just left, this past off-season, and only started playing again 2 and a half weeks ago. Looking at his performance with Colorado, and talking about how he might have affected a currently struggling Revs team had he not left, is very much a new or current subject, not some "replay" of an old story. And people talk about Kraft not caring because they honestly believe that if he did care, or cared more about the team, then he would have made sure the current team had a player, or a coach, who would have been successful at producing the on field things you mentioned: being able to get enough quality shots off, and putting the ball in the net. If you had given reasons for why the things you mentioned shouldn't be brought up, it wouldn't have seemed silly, but you phrased it as if it should be obvious to the reader that the factors you mentioned were either innocuous, or unrelated to the team's current struggles, but many a case has been made to back up the belief as to why Kraft not caring, and why not having Jones are related to current problems. The question you asked sounds more like an attempt to skip over refuting those arguments, by implying we should just let those arguments go now, and talk about something else. As I said, I understand you're frustration with reading about things you don't think are related, but when many people here honestly think those things are very current and very related, then yes, the collective "we" really do have to talk about those things, whenever the team struggles.