Nope, sorry not allowed.
We aren't allowed to highlight areas of improvement. Everyone is 10/10 and we're top of the league.
Kind of misrepresenting what people say I feel. It’s one thing to say we weren’t at our best, it’s a similar thing to say Dabo (for example) had a bad day (not that I think he did), but it’s the Kastaneer is shit comments that are ludicrous.
I’d love to see any of us going to japan, not speaking a word of the language, not knowing any of our teammates (and due to the language barrier possibly not making friends quickly), not knowing anyone when we go back to our temporary rented flat (they won’t be millionaires after all) and yet still performing to the best of our abilities.
It takes time for most human being to adapt. Sure, there are the exceptions that just click. They usually know the style of play, some of the players, speak the language and are used to the culture. Now is not a great time for non-English speaking immigrants (in case anyone has noticed) to come to the UK. Kastaneer and jobello need to be made welcome and given encouragement because they probably aren’t getting it from non-CCFC sources, and they are human beings before they are pro footballers.
So we are totally ‘allowed’ to give opinions, to highlight areas of improvement if it doesn’t involve puerile insults (shit, can’t kick a ball, lazy etc) and to constructively criticise. Constructive criticism is a hard skill to master without resorting to outright, uncalled for criticism. There’s a difference and it’s important.
I get the impression with Kastaneer, for example, that if he feels the love he will run his heart out for us, but if he hears negative comments and groans all of the time he may well not play with the same passion and commitment. He looks like he’s lacking in confidence to me, he wants desperately to show how good he can be and is therefore lunging into tackles and making silly mistakes (there was one really obvious and utterly pointless ‘tackle’ from behind today where he just looked frustrated and over-committed in a daft place too. Think he even more than jobello needs time. He’s not getting as much game-time at the moment, possibly as MR is still working out where and how and where he is best used, and that lack of time, communication during the game and verbal support (due to the language barrier) after the game is all having an effect.
They need time and support and they could both be players for us.
And we should all ask ourselves what we would do in their situations. They have Internet access, they can read and they naturally are curious about how the fans perceive them. Some of them read the forums and definitely read Twitter which is even more full of shit. We all want to be loved, football players are no different.
Telling a player ‘I wish he’d take it down the channels more often’ or whatever is totally different than he’s shit. There’s too much of the latter for me and always has been. Not heard any booing of our own players yet this season (and long may it continue), but certain players are attracting undue criticism that isn’t helpful (Sam McCallum for example has done amazingly since being thrown on out of position at the age of 18 and playing more games since. He makes the odd mistake (human, 18, league1) but he has also looked like a very competent fullback and supports the attack well. Got some useful crosses over today after good work on the left with various players at times. Made a couple of errors and got pulled out of position a bit, but that’s just experience. Another one with a future imo, how high he goes is largely up to him (and his coaches).
Imagine McCallum truly pushing Mason for the spot. With dabo on the other side. I think our fullback are one of our strengths at the moment.
