The Second Season Curse

UnbelievableJeff

UnbelievableJeff

Vital Squad Member
Now before you all start, this is intended as a positive post and not a "we're all doomed" type theme.

Right. In cricket, especially International Cricket, there is something referred to as "The curse of the second season." This can often apply to players, of whom may have appeared to punch above their weight and enjoyed a fantastic start. Moeen Ali, is regarded as someone whom that applied to at the time. The whole concept is around pressure on the player and the analysis work that has gone on around them, to combat them.

This is something that the Cowleys will have to be aware of and also plan for, as otherwise our tactics will become predictable as a 70 yard diagonal pass up to the bigun.

It can be argued that the best players, in cricket, find away of adapting, or their flaws get hopelessly exposed. Vince, Stoneman, Compton, Lyth, Hales, Robson, Ballance, need I go on. Hell, even Cooky is looking exposed now.

The Cowleys are now renowned for their tactics with us and their acid test is whether or not (I am in the whether camp) they can upgrade their tactics to something that will take the opposition by surprise. We all know what we need, but they need to ensure we have the personnel for the next big push.

Can they do this? Of course they can. You'd have to be mad to bet against them.

Evolution not revolution. The Cowleys will have to evolve, not revolve.
 
Evolving is what DC and NC are best at. They've worked brilliantly with what they had, started to bring in cracking players this year to strengthen and have the whole club squarely behind them.

This year had 'learning experience' written all over it: lessons learned well I think (something else they're no slouches at) and new plans and tactics being formulated for sure. Buckle up Imps, it's going to be a lively season!
 
HitherImp said:
Evolving is what DC and NC are best at. They've worked brilliantly with what they had, started to bring in cracking players this year to strengthen and have the whole club squarely behind them.

This year had 'learning experience' written all over it: lessons learned well I think (something else they're no slouches at) and new plans and tactics being formulated for sure. Buckle up Imps, it's going to be a lively season!
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Exactly. The first thing they need to do is to evolve a successful plan b.
 
The Cowley's have earned enough brownie points over the last two seasons to be allowed a 'second season curse' in my opinion. However there's something about their planning and general intelligence which exudes confidence in us all that they will have learned much this season and we will be very well placed to make a serious promotion push come August
 
Jeff, why do you try to connect everything with cricket?

There is very little connection between the two sports, it doesn't work.

End of.
 
We have become far too predictable in our tactics. The Cowleys do have alternative plans; but we have lacked the personnel for plan b to work this season. Next season is the big test. Can we get the correct players to add to the squad to allow us to mix it up next season.
 
impede said:
We have become far too predictable in our tactics. The Cowleys do have alternative plans; but we have lacked the personnel for plan b to work this season. Next season is the big test. Can we get the correct players to add to the squad to allow us to mix it up next season.
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Exactly that. What they have achieved with the players at their disposal is close to a miracle. Watch them go next season.
 
Scotimp said:
Jeff, why do you try to connect everything with cricket?

There is very little connection between the two sports, it doesn't work.

End of.
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Two teams of 11, both play with a round ball. Both can be changed by brilliant individual performances within the team. It is a tactical battle, and you can learn tremendous things from the cricket field, with respect to footballing tactics too. Who to target, who you can let have more of the strike, or the ball in footy, who you can't.

The goalkeepers are like wicket keepers and batsmen. One mistake and that's it. Derided. The strikers are like bowlers....they can always have another go. The defenders are also like batsmen, one mistake and they are often made to pay.

There is deliberate time wasting too. Slow over rates, 12th man coming on for yet another change of gloves. There are 4 match officials as well.

Plus it works for me.....and also DC told me that they had arranged with Phil Neale that they were going to see how the England Cricket Team do things, so that's good enough for me....end of....?
 
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Looking at the idea of a 'second season syndrome' for promoted National League sides, it would appear that the majority either maintained or improved on their previous season's position.

Since the two up, two down system was used, there have been 28 teams that have been promoted and played two seasons in the football league.

Of those 28 teams, 6 were promoted into league one at the first opportunity so I have discounted them.

Of the other 22, 17 (77%) either improved on or maintained their position in the league table in the following season with only 5 falling to a lower position in their second season.
 
Thaddeus Griffin said:
Looking at the idea of a 'second season syndrome' for promoted National League sides, it would appear that the majority either maintained or improved on their previous season's position.

Since the two up, two down system was used, there have been 28 teams that have been promoted and played two seasons in the football league.

Of those 28 teams, 6 were promoted into league one at the first opportunity so I have discounted them.

Of the other 22, 17 (77%) either improved on or maintained their position in the league table in the following season with only 5 falling to a lower position in their second season.
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Facts? You can prove anything with facts... :)
 
UnbelievableJeff said:
Now before you all start, this is intended as a


Vince, Stoneman, Compton, Lyth, Hales, Robson, Ballance, need I go on. Hell, even Cooky is looking exposed now.



Evolution not revolution. The Cowleys will have to evolve, not revolve.
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with the exception of Ballance, none of those players really had a succesful first season. I get the point though... i do hope the Cowleys will evolve and try to be less one dimensional.. happily, ive no reason to think they wont.
 
Second season syndrome is a sign of poor mentality. It happens when a team loses that promotion bounce and their weaknesses are exposed.

This happens a lot in the Premier League because the teams coming up are generally weaker and it's their mental strength and team ethic that helps them in the first season. Interesting to see how Brighton and Huddersfield cope next year.

We have an incredible mentality, managers who won't allow that to slip, and we're not in the Premier League. We'll be fine.
 
The second season problem, if you look at the teams that have suffered was due to them flogging their best players after season 1. I'd like to think we are going to strengthen. We have already secured our better players on new contracts. If we can add 2 more, such as Eardley and Bostwick quality in different positions this summer, we will be up there challenging for the title i think.
 
I think we have a really good and solid plan b, the problem is our plan a has never worked properly (couldn't buy the right forward and current players don't seem to fit it etc) so plan b has had to become the best way to get results especially under pressure.
 
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