THE CONCRETE ROUNDABOUT (TCR)

F-cking A!!!!!!
HEY HO LET'S GO!!!!!!!!!!!!!

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Gimme Gimme Shock Treatment

I liked seeing how much the goals (apparently) mattered to the players when they celebrated at the Charlton game, first time I've thought the team looked like they were bothered. There are characters emerging as potential fan favourites like someone else said (Nesbitt, Gilbey, Pawlett) but still a long way to go. They need to show that passion week in week out. Would like to see more of it on the pitch, more chasing down every loose ball or 50/50.

It’s funny - when we have a good result everyone is happy with the commitment and passion of the players. When we lose, they’re aren’t trying, don’t care etc.

Personally I think it’s all nonsense. I’ve never seen a Dons player not trying. It’s just that sometimes they play well and sometimes they don’t. Form and confidence are far more relevant.

If we get a good result, then more often than not the team as a whole played well and it's almost impossible to criticise passion/commitment.

But if we get a bad result, then commitment/passion has to be questioned. Can you genuinely say that all of our players are 100% committed to the club and WANT to be here, playing for the MK Dons' badge? Body language says a lot, and I'd say only a handful of our players out there playing for us want to be here. Some clearly don't/didn't e.g. Tshibola.

Team spirit, commitment and passion can be key - look at how Iceland and Leicester overachieved - on paper both of those teams shouldn't have achieved what they did, but 100% commitment and team spirit meant they had that extra edge, perfect example was Iceland beating England in the Euros.

To me at least, the team shows commitment against Charlton, but overall we have a long way to go. If this team had the togetherness/spirit of a couple of the squads we had under KR pre-Championship, we'd have won at least one more game than we have.

As i say, I've never seen a Dons player not show commitment. I've seen plenty play badly. People often confuse the two.

So of our first team squad of 26 (I’ve taken out Tshibola and Furlong), of which only 4 are now loanees which ones clearly don’t want to be playing for us?

Tshibola? Banton?
There are plenty examples of players looking like they would rather be anywhere else than on the pitch.

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Cuboid of bum fluff

You obviously never saw Jason Banton 'play'.

Passion and commitment are a poor second to skill and organisation/tactics and I would argue they played a far greater part in what Leicester did; the quality of Kante and Mahrez was backed beautifully by a well-schooled defence and a game plan that exploited Jamie Vardy's pace and the big clubs unwillingness to change tactics to nullify Leicester. Which brings me to the 'miraculous performance' of Iceland - first game they drew with an undercooked Portugal who despite winning the competition managed to draw their first five games (winning 1 in extra time) no miracle there, next up was Hungary who despite being higher in the rankings at the time were a team on the decline now ranked 30 places below Iceland game ended 1-1 with Hungary having the better of it. Then it was Austria who despite being pre-tournament dark horses were demoralised by an opening loss to Hungary and a draw with Portugal Iceland beat them with a last minute goal when Austria had to score, not a miracle. So that then leaves a scrappy win against an under performing England and a heavy defeat to France now you can believe this was a footballing miracle but I think it was good organisation, playing to your strengths and being under estimated by the opposition (particularly Portugal and England).

All of which has nothing to do with Dons except to say I would much rather see improve organisation, coherent tactics and skillfull players than passion and commitment - did you all watch Alex Revell doing shuttle runs for Northampton this year? Full of passion and commitment but to no effect on the game, I don't want to see that if I can have a clever move, a skillfully executed pass or attack after attack blunted by great positioning and reading the game.

It's probably easier to say the ones that look like they want to be here - Nesbitt, Gilbey, Agard and Brittain.

The rest, at best look indifferent. That's not to say that ALL of the other squad members don't care, just those are the ones that have shown a bit of passion and look like they give 100% each and every game. Pretty sure Muirhead isn't happy here.

Maybe I've got it wrong, that's just the perception I have when watching. Been that way most of the season.