Lieutenant Dan wrote:
It can be very hard to distinguish between a team that's given up and a team that's just dreadful (at least most of the time). There's also whether they're bad in just one game or one season, or have sustained mediocrity and a lack of ambition for a number of years.
In the latter case, several teams spring to mind: Alpine, Haas, the New York Jets, Derbyshire cricket, Hull FC in rugby league. The closest football comparisons I could think of would be teams like like Colchester or Oldham: just plodding along year after year and withering away.
After the own goal last night, they gave up. Im sure of that. No running, no intensity, no discipline, no fight, no pride, no basics. Im sure the run they are on must make it extremely difficult to keep up standards when familiar patterns repeat but last night was the worst example of that I have seen in sport.
Im used to mediocrity, Ive been watching us take good aim and blow our own toes off whenever a sliver of opportunity to progress presents itself. I know what just plain not good enough looks like