The Players Are Over-Rated, The Expectations Unrealistic, Zola Deserves Support

The following article has been submitted.

Gianfranco Zola came in for a lot of criticism after the Chelsea loss. Though he has made errors in his time in charge, we should expect this from a manager who is learning his trade in difficult circumstances. Certainly, I think some of our fans would do better in pointing the finger at the decision making and execution of individual players rather than the coaching staff. The coaching staff is ours too, and sometimes we need to support them like we do the players….sometimes instead of the players, even.

Whilst we must be ambitious, we should temper our criticism with realism. The fact that Zola is a nice guy just makes it easier for us to criticise him. Some of the emotional outbursts after the Chelsea game were well out of order. Many are blaming him for not addressing the obvious threat down Chelsea’s left. If it was obvious, as was suggested, then Zola and Clarke, who have been in football longer than most of us, would have noticed and instructed the players to do something about it. If a player doesn’t do so, then there is not much the manager can do….a horse to water saying comes to mind. Zola knew the threat the Chelsea midfield posed which is why he went with a 4-5-1 and not a 4-3-3 as suggested.

Something else that I would like to question is whether our players are really as good as we think they are, and hence, is being the 16th best team in England the most we should expect? Are Upson, Green and Behrami really that good? Compare them to the players of our rivals; is green better than Jaaskelainen? How many serious errors do you see Jaaskelainen make? Is Upson better than Hangeland? Upson’s every performance is littered with mistakes. Is Behrami better than Bullard? Behrami can’t even shoot well or put a straight through-ball into the path of his team-mate. If the answer to the above questions is no, then we deserve to be where we are so let's not expect anything more. Our rival teams are filled with players that are better than ours, even if their names don't suggest it. Now I’m not being critical of our players themselves - as I don’t like doing this - just critical of the views that over-rate them.

Gianfranco Zola clearly has a lot to learn. I think we should give him a bit longer to do so at our club or we could end up with the likes of Alan Curbishley. Do we honestly believe we can attract managers like Mark Hughes? I would be very surprised if he came to us having left one of the richest clubs in the world.

There are two basic ways to improve a team; buy ready made players, or develop the ones you have. Our situation means that we have to do the second, which is the more time-consuming and difficult one to do. The fact that I believe our players are over-rated, does not help. We have to accept that we have a herd of pigs and a manager armed with just lipstick. Though he’s trying his best to slap it on, they’re still pigs I’m afraid.

Stani.