Gut punch of a loss. It's the season, really. We should clamber back over the line, and we might even make a little noise in the playoffs. But likely not much. As several have pointed out, the team's mentality isn't good. There's a persistent fragility there. We lack true cohesion. We're definitely not spirited and aggressive enough, at least not consistently, and not when it matters the most.
As I've said before, Alex Callens is the guy I think we truly miss. He was our rock. But guess what -- he's gone.
Anyway, in the latest vids out of training, Nick was preaching aggressiveness, stridently. But is he preaching to a deaf choir? Or at least one where not enough of the singers are truly listening?
Santi and Talles Magno dashing off like that is a really, really bad sign, too. That's not a crack; it's a canyon.
I have a theory: our gaffer may just not be Machiavellian enough. He lacks a certain ruthlessness. He says all the right things, but it seems he thinks the words should be enough and the rest is up to the players. In the women's game, where he made his bones, he'd be right. But it's different with a team of meatheads, especially young ones. They don't self-organize the same way.
I'm not sure there's a fix for that.