You hear a lot of stuff about footballers being mercenaries.....

[Cyclops]

.....just guns for hire with little loyalty for the clubs for whom they're playing - happy to take the cash.

But I've seen several games in the last ten days in all divisions where the players have clearly given their all for the sake of their teams. The Chelsea v Huddersfield match on now being a case in point.

Loves the total war that is the play-offs, I do!

[Croesy Blue]

I think very rarely do players not give their all. I think a lot of the time it’s more down to terrible systems and tactics than anything else. You get the odd few but usually they’re either not good enough or the manager hasn’t got them playing right.

[City123]

The defending from Huddersfield was fantastic. A lucky goal robbed them of all three points, doubt they care though. Proper bodies on the line stuff

[William Treseder]

I think you need something for the whole squad to buy into. Imo, that’s what got us promoted this season. Warnock created a brilliant “all in it together” attitude this season. Every single player constantly fought for each other. Our never say die attitude got us over the line.
You can have the most skilful squad in a division, but without the right team attitude, they will ultimately fail.

[light up the darkness]

I think you need something for the whole squad to buy into. Imo, that’s what got us promoted this season. Warnock created a brilliant “all in it together” attitude this season. Every single player constantly fought for each other. Our never say die attitude got us over the line.
You can have the most skilful squad in a division, but without the right team attitude, they will ultimately fail.

This /\

If the players are up for the fight they will tend to moderate most negativity which might come from from individual players and make the man management part of the managers role more straightforward by highlighting any dissenters

IMO

[ian gibson]

I think you need something for the whole squad to buy into. Imo, that’s what got us promoted this season. Warnock created a brilliant “all in it together” attitude this season. Every single player constantly fought for each other. Our never say die attitude got us over the line.
You can have the most skilful squad in a division, but without the right team attitude, they will ultimately fail.

Absolutely this. When you play like every team member is your brother it makes you very tough to beat.

[the other bob wilson]

I think very rarely do players not give their all. I think a lot of the time it’s more down to terrible systems and tactics than anything else. You get the odd few but usually they’re either not good enough or the manager hasn’t got them playing right.

I wonder what West Brom fans are thinking now about their teams "efforts" under Alan Pardew? I thought Pardew's appointment was typically unadventurous for a Premier League side, but that's easy for me to say when I'm not bothered about the money that was at stake - it's not easy to go for a bold managerial choice when you know the penalty for failure can be so catastrophic for the club.

However, no matter how bad Pardew was in the job, I would have expected more from a group of players who have proved in recent weeks that they had it in them to survive if I was a Baggies fan. It only needs three or four in a team to have a dodgy attitude for it to have a big influence on team performance and results - this is especially relevant in the Championship where so many matches are decided by one goal margins.