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Napster

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Joined
Oct 27, 2003
Messages
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Location
The wilds of Kent
Heard an interesting podcast from Malcolm Gladwell recently, and part of it talked of a theory how football is a weak-link game. Basically every football team is only as good as its worst player. Worse players give bad passes, make mistakes in defence etc. This is in contrast to basketball which is a strong link game where they rely on the best player. (i.e MJ could score 50 points on his own and the rest of the team could be useless). Leicester last season is a good example of this.

With this in mind - some questions for the forum:

who's the worst player now and how does he compare to the other sides in the division?
in our promotion seasons, who was the weakest link and how do they compare to other seasons' weakest links?
 
This is a tough one to answer really. Do you include youth players who are still learning and haven't developed to their full potential yet?

For example, Jack Bridge hasn't really set the world alight in his performances for the first team yet but he is still young and has time on his side. Whereas David Mooney has scored a few goals for us but overall is viewed as quite a disappointment compared to the excitement when he signed.
 
I must have nodded off when that happened.

It's easy to think back and think we always viewed Mooney as no good. But I remember distinctly when he signed that a lot of people were thinking it was a cracking signing. Mainly coz he'd had one good season scoring 20 odd goals two years earlier.

Jonny Stokes was glad to get rid of him though and that speaks volumes now I suppose.
 
Heard an interesting podcast from Malcolm Gladwell recently, and part of it talked of a theory how football is a weak-link game. Basically every football team is only as good as its worst player. Worse players give bad passes, make mistakes in defence etc. This is in contrast to basketball which is a strong link game where they rely on the best player. (i.e MJ could score 50 points on his own and the rest of the team could be useless). Leicester last season is a good example of this.

With this in mind - some questions for the forum:

who's the worst player now and how does he compare to the other sides in the division?
in our promotion seasons, who was the weakest link and how do they compare to other seasons' weakest links?

I do not understand this or agree with it. In football we see many average to poor teams carried by one or two very good players. The basketball example is no different. 'MJ' may score fifty but without a strong defence he has to be sure to outscore the opposition. The same in football.

That is the way of team games. A collective of people pooling their skills and working to each others strengths and weaknesses. If you were only as good as your worst player there would be no point in having better ones.
 
Heard an interesting podcast from Malcolm Gladwell recently, and part of it talked of a theory how football is a weak-link game. Basically every football team is only as good as its worst player. Worse players give bad passes, make mistakes in defence etc. This is in contrast to basketball which is a strong link game where they rely on the best player. (i.e MJ could score 50 points on his own and the rest of the team could be useless). Leicester last season is a good example of this.

With this in mind - some questions for the forum:

who's the worst player now and how does he compare to the other sides in the division?
in our promotion seasons, who was the weakest link and how do they compare to other seasons' weakest links?

I'm not sure if football is a weak link game. It may be more accurate to say that defending is a weak link game but I'm not sure that's true of attacking. We got promoted with James Lawson making 7 starts and a further 16 sub appearances.
 
if you'd have asked me this question after our first 6 games I would have probably said; Oxley. HOWEVER, he improved tremendously before getting injured and since then whole team have been spot on, working for each other and consistently performing - so I wouldn't really put my finger on one player and say he is the weakest link.
 
I haven't managed to get past the connection of WEAK LINK and ROBINSON yet ................
 
I haven't managed to get past the connection of WEAK LINK and ROBINSON yet ................

:stunned: Each to their own mate. #dirtyboy

PAY-Anne-Robinson.jpg
 
Football is definitely not a weak link game.

We got two promotions with Che Wilson at left-back.
 
An outlier I think. :winking:

Possibly :)

However I think that team is a perfect example to show that the argument that a team is only as good as its weakest (or one of its weakest) links doesn't really stack up. Half that squad had been fighting against relegation in League Two then it gets back to back promotions on the back of the exceptional talents of its strongest two players. The likes of Barrett, Prior, Sodje, Flavs, Goater, even the overrated, sideways passing guy with the armband, all contributed to putting in place a team who could compete but it was Gower and Eastwood who got those teams promoted.
 
Possibly :)

However I think that team is a perfect example to show that the argument that a team is only as good as its weakest (or one of its weakest) links doesn't really stack up. Half that squad had been fighting against relegation in League Two then it gets back to back promotions on the back of the exceptional talents of its strongest two players. The likes of Barrett, Prior, Sodje, Flavs, Goater, even the overrated, sideways passing guy with the armband, all contributed to putting in place a team who could compete but it was Gower and Eastwood who got those teams promoted.

It's the strongest example of the weakest link theory. As soon as we dropped that ****ing donkey Drewe we started winning. Happened in our relegation battle season, happened at the start of the play-off winning season.

I think that's an outlier though as most footballer aren't that inept.
 
The other thing to consider is that footballers own personal performance varies from each match, as will the opposition they are playing. More so than a basket ball player.

Germany did identify Mathew Upson as England's worst passer of the ball. During the infamous match in the WC 2010 they deliberately left him free when they were closing down so that England players would look to pass to him. Of course Germany were also helped by bent officials appointed by Sepp and Platini.
 
The other thing to consider is that footballers own personal performance varies from each match, as will the opposition they are playing. More so than a basket ball player.

Germany did identify Mathew Upson as England's worst passer of the ball. During the infamous match in the WC 2010 they deliberately left him free when they were closing down so that England players would look to pass to him. Of course Germany were also helped by bent officials appointed by Sepp and Platini.

I don't know much about basketball, but why would a footballer's performance vary more than a basketball player's?
 
I don't really think we have one, there's nobody that I think "Oh cripes, not him!" when the team is announced.
 
We win as a team and lose as a team.
No weak blink mentallity wanted at Roots Hall.
They are all "our boys" all Shrimpers.
 
Football is a game decided by mistakes almost every goal is someones mistake, wither its goalkeeping defensive marking, midfield giving the ball away etc etc. The weakest link will make more.mistakes , if they are in a position where theiir mistakes are ĺess likely to be recoverd by others then they will cost a team points .
 
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