Ah, what do you say at times like these? We need to win, we need to try x, try y, hope x works well and y works well. Our predicament is the footballing equivalent of trying to catch a wasp with a vacuum cleaner: it can be done, but it’ll require a lot of effort, might involve someone getting hurt, and will almost certainly require the other parties involved to make life easier for us by not moving much.
Back on TiFF yesterday was an interesting twist on the Steve Davis affair. A poster was noting that our nervous midfielder has taken to the league up there rather nicely, impressing all with his displays. My question was this: if this poster had been barracking Davis when he was at Fulham (as I’m sure he was, based on previous comments from this person) and was now seeing a good player, did this not suggest that all is not always as it first seems and that evaluating what we’re seeing out there isn’t as easy as we think? That context is very important in these
No, was his reply, it was simply a matter of Davis playing for the club he adored. That alone was responsible for his change of form, said this poster.
Which raises questions:
Did Steve Davis not try for Fulham? (of course he did)
Is the Scottish League easier to play in? (probably)
Is Steve Davis now benefitting from playing in a confident team? (almost certainly)
Was Steve Davis finding it hard to run an engine room in the Premiership? (yes)
Did that make him a bad player? (not necessarily)
Was he helped by our tactics? (no)
Could he be a success at Fulham again? (probably not: he’d need to be in the Bullard position, I would imagine, and ideally playing as part of a 5)
Should we be able to recoup a lot of what we paid for him in the summer (happily it looks that way)
I have no idea. But I’m coming round to the idea that we have a large squad of below average players who might look quite good one week and might look quite bad another. Davis is typical of this group. If Chris Baird had gone to Rangers I expect he’d have done well too.
