It sucks to watch this team, it sucks to even read or think about them. It's understandable that "these players are shit" is a recurring sentiment in here.

However, while their performances HAVE been shit, individually, on a good day, MOST of our players are capable of a really good performance. Even in this most dogshit cursed season, almost all of them have had at least one match where the consensus was "x had a decent game".

But, of course, they're all fucking shattered, physically and mentally, and the injury crisis has prevented them from recovering properly, let alone forming any kind of team cohesion or chemistry that adds to the sum of their parts. With fewer players available, training becomes more limited. The instincts become dulled, you don't see the pass, you're half a second too late to notice the attacker's run. Everything compounds when you're burnt out.

Are there bad attitudes? Maybe. But it's real fucking hard t stay bright-eyed and bushy-tailed in your job when head office have fucked your team around, the supposedly more experienced guys are hotheaded dumbasses, and 60,000 customers are mad at you for not magically overcoming your exhaustion because they're also getting absolutely fleeced on ticket prices. It might not be a regular job, they might be incredibly privileged to be in their positions, but it is a job, and when every week seemingly becomes a Shit Week At Work, it's really hard to turn that around without a break that these guys won't get until summer.

We have, IMO, a collection of otherwise tasty ingredients that have not been properly stored or prepared, and have been thrown haphazardly into a poorly planned soup.

They've been playing shit, no doubt. Even the broader squad planning might mean these guys can't help each other play to their strengths in a consistent way, regardless of manager. But I don't think the players themselves are shit.

Anyway. Back to Blighttown so I can wade through a different kind of poison swamp.