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MellowYellow wrote: ↑17 Sep 2018, 20:34 There is much optimism now among supporters for a good Cup run and promotion. A far cry from a few weeks ago.

Why? A change in management? I would suggest its down to change in managerial motivational style e.g.

Gary Johnson - promotion focused
Gary Ower's - prevention focused

Gary Johnson's promotion-focused personality see's his goals as creating a path to gain advancement and concentrate on the rewards that will accrue when they achieve them. He is eager and he 'plays to win'. You’ll recognize his promotion-focus with each game and see that Gary Johnson is comfortable taking chances; likes to work quickly; dreams big and thinks creatively. What if things go wrong! For Gary Johnson that is a price he will be willing to pay, because for his promotion-focus personality, the worst thing is a chance not taken, a reward unearned, a failure to advance.

In contrast, Gary Ower's had a prevention-focused personality and saw his goals as responsibilities, and concentrated on staying safe. He was ever vigilant and 'played to not lose'. He worried about what might go wrong if players did not work hard enough or aren’t careful enough. Ower's was risk-averse, and not the most creative of thinkers, so in an attempt to succeed he worked slowly and meticulously, to try and grind out a result . This is not to say he was not thorough nor that he could have not been successful over time - but time waits for no man, resulting in a total mismatch for the club and its supporters aspirations.

I do not try to claim one style is better than another - that is for others to judge. But I would ask how you like your manager to prep his players, for example:

We are going to shoot five penalties. Do you prefer a promotional-focus managers aspiration to score at least three times Or do you prefer a prevention-focused managers obligation to not miss more than twice.

You probably wouldn’t expect a small change in wording to affect the outcome, but it does have a big impact. Players do significantly better when the instructions are framed to match their dominant motivational focus: 'Play to Win' …! For this reason I'll take the Johnson way.

MellowYellow wrote: ↑17 Sep 2018, 21:41 My prognosis was more on management style than win ratio's.

So the question posed is do you prefer:

Johnson's 'play to win or
Ower's 'play not to lose'

Shangull wrote: ↑17 Sep 2018, 21:59 I probably prefer an alternative way....play according to the situation... I'd rather see GJ take an approach based on the opposition and the situation at the time...

Shangull wrote: ↑17 Sep 2018, 21:59 I don't think it's quite as simple as play to win or play not to lose (both can be equally as frustrating and unsuccessful).

Road2League2 wrote: ↑17 Sep 2018, 20:04 FA CUP RUN PREDICTION (Warning: May be delusional but this is the FA Cup)

Qualifying round 2: Lymington
Qualifying round 3: Winchester
Qualifying round 4: Wrexham

1st round: MK Dons
2nd round: Colchester
3rd round: Charlton
4th round: Peterborough
5th round: Norwich (knocked out)

And so concludes the prediction of the century. This prediction is based on a full 2 minutes of research and reading. Make sure you screenshot it for when it comes in.

Let’s wake this chat up tonight and see a few more predictions

Plainmoor78 wrote: ↑18 Sep 2018, 08:19 I think there is flaw in your prediction. The 4th qualifying round is regionalised.

nickbrod wrote: ↑18 Sep 2018, 11:31 Well we're long overdue an FA Cup run. At least we don't have the St Luke's Bowl to concern us - out of the competition without kicking a ball!