Form, Fluctuations and Fickleness

One of the hardest things as a football fan, in the heat of the game or mired in the post-mortem inquest in the aftermath, is to know how to think.

And how to to feel.

Emotion can cloud our every thought, and it’s alarming how quickly hope can be dashed, and then, just when you think it’s flatlined, get revived. Players can go from being not good enough to heroes, and sometimes back again, in the space of 90 minutes. Managers are geniuses who just happen to be forever losing the plot.

So how do you know when you’re genuinely on the right track? Or, indeed, when the shape has gone properly pear-like? Isn’t every season a series of ups and downs, of varying degrees? How do you know where you are on the peaks and dips of the roller-coaster ride; or if this one is broken, with the rails giving way to a 100ft drop?

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