Is social media’s influence on football too great?

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Gone are the days when the first we knew of the starting line-up was from the announcer at the ground – if we were lucky enough to be there – or an update on the radio – if we were lucky enough to be covered outside the local area. It is now de rigueur for such information to be disseminated via social media, whether that be Twitter, Facebook, Instagram or any other form of social media interaction our teenage children are currently using. As a middle-aged blogger, I have to be in tune with such things, but I rarely interact. You see, I’m of the glass-half-full approach to life, so “let’s be under the illusion that our manager may actually know what he’s doing“.

FFP restrictions, transfer embargos, horrendous injury lists, Nottingham Forest are having to deal with them all. Just when you think we’ve got an established lineup – albeit with the odd bit of tinkering here and there – something else happens. Yes, we’re not the only club to be under such restrictions – Bolton, Fulham and Cardiff are too – but we haven’t been able to buy a player since January 2015. With that in mind, to have the longest unbeaten run in all four English divisions is nothing to be sniffed at. Yes, we may have drawn a few too many games, but it’s still something to be proud of. With all those caveats in mind, I’m still astonished at the pessimism displayed by some of our fans; and herein lies the issue I have with social media and the inevitable lack of patience shown in this modern footballing era.

The long trip to Middlesbrough was always going to be a tough one. They’d lost once in 10 games and conceded only once in that 10 match period. Since our loss at Griffin Park, Dougie Freedman has made us hard to beat and our win against Bolton witnessed the resurgence of Jamie Ward. In fairness, we’re not exactly pulling up trees in the goalscoring department, but needs must etc etc. The pre-match jitters were in full effect, so come 2pm-ish, when the now mandatory match day squad is announced via those social media outlets, the manifestation of those jitters created a storm of 140 character incredulity

To give this a little perspective, we were unbeaten in 10 league games (11 if you include the FA Cup). We’d only made one change to the starting lineup; Nelson Oliveira – our leading goalscorer – was sacrificed for Jack Hobbs, with Michael Mancienne moving into a defensive midfield position. Cue mutterings of a derogatory nature regarding the validity of our manager’s apparent strategies going into the game. Oh and the fact that – according to some Forest fans – we don’t have a striker on the pitch. I’m sure Jamie Ward would have something got say about that. You have to wonder whether these “shouters” on social media have ever been to a game. Some are so caught up in their fantasy world of “total football” and the apparent need to play 4-4-2 “just like Mr Clough” that considering anything remotely congruent to an actual game plan when bearing in mind the opposition is utter nonsense.

I know hindsight is a wonderful thing. It could all be so different if we’d lost. But surely that is the time to make comment on whether our manager got it right, not before the match. The game has changed so much over the years, with time a commodity as rare as finding gold in Scotland. There is a fundamental need for some on social media to use such a faceless platform to deride and ridicule. We no longer take a breath and see where it leads us. You also have to wonder whether such comments are made to validate these online accounts; to garner any number of responses no matter whether they are positive or negative. Either way, wouldn’t it be best to keep your council and react appropriately at the right time, with all the facts in hand?

By Sean Hockett

Featured Image: All rights reserved by Jason Howie.