As a nation we are very quick to pass judgement on players who don’t instantly deliver, have a blip in form or have a few bad games. Andy Carroll is the latest recipient of unjust criticism after the striker’s display against Tottenham at the weekend earned him bad press from some quarters. Are one or two bad games enough to justify criticism of a player just starting out at a new club, or should fans be more patient to see the best from players? It was only month ago in the game with Manchester City that Carroll was rattling two goals in and was being highly acclaimed as a Liverpool star in the making. Now after inexplicably missing a guilt edge header in a Liverpool loss he is all of a sudden condemned as the wrong man for Liverpool! It’s quite baffling how quick some people are to judge and to demand instant fruition from players.

Fernando Torres is a fine example of a player who twelve months ago many people rated as a contender for the best striker in the world. A poor World Cup campaign and a disappointing Premiership season and now Torres is suddenly a bad player, well not in my book, I think football fans and the press are too quick to write players off. I’m not defending Torres, as I agree he has looked lacklustre since joining Chelsea and he hasn’t even shown glimpses of the sort of form he produced at Anfield. This leads to people constantly looking for answers as to why and the easiest way seems to be by handing out criticism, whereas a little faith and patience in players will often prove to be the best formula to success. On the other hand it could be questioned when clubs are paying out the sort of money that was spent on Carroll and Torres should they be delivering instantly?

I seem to remember Thierry Henry being written off in his early days at Arsenal after he didn’t make a flying start to his career with the Gunners and look what he went on to achieve at the club. It’s not a new phenomenon in football and it will always go on, but as to pinpointing why we are so quick to judge is not easy to depict. I think it’s mainly as a result of the high expectations fans and the media place on players, which leads to an expectance for continual top draw performances from players. If these performances aren’t instant or consistent then you can be sure a barrage of criticism is waiting around the corner, along with premature claims of players not being good enough, or not being what the club needs.

It’s funny because in the same way we are quick to write players off who are under performing, we are just as quick to hype players up when they are performing, then once the inevitable dip in form comes around the cycle starts again. I’m sure there are many opinions as to why we are so quick to write players off who aren’t instant successes or have a bad patch and all I would say is, the key is to have a little more patience.

By Tom MacGregor for FootballFanCast.com