Because there is so much more to it than the 90 minutes of the game.

Everyone in football seems to be ludicrously sensitive to criticism. The despotic kleptomaniacs at FIFA are of course the best examples but it runs all the way down. Interesting to contrast with the boos that greeted the England rugby team when Johnson couldn't make head or tail of the job. Don't remember a brat-like reaction.

One of our neighbours works at a hospice, which was visited by our local Championship heroes prior to christmas. When asked if he attended many games he responded that they never came to see him when *he* was having a shit day at work.

and, like a band, author or TV show, if a soccer team can't keep the audience entertained then they don't deserve the custom and the money.

Are Liverpool really 10 times more entertaining than Fulchester United in the minor leagues?

...and the rest!

I do see your point - anything live is at a premium these days. And about eight years ago I had the opportunity to see Paul McCartney; instead I endured Spurs ambling around WHL on the last day of the season to no perceivable end. For the same amount of money.
However, I saw Macca this year for the thick end of ninety quid, booking fees etc included. Spurs in the Champions League were £50.

A football club used to exist as a source of pride for the community and going the game was a social event. You could go in, pay a pittance and cheer on the boys. Nowadays though, because it costs a small fortune to enter, people expect to be entertained as well. You can't blame them really.

they get shut of Roy and give the reins to Martin O'Neill. That'll sort it out.

He has a point I suppose. Confidence is a big factor in sport and supporters booing the team can be counter-productive. Supporters aren't just paying spectators, there to be "entertained". And Liverpool supporters are particularly keen to bang on about how important their "passionate" support has been over the years as a factor in the team's success. You can't have it both ways.
But I've read two interviews with Roy Hodgson in the last few weeks. In one he slagged off Glen Johnson; in the other, Joe Cole. A manager who publicly criticises his players should keep his trap shut about supporters understandably expressing dissatisfaction with the team they pay good money to see.

Mere mention of the Rooney incident sets me on edge. Here was a man completely disconnected from the public, the game and the occasion. There were fathers and sons at that match that had paid thousands to attend a one-off festival of football. They'd looked forward to it for months only to see their countrymen fail to execute basic control, passes or indeed play with any passion or purpose. Rooney should have apologetically grovelled before them. Numpty.

You've overstepped the mark this time Archie. Comparing England's woeful World Cup campaign with the efforts of my beloved Crewe Alexandra is an insult to all right minded Alex fans......all dozen or so of us.

guaranteed a scoreline of 5 - 3, you got entertained. Several of the players would be local and you probably knew someone who knew him. You also knew where they drank, shopped and hung out. It wasn't frowned on to appreciate good play by the other team. You could stand next to a supporter from the other club and have a chat.

Since footie became more important than anything except becoming a sleb, most of the fun seems to have gone out of it.

in the live entertainment business you may have witnessed a stream of complainants at a box office demanding a refund during, or after, a particularly duff performance. Y'know what. If it really was a stinker they usually got their money back. Imagine having to cope with tens of thousands of irate football fans at Liverpool after another shocking game.

Trouble is they do not need the gate money to keep the club afloat. Most of it comes from TV or sponsorship. Ha ha not from me though. I don't have Sky and I don't drink Carlsberg (or whoever they are sponsored by these days). In fact in one job we refused to change to Vodaphone mobile phones while they sponsored that team.

introduce any meaningful criticism or comment into it's coverage of music Festivals "OMG, that was brilliant that was....!", so it goes on MOTD and their awful punditry.

This was never more apparent than after the dismal World Cup, funny that, in years to come people are going to be asking "Grandad, where exactly is Dismal, you know, the place where they held the World Cup in 2010?".

There was a disgusting failure to come right out and nail the disgraceful performances of the players, instead idiots like Shearer pinning the blame solely on Cappello.
The only person I heard daring to speak the truth was Gareth Southgate on ITV.

But, as a regular at the footie, I have often heard the arguments, and occaisional fisticuffs, of the "never boo your own players, support the team" versus the fans who lose their patience and their "I pay my money I have the right to voice my opinion" viewpoint.

I'm a believer that the players should give the fans something to cheer about, not the other way round and it should go on from there.
I've been to football in Japan and the crowd was amazing, full-on synchronized cheering and banner waving for the whole 90 minutes, but not once did the atmosphere reflect the action on the pitch which was a bit surreal.

There's a wildlife conservation crisis in Africa, and the plebs are unhappy with the current version of Bread & Circuses. So only the victors get to use the tunnel at the end of the match, let's have a pride of lions on the pitch after the full time whistle and the losers are lunch. Net result? Gates go up, games are harder fought, lions get fed and the crowds go home talking about the spectacle for a whole week. I might actually go to a match every decade or so.

fundamentally damaged about Liverpool that Hodgson is powerless to address. He did okay at Fulham - and look where they are without him - but he seems a bit clueless at Liverpool.

A couple of years ago these players were close to winning the title but fell away badly last season and are doing even worse this year. Possibly the turmoil over the club's ownership and future has undermined confidence in a way that is not easily remedied and certainly not by Hodgson's man management skills. The rot set in under Benitez and they'd probably be doing no better if he was still there and I'm sceptical about whether another change of management would do the job. They possibly need to radically change the playing staff too, getting rid of Gerrard, Torres and the rest of the old guard and start again with players suited to a relegation dogfight which is what they are involved in instead of the current dazed and confused bunch who are not adapting very well to the shock of no longer being a big 4 club.

Our own players. It's hardly a confidence booster to somebody already having a bad game. A few hundred people booed Jason Puncheon when he wasn't playing very well for Southampton and he's now gone on loan to Milwall where, by all accounts, he's playing very well in the division above.

But it's a dichotomy. Even in the low division where my team now finds itself, football is not cheap. And if the team you support fails to entertain aren't you entitled to express your displeasure?

Gigs are different, I think - major ones anyway. Most of the audience are predisposed to enjoy it. They've paid good money to be entertained because they like that artist. If the artist has a poor night or just goes through the motions then, yes, by all means express your displeasure and demand a refund.

To disagree with AV, I think I may.

(amd let me preface this with the note that I follow Scotland, Norwich City, and Cowdenbeath. I know suffering)

At its bets, the relationship between fans, teams and clubs is symbiotic. At least, that's how it has been for a long time. I think that the prices have altered that dynamic a lot now, where "value for money" and entertainment have become part of the emotional equation.

I'm resigned to not seeing entertainment, in football or rugby. I'm not sure I care either. What I want to see is 11 - or 15 - guys playing their guts out. That's my one non-negotiable. My favorite sporting moment, live, was Scotland beating England at Murrayfield in (I think) 2000. Awful game. Really bad. Zero entertainment. Rain, glaur, and snow. But the players absolutely gave it everything. And we won, courtesy of Duncan Hodge's slither over the line. I felt that the implicit contract had been honored.

I suspect that Roy is harkening to those days and values of yore. He may be out of date, but that doesn't necessarily make him wrong.

Mind you - not having seen the game - if they weren't trying, then sod 'em. Boo all you like.

Much has been made of 'the poor squad Hodgson inherited' ... well, it was certainly not a Top 4 squad, but still strong enough to finish seventh un an injury ravaged final season under Benitez. Hodgson has certainly taken the club backwards and, Meireles aside, his signings have been terrible ( Joe Cole at the cost of £20m salary, and Poulsen and Konchesky are possibly the two worst players in the Premiership). The formation and tactics last night had so much wrong with them (break up the developing Lucas-Meireles central partnership to accommodate an underperforming Gerrard, stick Meireles out wide where he looks lost, play Kuyt on the left, drop Maxi), and Hodgson had no idea how to change it when it was clear change was needed.

Hodgson has now managed to blame both the players and the fans. Hmmm, 'very loyal'.

There's lies, damned lies, and incontrovertible facts:

http://www.liverpoolecho.co.uk/liverpool-fc/liverpool-fc-news/2010/12/30...

BTW, in one of the fansite polls, 96% of supporters wanted Hodgson out. That was before last night's match.

from the Torygraph's Rory Smith:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/sport/football/teams/liverpool/8231499/Liverp...

Sorry, I realise that my posts have been on a bit of a tangent to your original question, so .... my view is that, yes, I pay my money, so I am entitled to be critical (even boo if, as last night, they are shockingly awful). What is this North Korea, etc?

...to say "Now is the time for people to really try to help us along because it is not through want of trying"?

If that's haranguing, then I'd hate to be on the end of a SAF hairdryer special. It seems perfectly sensible to me.

I think that Roy's main problem is that he doesn't come across as someone who can easily handle the big egos of some of his players. That will have been much less of a problem in the teams where he made his reputation (Scandanavia, Switzerland, Fulham etc). Unfortunately, the reception (or lack of it) that he got even before a ball was kicked at LFC has undermined his authority with the players.

To return to the question in the OP, should support to a football team be blind? Maybe the answer to that is tied in with the ticket prices. If you are paying £40 per match, then you want results now. Delayed gratification because of team rebuilding, injuries, boardroom struggles etc is not an attractive option. Unfortunately, the one thing which you could do to help get that confidence flowing again, and make those positive results more likely, is indeed to 'blindly' get behind the team.

It didn't happen when Hodgson arrived; it's not happening now. As ye sow, so shall ye reap, Brian.

to further bolster their already over-bolstered egos; they're there to entertain us."
Twas ever thus. I recall in the early 80s, I think it was Alan Durban when manager of Stoke, saying in response to criticism of yet another dour performance: "If people want entertainment, they can go and see a bunch of clowns".

I have to say I feel uncomfortable when the team is booed. I tend to think it is (just about) acceptable after the whistle, but cannot see that it is anything but counter-productive during the match.

No, what I really meant was that our fans are absolutely brilliant!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/dec/31/roy-hodgson-apologises-li...

No, what I really meant was that our fans are brilliant!

http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2010/dec/31/roy-hodgson-apologises-li...

give the job to Carra. Now.
Dalglish was 35 when he became manager and built the best Liverpool team of all time, Jamie is 33 so the "he's too young" doesn't work. He studies the game like no other professional player, he lives and breathes football and always has. He's taking his badges and England apparently want to fast track him into the national coaching set up. He knows what he's doing and reads the game brilliantly.
And could you see any player trying to stand up to him, no matter how large his ego?

i don't think you can directly compare the price/entertainment ratio of football matches and gigs ... leaving out the demise of Liverpool and the rise of ManC/Spurs, English Premier League matches of recent years have often involved "the other 16" playing frustrating defensive football against "the big four" to the detriment of fun & spectacle for the casual observer (or passing Scot who doesn't support an English team) ... this might be like the Edge hitting an effects pedal only for a sound engineer to pee on the desk (or someone with a bubblewrap-popping habit ruining Lady G's dress with a pin) ... you can go out with bags of talent and a desire to play like Barca, only to be confronted by a side effectively playing a 4-6-0 formation (flexible to the extent that it can switch to 10-0-0) ...

being simply rubbish is different of course, especially for high-earning players at a club with a deeply-embedded sense of entitlement ... Champs League winners 2005, runners up 2007, English Premier League runners up 2009 ... then in season 2010/11 losing to Northampton in the League Cup and having dreadful away form in the league (5pts from 27 thus far) ... i guess that if you feel part of The Big Four and pay lots of money to watch games then the fall from grace attracts more criticism than at clubs like Everton or West Brom, equal on points with Liverpool at the moment (Sat afternoon before the results are in) ... altho' if there was a credible and visible way forward, rather than a sense of ennui, then maybe the criticism from the crowd would stop?