1-0... and we f*** it up. 0-1... and we f*** it up.

In the midst of wins and good news for Örebro, here is a real problem I have flagged before.

We cannot win games where the opponent team scores the first goal. We don't even draw. If the other team takes the lead, we lose.  It was the case last year, it is the case this year.

What's worse, this year we lose games even when we take the lead.  We have 29 points out of 20 games.  If we would have played "first goal wins" instead, we would have gathered no less than 43 points.  I have made no apple-to-apple analysis with the other teams, but Helsingborg is currently top of the table with 45 points (and they would have one point less against us with my way of calculating).

In other words. We could have been a contender instead of bumming in the middle of the table if we had the winning mentality where you protect leads and turn around deficits in the goalscoring sheet.  We are apparently incapable of both.

How do we turn this around? I asked the coach that question in a chat last week.  He acknowledged that to turn around games you need a winning mentality "and we are not there... yet!".  OK. But how do we get there? Obviously you need a positive cycle, getting used to winning no matter what, but we need to start somewhere.  Here are a few ways of doing it:

• Creating winning mentality.  It's good not to know your own limits. Just because the other team is better does not mean they will win. We lost to worse teams this year just because they did not know they were worse. We tried to tell them, they did not listen.  We should have shown them and they would have no choice.  How do we get there? Team psychologist? Maybe, if the coach feels he cannot create that mentality himself.
• Up the team mentality.  A team should be like family.  It's easy to break a bunch of twigs if you do it one by one, impossible if they are tied together.  It should be us against the rest of the world, always, when we're on the pitch.
• Buy winning mentality.  An army does not work with a general and foot soldiers only.  You need sergeants and captains as intermediaries.  If you can find home-grown ones, perfect.  If not, there are mercenaries for hire.
• Pro-active coaching.  Leaving the mental ground, the coaching is obviously important too.  Last year, we were excellent at defending leads.  This year, we have been pretty good at it in when we have started with a more attacking midfield and Kihlberg on the bench, only to get Kihlberg into the game once we have taken the lead.  Four times we did it this season, four times we won.  Still, in most cases he starts.  Against Kalmar, we had about 80% of the possession but did not create goal scoring opportunities.  Still, there was no chance of a game plan.
• Improve fitness.  This could be a reason, but I doubt it.  Paulinho is the only fatzo on the team and even he starts to look fitter.

Our coach 6-10 Boström has just signed a new contract.  I'm one of those who are glad he did but I hope he can work on these aspects because I truly believe that the other pieces are in place for us to challenge for the title of the miserable league called allsvenskan.  I hope he takes that challenge seriously.  We do.