Players not getting on with each other (44 replies)

This may seem a strange observation, it might not be of any importance at all but I'm interested in other peoples' opinion on this. It also might provide something else for people to look out for in future games that relates to the alleged unrest and 'bad eggs' in the dressing room last season.

I watched some of the Burton defeat last night on TV (I have it saved on my digibox from Sky) and I noticed something about the Maghoma goal and in particular what happened after he scored.

If you look at the Sky highlights here -

[www.skysports.com]

...there are five different angles shown of the goal, starting at about 01.18

I'm not sure if they're showing the exact same angle they showed on TV but my observation was that N'Doye is the first to congratulate Maghoma. What I noticed on the TV was that for a second Maghoma looks pleased to have scored, then as soon as he realises that it's N'Doye patting him and congratulating him all emotion fell from his face and he adopted a cold, emotionless, blank look and seemed to place his arm in a defensive position where it's holding N'Doye away from him, or even pushing him away slightly. N'Doye keeps patting him and looking at him as if he's expecting at least a friendly smile back but he gets nothing until he gives up, moves away a little and walks alongside him.

Next Gardner approaches, gives N'Doye a quick hand slap and then Maghoma and Gardner celebrate the goal together. At this point, Maghoma's demeanour completely changes again and he becomes warm, friendly and happy about the goal again.

You can see most of this on the highlights clip but the initial clip doesn't show the coldness that suddenly appears on Maghoma's face when he realises that N'Doye is nearest to him and is the person patting him. The very last repeat of the goal on the video (the fifth one?) does briefly show this, but it isn't as obvious as the TV version.

It may not be anything at all but you can also see that after assisting with a header, Juke makes no attempt to go towards Maghoma and congratulate him, he just runs back to his own half.

So, making some big assumptions, one might conclude that Maghoma doesn't like N'Doye at all for some reason, but perhaps N'Doye hasn't realised this until that point. On the other hand it seems that Maghoma has a great bond with Gardner. There is also a possibility that Juke doesn't get on with Maghoma as well. Maybe it's just because Maghoma and Gardner have played together for a longer time whereas N'Doye is a newbie? Maybe there's a language barrier? I have no idea. I just know from my amateur playing days, when there's someone new in the team who makes an effort to fit in you would normally try and make them feel welcome as quickly as possible for the sake of team cohesion - I would expect this even more from professionals, but then again they get paid well, have large egos and can sometimes be prima donnas.

What do you think?