Sonny wrote:JIMO96 wrote:I don't think all of Selbys negativity comes from "not feeling his best". Some maybe, but I'd say most of it comes from wanting to stop his opponent from performing. Therefore it manifests itself when he's behind in a match. Snooker's one of those sports where such tactics are rewarded (unfortunately).
That's very well put but then you ruined with the last bit which comes across as ignorance of matchplay in my opinion.
When one man is closing in on the line and the other man has the ability to make that man think about the situation and start to get nervous and feel the pressure and start to fear the opponent coming back, then that man is usually a winner. Isn't that what Hendry was like? Or more to the point given Hendry went for absolutely everything, Davis?
Yeah but there's coming from behind to win triumphantly, in cavalier fashion, and then there's the Selby way. Applying pressure to your opponent by adopting crushingly depressing shot selections, may win Selby some titles (has already, in fact), but he'll never be fondly remembered for it.....there's no glory in consistently going beyond what is acceptable for a shot time. Compare this to the Paul Hunter approach when facing a deficit. Do you think there'll be a "Mark Selby Classic" in the future?
I agree that Selby has some uniquely positive shot selections, and will always remember his 10ft+ pot on a red by hitting cushion first (Masters final, few years ago?), and that it's almost an American pool-esque approach he's capable of , as that shot demonstrates. Which makes it more of a shame that he chooses to go to the other extreme far too often.
I'm not convinced he's a positive safety player, as someone stated earlier (Wild, maybe?). For me, Higgins, O'Sullivan and Williams were the best "positive safety" players, but that's my opinion. And for having that opinion, and for personally not liking Selby, does not mean certain people can come online and accuse me and others like me of "being an idiot" or have "no appreciation of matchplay".
Personally I like Higgins, Dott, Trump, Robertson, the overseas contingent, the first year pros.......but dislike O'Sullivan, Selby, the players who are ALWAYS last to finish their match (Harold, Pinches, Hamilton etc etc) and never really developed more than an appreciation of Davis & Hendry, rather than a liking, because of their dominance.
I also can't stand the whole "Ronnie is the only player that matters" brigade or the "great to see Davis/White get to a venue" gang, but would never come online and express that these people know nothing about the sport, and I certainly wouldn't post my uneducated, expletive-laden diatribe on every available online snooker site as a result.