Not necessarily, all depends on your kind of team and makeup. Some can take the bravado, others prefer the chip on the shoulder. Big part of managment is dealing with those ideals/bringing players in to fit yours. Oh, and we are Liverpool. That pressure and expectation will always be there no matter what.
That pressure will always be but its been at its lowest for two or three seasons so why not take advantage? I realise different players have different mentalities and need different approaches. I was talking purely about what we say in public, I don;t like BR talking up our chances especially when he mentions second and we lose the immediate following game
That I agree with, I was speaking more of the behind closed doors, making sure the boys are revved up and up for the challenge. "brave" players and all that.
Most of what is said in the media is bollocks. The board and management will have minimum, realistic goals for the season. That'll be Europa league qualification. They'll have targets which they see as difficult, but possible with hard work and a bit of luck. That'll be the Champions League. Then there's the unrealistic but spunk all over your face type targets like winning the league against the run of bets. Above all that will be the aim of any player, fan and coaching staff to go out and to win every game. Failure to do so is inexcusable. If you fall short, you pick up and try the next game instead. If you have the mindset that you can win your next game, every week, you'll end up with a **** load of points. The moment you look at games as one you'll lose, you'll have a losing mentality and definitely will do so. All teams go out and look to win their next game. They take every game in turn as a new target. Everyone in the back of their mind will have long term expectations and look ahead. People who say, "we're only looking at the next game", are talking ****. If we're second with 10 games to go, damn ****ing right we'll all be looking ahead for how many more points we need for qualification. Players included. The board will be doing that already and Rodgers too; data like what Mito does with the blocks of four and those graphs with projected finishes. They'll tell the players that they fell below the points tally for that block of four and it wasn't good enough; pull your thumbs out and work harder in the next block. Point being that all clubs have expectations, targets both short and long term. Denial of either is them talking **** and saying what they think they should be saying at that particular time. As for Rodgers' formula; just go and win every ****ing game. That's formula enough. Don't even mention 2.5 defenders and false keepers.
I agree with all of that. That wasn't my point (if you were responding to me that is), my point was purely about raising expectations outside the club by opening of mouths.
Too busy making them uncomfortable probably. please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
It's hard to assess the "formula" until the end of the season really. Top four is the aim and I don't mind if talking about it is putting pressure on the players. If they can't deal with pressure from the manager then they shouldn't be at the club. As long as BR isn't saying we WILL get top four (or worse still talking about second place again) then it doesn't bother me. As the op says we now know we can beat teams by big scores and do it with style but we just aren't consistent enough....yet. Can we find that consistency this season? Possibly as we're undoubtedly stronger than last year but we still do have weaknesses for all to see. I guess the "formula" will only come right if Rodgers can address those weaknesses without altering the balance of the rest of the team.
IMO rodgers has thus far proved his competance by banishing the hodgson and end of rafa days well into the past. He's culled the squad to his taste and thus far there are no real glaring issues. however that does not mean its anywhere near good enough to win anything. in short rodgers has much to prove and simply getting CL, while a big ask these days given the competition, is not enough. rodgers must deliver silverware AND CL every year AND get to challenging for an actual title. After all wenger is laughed at for 8 years without a sniff... do we want to be that? nope. i refuse to say "progress" as its so cliched at this point but for rodgers to extend his tenure he must now go further than building a bot of self respect back at the club he must build a winning team. its a long road to go.
It is a long way to go and at points it will get rocky for him. How a young manager deals with those spells is key really. He has so far established himself worthy of respect from the players. Not that that wins you trophies but for a young manager at a big club it's essential. He has set out his principles but shown a bit of flexibility (after a while) showing he knows he has a lot learn yet. The players seem to like him and his enthusiasm seems to have rubbed off on them a touch. He's also shown though that he can be tough if necessary (putting Suarez in the doghouse for a couple of weeks could prove to have been a very shrewd move). Of course we need top four AND trophies as you say MITO hence why it's impossible to go OTT about him yet. This season and even more so next year it will be his team. If we don't get top 4 or win the FA Cup the pressure will begin to mount and questions will be asked. His past record will be called into question etc. All I can say as of now though is it looks a lot more promising than it has for a while.
Oh yes. I had forgotten about that. I remember that every time after a victory he said Liverpool was still challenging for second place and later he said he was challenging for 4th when second was impossible. Shame he has learnt his lesson. Not to put a dampener on things but you have thrashed mainly teams below 8th and met very few top ones (apart from thrashing United). So until you have met all of them by the end of December it would be sensible to wait to see whether you've turned the corner...
