This is the attitude we should be going into every game - thinking we're better than the opposition. Look at last season during our streak - for the first time in a long time, I went into the next games thinking we could and should beat everyone. And that was including teams like City and Chelsea. It's a winning mentality which we need to quickly re-establish because it's somewhat lost this season. And thinking we should easily beat a Championship side is not arrogance. Simply, it's what we should be doing. As I say, we should always respect our opponents and we shouldn't be turning just expecting teams to roll over.
100% Sure do all the pre-match "no easy game" "we expect a tough match" interviews but at the end of the day we should not be expecting anything other than a win from this, we are Liverpool FC and they are a championship side.
The top Championship clubs are equivalent to the bottom Prem clubs, they're effectively Prem clubs playing in the league below because of the parachute nature of their existence, the Burnleys, Leicesters, Norwichs, Derbys of this world, there's no real difference in quality of football, just the separation of the league they play in. Bournemouth are sitting fourth so they are of the same standard but having never been a Prem team. We should be beating them. End of. But knowing us this season we will toil and toil. Established Prem sides should be a harder challenge, on paper of course, but that can't account for the sudden vicissitudes of the game.
As fans, sure, why not think we can beat everyone. Anyone involved in the club however, shouldn't. IT would be very disrespectful to think we're better than the opposition. Every point / win MUST be earnt, reputation means nothing. Even when 3-0, I'd say we play like its still 0-0. Its all about having the right mentality!
That bit sort of negates everything you said before it. How do you get the right mentality i.e. winning mentality if you don't start out believing you can and will beat the opposition? I go along with the idea that the opposition should be respected in public statements and in not playing in a complacent way but you have to believe you're better than the opposition in order to play with confidence and setting about beating them, it's simple sports psychology.
There is a difference between believing you can win and believing you're better than others. One is confidence (good), the other is arrogance (bad).
Not sure that's strictly true tbh. If you're playing someone at any sport and you know you're better than them, there's no harm in that, as it's probably a fact. As long as you rationalise the fact that you're only better than them if you play to your ability level, then believing you're better and should therefore win is a positve thing,as it removes self doubt.
The man you quote in your signature would disagree! In general life it is cocky to believe you're better than someone else and in football I don't think players should be cocky or play with complacency but tell me CR doesn't believe he's better than others and I'll probably laugh at you. You have to start with that belief in order to get the confidence in the first place. ''The last thing you want to do is build up your opponents and frighten your own players. I always tried to have a joke up my sleeve to boost our lads and knock down the opposition.'" - Shankly.
True but this conversation started flowing this comment: "This is the attitude we should be going into every game - thinking we're better than the opposition." That clearly says 'every game'. I have no issue with going into a game against Bournemouth thinking we're better, we should be better!
You are the fairest poster I've ever encountered on a forum and you talk a lot of sense. I understand your point of view on this but I think I have to disagree. You have to send the players out believing they are better in every game. Going back to Shankly, he told a story about playing man utd one week and how in the team talk he'd talked so much about how Liverpool were going to beat them, how much better they were than utd etc. - ''I can remember overhearing one of the lads coming out of a meeting and saying: 'Are Best, Law and Charlton not playing?'' That was the way he talked the team up to believe they were better than anyone and guess what .............
Fair point but I'd say that was in a time when we probably were the best too. We aren't nowadays and sometimes we need to realise it otherwise we've lost before kicking a ball. The Real Madrid game is a great example. We went out and attacked from the start, we attempted to outplay them and took a beating as a result. Hopefully we realise in the returning game that they ARE better than us and we think how to beat them tactically (notice I said beat them ) PS...thank you
I think we became the best because of that attitude and not the other way around - Shankly dragged us out of the 2nd division and on to be the best based on that philosophy. BR should get out a few Shankly videos and make the team watch them prior to every game. There's no shame in losing but there is in not trying.
Unfortunately, I wasn't around when Shanks was (he died the year I was born) so never experienced his ways but I've obviously read a lot about him etc hence the quote along with Bob's. The game is different nowadays though. We'd never see a Wimbledon come through the leagues to win now, we'll never see another Nottm Forest or Derby under Clough's guidance either. Back in the Shankly days, having the right mentality was the edge over the opponents. With the game forever getting older, the knowledge continues to grow meaning that extra edge is ever harder to find.
Believing you are better than your opponent without having the ability to back it up, is merely delusion. The kind of belief systems that we're talking about here, from Shankly, Clough and latterly Ferguson, only work at the margins. So it might give a side that extra % or 2 against their peers, but it's never going to cover a gulf in ability.
