Attitude is a strange one for me, i dont think the majority of our players lack the right attitude, it may at times play a small part in it but for me there are other things that add to it..
Confidence plays a massive part in football, and in any aspect of life for that matter, now i dont mean arrogance i mean the confidence in your own ability and not having a fear of failure. Ill harp back to last season where i still belive that the majority of this squad are struggling with that confidence, the first third of the season last year we played some great stuff but could nt put the thing in the back of the net, i remember commenting on it a number of times, that "oh someone will get a spanking soon and then we will go on a run" to.. "If somebody doesnt get a spanking soon then this is going to get in their heads, that the goals are being a struggle to come by" And i firmly belive it did and still is, people talk about a certain player being a "confidence player" well they all are, to one extreme or another, the further forward they go the more that confidence seems to factor but personally id put Pepe's form down to his confidence too, the things he did naturally he is over thinking about, the same with Suarez when he goes through 1 on 1, the goal probably looks alot smaller and in his head he is thinking "what if i miss" rather than thinking nothing and putting it away as he probably does for fun in training. Carroll last season, was in the side and missed some easy chances early on in the season, had he taken them then who knows...
Put it to your own life, confidence plays a big part, i play alot of golf nowadays, there is a hole (11) its tight, out of bounds both side for the first 225 yards... Now if im not confident in my driver at that moment ill often lay up around 180 to keep it in play, if my confidence is flowing with it ill drive it beyond that no worries..
Take chatting someone up, mainly people dont do it because they are affraid of what will happen... What if she says no..
It goes on... So why not think that a footballer in front of 30,000-80,000 people wont suffer from bouts of lack of confidence, they may not be fully aware of it until that split second happens, they may go missing and not show for a pass, but is that lack of effort or confidence?
We are all human and we all suffer from the same issues, humans will always look for an excuse, so for me the manager coming out and saying repeatedly that the squad is light and thin and weak is allowing players an excuse.. "Well if the gaffer says so it must be true"
Think back to when you played, at whatever level, if your best player wasnt available, the daft sh*t lad had to play... Subconciously it gave you an excuse if you didnt win...
The manager in my opinion shouldnt make that public, should pass that to his bosses but publically tell the world that his players are good enough to win any game.. Dont give them an excuse or a reason to doubt themselves..
Fear factor or confidence plays a massive part of this game, look at us in the 60s-80s, we had games won before we stepped on the pitch, to an extent we did in europe for a couple of seasons under Rafa... Look at Utd now, Chelsea when they went all those games unbeaten at home.... It goes on, Barca now... Teams fear them before stepping on the pitch with them, subconciously wonder what if anything they can here..... Confidence..
We all know football well enough to know you dont have to run round like an idiot to be "putting effort in" but they need to be fully in control of thier emotions and their confidence to maybe look like they are..
Look at our form at Anfield currently...
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