If I were Guardiola I would be telling my players to look on social media and the internet and see how Liverpool’s own fans are turning on them, ramping up the pressure and seeing how the media is making them lose their heads.
That was probably part of the thinking of bringing the game forward against Everton. He will be using all this hysteria to keep his players motivated and believing that we will lose and they have to take advantage.
Thing is, if you look at social media, pretty much everyone are losing their heads depending on what happens game to game. City lost at Newcastle and all of a sudden loads of their 'supporters' were giving up hope on the title and wanting an all-out assault on the CL instead. Some were even saying they were pissed off with football altogether. All this, just because they lost a game with a third of the season to go. It's utter madness.
Much of the Everton fanbase on the internet has lost it's head simply because we are top and
may win something. United's were losing their heads when Mourinho was there and killing them, now they are predicting next season is 'theirs' because Olleh has given them a decent new manager bounce. Everywhere you look, people are losing their heads. It's the way it is these days. The media love reporting on it, and they also love stirring it and/or creating it. It's all about extremes, and they don't really care who's pot they stir so long as it gets readers/listeners.
Much of our own fanbase has lost it's head. Many lost it weeks ago buying into the idea that we were on the brink of clinching it. Now we have thousands losing their head because they feel we've ''bottled'' it. All it would take is for us to lose in the next game or so and it will go nuclear. Then again, if we put a run together and City lose one, their fans will be the one's going nuclear. Everywhere you look, it's boom or bust, with nothing in between. Everton have nothing to do with our club, but many of them lot are having nervous breakdowns over us and will only survive the summer if we don't win the title. Everywhere you look, it's madness.
I'm just glad I don't have social media accounts, only watch our games, don't watch the shite spewed out by pundits and barely skim read the sports pages these days. It keeps me a lot saner.
I definitely agree with you that far too many of ours have lost their heads. If anyone has ''bottled it'' it's not the team, but far too many of the fans. Opposition managers will be right on it and know that if they can frustrate us early on our own fans will do the rest by conveying their anxiety onto the field and into the heads of our players. It's a no brainer really.
That's what every manager we play against in the remainder of the season will be telling his players, and who can blame him? At this point in time, we're doing it to ourselves.
