But does this phenomenon really exist? Are they performing above their capability or simply at their maximum? I would argue it doesn't increase their ability, just their motivation to fulfill it. That's fine, I'm arguing that by all means use the crowd to motivate. What you don't want to do is change your playing style and your plan because of that motivation and the crowd. The crowd might be spurring me on to bomb up and down the wing to my best capabilities, but the fact they're cheering doesn't change if it's right or wrong to cross.
I'm absolutely not saying be emotionless, or remove aggression etc. Aggression has it's place as part of a game plan and a style. It's about channeling emotions into healthy motivations.
I'm not sure how you separate the two. Performance doesn't exist in isolation of motivation. Is the suggestion every underdog is someone who's simply failed to achieve their full potential?
"Its hard to be good, its far harder to be good every day" said Willie Mays. Not everybody has the ability to achieve such consistency either physically or mentally.
I'll quote John Wooden "Sports do not build character they reveal it" to back this up but to be honest he would probably turn in his grave because he believed as you do in players being part robot and part racehorse
that the emotion provides too many highs and lows, that intensity and focus is what is required, that success isn't about winning but knowing you've tried to be the best person you can be. Hopefully we can both agree on the last bit.
So we need to channel positive emotion in team spirit, belief in the system, club, each other and we need to channel aggression (usually perceived as a negative emotion) - and its ok to use the energy of the crowd to feed the intensity and focus of our play but we shouldn't let it change the plan or our actions within the plan....... I guess this is where we disagree - the idea of a games momentum......that intangible maybe misleading feeling that you get in a game when you know which side is dominating, when you can feel it in your water............
- you suggest that that crowd shouldn't determine whether a cross is right or wrong - I'd say it can and even I know that sounds barking - it sounds like you should stick with the plan that the positioning of the players should decide when a cross is right or wrong - the crowd demanding attack attack attack, their emotions demanding release that should not dictate what you do - the scream of 'shoot!' shouldn't decide whether you let rip , the intake of breath when a flair player picks the ball up, outwide and in space shouldn't mean a mazy run but, but, but.......sometimes it does mean that, sometimes when you see hard bitten Juve players staring up at the Kop in awe and thinking 'what the hell have we here' and their knees are shaking its exactly when you should cross, sometimes when the ground is rocking and the kop in full voice exaggerating a push in the box is exactly what is called for, when Chelsea players feel their skin tingling because the atmosphere is on fire thats exactly when to attack - and to reverse that - sometimes when players are hyped up and buzzing and their energy off the chart playing keep ball however 'desirable' is wrong because they've never played keep ball unable to hear themselves think, with adrenal pumping at a 100mph through their system in training, the opposition doesn't come roaring into them and the crowd isn't howling at the moon - those 6 minutes in Istanbul weren't a perfectly executed clinically detached game plan they were taking advantage of a shift in a games momentum - I doubt I was the only one telling Smicer not to shoot but it was the right time, the right moment - was Vlad mentally in control was anybody for those 6 minutes? The sheer joy of sport, well if you were an LFC fan anyway........ is it possible to harness that lighning put it in a bottle I dont know but to set out deliberately not to seems ... well it seems wrong
Sometimes you need to seize the moment we dont do it enough, 2-0 up at Arsenal with their entire club in crisis would be an example - seize that moment and the crowd turn, they lose, they probably lose the next game we edge closer to 4th - We are I think planning a different, more sensible, better read approach. I understand that, I understand the confidence and sense of control that 'death by football' 'should' bring in the board room and on the pitch and there is a time and a place for it - maybe the plan is fine maybe we just need to learn when and how hard to press , maybe if we'd been fitter we would have pressed instead of backing off - I just think its missing a trick.
Please dont get me wrong, I'll settle for a grinding machine and at times with Rafa it was the height of my ambition a merciless constant press but I'll continue to dream of a red machine with a charasmatic soul.
