I mentioned on another thread that we seem to be prone to a head loss moment when it seems something is out of reach. In 16/17, when we started to drop out of the title race we hit a sticky patch and it took a while to compose ourself for fourth. In the covid season 20/21, we were in a race then when we were out we collapsed. Last season we have a bad start and then are awful for ages. This season knocked out the cup and one or two dodgy league performances and all confidence is lost.
Other teams seem to be able to ride a couple of bad results and recalibrate. I actually think a good reason we came third is because we challenged for the title. If we hadnt then i think third or fourth may have been a struggle, we cant seem to coast, its all or nothing.
I dont know whether thats the fault of the players and their mentality, the manager and how emotional his approach is, the tactics, or maybe thats just us as a club in that we are all or nothing.
Yes. Mentality certainly seems part of it. One of the reasons I started thinking about the APLT model was to remove the impact of other teams' results on yourself. If you are focused on where you are in the league week to week, it makes the pressure and focus different. If you focus on what you can control and spend more time thinking about process, generally you'll be more stable mentally.
Focus on the points you can achieve, and the league will be what it is. I see the plus 90 point seasons as being brilliant, regardless of the league position at the end (you can't control how another team is going to perform in 36 matches, and I'll avoid opening up the discussions about fair play etc).
Take that same process focused approach to a game situation, and you'll reduce the difficulty of doing things when the pressure is on (opening the scoring or being behind). Generally I think Klopp's Liverpool team have done this really well and the language he uses is certainly in keeping with this approach. I think the issue is that sometimes the individual player can't operate in line with that theoretical approach (it's what makes the greats so good).
Years ago I worked in performance golf (hence the par score idea). The approach for the best golfers is often process related for the most part. There's a fascinating part of Jack Nicklaus's Golf My Way book which describes how he foscues on process. There's a reason he won more majors than anyone.
For the most part, Klopp has done a brilliant job around the psychology of his teams, so it's frustrating if it was psychology that caused these poor runs. I like to think it might also be influenced by opposition teams exploiting a tactical weakness and us not adapting quickly enough to this (or simply not having the players available to overcome the issue).
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