Something Klopp has proven beyond all doubt with this Liverpool machine he has built, is that at the elite level psychology is everything. Ferguson understood this better than almost anyone, that's how that Manc team kept winning after Ronaldo left even though it was technically substandard. On paper there isn't much between City and us, but between the ears we are on a different planet.
Long may it continue.
The right psychology is absolutely crucial, particularly when the margins between success and failure are wafer thin. The right mindset can get you through against really high odds. I learned this in a most harrowing way actually. Through reading books by Primo Levi and Viktor Frankl. Both survived Auschwitz. Frankl noticed that of those who escaped the selection process, those who survived tended to stay positive and focused on what they would do once they got out. Those who mentally gave up seemed to succumb to sickness and death soon afterwards. It seemed that even against unimaginable odds and in the face of unbearable horror, mindset still made a difference.
Now I realise that the scenario there is far removed from 22 millionaires kicking a bag of wind around a field, but the importance of mentality is the same regardless. Facts are, in every challenge in life, big or small, mentality can make a big difference to the eventual outcome.
From what I can see, Klopp has instilled the correct mentality into our entire club. On the other hand, the psychology over at the Emptyhad seems all wrong. Far too much entitlement. Far too much blame on externals when things go wrong. When you behave like that, you take your eye off the task at hand. It's so clear that their manager has been badly rattled by Liverpool, and that's transmitted itself through to the players and fanbase too. It's all paranoia and conspiracy theories, but the reality is they've lost focus. Their mentality is all wrong and, as good as he is, I blame Guardiola for that. He's the rudder that steers the ship. He's the captain of that ship. Problem is, he's lost his marbles, and his team have followed suit. The fanbase, with their already fragile mentality, have basically lost all sense of reality and most are in need of a straight jacket and a padded cell these days.
In the physical sense, as in points on the board, we ran them ragged last season. They were utterly shattered and lucky to get over the line, but on a psychological level we beat them hands down. We broke them. How they dealt with that in a psychological way would be crucial to how this season panned out. They handled it so poorly, and as soon as they realised they were in a major fight again this season they lost their heads.
This is the problem with success that's handed to you on a plate. It's like having the answer to a sum but not knowing how to do the working out. You've not gone through the learning process, so you are not as clever as you think you are. When pressured, if you don't know how to do the working out, you won't get the next sum right. We learned to work things out via losing finals to Sevilla and Madrid and also the title to that lot. We kept our heads and remained focused. Its that mentality that's been drilled into everyone at the club that sees us where we are today.
The right mentality is everything. You can have the best players in the world in each position, but if the mentality is all wrong, you are going to suffer.
