It's affecting us. Honest

[alunevans]

Gerrard is on tv saying how it's affecting the players. Does anyone else not buy this crap?

Why would it affect the players? How on earth can they use that as an alibi?

The only person who should find it more difficult if anyone is Rafa, as it makes it easier for the players to take the piss and not put in 100% on the basis that "you won't be here long anyhow."

So I can see how it might affect Rafa and his ability to motivate a player who is actually a shyster and happy to use the situation to take his foot off the pedal.

But how else would it affect the team.

If you're playing centre mid you're playing centre mid against some other fella, and you're on a football pitch and you're against him and its up to you to win that personal battle.

If you're a full back you're up against a wide man and its up to you to track him, and mark him, and get the ball off him, and stop him from getting a cross in.

And how on earth does anything happening in a board room affect you WHILE you're on the pitch, engaged in your own personal battle that it is your responsibility to win.

It's bollocks.

Rafa has it harder as a supposed "dead man walking" cos its harder to maintain control over a squad of players because his authority is undermined. As a player it makes no odds whatsoever and it's about time the players out on the park stopped hiding behind this convenient alibi, and put their own house in order.

Some lazy gets will take any excuse going in order to explain away poor performances, and some will take responsiblity and step up to the plate and sort it out.

I'd be far happier if Steven had come out and made that point instead of handing his team mates an excuse by default for future ****e performances.

You're up against someone else in a different coloured shirt. That's your world for 90 minutes and it's you against him. The boardroom has absolutely nothing to do with it. So cut the crap lads. Stop looking for excuses and instead play your part in putting things right again where it really matters - on the pitch.

[disco]

Exactly what I was thinking. In fact :

You're a bit slow aren't you Darren.
Actually it's exactly what you said to me in the first luton thread a couple of weeks back were I "speculated" that the off pitch goings-on were affecting performances. Of course I was way off on that one

Like I can remember that?!

Anyway, just because Mr Insecure confirmed that 'off-field stuff doesn't help' doesn't mean they're suddenly playing like **** because of it.

I find it hard to believe Carragher was considering the pros and cons of leveraged buy-outs while Marlon ****ing Harewood scored with an overhead kick, and Aurelio certainly wasn't trying to work out what DIC would have to offer to buy the club as the ball bounced off him and in.

[disco]

Although to be fair, we were excellent for large parts of the game last night. The 2 goals were incredibly harsh and/or ****ing ridiculous.

Marlon Harewood overhead kick. Dear god.

[Shaggy]

The day-to-day stresses and pressures of all this ****e MUST take some toll on the players. It must do. It's all about small details at that level - meticulous preparation and unswerving focus....and this has obviously, in my opinion at least, gone awry under the strain of this nightmare situation.

It's clearly not the be all and end all but I do believe it's had an effect.

[disco]

I'd agree with that.... if we weren't dicking all over them essentially to then.

[BobTheCharmer]

I agree Alun.

I'd also like to say that I wonder where all this mess will end.

No matter who owns the club it won't stop Rafa from making his curious selections.

So if DIC do buy us does this give Rafa another few seasons? Because let us not forget that up until a few weeks ago opinion was very much divided on Rafa.

I fully understand people getting behind Rafa at present to show the yanks they can't push us around, but this may cost us for many a season.

Also as a note of caution, could the recent and ongoing demonstrations not lead Hicks to sell off our best players just to spite us?

[barnes10]

lame duck manager is hard to obey no? especially one that is as standoffish as rafa.

happened to fergie when he announced he was going. players just didnt give that 100% that they otherwise would have.

thats the kind of thing that turns 1 goal margins into draws and draws into losses.

[alunevans]

I'm pretty certain there'll be the odd player who is happy to use the turmoil to take the piss a bit, in less fear of Rafa's authority while his position is in peril.

And I'm sure there's a few grateful of the ready made excuse to hide behind.

But that's the only way it can affect them in my view. By using the situation to take the piss, or take their foot off the pedal.

And then it's not down to the boardroom problems affecting an individual player's performance, but rather an individual player taking advantage of the boardroom problems because he knows he can use it as an excuse, or because he doesn't fear the "dead man walking" anymore.

In that sense, the players have no right to be referring to this at all. Rafa has extra problems if he has any ****bag players like that in the squad, and he has a right to point it out as an extra issue he has to manage.

But an individual player himself? No chance. The only effect this would have on a quality professional is to have him step up to the plate more in the knowledge that there'll be a take-the-piss or coward contingent in any squad and so he'd better up his game until it's sorted.

I think Gerrard should really be saying that to be honest and making it clear that its not good enough for anyone to hide behind the boardroom issues to justify poor performances. If they do they are cheating the fans, and I'd like to hear that message.

Rafa should be finding life harder to impose his authority on the squad, and its up to our leading pro's to make sure they won't tolerate any crap from their team mates, not hand out the alibi's in advance.

[Shaggy]

I'd agree with that.... if we weren't dicking all over them essentially to then.

But that's missing the point.

We were all over 'em, yeah, but the preparation, focus and concentration applies to defending just as much as it does attacking - in fact more so. Much more so.

And we switched off twice in a manner of minutes and got punished. It was so un LFC-like...the shambolic defending, particularly at set-pieces where we're normally so solid.

[redblood]

The day-to-day stresses and pressures of all this ****e MUST take some toll on the players. It must do. It's all about small details at that level - meticulous preparation and unswerving focus....and this has obviously, in my opinion at least, gone awry under the strain of this nightmare situation.

It's clearly not the be all and end all but I do believe it's had an effect.

It has to affect them they have no idea who their employers or boss is going to be, complete and utter uncertainty promotes no stability.

[alunevans]

I agree Alun.

I'd also like to say that I wonder where all this mess will end.

No matter who owns the club it won't stop Rafa from making his curious selections.

So if DIC do buy us does this give Rafa another few seasons? Because let us not forget that up until a few weeks ago opinion was very much divided on Rafa.

I fully understand people getting behind Rafa at present to show the yanks they can't push us around, but this may cost us for many a season.

Also as a note of caution, could the recent and ongoing demonstrations not lead Hicks to sell off our best players just to spite us?

That's a separate issue entirely. I'm talking of player's personal responsibility to stand up and be counted. It's too easy to allow a team mate an excuse for a bad performance, and there'll be enough no-marks in any squad who'll leap on this as a license to be half hearted.

[alunevans]

lame duck manager is hard to obey no? especially one that is as standoffish as rafa.

happened to fergie when he announced he was going. players just didnt give that 100% that they otherwise would have.

thats the kind of thing that turns 1 goal margins into draws and draws into losses.

Yes of course. But my point is that is a problem that Rafa has, not the players.

If an individual starts to ignore the lame duck manager, then the boardroom issues aren't affecting him. Rather he's using the situation to take the piss and take his foot on the pedal in the belief that the manager can do sod all about it.

Rafa suffers this and so it makes it harder to manage - but the players who act that way aren't the victims of it, they are the perpetrators. The players who do that are using the "dead man walking" against Rafa, and this is a matter in my view of professional responsibility and integrity.

It's a key difference.

[disco]

OK, so Laursen won a header, but no way a goal should come from that. 99 times out of 100 Harewood skies it into the stands.

And a deflected goal?

Sorry, but if we weren't concentrating from set pieces against a team like Aston Villa we'd get massacred.

[redblood]

That's a separate issue entirely. I'm talking of player's personal responsibility to stand up and be counted. It's too easy to allow a team mate an excuse for a bad performance, and there'll be enough no-marks in any squad who'll leap on this as a license to be half hearted.

What was half hearted we played one of the better sides in the league pretty much off the park but conceded to sloppy goals there was nothing half hearted last night imo.

[Tinkerbitch]

They're people not just players. If you're in a job you love and you think the person that hired you is for the chop this is bound to have an affect. You might be midly worried or it might really play on your mind, depending on your nature. Similarly, if you're a slacker, it gives you the perfect opportunity to take the piss. This situation should never be used as an excuse for poor performance but it's unrealsticto say it should have no effect.