Rafa on SSN.

[Frenchie]

How must he feel now that Porto have scored

[greenbloodred]

First post, so hi to all you fellow Liverpool fans. Great forum, especially love all the abuse directed towards the mancs

I must say Rafa looks incredibly relaxed in pre and post match conferences/interviews of late, he's certainly winning the psychological tussle with whiskey nose in the most important stage of the season.

Get in there!!!! 0-1 porto

[Ben_Itez]

Welcome

[kris90210]

First post, so hi to all you fellow Liverpool fans. Great forum, especially love all the abuse directed towards the mancs

I must say Rafa looks incredibly relaxed in pre and post match conferences/interviews of late, he's certainly winning the psychological tussle with whiskey nose in the most important stage of the season.

Get in there!!!! 0-1 porto

hello

[Vermilion]

First post, so hi to all you fellow Liverpool fans. Great forum, especially love all the abuse directed towards the mancs

I must say Rafa looks incredibly relaxed in pre and post match conferences/interviews of late, he's certainly winning the psychological tussle with whiskey nose in the most important stage of the season.

Get in there!!!! 0-1 porto

Thanks.

[bertie]

Shut it Craig.

[Craig_H]

Tweedle Dee has a friend.

[Red_Polo]

Just to clarify, i'm not saying it'll have a good effect or a bad effect - or even any effect.

It might work out beneficial, it might work out counter productive, nobody can say for sure. But, i just dont see the need to get embroiled in this type of stuff, what is the purpose? I'd be inclined to just focus on my own team and not even respond to the ****e that comes out of the Toilet, whether it's from ferguson or whoever.

What exactly is the purpose of it?

If you're not so sure it will have any effect why do you get so worked up about it?

It's obviously a psychological game, and in my mind you simply have to play it. If somebody hints at your possible inferiority you have to deny it, or better still proclaim your superiority in some way, otherwise you're accepting it. These mind games might well up the stakes but I think you really do have to reply; the key is just to make sure those on your side always feel a sense of being the ones in control.

At the moment the Mancs are the ones that look like they are out of control. Results can swing the mind games just as much as mind games swing the results, but that's a risk you have to take IMO. Being such a Mourinho fan I'm surprised you're so against all this.

Shut it Craig.

Play nice please.

Please get up from your computer screen .. walk out to the Kitchen .. Knell down .. open your oven door .. stick your head in it and slam it shut whilst saying .... I must stop saying stupid ****ing things .. of corse Demento is kaking it .. and repeat

Play, erm...nice.

[Craig_H]

If you're not so sure it will have any effect why do you get so worked up about it?

It's obviously a psychological game, and in my mind you simply have to play it. If somebody hints at your possible inferiority you have to deny it, or better still proclaim your superiority in some way, otherwise you're accepting it. These mind games might well up the stakes but I think you really do have to reply; the key is just to make sure those on your side always feel a sense of being the ones in control.

At the moment the Mancs are the ones that look like they are out of control. Results can swing the mind games just as much as mind games swing the results, but that's a risk you have to take IMO. Being such a Mourinho fan I'm surprised you're so against all this.

I'm not SO against it, i'm just wary.

Way i see it, is that we've got the momentum and things are going well for us, it's them who are rocking - and that's precisely why ferguson's said it now. Because he sees how smoothly we're operating now, he wants to try and throw a spanner in the works and disrupt things.

We dont need to say or do anything, our on-field performances are the perfect reply. Ferguson's 'hint at a possibly inferiority' needed no reply other than "Well our form has been good recently, including a 4-1 win at Old Trafford, so we'll just keep going with the same confidence and mentality"

I'm not against 'mind games' in general, i just dont think there's a need to get involved when everything's going well.

Where's fredo, is he not online? Or is bertie using the brain cell tonight?

[johnp]

Just saw the press conference.
Lovely to see Rafa smile

[bertie]

I'm not SO against it, i'm just wary.



Where's fredo, is he not online? Or is bertie using the brain cell tonight?

Easy sweetheart...no need to get your knickers in a knot. I speak for myself & was going to type this long well thought out reply to your (usual) nonsense post when Fredo came along & afforded me the opportunity to just agree.

You should try agreeing sometime... you'll find it makes your time of the month go a lot smoother!

[Red_Polo]

I'm not SO against it, i'm just wary.

Way i see it, is that we've got the momentum and things are going well for us, it's them who are rocking - and that's precisely why ferguson's said it now. Because he sees how smoothly we're operating now, he wants to try and throw a spanner in the works and disrupt things.

We dont need to say or do anything, our on-field performances are the perfect reply. Ferguson's 'hint at a possibly inferiority' needed no reply other than "Well our form has been good recently, including a 4-1 win at Old Trafford, so we'll just keep going with the same confidence and mentality"

I'm not against 'mind games' in general, i just dont think there's a need to get involved when everything's going well.

Where's fredo, is he not online? Or is bertie using the brain cell tonight?

Well, ok, we don't have to but I think it's beneficial. It puts a little more pressure on them and erases any hint of doubt the comments may have raised on our side. Let the dominant impression in the minds of both sides be that the Mancs are stuttering and we are in great form set to pounce rather than that we and Chelsea are fighting it out for second place. Even if our players don't really buy it, the comments still make you think about it and that's negative. It's best rebutted somehow.

I get the impression the reason you are wary is because it could go all egg on face if we don't keep our form, and that's certainly true. But if we did drop points it wouldn't be because of Rafa's comments and it'd make us unlikely to win anyway.

In making these comments, what do you think alcy is hoping will be the reponse will be or the effect on us?

[Craig_H]

Well, ok, we don't have to but I think it's beneficial. It puts a little more pressure on them and erases any hint of doubt the comments may have raised on our side. Let the dominant impression in the minds of both sides be that the Mancs are stuttering and we are in great form set to pounce rather than that we and Chelsea are fighting it out for second place. Even if our players don't really buy it, the comments still make you think about it and that's negative. It's best rebutted somehow.

I get the impression the reason you are wary is because it could go all egg on face if we don't keep our form, and that's certainly true. But if we did drop points it wouldn't be because of Rafa's comments and it'd make us unlikely to win anyway.

In making these comments, what do you think alcy is hoping will be the reponse will be or the effect on us?

To be honest Polo, where i was actually coming from, was the prospect of Rafa's reply possibly firing their players up, even if it's just 1% more, we dont need to do it. He basically implied that they're scared of us, and if it was me hearing that from the opposition, i'd want to try EVEN more to shut them up and make them look silly. The mancs are tiring and it'll take the absolute maximum of effort and drive from them to overcome the fatigue - giving them another piece of motivation, IMO, can be counter productive.

[Red_Polo]

To be honest Polo, where i was actually coming from, was the prospect of Rafa's reply possibly firing their players up, even if it's just 1% more, we dont need to do it. He basically implied that they're scared of us, and if it was me hearing that from the opposition, i'd want to try EVEN more to shut them up and make them look silly. The mancs are tiring and it'll take the absolute maximum of effort and drive from them to overcome the fatigue - giving them another piece of motivation, IMO, can be counter productive.

It's not as straightforward as that though. The relationship of performance and 'emotional arousal' [giggle] is not a straight line, it's a curve with the optimum level of 'emotional arousal' obviously varying from individual to individual and sport to sport.

In sports like golf that optimum is quite low, so unless you are one remarkably laid back mother****er you're more likely to sink that putt if you give less of a **** that you do. In the case of football the curve is much further to the right, so you're correct in saying these kind of comments would ordinarily act to bring about a better performance in the opposition.

However, Rafa doesn't reel these comments out all the time and there's a good reason he's doing it now. Given the pressure of the situation the Mancs are already in and the way it seems to have affected their game, most people would agree they have long past this optimum point of 'emotional arousal'. They don't need more to 'feed off', they have too much nervous energy. They don't need to hear about how we can smell blood, they need to chill the **** out and think about how they are sitting pretty ahead of us with the finish line in sight.

I hope Rafa keeps making them look over their shoulders because I think it's putting big **** off psychological barriers in their way and we need all the help we can get to overhaul them. Of course it could make things worse for us if we stumble, but as I said earlier at this stage if we stumble we've more or less had it anyway.

[BrianF80]

It's not as straightforward as that though. The relationship of performance and 'emotional arousal' [giggle] is not a straight line, it's a curve with the optimum level of 'emotional arousal' obviously varying from individual to individual and sport to sport.

In sports like golf that optimum is quite low, so unless you are one remarkably laid back mother****er you're more likely to sink that putt if you give less of a **** that you do. In the case of football the curve is much further to the right, so you're correct in saying these kind of comments would ordinarily act to bring about a better performance in the opposition.

However, Rafa doesn't reel these comments out all the time and there's a good reason he's doing it now. Given the pressure of the situation the Mancs are already in and the way it seems to have affected their game, most people would agree they have long past this optimum point of 'emotional arousal'. They don't need more to 'feed off', they have too much nervous energy. They don't need to hear about how we can smell blood, they need to chill the **** out and think about how they are sitting pretty ahead of us with the finish line in sight.

I hope Rafa keeps making them look over their shoulders because I think it's putting big **** off psychological barriers in their way and we need all the help we can get to overhaul them. Of course it could make things worse for us if we stumble, but as I said earlier at this stage if we stumble we've more or less had it anyway.

Great insight!