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what do they do?
not enough of them taking responsibility on the park imo
i remember souness (i know...) commenting on one of our piss poor champs league performances.... he said that the liverpool teams of the 70/80s (they were pretty good..) were packed with leaders.... guys who, if the game wasn't going their way, instinctively changed the way they were playing, they didn't have to wait for the tactics flip-book to come out...
our lot strike me like a bunch of (poorly) programmed robots

Nigels Tackle wrote:what do they do?
not enough of them taking responsibility on the park imo
i remember souness (i know...) commenting on one of our piss poor champs league performances.... he said that the liverpool teams of the 70/80s (they were pretty good..) were packed with leaders.... guys who, if the game wasn't going their way, instinctively changed the way they were playing, they didn't have to wait for the tactics flip-book to come out...
our lot strike me like a bunch of (poorly) programmed robots

Agree, but the manager has to give them confidence to do that. I felt last season that Mancini was too involved, it was like he was playing them on FIFA. Everything about his demeanour was negative either on the sidelines or in post match interviews. It was always about the mistakes.

The starkest contrast was probably when we played Dortmund away and watching the reactions on the sidelines on the TV - Klopp was over the top with his praise and enthusiasm for his team, even when they did something terrible. Watching it, you felt that the players could have tried anything and he wouldn't have minded.

I had hoped the calmer approach of Pellegrini may make a difference to us, but it hasn't yet.

Whether Pellegrini doesn't give them room either (engineers aren't known for being bubbly and enthusiastic - strictly I am one and I work with enough to know how they like strict rules and procedures), or they just haven't realised it or that too few of them are leaders, only time will tell.

Maybe next time we need to pick a manager with a degree in psychology or human resources.