I DID one of those personality tests at work once. You know, where you answer loads of innocuous questions on what seem like loads of innocuous topics and, at the end of it, someone tells you EXACTLY what you’re like.
So what am I like?
Well it turns out I like pressure, I REALLY like pressure. So much so that the company carrying out the test had rarely seen anyone love pressure so much. Mr Pressure. That’s me. A pathological hatred of planning, projects and any form of organisation whatsoever, but who needs any of that nonsense when you can thrive under pressure, when you can relish the pressure.
I’d sort of always known this, particularly the aversion to planning part, but once I had it confirmed and realised it wasn’t a barrier to success, I started to use it to my advantage. I started to look for ways to put pressure on myself to achieve the best results.
When I gave up smoking after 20 years I told everyone in advance. EVERYONE. “I’m giving up smoking on Monday. Me. No more smoking. Watch.”
It worked. I used it to my advantage. I gave up smoking and was motivated by not wanting to look an idiot in front of all the people I had signalled my intention to.
When I try and sign clients at work, I often pull some people to one side and I tell them “look, I’m going to win this contract. I know we’re not even the favourites to win it, but I’m going to win it”.
This doesn’t always work but I do it to give myself the best chance, to put myself under the most amount of pressure so I can achieve the best performance. As I say it doesn’t always work but I win more than I lose. I win more than if I had a “plan”. I can’t plan.
I run this album club thing which some people, basically me, are saying is the coolest thing on the Internet. (shameless plug – www.RamAlbumClub.com). I wrote a piece about the Beatles the other week which was really well received. Some people said it was one of the best things about the Beatles they’ve ever read. That’s lovely.
In a couple of weeks time I writing a piece about The Rolling Stones so I’ve started to tell people it will be better than The Beatles piece, it will wipe the floor with the Beatles piece. I sometimes phone up that Neil Atkinson of this parish and say similar things to him. And he still takes my calls because he sometimes says similar things to me. And I’m now telling you this too and there’s LOADS of you. I do this because it helps me, because it puts me under massive pressure. Which is what I want, it’s exactly what I want. So watch out for that Stones piece, it’s going to be brilliant. Much much better than that Beatles rubbish.
Brendan Rodgers then.
People are going to say he’s under pressure. People are going to point to a couple of bad results. People are going to look at the top four and say we can’t catch the top four. And people are even going to say that some of his best players are not sure whether they still want to be some of his best players.
And they’d be right.
Those people would be right.
Brendan Rodgers is undoubtedly under pressure but if you’re asking me, Mr Pressure, it’s not enough. Whatever you’re throwing at him at the moment isn’t enough. And whatever YOU throw at him will never be enough.
Because he should feel this pressure every day. He should wake up and relish this pressure. He should wake up tomorrow and say :”We’re going to win the F.A Cup. Starting on Wednesday, we’re going to win the F.A Cup so you better tell all the other teams that are left in it. We’re going to Blackburn, we’ll show them respect but, mark my words, we’re going to wipe the floor with them. Mark my words. We’re going to wipe the floor, THEIR floor, because they had the temerity to take us to a replay, because they have the nerve to think they can keep us, Liverpool, away from Wembley. Well, I admire their attitude but they can’t keep up us away, because we belong at Wembley and this year we’re going to go there twice.
“Yes twice. Mark my words. Once to beat Aston Villa and then again to beat some other team who are frankly wasting their time and everyone else’s by thinking they stop us. Because no one can stop us from winning this, no one can stop the celebration, the Reds in London, the Reds in Liverpool, the Summer Reds, the Best Reds. And don’t even tell me it’s not an important competition, it’s the best cup competition in the world. Mark my words, it’s the best competition in the world. But, yes, I take your point, there are other trophies and once we’ve won this one we’ll win all the others as well. Because that’s what I did on the way back from London on Saturday, I bought a new trophy cabinet, the biggest one in London. And I’ll fill it, mark my words, I’ll fill it. If it’s the last thing I do I’ll fill it. And then I’ll need another one, a bigger one and I’m going to fill that too. At some point we won’t need cabinets, we’ll need houses, massive houses to hold all our trophies”
That’s sort of what I’d say. To myself at first and then maybe out loud. And the win after that would be so much more glorious than if I said nothing. So much more glorious. And that win would set us up for next season, for 38 cup finals, for nine months of pressure. We’d be ready for it, we’d spend all summer waiting for it.
And if I lose? Well I’m going to getting crucified anyway.
So this week shouldn’t be about excuses, about context and about managing expectations.
Forget all that. No one’s interested in that. Embrace the pressure, go for the win. Tell EVERYONE, in no uncertain terms, that you’re going for the win and bring everyone with you.
Losing or winning small are not options.
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Pics: David Rawcliffe-Propaganda
Good article. But I think if you look below, you’ll see pressure and Rodgers don’t go well together.
Brendan Rodgers’ Liverpool vs Chelsea, Man City, Man Utd, Arsenal P28 W5 D7 L16 F35 A51
That’s not forgetting how he handled European pressure matches, as we saw in the Bernabeu.
Some of those games were early in the season..can’t be under pressure early in the season, in your first season.
They’re all high pressure games when Liverpool meet any of the big 4 in league or cup.
He is under pressure to keep his job. He should be under pressure to win the league and get European success. If you are under pressure to keep your job then you are failing badly. Sorry Martin but the guy has created the situation he’s in. Constant media appearances sounding like he’s Shankly. Daft comments about Spurs and the money they spent. Buying players and then simply not playing them because they are not good enough: Lambert, Lovren, Ballotelli, Aspas, Alberto, Assiadi. Even £25m Lallana is an in and out player. He loves to laud his tactical acumen when we win, his ‘flipping the triangle’ homily was/is risible, whereas in defeat we played well but needed just that bit of luck. Tactics? Do me a favour. He has adopted Evans’ plan B, only this time instead of taking off Berger, he takes off Marcovic. As you can guess I am no devotee of the man, but if he brings the club success, he’ll do for me, it’s just that I can’t see it any time soon. Judging by Sterling’s comments. neither can he.
He did ok last year Frankie,
Soz, I totally forgot that was all Suarez.
He did ok last year Frankie,
Soz, totally forgot that was all Suarez.
It’s an interesting concept this. Creating the pressure for yourself by saying to the world that you are going to do something spurs you on to do it. Works great when you have total control over what you want to achieve. Giving up smoking is down to the individual and creating your own pressure helps.
Unfortunately this won’t work for Brendan for individual games and trophies. He doesn’t have total control over the outcome. He, and the club, will look a tit if he states publicly that we are going to beat Blackburn and we don’t. In fact stating before the game that we are going to beat them just gives them a gee up. It’s not a good idea.
What Brendan needs to do is to speak less and act more. Too many ego filled media briefings, imo. The latest one is to criticise publicly Raheem’s agent. How is that going to help anything? Do the dirty stuff behind closed doors and always respect the opposition to the media. Want to kick Raheem’s agent’s arse? Get him in to Melwood and kick his arse. Show some friggin’ bottle and do it. BUT don’t do it through the media.
So, less talk and more action is what’s needed. Straight talking with the players and the coaching staff. Keep away from the media whenever possible.
What fun is that? While I’d give him another year, I do wonder if he’ll get sacked if they fall to 7th or something. Look at Shankly. What was one of his famous statements? That the two best sides in Liverpool are the first side and the reserves. Of course that was a shot at the Toffees. Is our side good enough to kick Blackburn’s arse or not? If the team likes Rodgers as much as they allegedly do, let them go out there Wednesday and prove it by beating Blackburn to a pulp. He could always do it the Simeone way.
Can’t argue with any of that James.
I think regardless of what you think of Rodgers and every single one of the players we all have to just shit up and get behind them for the next 5 games before the chelsea game, at a minimum. Too much sniping going on at the mo at it can’t be helping. Even our usually impeccable away support yesterday was barely audible.
Like I said, 5 games, all very winnable. Man United ‘ s next 4 league games look very lose able. I appreciate they are on great form but they are tough games for them – real tests. In 5 games time we could be both going to Wembley and a point above the scum with 3 games to go. But it ain’t gonna happen without some epic support. Come on, let’s do this.
I like pressure too Martin. Many people react to it rather than cave in. The pressure of managing Liverpool is far greater than your work though and Rodgers is over reliant on others to make it work for him.
I’m not convinced Rodgers handles pressure well. Earlier in the season I think his head had gone. Yes, he turned it around but he didn’t look like he was thriving under it. Quite the opposite. I remember that image at Palace when he was slumped against the dugout.
Currently, the pressure is back and he doesn’t look like he’s handling it well.
4th is gone – Yes, it has but I don’t wanna hear the manager say that.
We can’t attract good players now – True, but this is the sort of thing I say to my mates in private when I’m on a downer. Should that be made public?
RUMOURS of a dressing room revolt – No idea if this is true but I do have a ‘no smoke’ attitude. What I would say is I wouldn’t be surprised if it was true. If you constantly use the media to pass the blame then one day it will come back to bite you.
Then there’s the Sterling situation and Sturridge injury record. I’m not convinced Rodgers thrives under pressure. I thought his head went earlier in the season and it’s gone again now to an extent.
Makes sense. Pressure. Makes sense for a person who takes responsibility when he gets something wrong, not only takes plaudits or signs under every minor success, but also when the going gets tough.
Problem with Rodgers is he never takes responsibility. When we have a good run, he comes out ans says “See, I didn’t sleep until 3am, I worked on tactics”. He says, with a self-congratulating grin – “it’s that new defensive coach everyone was saying we should bring in”. But lost two games, and it’s Balotelli who “refused to join the team”, it’s Raheem’s agent, it’s lack of experience in the team. It’s “you aren’t playing for me”, it’s lack of pull that apparent;y Liverpool has – which in itself is a very damaging statement. This club had some world class players before he became a manager. He had funds back in the summer. Loads of funds. He preferred to throw them at two mediocre players who not only don’t win you games, quite often the opposite, they lose you games, along with Brendan’s decisions. But.. it’s never his fault!
So, is a manager can’t take responsibility, will he thrive on pressure? I don’t think so. He loves being a hero, and quite often proclaims himself a hero before he has actually done the business. It’s how he is. It’s what happened last season when we had to take 4 or 5 points from the last 3 games to win the league. It’s what happened a fortnight ago when he started to sound like we have now sorted everything and we are going to get 3rd or 2nd, only to meekly roll over to ManUtd and Arsenal.
A man who says we need leaders, but he can’t tolerate leaders around him. Because leaders tend to speak out what they think, it’s their nature. And sometimes what they think is not what he likes to hear. So he surrounded himself with the good schoolboys and now says we don’t have enough leaders.
People say “the dislike for Rodgers is based on his personal traits, it’s subjective, so it doesn’t matter”.
Well, it does. Personal traits in a manager do matter, because a manager tends to mould a team in his own image.
Great post and agree entirely.
The point that you make that needs repeating is Rodgers doesn’t like characters and/or leaders. They threaten him. This is clear from a number of decisions he has made.
Like having Pascoe as a number 2? I mean what the fuck? We all take the piss about him Pascoe his shorts but look at the vast majority of top managers in the modern game – they all have strong right hand men, not just yes men. What is someone like Pascoe doing at such a senior position at such a big club? Rodgers is like Graham Taylor while in charge of England.
Then there was Rodgers’ freezing out of Sakho when Mama spoke up earlier in the season. The frenchman is a leader through and through. Captained PSG at 19 and France at 20. But the manager didnt like Sakho saying what was what so put Lovren in the team 19 times in a row, mostly at Sakho’s expense. It was in these months this season was lost.