Ray

Morty, Sounds like we are waging peace on each other! And IMO, being a man manager and truly understanding the part the brain plays in perfromance are not neceassrily mutually exclusive or inextricably linked. You can rally the troops through example, or even table thumping but it doesn''t mean you understand why it has worked, and it won''t always. You could also have a deep understanding of how the brain works but without the man management skills to get others to buy in then that won''t always work either. Football is a game which employs very few psychologists, when compared with many other sports, imo this is because a host of managers think they get it, when in fact they don''t.. If they did they wouldn''t do or say half the things they do. Turning to pressure, it only exist in one place, and can only exist in one place, your brain and who is the only person that makes the neural connections in your brain, you and thank ''f'' for that. So, this means we all create our own pressure/stress/excitement/joy, etc. etc. This must be true because different people fell diffrent levels of pressure/stress/excitement and dare I say it joy!

Morty, Yep, but why? Changing the thread of this thread slightly, I am convinced as I can be it''s a mental thing, I think this is an area we can improve on massively, besides playing ability. I have a saying, which is, "the superlative performance you are about to give already exists in your head" Nothing can exist without it first being a thought in someones head, even the chair you are sat on Morty existed as an thought before it became a chair. So it follows then the ''dire'' performance you are about to give also exists in your head, the managers/players who really understand this and know how to bring the superlative to the fore, are the ones who win games more often than not. Get this right and you can outperform someone who may have more natural ability, we''ve seen it enough times, a la Luton!!

Morty, I tend to agree, so roll on the summer when we can buy more quality or improve the fitness and/or mentality of the squad (including coaching staff). However, I still think more positivity and we would have more points, how many I couldn''t say, but look how we played against Chelsea, Man Utd and Man City at home, OK we only picked up one point, and many would argue that is one more that we expected but if we played in the same vein against ''lesser'' teams I''m certain we would have won when we drew and drawn when we lost in more games than we would have lost when drawing and drawn when winning. My memory says there have been 7 games we lost or drew when scoring first, let''s say one point per game lost, so we could have 36 points by now. Jjust my opinion of course!

Morty, You know what they say about common sense, it isn''t common or we would all think the same, however I do agree with the main thrust of your point. I think we do have players who are capable of scoring, it''s just they aren''t scoring for us, so, something needs to be done. It could have become a psychological thing, if so let'';s sort it, it could be we are not playing to their strengths, if so let''s sort it, etc. etc. The bottom linne is let''s sort it whatever the reason be. The prime responsibility for this obviously lies with certain key individuals, however we all have a part to play. Until such time as we have the right people in place, with the right skills and mindset and I include all positions on and off the field, then yes perhaps we should play tight low scoring games. All I want to see is it being sorted because we can''t continue on forever playing tight low scoring games, or if we do we will evenyually suffer in league position, support, income, etc.

Morty, We may concede more but would we score more than we concede? There lies the conundrum. There are pleanty of teams above us who do it, so why can''t we? Surely the object of the game is to score at least one more than you concede and you cannot do that unless you have bodies somewhere near the goal. The question must be, do we have the players capable of scoring if they received more support and received the ball in situations where they are not surrounded by defenders because they have no one else to mark?

RTB, It''s for your own protection that I don''t, there are forces at work you know!!

I''ve conclude that I can bring myself to report that there wasn''t one, so whilst I would love to spend hours dissecting and writing about all the nuances, hidden messages, etc. within it, I can''t, .....or is it that I won''t? I do so wish I could rid myself of my self deprectaing side!!

IMO, put in a god shift, as they all did, was he a stand out player, no, but did a lot to link play. In general, looked good.

The human brain is hard wired to achieve, it must be or we would never learn to walk and talk and some of us can even do both at the same time. The brain also moves toward its dominant thoughts, which esentially become its goals. You will no doubt have heard the expression "Be careful what you wish for." The subconscious is also unable to accept/process the reverse of an idea, if you tell a child ''not'' to knock a glass over, what frequently occurs? Didier Drogba was quoted as saying that 90% of his game existed in his head, Jack Nicjlaus was quoted as saying visualisation was 40% of his success, Put all this together and your words and thoughts become a self fulfilling prophecy, So saying ''we will struggle", "there was a limit to what could be achieved by the cub this season", "it''s my job to dampen expectations of the fans and players" and "there was a limit to what could be achieved by the cub this season", will most likely become self fulfilling prophecies. Oh they already have, which goes to prove the point. Does saying the opposite, in a more ambitous and positive style guarantee success, no, does it make success far more likely, absolutely. Is beating the top four realistic, yes, we and other teams do it, so it can be done, however perhaps the best way of framing the rhetoric is to say something along the lines of "We are capable of winning and believe we can and will give our all to do so." If the payers are constantly told "It is a tough place to go" then their brains will set out to prove them right and they will make it a tough place to go.

The human brain is hard wired to achieve, it must be or we would never learn to walk and talk and some of us can even do both at the same time. The brain also moves toward its dominant thoughts, which esentially become its goals. You will no doubt have heard the expression "Be careful what you wish for." The subconscious is also unable to accept/process the reverse of an idea, if you tell a child ''not'' to knock a glass over, what frequently occurs? Didier Drogba was quoted as saying that 90% of his game existed in his head, Jack Nicjlaus was quoted as saying visualisation was 40% of his success, Put all this together and your words and thoughts become a self fulfilling prophecy, So saying ''we will struggle", "there was a limit to what could be achieved by the cub this season", "it''s my job to dampen expectations of the fans and players".

You missed quite a good game Morty. Great first goal by Jam Loza and solid performance by all. Puts us in top half and on the way to being in the top league when it splits next year.

pliff, I don''t ever recall RM proclaiming he was God, but I may be wrong!! And you forgot to add, ''in your opinion'', he is not god enough for the Premiership. Unless of course you are the all knowing God of said league?.

GJP, Well spotted, with one or two amendments to make my point/take the pi55.

Fenway, As I know, there are known knowns; there are things I know that I know. There are known unknowns; that is to say, there are things that I now know you don''t know. But there are also unknown unknowns – there are things you do not know that even I don''t know and let''s face it even if I did I might choose not to share with you.

I tell you what Fenway, next time I intend to embark on soliciting peoples'' views on something they heard and shared with me I''ll record it, apply for permission to re-use it, transcribe it and post, so all those I wasn''t reaching out to can have their tuppence worth too. The overview is in my previous mails if you can be bothered to read them.

Ricardo, How correct you are, if I had known I wouldn''t have bothered. The short summary can be gleaned from my previous posts.

RTB, I can do the prose but just like a pic of my lunch, you stiil wouldn''t get the smell or the flavour and consequently you wouldn''t salivate!

RTB, Please read my original post. I wasn''t writing a report I was asking what others felt about it, so by definition you really had to be there. Coming back to Nutty''s post, I could write a report about my Sunday lunch but you would never get the flavour from my words, you would have to have eaten it to share any meaningful dialogue on its merits, etc. The same applies here, nuances, inflections, facial expressions would not be picked up from my post. I was seeking feedback from those that experienced it, simple as that. Others seem to be pilloring me for a poilte request. Anyway, off to have my Sunday lunch now and I promise you all, I won''t be posting about it, no matter how good it is!

Nutty, I hope your lunch is worth waiting for? He said too much to put it all on here, it was the way he said what he said that particularly impressed me. He did accept the players need to improve in terms of quality, mental fortitude, ability to see a game out, etc. He was also sure we would be in the PL next year. I''m not sure if it appears on the website anywhere, if it does it''s worth a listen.

Zachariah, Thanks for this and I thought he went commando!

Yellow, Seems like we are the only two on here that heard it, which is a shame, or the only two posting anyway, and yes I agree with all of what you said, I wanted to see if others got the same from it as I did and so far (you and I) it''s 100%. Thanks

Yellow, I thought his demeanour and the way he handled the question from the floor showed him to be, and I repeat something I have already said, an eloquent, natural leader whose football career will not end with his playing days. What did you make of it, especially the points he made regarding the responsibilities of the players when he answered the ''from the floor'' question. Also, I thought he spoke very well around the situation we find ourselves in, being a whole club issue and whilst fully accepting resposibilty on behalf of the players, the points he made regarding all other parties involved were sound. Obviously some of the points he made were what you would expect but I felt we got a well thought out, well constructed and meaningful interview and not just the normal type of platitudes we get. What were your thoughts?

viad666 What part of "Would be interested to hear the view of any posters who heard RM''s interview in the Gunn Club " do you not understand? Just as I could be Interested to hear the views of anyone who ate at the same retuarant as me, which may or may not include you. If someone asked an assembled audience, which included me, for views on an event, let''s say a match, I had not seen, I would hold my tongue, move on and let those that had seen it enjoy their debate. I would not criticise the questioner and attempt to ridicule him/her, which of course can only be achieved with the questioner''s approval and I don''t approve, so your attempt failed. The reason, and I repeat for you and others that appear tp be hard of reading, that imo the speech said a great deal about the man and other issues going on at the club, there was so much in it, it would take about 4 pages to discuss it all, hence why I asked for the opinions of those that heard it, however, I will add that he was questioned from the floor, not a normal occurrence, and and gladly and eloquently gave answers. However, you may be correct and my post headline perhaps should have read, "Only read this if you were in the Gunn Club today", guess what even more would probably have read it and still felt the need to criticise. My real problem is that they walk among us!

Dubai, Pointless to you maybe but not to me. Perhaps I was appealing to those of a mindset different to yours, to mindsets that don''t feel the need to post on a thread just to criticise the subject matter, if it doesn''t float your boat then move on, why get involved? And anyway, so pointless you felt the need to spend precious moments of your life replying. What you do Dubai speaks so loudly, I cannot hear what you say.

Nutty, Do me a favour, you appear to have an agenda, what makes you think, I think, I would only get a reasonable conversation from the people in the Gunn Clubb and talk about knowing nods and winks, however you are helping to make your own point, I posted a polite request which appears to have gone over your head, I wanted to hear from those who had heard it, not from those who didn''t but rest assured I won''t be doing it again.