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GB olympic cycling's renowned sports psychiatrist joins Liverpool


Jhinge Machha
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Lets not give players more excuses. The very pinnacle of every sport is supposed to have pressure its what separates winners from losers. Excelling under pressure is the point. Lets wrap the fuckers up and say its the taking part that counts have a rusk and count your money.. There...there. Buy better players.

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One thing that has helped to undo us these past 20 years has been the lack of players who've actually won anything in terms of league championships. We have no connection with our winning past and the players we bring in haven't done much elsewhere.

 

There's no winning mentality in the club anymore. We've not got enough winners to produce one.

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The man is utterly shameless.

 

'Pressure of top-four target too much for Liverpool' says club's psychiatrist Steve Peters - Premier League - Football - The Independent

 

The sports psychiatrist who has been employed by Liverpool to replicate the methods which have played a huge part in British Cycling's Olympic success has urged the club to make a Premier League title or top-four finish an aspiration rather than a concrete goal.

 

In his first public discussion of his role working with the Liverpool manager, Brendan Rodgers, Dr Steve Peters told The Independent that 10 players have sought him out and that he believes the 23-man first-team squad will only heap unnecessary pressure on themselves by targeting a specific league position – or deciding how much longer they must wait to clinch the title which has become an Anfield obsession in the 23 years since the club last won one.

 

"A goal is something you must be able to control and you can't control [your place] in the league," Peters said. "It depends on how others play, not just you. You always like to influence things and influence as much as you can but accept that most things in life are a dream. They're not guaranteed to happen."

 

Peters, the Sheffield University scientist who was hired last October to work a day per week with Liverpool and was subsequently also appointed to work for UK Athletics with performance director Neil Black, said that his role in football created tougher challenges than those he encountered at UK Cycling, including the need to get a majority of the players to work with him. "If I go to a team with 10 people and only five work with me then I am absolutely limited in what I can do with the team," Peters said. "The [Liverpool] players are trickling in one at a time, gaining benefit, buying in and feeling it can work for them. But it has to be on an individual basis."

 

The 59-year-old does not view his role as one of inculcating a team ethic at Anfield. "From my perspective in sport I am not sure that's the psych's job," he said. "It is indirectly but I think the manager is the key person.

 

The rationalisation of mediocrity. Pathetic.

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One thing that has helped to undo us these past 20 years has been the lack of players who've actually won anything in terms of league championships. We have no connection with our winning past and the players we bring in haven't done much elsewhere.

 

There's no winning mentality in the club anymore. We've not got enough winners to produce one.

 

I agree.

 

I don't think that this Man U side, man for man, is amongst their best. But they do know HOW to win.

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I think the point he was making was that rather than set unrealistic targets - which, once they are out of reach become a millstone and drag confidence, so set realistic targets that can be met, and will develop confidence in the short term! It is also worth pointing out the rather obvious fact - that he never actuallly said what the headline suggest!

 

Would we have got top four this year? Possibly, but it would take a number of variables working in our favour for this to happen e.g. Tottenham, Chelsea imploding and Arsenal struggling. It is all about steps, smaller steps foward are better than no steps. In our team, only Sturridge, Reina, Suarez and Johnson have been involved in a league winning team. You build confidence - you don't demand it.

 

He didn't once say - accept mediocrity, don't bother improving just accept what you are! Honestly, people at our club can come out and say 'it's a bit cold this month' and they'd be accussed of criticising the City and ruining the tourist industry!

Edited by Whelan
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Guest davelfc
I think the point he was making was that rather than set unrealistic targets - which, once they are out of reach become a millstone and drag confidence, so set realistic targets that can be met, and will develop confidence in the short term!

 

I get what you're saying but like Zig says, loser talk. Who the fuck are we going to attract with that kind of talk? 4th place now is unrealistic for players on hundreds of thousands to aspire to. How long before we're all patting ourselves on the back for just staying in the premiership.

 

I've heard it all now, lowering expectations until we become Swansea. It fucking stinks.

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Those quotes stink of loser.

 

I get what you're saying but like Zig says, loser talk. Who the fuck are we going to attract with that kind of talk? 4th place now is unrealistic for players on hundreds of thousands to aspire to. How long before we're all patting ourselves on the back for just staying in the premiership.

 

I've heard it all now, lowering expectations until we become Swansea. It fucking stinks.

 

First point is this - he doesn't say anything about where we should accept the club should finish, he simply states that players (individuals) should not be using positions as a basis to improve, because they cannot control what other clubs do. So rather than worrying about finishing fourth, worry about winning the remaining 8 games.

 

Second point - when we appoint Jen Change - we are told he doesn't have the xperience to do the job, Ian Ayre doesn't have the experience to do the job - yet this guy clearly knows his stuff, and still that isn't good enough.

 

Third point - Steve Peters has worked with our cycling team that has dominated for the past 8 years, he has worked with Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton and kept them at the top of their game, kept them winning - so does that sound like a loser to you? Does that sound like someone who doesn't know what he is doing?

 

By all means, tell me why his comments about 'controlling what you can control' constitute the language of a loser, but I would assume that as he has worked with two of our most successful Olympians ever, and - with the greatest respect - we are discussing him on a forum, his knowledge and experience is exactly what we have been calling for from our management team.

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"By all means, tell me why his comments about 'controlling what you can control' constitute the language of a loser"

 

Maybe not a loser, but certainly a stoic - it's just a re-phrasing of the first counsel of stoic philosophy. Now, when do people remain stoic? In the face of what, exactly? Whatever its origins, it has remained in language as the position of the stalwart second-rater.

 

Yesterday I was watching a baseball game, a training game, and the commentators were talking about this rising star. whose name I forget. Anyway this young player said he'd entered his goals for the season on his cellphone but didn't want to show them to anyone lest they think he was some kind of mad kid.

 

Realistic expectations are often the hallmark of losers. "What's a heaven for" ...and all that.

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"By all means, tell me why his comments about 'controlling what you can control' constitute the language of a loser"

 

Maybe not a loser, but certainly a stoic - it's just a re-phrasing of the first counsel of stoic philosophy. Now, when do people remain stoic? In the face of what, exactly? Whatever its origins, it has remained in language as the position of the stalwart second-rater.

 

Yesterday I was watching a baseball game, a training game, and the commentators were talking about this rising star. whose name I forget. Anyway this young player said he'd entered his goals for the season on his cellphone but didn't want to show them to anyone lest they think he was some kind of mad kid.

 

Realistic expectations are often the hallmark of losers. "What's a heaven for" ...and all that.

 

No they're not!

 

Not being successfull is usually the hallmark of a loser. His record is that of a winner. His work with the Cycling team and their success is a matter of fact.

 

What you have described are characteristics, or a point of view that you don't share.

 

What did we used to say 'take every game as it comes'! Realistic expectations.

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He seems to be full of excuses...

 

Anyone think he will make into season two of being Liverpool.

 

PETERS ON.... LIVERPOOL:

 

“I’m working with Liverpool at the moment. Brendan Rodgers is a brilliant, brilliant guy to work with. He’s very insightful and he can see exactly what we’re trying to do. Again, he accepts this is a long-term project with no guarantees but a probability of improvement.

 

“He’s such an insightful manager that when he contacted me and I met him I thought I can easily work with this man. “I’ve got a number of players that I meet regularly but I’ve not met all of them and I don’t want to meet them until later, when they might say ‘I’ll see what you’re doing’. They might not do that at all.”

 

HOW TO TURN AROUND A FOOTBALL CLUB

 

THINK BIG

“It’s a very big analysis. “You’re looking at individuals, teams, interactions, communications, environment - you’ve got to do the whole thing otherwise it’s like a bucket with a hole in it. If you leave bits out, it’s useless.

“From my perspectives, teams have got to buy in 100%. They’ve got to say we’re going to implement this model. Most teams won’t do that, they’ll take little bits and expect it to work. I’m saying: ‘It won’t. It’s like taking parts of a car engine and asking why it won’t run’.

“You have to address everything and that includes staff. People think I work with athletes all the time but actually, it’s 50/50. It’s 50% athletes and 50% staff like the coaches, who are critical to the athlete. The support team are critical to the athlete because they will get them in the position.

“I’m just a minion. I’m there to facilitate and help the athlete.”

 

IT’S COMPLICATED

“You can’t approach it in a simplistic way. You can’t just do this big drive to boost their strength up and emotions and confidence. I don’t think I can work that way – maybe other people can but I can’t do that.

“What we need is to sit down and have an analytical plan, a constructive plan. You then start looking at individual players and their belief systems and so on and how they’re functioning individually, in their training programmes to begin with. Then you would look at how they function as a team and relate to other people. What are the good aspects of this, what are the not-so-good, where’s the team ethos?

 

TAKE ON THE MANAGEMENT

“Then you have to look at the management structure of the team, what are they doing to provide the correct environment to progress these guys into an optimum performance. That’s a critical area. You look at the management itself, are they secure in their place? Clearly, working alongside the players they’ll have a massive effect on the players. You work with management to get them to optimise their performance.

 

TEAM-WORK IS EVERYTHING

“You then need to look at the team ethos. Clearly the manager has to lead the team and give them a team ethos: they’ve got to buy into that.

Then again, you look at the team in training and in competition and look at what they’re doing on the pitch. That would involve strategy guys and performance analysis guys.

“As you can see, from my perspective it’s a very complex problem.

“I would do this as an analysis and I never work alone. I work with experts because I know nothing about cycling or football.

“So together with the experts we form a plan. When you’ve got the plan you’ve got to implement it and it’s not going to be smooth. It will take time and you know it will take time.

 

TRUST THE TALENT

“The ultimate, which is important, is that I can’t turn a footballer, a cyclist or a runner into an Olympic champion. They’ve got to have talent – I’m just saying if we do certain things in the mind we can unlock the potential to optimise their performance.

“Even then, it’s all about probability. You can’t guarantee that because you’re doing this they will go to the top of the league; what you can say is that by doing all these things the probability of success rises.

“Therefore it is probable that they will succeed and optimise performance. But there are no guarantees it will work.”

 

Read more: Journal Live Interview: Psychiatrist Steve Peters on the biggest names in sport - Other Sports - Sport - JournalLive

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Second point - when we appoint Jen Change - we are told he doesn't have the xperience to do the job, Ian Ayre doesn't have the experience to do the job - yet this guy clearly knows his stuff, and still that isn't good enough.

 

Which football clubs has he worked for previously? Football is a team sport. Has he been involved in other team sports?

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First point is this - he doesn't say anything about where we should accept the club should finish, he simply states that players (individuals) should not be using positions as a basis to improve, because they cannot control what other clubs do. So rather than worrying about finishing fourth, worry about winning the remaining 8 games.

 

Second point - when we appoint Jen Change - we are told he doesn't have the xperience to do the job, Ian Ayre doesn't have the experience to do the job - yet this guy clearly knows his stuff, and still that isn't good enough.

 

Third point - Steve Peters has worked with our cycling team that has dominated for the past 8 years, he has worked with Chris Hoy, Bradley Wiggins, Victoria Pendleton and kept them at the top of their game, kept them winning - so does that sound like a loser to you? Does that sound like someone who doesn't know what he is doing?

 

By all means, tell me why his comments about 'controlling what you can control' constitute the language of a loser, but I would assume that as he has worked with two of our most successful Olympians ever, and - with the greatest respect - we are discussing him on a forum, his knowledge and experience is exactly what we have been calling for from our management team.

 

I agree - what he said in a more clinical context (rather than a fan's ) has to be right - you can only put a foot forward so far at a time. It's not like the glorious past has made life easier for anyone has it?

Fans have one eye on the past, ex players too. How has that worked last 20 years? Nothing to lose trying new approaches.

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