The weight of expectation

[angelman]

Does it actually exist, or is it a bogus excuse people pull out as an excuse for whatever reason they want?

 

You hear players like Lallana saying that it is completely different playing at LFC than SFC, because of the expectation that the supporters have. On 606 there was a Spuds fan saying MP was better than RK because the expectation placed on RK wasn't there, while it was on MP.

 

It might well be the case that RK would not have been sacked as quickly as MP, but does that weight of expectation really affect performance? And with Lallana, surely all players go out to win, so whether you are playing for Saints or Liverpool, you turn in your best and go out expecting to win every game. I don't think you'll find players in our squad, or that of say WHU, who start the game thinking that they aren't going to win. So again, the weight of expectation really shouldn't affect your performance.

[ericofarabia]

With yet another blank Saturday coming up, it's the Wait of expectation that is going to be doing my head in this weekend

[Leyton Lundekvam]

It's an interesting point. Personally I think the weight of expectation comes more from his transfer fee. For £20 million the fans at Liverpool are likely to have far higher expectations than we did when Lallana was a youngster first coming out of Saints youth team.

[CB Saint]

Yep - you would expect a £20m CB to be able to defend - not an unreasonable stance.

 

You would also expect a manager to achieve more with a squad worth £200m than a manager who took over a team that had its heart ripped out in the summer. Oh.

[Leyton Lundekvam]

Ha ha, yeah. Unless the aforementioned manager was a charlatan who's managerial reputation was based purely on the footballing abilities of Luis Suarez!

[Bearsy]

It is rough on Lallana At Southampton, if you do three unnecessary Cruyff turns and scuff a weak shot at the Goalkeeper, the crowd give you standing ovation. At Liverpool, there might be an Air of Disappointment. Shame.

[Supersubpuckett]

The weight of expectation is very real and will certainly be greater at Liverpool or even Tottenham than it is at Saints.

 

It's no different to pressure any of us could experience in our own jobs. It will no doubt be one of the contributing factors to Lovren's terrible season - he went from low expectation of himself in a team where the pressure to deliver meant finishing in the top half, to a club steeped in a successful footballing history where he was billed as the new £20m man at the back. Massive difference for him and he will have felt it which makes him far more conscious of how he is playing and therefore once it goes wrong it goes really wrong. I would also add that Saints appear to have a very supportive environment which will help take the pressure off of the players, my perspective is that the culture at Liverpool isn't like this. Spurs similarly have an expectation, rightly or wrongly, that they should be Top 4 where any manager that can't deliver this for them has somehow failed. I bet the pressure Poch is under is many times greater than Koeman is experiencing.

[Webby]

It is rough on Lallana At Southampton, if you do three unnecessary Cruyff turns and scuff a weak shot at the Goalkeeper, the crowd give you standing ovation. At Liverpool, there might be an Air of Disappointment. Shame.

 

Brilliant!

[pap]

It's something that applies to entire teams too. Liverpool were crushed by it last season. They threw the league away at the exact moment it was in their hands.

[Horley CTFC Saint]

Dunno ask Tim Henman or Andy Murray