Quote Mr. Zucchini Head="Mr. Zucchini Head"League position is largely insignificant at this stage. It's a bit of a cliche, but we just need to focus on getting some momentum going. The table will look after itself. The next 3 in particular are really important, and if we can win them all we will be top 8 with a little bit of breathing space, and in theory we will have had the toughest fixture list of anyone since we haven't played Wakey yet.'"
As I said, from small acorns..however league position DOES matter, it's the actual real indicator of where we are right now. That in itself has an effect on not just fans but on the coach/players/owner. And yes what ultimately matters is where we are when it comes to the crunch but not being higher does induce pressure which in itself has a cyclic effect on top of all the other things going on.
Each match you lose adds yet more pressure, in turn you play players that are injured when IF you had been further up the table with more wins you wouldn't risk it.
You play more conservatively because you don't want errors and because of that tight games are nerve wracking for players and the scent of fear/failure is palpable, and then losing those close games is so difficult mentality to an extent you have what happened against Leeds in the second half & the whole of the Rovers game, they were screwed mentally probably before kick-off and it showed.
It all goes back to the Salford game, win that after a decent showing against Warrington and the next few games are games we would likely have done better in, no guarantees but confidence/mental stability in sport is so vastly underestimated especially in a physically tough sport. We just don't have anyone there for the players and LR isn't the man to do that, he just doesn't know how.
But all said and done it's the focus/attitude of the coach that is concerning. Rather than take the win, congratulate players etc and say we need to forget it & move onto the next game, etc etc he comes out with the rubbish in his interview.
If as it appears he's spending time not focusing on what he should be by responding with some form of on-air argument/dummy spit to what fans think/say, that departs from the job at hand..it also puts a lot of noses out of place and to a degree shows that he can't handle the pressure, passionate as he may be.
he MUST learn when to say things and when not to, Pearson is just as bad (if not worse) TBH and doesn't have any excuse unlike Radford whom just doesn't have that decision making ability/experience to know what to say when.
