Scarleh for yer ma
Here we were thinking Liverpool’s title charge last season was all down to the incredible talents of Luis Suarez and Daniel Sturridge.
Or maybe Steven Gerrard’s deep-lying role and players like Raheem Sterling and Jordan Henderson proving their worth.
No, we were wrong, It was all down to an ingenius psychological trick from Brendan Rodgers.
Philippe Coutinho has revealed today that Rodgers got the players mothers to write letters to the team and have them read out in the dressing room before key games.
Coutinho had the letter written to him by his mother read out before the infamous clash with Manchester City last season in which the Brazilian scored the winner/
I was so anxious for it to be my turn, for the manager to read the letter from my Mum.
I waited and waited for it. The manager had spoken to the mothers of every player in the team, he’d been reading a message before every game for months and finally my turn had come.
Coutinho reveals that the messages from all the various mammies in the team was a powerful motivation in their push for the title.
At first, I didn’t know that the manager would be reading a letter from her, then he mentioned her name and I was really overwhelmed.
It said she loved me, is proud of me, is always with me and missing me.
There was more, but those are just the words I needed to hear. It filled me up. The other players were also really moved because every week, regardless of whose mother it was with the message, we were all inspired and emotional.
We were getting really strong, powerful words and it pushed us so much.’
We are just left wondering whose mother is to blame for Steven Gerrard’s slip or the collapse against Crystal Palace.
Rodgers previously used letters in his first season as Liverpool manager to inspire certain players not to be the names written inside a number of sealed envelopes of players he felt would let the team down.
We also know that Kerry manager Eamonn Fitzmaurice wrote a personal letter to each player before the All-Ireland final last season to inspire them to glory.
H/T to CNN
