FIRST THE ENVELOPES and now inspirational letters from the players’ mammies. Brendan Rodgers’ motivational tactics are, well, novel to say the least.
As we all know, Liverpool fell agonisingly short of winning their first league title since 1990 last season and many believed it was Luis Suarez’s 31 league goals which underpinned their challenge.
Well, think again.
Philippe Coutinho has revealed the Reds boss read letters from players’ mothers in the dressing room during the title run-in as motivation. The 22-year-old insists the messages had a profound effect on the players.
“I was so anxious for it to be my turn, for the manager to read the letter from my Mum,” Coutinho told CNN Sport.
“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’s turn came in April when Man City were the visitors to Anfield and Rodgers will claim it worked as the Brazilian went onto score the winner in a thrilling 3-2 victory.
“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.”
Such tactics clearly weren’t used this season.
