Confidence in ourselves, or fear of opposition

Just wonder why we froze so many times today. I think that Davey prepares every player in great detail for each game (so we're told) and that includes detailing each player on each opposition player. He must have done a decent job advising Atkinson about Nugent today and Atkinson must have taken the orders to heart.

Trouble is, by detailing the opposition too much, you can get the team in a mode of thinking too much about the quality of the opposition and not enough about our own game when we have the ball. Could that be what happened today.

Even some proven managers have made the same mistake - remember Revie preparing England for a World Cup qualifier against Italy. It was obvious that the players were so scared of the opposition that they never played - just froze and stood still. Maybe Davey didn't get the psychology right today. It is very good to prime the players about the quality of each opponent, but he also needs to prepare them to take our game to the opposition. If we don't do that, there will be too many more 'nils' against our name.

He's obviously very professional. Confidence building for the 'offense' (as Americans would say) is needed and not just for 'defence.'