Barcelona striker Luis Suarez is awaiting the release of his new auto-biography, ‘Crossing The Line: My Story’, and within opens up about his spell as Liverpool’s number 7, and about his former manager at Anfield, Brendan Rodgers.
Suarez also reveals his opinions on Rodgers’ tiki-taka philosophy in his upcoming book, and also unveils what the Liverpool squad’s thoughts were towards their manager’s envelope motivation.
Extracts from his auto-biography, published by The Guardian divulge in detail the Uruguayan’s quotes regarding the controversial moment Brendan Rodgers attempts to motivate his players using a ‘three envelope’ trick, in a Channel 5 broadcast, ‘Being: Liverpool’.
Rodgers was seen disclosing to his players three envelopes, in which he then went on to claim contained the names of three players that would evidentley disappoint him over the course of the upcoming season.
‘If I was excited (about Rodgers’ reign), others were worried,’ Suarez explains. ‘And no, not because of the famous envelopes that appeared during a TV documentary about the club. Mostly, we just joked about that particular episode, but the manager’s methods really worked for us.
‘We never did find out what was written in those envelopes. I’m sure there were no names, it was just a way of motivating us; a tactic to make sure we gave everything. And in truth it got forgotten pretty quickly.’
Suarez goes on to write about the first time he and Rodgers met after the Northen Irishman’s appointment as Liverpool manager, saying the Reds boss made a special effort in the pair’s first meeting by attempting to speak Spanish.
‘The first chat I had with him was at Melwood [Liverpool’s training ground], just after he was confirmed as Liverpool’s new manager. It wasn’t a long conversation, just the typical welcome to the club stuff, but he also wanted to talk to me because there had been suggestions there was a chance of me going to Juventus.
‘Brendan spoke to me in Spanish and he told me to give him time, to give him a chance, and that I would like the way we were going to play. It would suit me. He said we would bring the ball out on the floor, keep possession and play attacking football. I remember him saying, “It’s not so hard to bring the ball out from the back on the floor, you know.”
Throughout his auto-biography, Suarez constantly underlines the strength and passion in his relationship with Brendan Rodgers, and how his philosophy effectively made him a better player and on side during the whole season.
‘From the start, it convinced me. It made sense. And although the results weren’t good, I could see that we were playing better. I was excited. Brendan’s philosophy was to play on the floor, keep possession of the ball and, if we lost it, to pressure to get it back. Don’t panic, don’t play so fast as we had the previous season, look for the spaces at the right time.
‘But you could see a Spanish influence in the way that Brendan worked. He was interested in Spain, he had studied there, and what he’d learned there was at the heart of our style of play: passing, pressuring high, quick movement, arriving into the area rather than standing there waiting for it, coming inside from wide positions’.
By Ollie Carroll
Twitter: @Ollie_Carroll_
