I'm not sure whether it was reverse psychology, inexperience or just the end of a tether but whatever way you look at it the very public criticism of Jonjo Shelvey ahead of the Liverpool game certainly did not have the desired effect on Monday night.
I have to say that I was a little surprised to read a manager saying so publically this about one of his players "I have spoken to Jonjo about this and he has to wise up. The yellow card [against Villa] came from being lazy and he must be better than that. I have spoken to him about this and there are only so many times you can say it. He has to learn, otherwise he won’t play games.
"He must do the work instead of being lazy. Then he won’t pick up the yellow cards and risk a red. His ability is frightening and this may sound harsh but he’s not a kid any more. He’s been around long enough at the top level to know what it is.”
That is not necessarily saying that there is a disagreement with the words but I am not sure that it should be said so publically ahead of a vital game.
And if it was right that it should have been said then it backfired as Shelvey put in a poor performance on the night at Anfield that saw him score an own goal, be static for the third goal and also throw an elbow in to boot that saw him end the night saying on Twitter it was not intentional.
Generally when you read comments like the ones above from a manager it tends to suggest that a players days at a club are numbered and if that is to be the case then I cannot imagine that the performance at Anfield will have done anything to change Monk's mind on Shelvey. If he was hoping for a reaction from his comments then you could even say that he got one but certainly not the one I guess he had been hoping for.
Even Sky pundit Jamie Carragher referred to Shelvey's undoubted ability but his inability to adapt it into being productive on the football field which shows that it was there at Liverpool before we signed him eighteen months back.
Maybe his time is up at Swansea, who knows but what we do know is that whatever we tried to do over the weekend on him backfired completely.