Every Tuesday one of our regular Talking Reds writers will produce a column for the official website, but throughout the season we'll also be publishing a series of guest columns.

Here, Mark Jones writes about sports psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters and his work with LFC...

Mind over matter. It's not about trying to think faster than Chelsea's Spanish midfielder, but rather trying to think clearer than him and all of your other opponents too.

Football, and indeed most other sports, have moved on from the days when simply being 'up for it' will do.

Gone are the vocal, often chaotic scenes in which the heated, pumped up coach would scream volleys of 'encouragement' - screams usually littered with swear words and featuring flecks of spittle vacating his mouth and splattering all over the areas of the dressing room wall that weren't already featuring broken teacups - in a bid to get the most out of his players.

Or at least those days should be gone.

The mind of the top modern sportsmen and sportswomen is so cluttered, but their chosen field of play is where they need to feel most at home. It is where their minds have to be at their most focused.

Take the example of the athlete Jessica Ennis last summer.

For months and years building up to the London 2012 Olympic Games, hers was the face featured most frequently. She was 'the poster girl' of the whole Olympics. The fact that she was trying to win a heptathlon gold medal was almost forgotten.

Yet when it came to her two days of competition, the adverts, the posters, the press conferences and the hopes of a nation were mentally swept aside. All that mattered was competing.

She ended up 306 points ahead of her nearest rival.

Learning to de-clutter your mind and avoid rash decisions is surely the bedrock to any form of future success, as a couple of Ennis' fellow Great Britain Olympic team members and arguably the greatest snooker player of all time know all too well.

Sir Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendleton and Ronnie O'Sullivan all attribute much of their success to the work of sports psychiatrist Dr Steve Peters. The 10 Olympic cycling medals and five World Snooker Championships that the trio have amassed between them tell their own stories.

Pendleton and O'Sullivan have both been particularly vocal in their praise of the work that Dr Peters does, citing his help in their respective battles to maximise their performance despite all of the trappings of their successes.

Yet they perform in individual sports. Bar the odd team cycling event that the now-retired Pendleton and Hoy entered, whether they win or not is solely down to them and them alone. The same goes for O'Sullivan and for Ennis too. So can the 'mind over matter' approach work in football? The answer has to be yes.

Ex-Reds forward Craig Bellamy is another sporting star to sing Dr Peters' praises, citing that many of the techniques that the doctor outlines in his book 'The Chimp Paradox' have helped him become a better player with a clearer mind.

Following a traumatic couple of years which featured the death of his good friend Gary Speed, Bellamy has just helped Cardiff City into the Barclays Premier League - where he'll be on the receiving end of a rapturous welcome at Anfield next season.

Dr Peters' work seeks to clear the mind of the desire to make rash, reactionary decisions - the 'chimp' part - without taking away the desire that makes the player what they are. You don't see any less of Bellamy's trademark spikiness on the pitch, but what's going on upstairs is undoubtedly clearer and more concise.

Now in place at Liverpool since last November, the doctor could just be the most important arrival of Brendan Rodgers' time at the club.

The pressures put on the players by us, the fans, aren't often the first thing we consider when we make our journeys to the match or watch it on television. They aren't the second, third or fourth thing either.

Yet those pressures are there, and so anything or anyone who can help take them away should be embraced.

With Daniel Sturridge admitting he has turned to the Canadian author Jamie Smart's book 'Clarity' to help with his performances, help can come from many sources, but Liverpool happen to have one of the best of them on the staff.

You can't program players to win, but you can give them the opportunity to make the most of the gifts they have.

To put mind over matter and give them the best chance of succeeding.

And at the end of the day, it doesn't take much thinking time to realise that we all want that.

You can follow Mark on Twitter @Mark_Jones86.