What's with these half-hearted starts to games?

LJ is rightly taking plenty of flak after today's latest letdown, but I very much doubt he ever says to his players before a game: "OK, I want you go out there, start at half pace, look largely disinterested, get the crowd on your backs, give yourself an uphill battle by conceding the first goal and only start to play when it's almost too late".

It's an all-too familiar pattern and my question is does this come down 100% to the manager being unable to get his instructions across or is the problem that the players lack the savvy to take on board those instructions properly? Today in particular, being the first game of the season, you'd think there would be some evidence of enthusiasm and hunger about them but they looked almost beaten from the start. Even allowing for the manager getting his tactics wrong there's not really any excuse for a lack of desire.