I read this from a sports phycologist and I thought it summed up several of our players at the moment and indeed sportsmen and women across the spectrumâŚ.
It was in relation to David De Gea comments recently at Man U
âWhen something goes wrong, people get panicky, itâs difficult. But we have to learn, we have a new manager, some new players, and we need to be more positive and to keep learning and improving.â said De Gea
So letâs exchange the word âpanickyâ for âanxiousââŚ
âWhen something goes wrong, we start to get anxiousâ
As players start to experience anxiety so they:-
-reduce awareness (no longer seeing the 360 degree view)
-slow anticipation (due to muscle tightness and a loss of visual cueing)
-atrophy decision-making (as their intelligence becomes foggy, confused, and they forget important game model cues
-reduce coordination (as their muscles tighten)
-effort reduces and.âŚsubtlyâŚso very subtlyâŚpositioning suffers.
-commitment to responsibilities atrophyâŚâŚ
-assertiveness wanesâŚstrength reducesâŚâŚcreativity is lost!
Great playersâŚ.talented playersâŚlook less good and less talented.
They look a shadow of themselves. They look average (when theyâre not!)
So supporters jeer and cry and protest:
âYouâre not fit to wear the shirtâ
âYouâre not working hard enoughâ
âDisgraceful attitudeâŚno passionâ
So the above Iâm starting to hear at games and Iâm reading similar comments on here and it generally targets players of a typical ilkâŚyounger, creative players who are generally less experienced and rely more heavily on confidence to produce moments and probably struggle for the tools to generate their own self confidence on the back of years of experience where theyâve learned to trust themselves and know what they can and canât do.
Players like Hutchinson and Maddox in particular have had bright promising careers at premier league clubs stall a little and in places they show glimpses of class that show they can still have careers but they struggle with consistency and adapting to the hurly burly league 2 that they now need to fight their way out of when it does little in style to allow them to show their best qualities.