Mind over Matters

[sphericalfox]

Interesting article from Oliver Kay at the Times.

 

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ranieri-must-get-players-heads-straight-wj02px7b3?shareToken=913cde7043436976da6523d8e3596987

 

Claudio Ranieri has always been suspicious of sports psychologists. When he was at Monaco four seasons ago, suspicion turned to downright disdain. He and his staff were talking about the discrepancy between the team’s excellent away form and their troubles at home when the resident psychologist suggested there was an “elephant” in the dressing room at the Stade Louis II.

 

To Ranieri — surprisingly, perhaps, for a man whose love of a lion metaphor is unrivalled — the figurative notion of an elephant in the room was a nonsense, regardless of the challenges particular to Monaco, where a sparse stadium, complete with running track, was rarely more than one third full, and the atmosphere was subdued even on a good day. Where the psychologist felt the issue was mental, Ranieri was sure it was all a question of tactics; in away matches Monaco could play to their strengths, on the counter-attack, whereas at home they were confronted with packed defences, ten men behind the ball, and had little room for manoeuvre. They ended up gaining promotion to Ligue 1, albeit winning just nine of their 19 home matches. “Where is the elephant now?” he asked the psychologist.

 

Back in August, when asked how he intended to prepare Leicester City mentally for defending a Premier League title that had been beyond their wildest dreams, Ranieri dismissed the suggestion that the club’s resident psychologist might have his work cut out this season. “When you are young, maybe you need somebody who can help you, but now you are a man,” the Leicester manager said. “In life, you need to be strong. Psychologists? No"

 

That seemed quite surprising at the time because a look at Leicester’s official website confirmed that they were employing a part-time psychologist, Ken Way, who had been brought to the club by Nigel Pearson and who, according to his profile, worked with the first team and the young players “on aspects like confidence, focus, belief, concentration, mental toughness and resilience”.

 

Well, it transpires that Way was informed in September that his services were no longer required at Leicester. He left quietly, his departure unheralded and, until now, unnoticed, even if, given Ranieri’s views on the value of sports psychologists, it was perhaps not the greatest shock.

 

The point here is not to suggest that Way was the power behind the throne last season or that his departure should be mentioned alongside that of N’Golo Kanté to Chelsea when seeking to explain the transformation of Leicester from relegation scrappers to champions and back again. In-house psychologists and psychiatrists go in and out of fashion in professional sport and right now they are more out than in. Even last April, as Leicester closed in on that most extraordinary title triumph, Way told The Times he was only a “very small cog in a very well oiled machine”. “I was actually busier this time last season,” he added, in reference to the fight for survival under Pearson.

 

That would make sense. In one of the most astounding performances in any team sport, Leicester developed a momentum last season that felt unstoppable. If you were to look for a case study of the power of a team dynamic — a band of brothers coming together to be so much more than the sum of their parts, drawing so much strength from each other, striving towards a prize that had gone from being an impossible dream to something real and attainable — you would do well to find a more inspirational than the example of Wes Morgan, Robert Huth, Christian Fuchs, Danny Drinkwater, Riyad Mahrez, Jamie Vardy, Kanté et al last season. “It felt like, ‘Come what may, we are going to win this game,’ ” Fuchs said in these pages recently.

 

The overwhelming feeling about Leicester last season was that they had somehow become an unstoppable force. Ranieri was praised for his work on the training pitch but also for the way he recognised that momentum for what it was. It was as though they were riding on the crest of a wave. Ask anyone around the King Power Stadium for specific examples of what Ranieri changed after taking over from Pearson and they will tell you that, unusually for an Italian coach, he took what was almost a laissez-faire approach as Leicester’s players found a sense of purpose and destiny that drove them to unimagined heights.

 

The situation now is the precise opposite. If there was an unexplained force driving them towards their goal last season, right now there is another force dragging them down. Call it gravity. Call it the inevitability of a bubble bursting. Call it what you like, but the upshot of it is that Leicester — five wins in 23 Premier League matches this season, no goals in their past four league matches — are in serious danger of joining Manchester City’s class of 1937-38, the only previous champions of England to have been relegated the next season. If you were looking for a second case study, this time about what can happen when a team loses the drive, the belief and the momentum that took them to the peak of their ambitions, then look no further.

 

One psychologist who has worked with Premier League clubs, asks whether Leicester’s players still have “the drive, passion and enthusiasm that took them to the top of the mountain”. It sounds like a rhetorical question. Vardy, for example, has spent his entire career as an underdog until now. The title triumph represented a pinnacle that he had strived for, often in bleak circumstances, while toiling all the way from Stocksbridge Park Steels via Halifax Town and Fleetwood Town. His motivations always seemed obvious. Now, at 30, with the Premier League winner’s medal, the Footballer of the Year trophy, the England caps, the contract worth more than £100,000 week, the Bentley in the drive, the commercial deals, is motivation as easy to find as it was last season? The same goes for Drinkwater, Mahrez and others who are earning sums that they could barely have contemplated a year or two ago.

 

It is not just about motivation, though. It is about confidence. In his interview with The Times last year, Way mentioned Vardy as a player who had “suffered a little in terms of belief” in his first Premier League campaign, in 2014-15, scoring only one goal before mid-March, but then exploded into form, as did the team, in a heroic late bid to avoid relegation. On the face of it, a record of five goals in 20 league appearances this season looks like an almighty comedown from last term’s total of 24 in 36. What is much worse is that he has scored in just one of his past 22 Premier League matches. That he scored a hat-trick on that occasion, against Manchester City in December, only reinforces the point about confidence.

 

You could make a strong case that Vardy and Leicester have simply regressed to the mean this season, their title defence undermined further by the Champions League, by the painful loss of Kanté and by other teams’ familiarity with their playing style. They are a mess, though. Physically, they look sluggish where previously they appeared possessed by an unrivalled zeal. Mentally, they look shot to pieces, as if unable to comprehend what has happened to them. Put those two things together and a mediocre Premier League squad — or it seemed as last season began — looks worse than that.

 

Ranieri needs to find answers. The most important ones are not about trying to find a way to solve the different tactical conundrums that opponents are setting when lining up against the champions. Their most serious problems are in the mind. They were a psychological phenomenon last season and they are a very different kind of psychological phenomenon now. Even yesterday, though, Ranieri seemed not to recognise that, saying that “people who are used to fighting cannot lose [their] mentality”. That fighting spirit is just not there this season, or at least has only been in evidence very occasionally. Ranieri needs to acknowledge and take charge of the elephant in the room before it is too late.

[Cropwellfox]

Another very poor decision alongside the various others posted elsewhere. Today more than ever fine margins make the difference, mental conditioning hugely important in top level sport. We've got proven defenders who can't defend, a centre forward who seems to have simply forgotten how to score and this since the club dispensed with someone employed to work on the mental game of the players. Not for a minute would I suggest this is the reason why our players suddenly look lost, without direction or half the players they were last year, but if this is true it's a factor amongst many, and an awfully ignorant choice to get rid of this type of backroom support from our manager. 

[davieG]

Good read, I've never thought the team were not trying their best but subconsciously / mentally they are just not there. This is why it's nothing to do with tactics/formations, although constant changes is not helping but all about confidence and belief this is why the actual football they're playing, the over hit passes, the nervy get rid of the ball, the head tennis shows that they'd rather be somewhere else.

[sphericalfox]

I think the reinstatement of a sports psych needs doing yesterday. This needs doing on a higher priority to tweaking tactics, players, or formations. If the players don't believe in these changes, and are stuck in a collective and individual negative mire, this needs to be addressed.

[FrankieADZ]

very good read that, clearly CR is changing everything that got us success from last season and he wonders why we are doing rubbish this

[TheUltimateWinner]

Psychology in sports is one of the most important aspects in the game.

 

A lot of biographies of footballers can support this claim and I'm sure any spots psych students will be pulling their hair out at that article. 

 

What a stupid decision, and an even more stupid decision that no one blocked this move.

[Far Post Gerry]

I was reading this this morning. What struck me most was the description of Ranieri's "laissez-faire" management last season (ie not doing much and just letting the players get on with it). That's all very well when you're winning, but it doesn't give you confidence he can turn around a losing streak - especially when he's ditched the only man who might be able to change the players' mental state. Worrying to say the least.

[Gerard]

I'm all for any marginal gain. In fact at the very worst a sports psychologist will be ineffective and never detrimental I would have thought.

 

It smacks of Ranieri being a dinosaur just like Harry Redknapp saying all this data analysts of stats is a load of old rubbish. I'd bet when nutritionists first came into the game the old school were quick to declare that was nonsense as well.

 

If I was a manager I'd want anything incorporated that would give my players the slightest of improvements. 

[Mike Oxlong]

Surely psychological support should be available but not mandatory. Whatever your personal scepticism, if one of your players tells you that it helps them then why would you not want them to continue getting that help?  And all the more reason to reinstate it when you are at a loss to explain the reason for such a radical downturn in performance.

[davieG]

Of course they're all well paid enough to get their own psychologist.

[sdb]

I preferred reading the papers after La Manga. We're getting an absolute hammering today. And probably tomorrow...

[sphericalfox]

1 minute ago, davieG said:

Of course they're all well paid enough to get their own psychologist.

True, but we need them individually to address whatever issues they need managing, and then collectively. It won't help if one or two are getting help, and they watch others dragging their unmotivated heels around the pitch and unconvincingly making dreadful passes and missing games with clouds over their heads.

[FoxyPalace.com]

It is snowballing now.

 

This will only go one way.

 

I expect him gone after Manchester mauling.

 

 

 

 

[davieG]

4 minutes ago, sphericalfox said:

True, but we need them individually to address whatever issues they need managing, and then collectively. It won't help if one or two are getting help, and they watch others dragging their unmotivated heels around the pitch and unconvincingly making dreadful passes and missing games with clouds over their heads.

Unless it's compulsory, which I doubt would be the case then there's no guarantee that a club psychologist would be able to achieve that either.

[sphericalfox]

1 minute ago, sdb said:

I preferred reading the papers after La Manga. We're getting an absolute hammering today. And probably tomorrow...

The media smell blood, and love a club/manager in trouble. Headlines, sales, and clicks = revenue. Blowing things out of proportion is inevitable if they can push an agenda. 

 

Not saying there's no problems behind the scenes, and not worth reporting, but turning the ratchet as things go on is part of the media grinder. We've been here before.

[foxinsocks]

Psychology is the key.... i bekieve they are trying hard and are desperate... but this is translated into a concentration to avoid mistakes.... so they are routed to their positions.. so no rapid pressing.  

 

I believe this is a collective choke situation.  To avoid mistakes they are over concentrating on doing things they automated years ago.  

Tactically we need to go back to basics and so they play what they know.  Mentally they need to be reassured thay this will work and they can play with fluidity and verve without fear.  Bring in the shrink asap

[sphericalfox]

2 minutes ago, davieG said:

Unless it's compulsory, which I doubt would be the case then there's no guarantee that a club psychologist would be able to achieve that either.

Depends on how deep the rabbit hole goes. If it's beyond repair sure. But I don't think even with what's been reported that it is.

[The Prince]

Totally agree with foxinsocks. Their current mentality is one of not making mistakes rather than risk and reward. When players are asked to be braver, it is not so much about throwing themselves in front of shots, etc (although this is obviously important.) It is more about a player being prepared to receive the ball with a man up his backside or passing it ten yards through a crowded midfield.

 

Andy (percentages) King is a classic example. He is neat, tidy, a good reader of the game (and what it's worth, I like him as a squad player) but when was the last time he rolled is marker and carried the play ten or twenty yards up field? He is cautious beyond belief. I played in midfield at a decent standard and always feel that if I had contributed the same amount as King usually does, I would come off the field just a little disappointed in myself. 

 

 

It can be summed up with a golfing analogy. When standing on a tee with driver in hand, the ability to see the wide open fairway rather than out of bounds markers all the way down the right hand side or the water hazard makes such a difference. The best golfers can actually aim down the right hand side of the fairway and draw the ball away from trouble but it doesn't half take some balls. 

 

May be its time for city to take risk in order to score a goal. I can't help think that this caution comes from Ranieri. 

 

[Thracian]

Getting rid of a psychologist might be okay for a manager if he's brilliant at doing the job himself but given the success we'd been having it seems reckless to say the least.

 

I'm surprised any manager would wish to change anything much having won the title, not even the proverbial tea lady.

 

To take the aspects mentioned: focus, belief, concentration,  resilience and mental toughness, I'd say every one was vital and if there's someone around with the ways and personality to improve those aspects you'd have an important ally.

 

Considering those qualities now, and how our team might score in an after-match assessment I'd say pretty poorly both individually and collectively. And how that verdict would contrast with the title season or the second half of our Premiership "survival" season.

 

It was one of the things I liked about Pearson - the way he seemed open to the idea of scientific help towards improving.  

 

I've mentioned many times that, to me, success might well be about getting key basics right in the first place but lots of people manage that. To set yourself apart you need to attend to all sorts of tiny details.

 

For instance inventing and rehearsing free-kicks til the idea becomes reliable. Or working on a player's weaker foot until he doesn't even notice which foot he uses.

 

Winning football is about so many factors and the more boxes you tick the more likely it's your players will prevail. 

 

Inspiration for a manager can come from all sorts of sources but any manager daft enough to believe he's got some golden/irrepressible formula is blinding himself with arrogance.

 

Even a common "gee up"  will need to be delivered in different ways to save it becoming stale and losing its effect.

 

And to this end you never stop listening, looking and learning whatever clever ideas might be out there.

 

It might just  be a fabulously amusing phrase that someone uses to make a point. Yet it could become the gem of a remark that makes a difference for one of your players on matchday.

 

Every team does their training sessions and looks at videos of their opponents.

 

But take a player quietly to one side and tell him "I want you to shoot. I don't care if you hit the corner flags or the top row of The Kop, it's what you're brilliant at and I don't want you ever doubting yourself," and that guy won't ever know fear in a shooting position. He'll reward you time and again. 

 

Do Leicester's players look like they'd die for the manager? Cos they should. .                 

[cruzFOX]

One of the best articles and forumn threads I've read on here in a long time.  I've been guilty myself of muddying the already dark waters of depression that we're in. However a fresh perspective is always healthy to see and maybe psychology does have an important part to play in the success or failure of our beloved foxes.  

The collective evidence is now clearly pointing to the club having made too many changes and bad decisions starting with a mis managed pre-season, losing a key cog like Kante' to core team influencers like walshy and our psychologist.

question is what part did Ranieri have to play in all the changes.  If it was out of his hands than maybe he deserves some sympathy having been forced to now try new systems/players and tactics. If he however was the mastermind to the disharmony than he has to get the boot unless he can repair the damage and fast.  No one is bigger than the club including the manager. Has to live and die by his decisions.

[dynamark]

Free kicks/corners we should have a number of well practised scenarios set moves .Its the one time on the pitch when the ball is stationary and the opposition does not know what will be incoming.Seem to lack ideas here this season.

[HighPeakFox]

Oh dear. What an absolutely calamitous error he made.

[KFS]

Yet again another decision made without preempting obvious consequences, that even most fans were warning about in the Summer.

 

 

[Struwwelpeter60]

2 hours ago, HighPeakFox said:

Oh dear. What an absolutely calamitous error he made.

Ken Way was working, part-time, for LCFC since 2011.

What was he doing, while we were sitting at the bottom of the table

for more than 20 weeks?

Was he on strike, or what?

 

Jamie Vardy scored in that season only 1 goal in the first 29 games.

1 in 29 games!!!

Again, where was Mr Way?  Couldn't he help Vardy to be a little more

effective?

 

Nobody here knows, what that guy was really doing at LCFC.

Nobody here knows, how many players  were consulting

him. 

But everybody seems to know, that his departure was bad for the team.

And that, of course, Ranieri is to blame for it, although he can neither

hire, nor fire anyone.

Bizarre!!

[Chester Dontlie]

I've been thinking along the lines of "what do they pay team psychologist for" since around December watching the likes of Albrighton and Drinky hanging their heads down whenever we were on the receiving end. I didn't know we have none. 

 

At this point the players and CR are long overdue for their group therapy session...

 

14 hours ago, sphericalfox said:

“on aspects like confidence, focus, belief, concentration, mental toughness and resilience”.

That sounds like the list of pizza ingredients we've been missing whole season. Even a half of them could do now!