Attitude - Bale and Rose
A player can bring different attitudes to training or matches.
1. Is he an optimist or pessimist, introvert or extrovert, fighter or victim?
That will shape how he sees the world and that affects what he does.
Danny "It's not fair" Rose has the hallmarks of a pessimist victim.
Pierre-Emile Højbjerg as an optimistic fighter.
2. Who are the important people who influence them?
Agents, parents, friends, coaches, media personnel?
Whoever they are will influence a players attitude so as a manager or head coach it is important to know.
3. The training and playing environment affects a player.
You are going to have a better outlook if you live in a nice house in a nice neighbourhood rather than a slum in a drug and gun area.
Tottenham have provided the training environment and stadium, have a top manager, yet things have not clicked into place. Why not?
Why are the players, who have been given everything, not even playing as well as they can?
Is it a problem with certain players?
Which ones and why?
Is it an attitude problem, a physical problem or a technical problem?
Is it an external problem, are they being influenced by others and are bringing a negative attitude or are not totally committed?
Are they simply not applying their coaching to the game?
Has adulation or wealth come to them too easily?
Have they received any attitude training, development?
It is an area where a player are left to their own devices, why?
Ed Smith is a former Kent and England cricket player, now chief national selector and an author.
“Super-talented young sportsmen, never having needed resilience thus far, often lack the psychological capacity to develop it when life gets tough in the big leagues.”Ed Smith
We see this in football all the time, psychologically underdeveloped players.
It is the untapped element in the sport.
A player or a team attitude is revealed when there is a challenge ahead of them.
How do they approach it, shirk away, go into their shell or meet it head on?
Does it drive them to perform better (a positive mental attitude) or are they anxious, making mistakes (stems from a negative attitude)?
What goes through a players head?
Well, they will have to answer some questions.
1. How I faced this challenge before?
2. Was I successful handling it?
3. Am I up for the challenge?
4. Does the chance to prove myself excite me?
The right attitude will drive performance.
The wrong attitude, the attitude with doubts, the negative uncertain attitude will result in failure.
Looking at our start to the season raises questions.
Are the players, or some of them, upset with José Mourinho or some of his coaching staff?
A coach needs to build a positive vision and everything he does, his body language and his feedback all affects that.
When you add negativity, it tears down a positive vision so how you deliver negative feedback is important, preferably in a positive way with a solution or a challenge.
But players have to take responsibility for their attitude and mental training.
Be it an individual or a team, their attitude stems from how they perceive a situation.
Bill Beswick is a sports psychologist who has worked with Sir Alex Ferguson at Manchester United, England U-18 and U-21 sides and was assistant manager at Middlesbrough.
He has 10 key messages to develop a positive mental attitude.
- I believe in myself
- My self-talk will always be positive
- I will compete every day
- I will not surrender
- i will not turn on myself during tough times
- I can't control my surrounding but I can control my response
- I will use setbacks as learning opportunities
- I will focus on my strengths and contain my weaknesses
- I understand my role is to help my teammates win
- I will not give my second best
The correct response to a situation, a challenge, is to fight, not flee.
Look at two players, Danny Rose and Gareth Bale.
Danny Rose went down the negative route.
When in positive mode and trying to improve he was an excellent left-back, but something went wrong,something changed his mentality to that of a victim.
In those circumstances it is impossible to give your best or improve.
He thinks he should be playing for big clubs but he doesn't have the mentality for it, an it's not fair attitude shows that.
No big club wants him and no smaller club wants to pay his wages thus he is rather stuck and the only way out will be to take a wage cut, how is he going to react to that?
Gareth Bale was one of the best three players in the world and went to Real Madrid, the very thing that was driving him on, won a stack of trophies, was important in winning them but then it all turned sour.
Zinedine Zidane decided that Bale had lost the drive to continue to improve and things have gone downhill from there.
A path out of that is to return to a happy place.
When Bale heard that Tottenham wanted him back this summer he told Real Madrid that was the only place he wanted to go.
We hope, that by returning to a happy place, he starts enjoying his football again and thus gets that drive back to improve and push himself.
That's the big question for these two, how will they react to moves.
At new clubs will Bale and Rose fight or flee?
Mourinho recently said in a press conference when talking about a striker, he has to convince me why he wants to come and fight for a place, I don't have to convince him.
The reason is because he wants a positive mental attitude in the player, he wants a player who is inspired by a challenge, not overawed by it.
He doesn't want a player who is frightened of the challenge and has to be convinced to take it on.
Your attitude determines your results.
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