“In My Head Son!"

A look at how psychology both helps and hinders the performance of professional footballers.

There are many different factors that go into the makeup of a footballer, technical ability, pace, strength are some obvious attributes that we can all see but what about the psychology of the person and their mental state before, during and after the game? 

We have heard players talk about getting in “the zone” before a match be it a calm state in which they can organize their thoughts away from the rest of the team or the tub-thumping battle cry of an adrenaline fuelled captain in dressing room. 

Manchester United’s Wayne Rooney cites visualisation techniques the night before a game to put himself in a positive frame of mind “I always like to picture the game the night before, it’s something I’ve always done, since I was a young boy” he continues by saying “I’ll ask the kit man what kit we are wearing so I can visualise it”. 

Psychology can play a huge part in footballer’s preparation and overcoming various obstacles they may face throughout the season. Here, I will focus on different methods players use to gain the edge over an opponent.

For a long time it seemed football was content to resist the idea of sport psychologists despite the fact that “psyching out” your opponent with a heavy tackle or some muttered obscenities in the ear is a form a psychological warfare on the field of play and had been happening for decades. 

Leading Sports Psychologist Andy Barton says that the hard men of the 60’s & 70’s, who would revel in the art of terrorising opponents can “sense weakness in certain people, usually subconsciously, that person will then start projecting a future of things going wrong” he continues by saying “you mentally rehearse something that you don’t want to happen, you become their prey” and then that’s it, they’ve got you, they’ve got inside your head and have won the psychological war. 

Chelsea legend Ron “Chopper” Harris (pictured) explains the benefits of mental one-upmanship “I used to know if a player was a bit milky, then it was 1-0 to me every time” Harris knew the effect that his reputation had on the player he was facing before a ball had even been kicked.

The “effect” the Harris had on opposing players was of course down to one thing, intimidation. A study by Collins (2009) entitled “Violence: A microbiological study” explains intimidation in it’s more primal state, threatening behaviour is described as a competitive urge for interrelational dominance that is usually seen in animals. 

Behavioural theorists see threatening behaviour in certain people towards others as a response to feeling threatened themselves. In the context of a football match the threat is often quite obvious, it will come in the form of a tricky winger, potent centre forward or midfield magician who needs to stopped. 

Intimidation isn’t the only way players are “psyched out” of a game however, sometimes they can do it to themselves. The one word that is sure to strike fear into the heart of many a football fan  is “penalties”.

The ninety minutes is up and we’ve sat nervously through extra time then the referee blows the whistle and that’s it, five players up against the keeper, and all they have to do his kick the ball from twelve yards, unopposed and you progress into the next round, simple right? well, no as it happens, a little thing called anxiety gets in the way and causes world class professional footballers to worry, angst or “bottle it” to use terrace lingo. 

When this happens players forget all their years of training and naturally given talent. According to the Yerkes-Dobson Law (1908) cites that a certain level of arousal is important when trying perform certain tasks such as an exam or sporting event, however when the anxiety or levels of arousal go above the optimum level, then performance will suffer. 

Test anxiety refers to the apprehension felt by students who fear failing an exam.Students who fail exams experience many different emotional states such as, lack of self-worth, fear of embarrassment, fear of alienation and a lack of self-control, the fear comes from the thought of negative evaluation from family, friends or teachers.

 It is this fear of negative evaluation that affects footballers during moments of high pressure, such as a penalty kick, what will my team mates think? How will the media react? Are just a couple of examples of what will be going through the minds of players during the long walk from the halfway line. 

Players who have missed important penalties experience severe emotional trauma, Roberto Baggio was Italy’s pony tailed inspiration during World Cup USA ’94 but says that his penalty miss in the final still affects him to this day “it affected me for years. It is the worst moment of my career. I still dream about it. If I could erase a moment, it would be that one”.

Psychology can be used to good effect when a player is suffering from poor form but the road to success can be a long one. In April, 1997 Liverpool and Manchester United were locked in a typically intense match at Anfield.

United are on course to win the Premier league title for a second successive year and the trip to near but not so dear rivals Liverpool is the main stumbling block in claiming the crown. 

In the forty second minute of the game a corner is whipped in from the left hand side of the pitch in front of the Kop End and Goalkeeper David James flies through the air to punch the ball clear only to be comfortably beaten to the ball by United centre back Gary Pallister.

Mid-way through the second half with the score standing at 2-1 to United, full back Gary Neville swings a cross in from the right hand side. James again comes to claim the ball but is beaten in the air by United forward Andy Cole and United go 3-1 up and effectively ends the game (and title race) as a contest resulting in a damning summation of James’s season by commentator Martin Tyler “David James, another catastrophe!”.

That season was disappointing for James as various mistakes cost Liverpool points and ultimately prizes at the business end of the season and the blame was somewhat harshly levelled at the ‘keeper. 

But James did try to eliminate these mistakes through a combination of training harder and preparing mentally for games, he says that he asked for a sports psychologist whilst at Liverpool “I requested a sports psychologist after a bad run but it was frowned upon to say the least” he revealed. 

However, James was able to have a two hour conversation with a sports psychologist who helped “sort his head out” and helped him to stop obsessing over incidents that had happened during a match.

“After a match we’d won 3-1 everyone was saying well done, I couldn’t get over the fact I’d let a goal in” he said” I’d come off fields where we’d won 1-0, I’d done alright but couldn’t stop obsessing over the fact I’d miss placed a couple of kicks” he added.


Wesckcke & Randolph (1984) explains that creative visualisation is the underlying principle of positive thinking, and is often used by athletes to enhance performance.

Similar to Rooney, James has incorporated pre-match visualisation techniques into his warm up, mentally imagining different scenarios so that he can handle the pressure in a relaxed manner because he has been there before and visualised himself performing well.

In 2008, when commenting on how these techniques have improved his game he said “The performances over the past 8 years are an improvement over the first 8 to10 years and that’s a good enough reflection”.

More and more professional clubs are embracing sports psychologists and the affect they and their methods can have on their players from taking a penalty to recovering from injury or poor form. The psychological approach to treating players isn’t something that should be viewed with scepticism or fear; it doesn’t show weakness to ask for help if it means improving the individual and ultimately the team.