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MEN: Manchester United to add sports psychologist to Ralf Rangnick's coaching staff
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Brain training 
He might need a psychologist himself when he’s done with this lot.
Especially Phil Jones...
Surprised we don't have one on the books already, or do we?
Is this the first time that United have a Sports Psychologist.
If so, I am stunned. As soon clever person previously said. The most important part of a human being is the 4inches between their ears, or 6inches in the case of Maguire.
Almost every elite sports person nowadays uses a Sports Psychologist.
If anyone is interested, check out how Steve Peters has changed the way Ronnie O'Sullivan thinks.
We had/have one for the academy. I remember putting their contact details into a spreadsheet for a video thing I did at work (didn't contact them in the end)
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No - Fergie certainly used 'em.
Not sure if any of them were permanent staff members - but Fergie definitely employed sports psychologists, fairly early on too if I remember correctly.
We did but he had to go full time one-on-one with Phil Jones.
Brutal
We have. I remember in the Ronaldo documentary one being interviewed and how he helped him develop. Can’t remember his name.
I get the feeling a lot of them work with individuals more than teams. I know for example that there's a huge amount of sports psychologists currently working in British athletics
Hope this specialist will be slightly more effective than the set piece specialist we hired at some point.
I'm sure this guy I mentioned said he had an office in Carrington though I may have imagined that.
we apparently hired him from Chelsea(?) at the start of the season and we’ve been outright atrocious this season defensively on themI'm not really sure he'll get us scoring from corners, though.
Fergie used Steve Peters for a couple of years, about 20 years ago.
No wonder that he was so successful.
Pleased to hear that.
Appreciate that.
He is a top man at his job and has been used by Team Sky to great effect.
Steve Peters was working with Liverpool as well if I remember it correclty.
I have read some of his books - its amazing stuff
Steve Peters is who I was thinking of having just googled his face
I wouldn't find it that surprising. People make out like United must be at the pinnacle of technology, analysis and personnel but they seem as badly run as most large organisations. We didn't even make sure our players were fit enough for a while, never mind delving in to the way they think.
You talking about what’s between his ears?
Based on some of the stuff I’ve read about some players not being able to take press criticism for playing crap, I think it’s much needed.
SAF always ahead of the curve.
Going full Ted Lasso! Loving it!
Biggest surprise is we didn’t have one. I swear I saw an article under Ole about hiring one?
Think they hired an ex player to be the team psychologist. He is currently learning on the job.
Ralf mentioned it’s also for the coaches…McKenna and Carrick were booked in first, I guess Fletch can take his place.
I also recall even Moyes has a video analyst, to show Vidic how to defend properly. Mourinho has a tactical analyst analysing opposition weakness.
Ole has none, just a few pal to run and stretch along side the players. No wonder some players complaint to the press of our British Trainers.
You literally don't know this for fact, you won't be fully aware of his entire backroom team at all, youre just having a cheap dig for the sake of it, when the man's already gone and we've moved on.
We hired one of Chelsea's U23 assistant coaches as our first team set-piece coach, based on a strong recommendation from McKenna who was his college mate.
Well, if Ralf thinks so.
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That's who DWelbz is referring to mate.
A sports psychologist is absolutely crucial for this team as its clear that for so many players, the issue is mental preparedness rather than footballing skills. Rashford, Martial, Lingard, Maguire, Shaw to name a few. And the fact that we are unable to pick ourselves up after a poor result, bottle on crucial occasions, get visibly upset at social media criticism etc.
Edit: Forgot Pogba in the above list.. probably the guy who would benefit most from being in a consistent frame of mind.
Edit: Forgot Pogba in the above list.. probably the guy who would benefit most from being in a consistent frame of mind.
You're probably thinking of Eric Ramsay who has hired this summer as "Set Pieces and Individual Development Coach". That said United haven't had a full-time sport psychologist since 1999, and he only stayed for 2 years. We've of course had part-time and consultants over the year but not a full time for over 20 years. This is definitely a step in the right direction because most of the teams in the premier league have one, especially the biggest ones. Liverpool have for example had one 3 days a week since 2019 , City has also had one since 2019 and lastly Chelsea have had one for over 12 years. About time I think!
Acceptance and Commitment Therapy is apparently a useful tool for doing that and commonly used by Sports Psychology departments.
It basically describes a situation where a player makes a mistake and has to move on from it quickly instead of dwelling, which sounds like common sense really but I guess isn't always easy in the moment. They regularly suggest players following the ABC method.
A stands for Acknowledge, accepting the event has happened and taking responsibility to your teammates.
B stands for Breathe, focusing on our breathing turns our attention into ourselves and onto the present moment once more.
C stands for Control, specifically about making sure their next is something entirely within their own control.
I thought it was interesting last game when Ronaldo took the penalty because he shut his eyes and took a deep breath to compose himself. I wonder if that's something he picked up from somebody he's worked with?
One of Ole's huge plus points at the start of his reign was getting players like Shaw, Martial and Pogba out of their Mourinho funk and get them playing well. He did it with positivity and on that run of results up to and including Paris it definitely worked.
The problem is there's more to prepping players than just constant praise or being a good guy in the dressing room because it leads to complacency. Players knowing they're never gonna be called out by the manager or will never be benched creates a whole different type of monster to a player constantly thrown under the bus. Or saying that a certain player is performing really well in training or is a great lad but then never giving any minutes causes other issues too.
Having an impartial person to get players in the right mindset makes the most sense.
The problem is there's more to prepping players than just constant praise or being a good guy in the dressing room because it leads to complacency. Players knowing they're never gonna be called out by the manager or will never be benched creates a whole different type of monster to a player constantly thrown under the bus. Or saying that a certain player is performing really well in training or is a great lad but then never giving any minutes causes other issues too.
Having an impartial person to get players in the right mindset makes the most sense.
For University next year, I am taking a Sport Pyshcology paper. Sounds like an interesting field.