“99% of a striker’s life is frustration” Gary Lineker.
If a player wants to score a goal, they are likely going to miss chances before and after the attempt. The question is, how can they build momentum in their performance despite the frustration of missing chances?
When we are faced with frustration it is important to keep a rationale perspective. This rationale perspective means focusing on doing the things that will create chances. “Every game I have ever played there is 10, 20, times when I feel I am in a good position, but the ball doesn’t come but you have to keep going into those positions and eventually if one comes you get a chance to score” (Gary Lineker). The thing about these chances is if it takes 10 runs to create a chance it will likely take a similar number of shots to score. Keeping a rational perspective to scoring goals helps reduce the sense of pressure that comes with missing a chance.
When a player is missing chances they often speak about wanting to feel confident. The easiest way to improve confidence is for a player to go and play at a lower level. If you ask a player why don’t they want to do that, they will always say because they want to be challenged. If we are challenging ourselves by the level we are playing at then is confidence really what we need? Perhaps it is the courage to go after our intentions despite the uncertainty of whether we will achieve our goals. We have to ensure we are chasing the right thing when we are pursuing our goals.
The third thing to consider is how is a player reviewing their performance? Often times players can jump to “that was good, that was bad”. However when they are on the pitch they don’t intentionally go out to do something they see as “bad”. Behind every action on the pitch there is an intention in the moment. A more functional way of reviewing performance is to ask what was effective? What was ineffective? Is there anything I can continue? What are one or two things I can change? And then what is my plan of action for the upcoming training week?
“To score a lot of goals you have to have a tremendous desire to score goals” (Gary Lineker)
