MARTIN KEOWN recalls how speaking to a sports psychologist turned Arsenal into winners
Manchester United were humiliated in a 7-0 loss to Liverpool on Sunday, their biggest defeat since 1931.
It came after some terrific form from the Red Devils that saw them win their first trophy in six years and begin to challenge for the top two in the Premier League.
Any hope of a title challenge now appears to be on hold, but United fans are hoping their team can bounce back as quickly as possible as they continue to battle it out in the FA Cup and Europa League.
After the loss, Erik ten Hag wants his players to spend more time with his sports psychologist Rainier Koers.
Here Sportsmail talks to two of our former pros to find out if they’ve ever gone to a ‘psychiatrist’.
Manchester United players are expected to spend more time with a sports psychologist after their 7-0 loss to Liverpool.
Sportsmail’s Martin Keown and Chris Sutton have opened up about their background in sports psychology.
MARTIN KEOWN
The power of psychology in football is enormous. Arsenal finished second behind Manchester United in three consecutive seasons: 1998-99, 1999-2000 and 2000-01. First by one point, then by 18 points, then by 10 points.
We were also runners-up in two major finals: against Galatasaray in the UEFA Cup and against Liverpool in the FA Cup. Those were three years of bitter disappointment and heavy psychological blows, as we had won the Premier League-FA Cup double as a group before this term.
Arsene Wenger identified that we needed help refocusing our minds and one day a sports psychologist named Dave Elliott came in and said, ‘You guys are second best.’ We had World Cup winners scattered around the locker room who weren’t too happy with those blunt comments. Who does this guy think he is? But we thought, ‘Okay, we’ll listen to it.
Then he had us talk about how we could be winners again. We agreed that we had to improve. It turned into a group discussion. The overwhelming agreement was that we had to get back to boiling point. I would like to emphasize that we already had an amazing manager with outstanding staff members and a talented group of players.
But the mental support is the icing on the cake.
Sports psychologist Dave Elliott helped make Arsenal winners with Arsene Wenger
If you can gain the mental strength to accompany those special people and players, then anything is possible. We found that extra 10 per cent and won our second Premier League-FA Cup double in 2001-02. Then the FA Cup in 2002-03. Then the Premier League as Invincibles in 2003-04.
We face our problems, we address our problems, and we turn around. We had this tremendous team spirit. Perhaps in those days there was a stigma attached to psychologists on the football field. But I think they can help a team rediscover its goals.
CHRIS SUTTON
I never had a proper psychologist. It would take a brave soul to wander the halls of my mind! Instead, that was left up to the manager.
He took on the psychology side as part of his role.
If Kenny Dalglish wanted me in a particular mood at Blackburn, he talked to me.
The same was true for Mike Walker at Norwich, Martin O’Neill at Celtic and Gianluca Vialli at Chelsea. God bless his soul, Vialli was so good to me.
I’ve lost count of how many talks I had with Vialli in 1999-2000 when he hugged me to ease my conscience and make me feel like I wasn’t letting him down, even though I knew I was. But the game has grown since I kicked a ball.
Now all Premier League clubs have coaching teams who work for the coach, and it makes sense to appoint someone from this support network to focus on the minds of the players.
In December, Manchester United manager Erik ten Hag brought in Rainier Koers. He is someone whose website says that he “guides people who get stuck in their lives because of major events.” In footballing terms, losing 7-0 to Liverpool could count as ‘major’.
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Erik ten Hag hopes his players can recover quickly as they continue to battle in the FA Cup and Europa League.
I’m sure the United players have been talking about that defeat to the death ever since, with Ten Hag, with Koers, among them.
Deep down, Bruno Fernandes and company will know what went wrong at Anfield, how they let themselves down, how this result will be rubbed in their faces for years to come, how it will be a stain on their names, as Oliver Holt wrote. in his Daily Mail column on Monday.
They don’t need a psychologist to tell them all that. But now that it’s happened, it’s about helping them move on to the next game.
People were singing United’s praises before this 7-0 defeat and after that annihilation at Anfield, ten Hag will have been desperate to remind his players why.