Dealing with Nerves We've all experienced it. The big game, the decisive fixture when your season hangs in the balance, the Cup final match that you deserve to win because you've obliterated the opposition in all the previous rounds. [...]

There is often a great divide between performance on the training pitch and performance in the pressure cooker that is match day. The difference in feeling is often massive. Why? The way I describe it is like this. Picture a [...]

Football Psychology Technique 1: Stop Listening to Yourself, Start Talking to Yourself I can't remember where I first heard the statement "stop listening to yourself, start talking to yourself", but it's true. Boy is it true. As we discussed [...]

It is impossible to be confident on match day if you have no self-belief. It is possible to be confident on match day some of the time if you have some self-belief. But if you ooze self-belief; if self-belief is [...]

Confidence Is Elusive One match you play with confidence and the next you don't. Do you suffer from this problem, just as countless millions of footballers around the world do? It's not as if the leading professionals on the [...]

I'd like you to use your imagination. Take the role of a central defender and picture this: Your coach shouts out to your team "Come on lads, forget it and get back into this." But you can't help feel downbeat. [...]