Many modern day footballers and athletes suffer from perfectionist tendencies, where they often find it difficult to ‘let go’ of certain incidents that have either plagued them or affected them deeply.
To this day, David Seaman is still being relentlessly asked about Ronaldinho’s wonder goal which he conceded at the 2002 World Cup quarter-finals, while Steven Gerrard’s missed penalty four years later still haunts him.
Arsenal’s Mesut Ozil seemed to be struggling with his missed penalty against Bayern Munich two weeks ago, where he was seen “zoning out” and putting his hands on his head ten minutes after the incident. The philosopher that is Arsene Wenger himself has explained how it affected Ozil.
“I think it affected him mentally too much, the penalty he missed against Bayern. It was not only physical, it was mental. He had the feeling he let the team down at a very important moment of the game, that affected his performance very much.”
“Psychologically sometimes the wound is like a physical one. You can talk and talk and talk, but it takes time. You just have to leave it to time. I think he is over it. He has a good opportunity to show on Tuesday night (return leg) how good he is.” – Wenger
It demonstrates professionalism when a player acknowledges his mistake, but it’s equally encouraging to have a coach who isn’t too harsh on you and helps you to move on. This also creates a great rapport and helps the player achieve a more positive mindset before the next match.
Jose Mourinho has been forced to eat humble pie on Saturday, after Samuel Eto’o basically walked all over him for the leaked comments on the striker being ‘old’. Eto’o responded by mimicking an old man after scoring in Chelsea’s 4-0 victory over Tottenham.
So the scoreboard right now basically reads Mourinho 0 Eto’o 1, although you could also call it a truce after the Portuguese coach said “I think now he is 33” (in response to previous queries that he might be 35)
“It was fantastic. We knew it, because he was preparing something. I think he’s amazing. The way he copes with the situation in the last couple. And today I told him before the game: ‘You are going to score for sure.” – Mourinho
As usual, a couple of social memes have crept up over the web.
