By Tony Attwood
- How the media are setting Arsenal up for a disaster?
- ManC v Arsenal: The referee and his percentage of home wins, and the sadness of losing a player
There is a screaming headline in the Telegraph today that reads “Finishing second is a failure – Arsenal would be the most criticised runners-up in history”
Of course, it is nonsense – coming second would a fabulous triumph for many teams in the Premier League – Tottenham, Crystal Palace, Chelsea, etc. etc. But the media use the story that Arsenal can fail because they know how much power they have.
It’s a phenomenon that psychologists have known and written about for decades, as with articles such as “Does what you know affect what you see?” and of course, the answer is yes. If players and fans “know” Arsenal are “bottlers” that will affect their reaction and affect the game.
The point is that the problem with the question, “Does what you know affect what you see?” is the word “know”. For much of the time, we “know” things are, when it comes down to it, just opinions. Over time, those opinions become perceived as facts when enough people hold those views, and thus become the standard way of seeing the world.
Of course, not many people will be reading the Journal of Experimental Psychology but I turned to this subject today because in a recent edition, Michael A. Cohen at MIT reported a scientific study showing that what we are told before an event affect they way we respond to an event. Translate that into football, and if all the media are telling opposition players, opposition fans, and referees that Arsenal are a boring side who win by bending the rules of football, and in fact cheating, that is how Arsenal will be seen by everyone, and even some refs will be affected.
Throw in the notion that Arsenal’s football style is tedious, boring, dirty, , unadventurous, and full of cheating, and then ultimately the Arsenal players will start to see themselves this way. And indeed, even a tiny change in attitude can affect their play. Of course, u if PGMO ever announced anything, they would say, “That’s not the case,” but there is no sign that they are even considering this sort of effect. If they were, surely the first thing they would do would be to ensure each ref only sees each club a maximum of twice in a season.
Now of course it is the job of the manager and everyone else within Arsenal to counter such negative impacts, but after each training session the players will see mass media attacks on the Arsenal team, the way they cheat, how dirty they are, how their fans are fed up with them, and above all how massively superior ManC is when compared with Arsenal.
Of course, we might say, “Arsenal players should have more self-belief,” but very, very few of us have ever experienced this type of attack or felt how much it can undermine one. But the fact is that a lot of psychological research shows that the “knowledge” that we pick up along the way can affect how we see ourselves, situations, and others.
Now of course, managers and their training staff know all this, but what they can’t fully overcome is the effect of the mass media, which are constantly on certain players’ backs.
Our brains take in both factual information and biased suggestions in equal measure and it affects our behaviour, and this is the game the media are playing all the time. If just one player is affected, the effect can be small. But if the whole team are reading that when Arsenal have success, it is only because they cheat, it can affect the players quite deeply.
Of course, clubs today are aware of this, and top clubs started employing psychologists in the 1980s. Although it was not widely publicised, it became mandatory for academies to have at least one psychologist working with the team from that time onwards. Indeed, AC Milan became known for being one of the early adopters of the profession within football, although it is reported in some places that as early as 1958, the Brazil national team had psychologists in their training camp to help the players cope with stress and the unprecedented media attention the team got.
Of course, the negative perception of psychology and psychologists in much of British society has resulted in some players and fans taking a negative view of the use of psychologists, but the wholesale attacks on particular players and teams in the media have made the use of psychologists much more widespread and more acceptable within football than was previously the case.
In the build-up to recent games, the evolution of the notion of Arsenal as a team that is at the very least “bending” the rules has been adopted by the media at large. This is not only changing refereeing attitudes towards Arsenal but it is probably ensuring that some top talents are thinking twice before coming to Arsenal, which is a great tragedy.
But as the headline here suggests, it is possible to see Arsenal pushing back against this campaign and seeing a real bonding in the team as it unifies not only against the opposition players but also against the media bias too.
On this subject, it is interesting that both the media and the fans of Sunderland are lauding the play and leadership of one Granit Xhaka. I have seen many articles suggesting he was the signing of the season. Yet at Arsenal he was a failure, “master of the dark arts” and was virtually hounded out of the club by media refs and fans. I liked him a lot but the media turned a massive percentage of people against him……..whilst he was an Arsenal player!
Thank you Tony for an excellent report regarding the anti Arsenal media and their psychological effects in the game.
Being a retired psychologist, I can confirm that you are correct that every team in the premier League has a contracted psychologist in their employment.
This is going to sound a bit nerdy to some and nonsense to others, but it is science and factual and it ties in to what Tony is discussing regarding the medias impact on players and even supporters.
Their is a scientific reason why home supporters give players more energy and why confidence also give players more energy.
I am going into nerd mode for a brief moment. With most Athletes the brain utilizes both Glucose and Oxygen (along with some hormones) as fuel for energy, the same fuel used my the muscles in the legs etc. (I won’t delve further by explaining Adenosine Triphosphate or Mitochondrial Oxidative Phosphorylation) as this may bore you even further.
Let’s just say that although the footballers brain weighs just 2% of total body weight it needs a massive amount of constant energy demands with it consuming at least 20% of total body energy for cellular function.
Right, that’s the science nerdy facts. How this effects footballers match fitness is explained below. It also explains that maybe bad publicity can effect the fitness of players worried about their future (Myles. White), players worried about bad decisions, bad passing, basic confidence or mental tiredness effecting concentration levels (Zubimendi). Which is why Arteta changed positions with Rice and Zubimendi during the sporting game to freshing things up especially their positive thinking and concentration.
When we use the expression match fitness we don’t just mean physical.
The physical aspect is about 80% with 20% being mental energy that is used during 90 minutes of play by these athletes.
Games are usually won by fine margins within the 10% marking area.
Most footballers are tested for fitness especially after and injury period and the physical pass is between 75 and 80% (with 80% being the highest physical mark) and between 10 and 20% mental pass mark.
You see when a player is 75% physical instead of 80% when he is match fit but still carries a slight niggling injury, which was and is the case with Saka.
This in turn effects their positive mental energy, with Saka being worried that he may make his injury worse. This can deduct anything from 5 to 10% of total mental ATP uptake in the brain.
So with Saka as an example, he could have been playing with 75% (out of 80) physical energy and only 10% (out of 20) mental energy. Giving him a total 85% match fitness level. 90% plus match fit being the pass level to be used during 90 minutes of play.
Some players can be low on confidence but still match fit, but this low or high confidence can have a 10 to 20% effect on their mental energy and in turn effects their overall match fitness and concentration and decision making levels.
The bad publicity can also effect their positive mental energy and in turn effects their overall match fitness score.
We have seen it last week. when I mentioned that Arsenal lack that mental energy, with the main culprits being the engin room players, which are the players usually designed to cover the most ground. This being our two full backs and our defensive midfielder (White, Myles and Zubimendi), who gave Raya little outlet play due to being unable to have the energy to loose their markers or to cover chasing back, and to promote moving further forward in both positive play and positive passing.
After I wrote those comments it was no coincidence that the following game against Sporting, Arteta had made 3 significant changes to increase Arsenals energy levels by dropping both White and Myles and changing the positions of Rice and Zubimendi for which Rice was the energetic defensive midfielder and Zubimendi played further forward. To change the engine room and concentration levels of the team.
This is why we need to show them the support and ignore the negative media. IMO.
Mikey I’m totally with you on Xhaka. He always wore his heart on his sleeve and gave 120%, I really liked him.
Now at last we have a team full of players that can show that mental attitude. Let’s hope they do so today! And let’s bury City!
daveg,
To your points, I’d like the Arsenal squad to keep in mind the loss to City in the Carabao Cup final was the first in some time. If they play with confidence from the off I believe they’ll do fine.