Resilience: The capacity to withstand, adapt to, or recover quickly from difficult and challenging experiences.
So much more than a word on a framed piece of art in your dentist’s office, resilience is a foundational trait in emotionally and mentally mature individuals. How we respond to adversity and motivate ourselves to overcome various challenges and setbacks says much about where we are in our personal development. For athletes, resilience is perhaps the most important aspect of sports; even more so than talent or victory. Today, though, we need to talk about resilience and Manchester United, because something is definitely wrong.
The 2023/24 season has not gotten off to a good start for United. Injuries have plagued Erik ten Hag’s squad since pre-season, currently leaving the Dutch tactician with at least a dozen players occupying the treatment room and a threadbare match day squad. This has prevented Ten Hag from fully implementing his desired system and has also seen United struggle on the pitch, with just six points in the first five matches and a 4-3 loss away to Bayern Munich to kick off their Champions League campaign. Again, the results aren’t necessarily surprising when you consider the injuries, but what is concerning is the body language on the pitch.
If you’ve watched United this season, it wouldn’t have taken long to see that the players look a little off. United have been outmuscled, outclassed, and outworked by every side they’ve faced. Fighters like Casemiro and Lisandro Martinez look a shadow of the players they were last year. United’s defence, overall, hasn’t looked switched on since the opening whistle of the first match of the season. Marcus Rashford is throwing up his hands in frustration and walking around the pitch. Scott McTominay came on as a sub against Bayern Munich and was caught jogging behind the play after losing the ball in Bayern’s half, gifting them a counter attack opportunity. Club captain Bruno Fernandes has been a subdued, watered-down version of the passionate, covers every blade of grass, magnifico United fans know and love. Even new signing, Andre Onana, couldn’t shake the shame of handing Bayern the opening goal after letting a tame shot push through his hands. The goalkeeper remained prone on the turf for several moments after the goal and let his head drop under weight of that guilt for the remainder of the first half.
United have started recent matches on the front foot, pressing the opposition and creating chances in the final third, but all it takes is one or two individual errors or conceding a goal against the run of play for a tangible wave of self-defeat to make its way through the entire starting eleven. And that’s when things have gone from bad to worse this season. It’s as if United’s players lose all belief in themselves, Ten Hag, or the badge the moment they experience the first setback of the match. In the space of a mistake, any and all focus, energy, and motivation evaporates and United find themselves chasing shadows–or more accurately, walking after shadows. Ten Hag echoed this sentiment following United’s defeat at Bayern Munich, stating “If one player makes a mistake, it’s done, it’s gone.”
Where are the leaders when things go wrong? Who steps up to motivate their teammates, challenge them to lift their heads up, and encourage them after a mistake? Sergio Reguilon–an emergency loan signing in the final days of the transfer window–was the one to lift Andre Onana to his feet against Bayern Munich. Hannibal Mejbri and Alejandro Garnacho–two youngsters who were still playing in the U23s until last year–come on as late subs to show United’s senior players what energy, passion, and fight look like. The experienced senior players should be the ones to lead by example, not a loan signing. Not youngsters. This is how deep the disillusion within the squad runs.
How, then, do athletes–footballers, specifically–develop and strengthen resilience when they’re constantly faced with pressure, defeat, and anxiety on so many fronts? Last year, Ten Hag praised several United players for demonstrating resilience on numerous occasions, but has recently bemoaned the lack of it in his squad after recent performances, urging his players to “bounce back as a team” when things go wrong. Individual resilience and collective resilience should be a priority and there are a few ways Ten Hag and his players can rediscover this vital skill.
Most coaches will tell their players that after making a big mistake, it’s easy to get in your own head and start over-thinking and over-complicating things, which tends to flood your brain with a barrage of thoughts and emotions. Focusing on the next small action and stringing together a few simple ones creates a solid foundation to build on and is a proven way to keep yourself from being overwhelmed. Instead of looking at the entire mountain before you, simply look at the next few steps and take each step one at a time until you reach the top.
Self-talk is a great way to fight negative automatic thoughts and flooding emotions that can enter a player’s mind after a setback in a match. This doesn’t mean lying to yourself, but rather reminding yourself that you’ve made mistakes and faced setbacks before and you’ve made it through those moments; there’s no reason to think you can’t do so again. When things go wrong, United’s players need to think to themselves, “I can’t change what happened, but I can navigate my way past it.” This distress-tolerance technique can be so effective. By accepting that the situation is bad or a mistake was made, it isn’t saying it was okay or that it’s nothing to worry about, but is instead refusing to make the suffering permanent by pushing themselves to move on before making it worse. I would also challenge each United player to recall moments in their lives–on or off the pitch–where they’ve made mistakes or faced setbacks and successfully motivated themselves to get past it. What helped them in those moments? What did they do or think or say to themselves that can be applied to similar situations in a match? It’s something to think about.
Addressing individual resilience is vital, but football is a team sport, and as Ten Hag has said, United need to learn how to bounce back as a team. There are too many individuals wearing the United shirt this season and not enough teammates. In his book, Edge, Ben Lyttleton offers a chapter on team cohesion and, in fact, highlights the concept of a Teamwork Index, which is an algorithm researched and developed by former Australia rugby international, Ben Darwin, after studying nine sports across 30 seasons. Darwin asserts that a team is a system of relationships and the better aligned the relationships, the more successful the team; sometimes by a factor of 30 to 40 percent, in fact. Furthermore, whereas individual skill develops in a cohesive environment, it is diminished in a high turnover environment. This might explain why some players haven’t appeared to develop during their time at United; rebuilding every few years with a new manager and new players stifles player development.
This is why collective resilience is also important. Instead of emoting frustration with their teammates or failing to encourage teammates after errors, United’s players would do well to hit the reset button off the pitch, in an effort to strengthen–or even rebuild–a culture of trust, communication, and support within the squad. When he was manager at Swedish side, Ostersunds, Graham Potter had his players engage in a number of non-football activities as a team, including writing a book together, putting on an art exhibition, and performing in a musical to raise money for refugees. Not only did this promote bonding within the squad, but it forced players to step outside their comfort zones and gave them the confidence to say to themselves, “If I can be in a musical in front of 1,000 people, I can do whatever I want on the pitch,” as noted by Potter’s former player, Tom Pettersson. Added bonus: Engaging in unfamiliar, non-football activities also forces players to utilize different parts of their brains and personalities to problem solve and employ critical thinking skills in different situations.
Building team cohesion and resilience doesn’t have to be a monumental effort, mind you–even pebbles make large ripples, after all. During a penalty shootout, for instance, teammates showing support for each other after each shot by clapping, embracing, and offering words of encouragement increases the likelihood of scoring for their next kick taker. It’s the little things, right?
You’ll notice I’m not suggesting planning for every possible outcome. There’s a reason for that. That sort of mindset is what tends to create anxiety, which focuses on the future and tends to make us believe the worst case scenario is the most likely outcome. You can’t discuss resilience without talking about anxiety, but the point is to trust your own experiences and capabilities, rather than try to see the future and prepare for it. In sports, anxiety is expected–synonymous, even. And it makes sense why: it’s difficult not to focus on the worst-case scenarios and play the “what if” game in your mind when there’s so much at stake and a single error could be the difference between winning and losing. In sports, triggers for anxiety can include fear of failure, fear of negative social evaluation, fear of physical harm, fear of the unknown, and the disruption of a well-learned routine (aka, Mike Tyson’s “everyone has a plan until they’re punched” idiom.) While a small amount of anxiety can actually be helpful–healthy, even, in terms of pushing us to face challenges–anxiety that grows and grows can kill performance before the opening whistle is blown. There’s a type of anxiety unique to sports that can be broken down into two categories: state anxiety and trait anxiety. State anxiety has to do with preparation, anticipation, and tension. An example of this would be stepping up to take a penalty kick. Trait anxiety refers to responses and behaviors unique to an individual–their traits, such as feeling extremely nauseous when anxious.
Whew. I know it’s a lot, but on both an individual and a team level, resilience is such a crucial part of sports and is something Manchester United have been lacking this season. Heads down, hands on hips, walking around the pitch, and being out-played in all facets of the game has been too prevalent in the early days of 2023/24. It may not be panic stations yet, but the warning signs are there. Ten Hag and his players need to see them and work together to instil within themselves a sense of support, accountability, encouragement, trust, and responsibility if they want to get things back on track. They need to rediscover what it means to be United.
Important Note: Competitive sport abounds with pressure and with that pressure comes stress, anxiety, frustration, heartbreak, and–as we’ve seen more and more in recent years, mental health struggles such as depression, trauma, and addiction. Thankfully, mental health issues among footballers have become less stigmatized as more players open up about their experiences, but developing the ability to cope with stress and move past setbacks will put these players in a much better position to excel, on and off the pitch. This article is dedicated to long-time Arsenal supporter, Jake Coare, who was diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome and depression, but has worked so hard to be an advocate for everyone struggling with mental health issues and a warrior for autism awareness.
Get the latest Manchester United news, opinion, interviews and exclusive features with the Stretty Newsletter – Ad Free! Kick off your afternoon with the Stretty News verdict on all matters Manchester United.
