Gareth Southgate's Mind Games

After provoking one of the most euphoric afternoons in English football history, Gareth Southgate, the coach, said something anticlimactic: "This is a dangerous time for us."

Eliminating Germany in a big tournament after more than half a century of frustrations was one goal, but it was not the whole goal.

“We have had an immense performance, but with an emotional and physical cost.

We have to make sure that we recover well, and that mentally we are in the correct mental space ”.

The task of getting the players there has been a constant obsession for Southgate since he took over as head coach in 2016.

The last week the mission has been especially intense, since the tournament crossed them with Germany in the round of 16, almost on the exact 25th anniversary of the 1996 semifinal in which he missed the decisive penalty of the shoot that left England without a final of his Eurocup. Tuesday's game against Germany was played under the shadow of that failure that affected him, and under the shadow of a historical collection of disappointments that affected the entire country. Southgate was clear about his approach to the problem: “Players need to understand that they don't need to feel that burden. They can play with a new perspective. It is not important to them. They can change all that. They can play with the mind as if it were a challenge rather than fear. I think they accepted that challenge today. And they played well, ”he said after finishing Germany.

The story is not new. Months before the 2018 World Cup in Russia, the English federation hired psychologist Pippa Grange to help the team on their journey to that "correct mental space" mentioned by the coach. After taking Colombia down in the round of 16 on penalties, a luck they had failed in the previous two decades, Southgate shared something that now sounds familiar: “We talked to the players about writing their own stories. Tonight they showed that they can create their own story, "he said once that weight was lifted off his shoulders.

In recent days, he has repeated several versions of the same argument of writing his own stories, one of his references to the attention he pays to the mental state of his footballers. Like when Mason Mount and Ben Chillwell had to isolate themselves from the group for 10 days after having too long a conversation with Scotsman Billy Gilmour, who days later tested positive for coronavirus. When the withdrawal time was about to expire, Southgate explained that before deciding whether to line them up right away, he needed to assess what mental effects the quarantine had caused them. He hardly mentioned the possible physical deterioration due to the decrease in activity.

Nor did his explanations of how he handles the disappointment of those who do not play followed the usual route: “With the attackers, we have so many good options that it is difficult to give them all the love they need. As a striker you need to feel that love, "he said, instead of going to the classic formula that what they need are minutes.

His booklet is full of pages that attend to the emotional and the mental, according to what his players have revealed these days. Like the visualization techniques that they apply to the preparation of the penalty shoot-outs, or the meditation that Raheem Sterling has begun to practice before going to bed each night. "To be in a good place," he explained, and put it in contrast to the World Cup in Russia, when criticism on social networks drove him crazy. Declan Rice has deleted the Twitter application from his mobile until the end of the tournament. It was something Southgate has been warning about since 2018: "I'm not sure the comments are worth reading."

Nor has he stopped insisting that his players can write their history without having to assume the previous one: “I cannot change the fact that the boys who played with me in 1996 could not play in the final, and I will always have to live with that.

But this group has the opportunity to give a new generation a lot of happy memories. "

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