Английн шигшээ баг ДАШТ-ий шөвгийн наймд Норвегийг хожсоны дараах дасгалжуулагч болон тоглогчийн байр суурь олны анхаарлыг татаж байна.
Тоглолтын дараах ярилцлагад дасгалжуулагч Томас Тухель багийнхаа тоглолтыг техникийн алдаа ихтэй, хангалтгүй байсан хэмээн шүүмжилж, хожлыг азтай явдал гэж тодорхойлсон юм. Тэрээр багийнхаа сэтгэл зүйн асуудлыг үгүйсгэж, зөвхөн тоглолтын чанарыг гол асуудал хэмээн онцолсон байна.
Эсрэгээрээ, хагас хамгаалагч Жүүд Беллингхэм Норвеги шиг хүчтэй өрсөлдөгчтэй тоглоход заримдаа “бохир” аргаар хожих шаардлага гардаг гэдгийг онцолжээ. Тэрээр дасгалжуулагчийнхаа шүүмжлэлд хариу болгон, Норвегийн шигшээ багийн бүрэлдэхүүний өндөр түвшинг дурдаж, багийн нөхдөө өмгөөлсөн байна.
Спорт сэтгэл судлаачид болон мэргэжилтнүүд Беллингхэмийн энэхүү үйлдлийг өндөр түвшний сэтгэл хөдлөлийн оюун ухаан (EQ) хэмээн дүгнэж байна. Тухель багийн стандартыг өндөрт тавьж, шахалт үзүүлж байгаа нь Аргентины эсрэг хийх хагас шигшээн тоглолтод чухал боловч, энэ нь тоглогчидтойгоо зөрчилдөх эрсдэлтэй гэж үзжээ.
Дэлгэрэнгүй эх сурвалжийг харах
Эх сурвалжийг нээх ↓
This story is part of Peak, The Athletic’s desk covering the mental side of sports. Sign up for Peak’s newsletter here.
On Monday morning, I heard from a well-known American basketball coach who is following the World Cup. He had just read a story about England’s victory over Norway in the quarterfinals, and he was struck by something that Jude Bellingham, one of England’s top stars, had said after the match.
“We’ve tried to create a positive environment, and we should continue that into the final four,” Bellingham told reporters. “I can’t speak highly enough of the lads. You’re not going to win every game popping the ball and making a thousand passes. Sometimes, you have to win dirty.”
If you’ve been following England, you know that the context of the quote was even more interesting than the content. The line had come in response to England manager Thomas Tuchel, who had criticized his team’s performance in a post-match interview on the field with Gabriel Clarke.
“The commitment is there,” Tuchel said. “But we made life very, very difficult for us in the way we played, how we played, sloppy, a lot of technical mistakes, not fast enough, not repetitive enough. We were lucky today.”
Clarke then asked Tuchel if the mistakes were due to the team’s mentality, which seemed to set Tuchel off.
Tuchel: “Mentality? This is pure mentality. How can you ask about mentality now? This is pure mentality. It’s not about mentality.”
Clarke: “No, I mean, when the players had the problem, was that the mentality? What was it?”
Tuchel: “There’s no mentality problem. This is a pure mentality, this is pure mentality, you can bottle it up and sell it. … It’s the quality of our games. That’s it.”
As someone who writes about leadership and sports psychology, I found the exchange fascinating. In one sense, Tuchel was engaging in a pretty standard motivational ploy — demanding more after a close win against a lesser team.
At the same time, he was exceedingly defensive of his team’s mental toughness. His team had not been good enough, he seemed to be saying, and his criticism was sharp and unsparing, but it was not a matter of effort or resilience.
But then the comments were relayed back to Bellingham, who seemed to take some measure of umbrage at the criticism.
“Maybe he doesn’t know what it’s like to play in these types of conditions against Erling Haaland, (Martin) Ødegaard, (Antonio) Nusa, (Alexander) Sørloth,” Bellingham said. “That’s not an easy team to play against.”
Tuchel has a reputation for being a detail-oriented taskmaster — intellectually demanding, passionate and intense, often pushing all manner of different buttons. In the days before the quarterfinal, he had a simple message: “We need to be brave now.”
In that sense, it was easy to view his comments as just what England needed entering a semifinal against Lionel Messi and Argentina. But he also seemed to irk Bellingham, one of his most critical players.
That didn’t seem ideal.
Yet none of this was what the basketball coach I talked to was interested in. Instead, he was more impressed by Bellingham, who seemed to be displaying a rare form of emotional intelligence in the moment.
“There’s an old coaching adage: ‘Never accept in victory what you wouldn’t accept in defeat,’” the coach said. “He’s trying to keep the standard sky high so that they can beat Argentina. The key is: does he have it like that with his best players?
“It’s quite possible that Jude has such a high EQ that he’s actually not upset with the coach, but he’s also being sure to stand up for his teammates.”
Kylian Mbappé story from his former teammate
Elise Devlin
In leadership, there is an inherent tension between upholding a standard and keeping the vibes high. The best coach/star player pairings exist in this type of tension.
There are classic examples like Phil Jackson and Kobe Bryant or Bill Belichick and Tom Brady, whose relationships were often based on an emotional chemistry, at times even combustible, a constant push-and-pull.
The coach pushes. The players pull together.
There may indeed have been friction on Saturday after England’s win. But it might have been exactly what Tuchel’s players needed.
The most fascinating element of the story wasn’t what Tuchel said. It was how Bellingham handled it.
It was not a problem of mentality after all. Bellingham proved as much.
