The Sports Psychology Blog
This Sports Psychology blog, comes after Shrewsbury Town are beaten four-nil by Division Two leaders Rochdale, at Spotland.
Football: Paul Simpson - Rubbish!
It's the post-match interview at Spotland. And Shrewsbury Town manager Paul Simpson is not mincing his words. 'Rubbish' is how he describes his teams performance. He goes on to further publically castigate his players.
The public castigation is a high-risk strategy for a manager. And its not something that you will hear Ferguson, Benitez or Wenger do very often. If at all. Simply because they keep everything of consequence in-house. They will not air their teams problems in public.
When it does happen, It's basically a manager letting the public know, what he thinks of his team. And from here, two things can happen.
The desired reaction for the manager, is that the team are stung by the public criticism. So stung that they put in an 'Ill show you' performance over Christmas.
Or they can take it personally. And refuse to react, out of an exchange of dis-respect. In the same way that Hull City significantly under-performed, after their on-the-pitch dressing down, by Phil Brown at Eastlands last season.
Sometimes a team will under-perform to see a manager get sacked. Such is the dis-respect that has been created between players and manager.
Paul Simpson has to hope that he has built a reservoir of good-will with his players. And out of the ruins of Spotland, comes a spirited response. For if not, he could easily lose his dressing-room. And with it, ultimately his job.
