According to this site http://stats.football.co.uk/dom/index.html Blues in the first half of a game are a very much better side than Blues in the second half. No surprise, there, I hear you say – this is probably the main topic of conversation in the tea bars at St Andrews during half time breaks.
This season’s results show that Blues in the first half play at a standard which would equate to finishing with 50 points (8th place and pushing for Europe). Blues in the second half play at a standard which equates to finishing with 35 points and relegation. The only two teams who’ve fallen away worse than Blues in this respect during the current season are Newcastle and Man City, both of whom have duly dumped their manager. This is Blues’ single biggest problem and the club’s major obstacle to success. It needs fixing.
So what happens during the halftime break to change a team from European contenders into relegation certainties? Of course none of us know because we’re not allowed into the dressing room, but whatever they’re doing, they’re getting it all wrong – the hard facts prove that. There’s no making excuses for this, hiding from the facts or escaping from the manager’s responsibility to fix it.
Now the good news: The England Rugby team used to have the same problem until Clive Woodward and his management team sorted it. Blues could very easily do something similar. What Woodward and his team did was simple – they worked out a fixed routine which reset the players’ minds at half time, sending them out with clear heads and a determination to kick off the second half just as if they were kicking off the first half. Every halftime, the routine would be the same, irrespective of the score or the way they’d played in the first half. The routine was this:
First 2 minutes in the dressing room: No-one’s allowed to speak. Total silence. Players towel down, maybe have a quick wash and change into fresh clean kit. They have time to clear their minds after all the hustle and bustle of the first half. The clean kit is all part of the process of resetting the mind, ready to start a ‘new game’ in a few minutes time.
Next 2 minutes: Coaches’ assessment of the first half. Tell the players the score is 0-0 again. Discuss how to play in the ‘next game’ (the second half). Players take on food and fluids.
Next 3 minutes: Coaches’ final summary and specific instructions for the second half, with input from Captain, continue to take on food and fluids.
Final 2 minutes. Total silence again. Players keep quiet and visualize what they need to do when they go back out, using visualization techniques learned in training. Go back out to start again at 0-0 with the coaches’ game plan for the ‘new game’
Note they have a lot less time to work with than Premier League football teams, yet they still did a much better halftime job than Blues are doing – the results of both teams show that without a shadow of doubt.
This ain’t brain surgery – it’s just organisation and professional man-management. It’s proven and it works. The players get to know exactly what to expect, there are no histrionics, no teacup throwing, just a measured, professional and calculated approach to mentally putting the first half to bed then tackling the second half as a completely different battle which has to be won.
This Second Half Thinking routine was only a tiny part of what Clive Woodward did in taking his team from also-rans to World Champions, but it fixed exactly the same problem that’s currently stopping Blues from being a genuine top ten side. Woodward’s track record proves he knows what he’s doing. It’s gotta be worth learning from someone like that, surely?
IP Freely