Manchester United 'Schooled' by Barcelona: What now?
After all the hype about the 'dream' Champions League final between Manchester United and Barcelona, wasn't it awfully one-sided?Apart from the first 10 minutes, Barcelone gave Manchester United a footballing lesson. Crisp, pacy and incisive passing and great close control versus laboured, slow and predictable from Manchester United. Too often the ball went backwards or for long and cross-field.
What went wrong, after such a good start?
Was this just a great performance by a technically superior side? Were Man Utd made to look bad because Barcelone just wouldn't let them have the ball? Did this game expose real weaknesses in Manchester United's game or was it just a poor performance?
If they didn't perform on the night, as opposed to being outperformed, then the most likely explanations are psychological. We can make educated guesses or hypotheses about the weight of expectation, of the impact of the goal against the run of play, about a loss of focus, but only the players hold the real clues to what happened.
We can be sure that the game will be dissected by analysts in the media, on public forums, in pubs, bars and by the coffee machine/water cooler, but nowhere more so than within the club.
As with all setbacks, all that they can do now is review, learn and make the changes needed to play better next time around.
Performance reviews need to be done in the cold light of day, after the emotions of the event have subsided. The focus should
- be on learning - ensuring that positives aren't ignored in the 'post mortem' (as areas for improvement should not be ignored in the euphoria of victory) ;
- take into account the preparation for the game as well as the game itself; and
- consider the physical, tactical, technical and mental dimensions.
Once the learning points have been recorded, everything else should be left behind as history, along with the result. These learning points can then form the basis for process and performance goals for the following season.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
I met James Marshall today and learned some Dumbell Complexes
After reading James Marshall's interview with Istvan Javorek and his subsequent article on weight training complexes, I decided to give him a call to find out if he could help me build some complexes into my weights programme for swimming.As luck would have it, James (who is based in Devon), was booked to assess a strength and conditioning course at Warwickshire College today, and could fit in an hour to see me.
So I went and he took me through the exercises in a number of complexes that he had chosen for me, based on our telephone conversation. First up, his idea of a warmup, which was challenging in itself. What was I letting myself in for?
Even though it was just a one-off consultancy, James had put some real thought into my needs, and was careful to ensure that I was doing everything with good technique. The complexes themselves were interesting to try and quite challenging - even though we used a light weight today.
We also started to chat about sport, about some of the problems with so many young people coming out of sport science degrees with expectations that they will work in elite sport, and about neworking.
As well as coming out of our session with some new exercises and routines to try, I also met a thoroughly pleasant and professional guy.
Thanks again, James.
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Premier League Run-in: Psychology of Title-Chase vs Relegation Battle
I'm not going to make this a long blog post, but hopefully one that will generate some discussion. I'd like to share an observation about this year's English Premier League run-in, and the psychology of the teams at the top and bottom of the league. I can't say I'm close enough to it all to add any special insight..For the first time that I can really recall, the three teams in contention at the top - Manchester United, Liverpool and Chelsea - are all performing to a really high-level right to the finish. Manchester United started poorly and had a minor wobble recently, Liverpool and Chelsea lost it mid-season but all three are fighting it out to the end, trading wins and unusually no-one is slipping up. Should that continue Manchester United will win the title in the next couple of games, but Liverpool and Chelsea are doing their bit.
Meanwhile, life at the bottom, in the midst of the relegation battle, is rather different. Normally one team will respond to the pressure and steer themselves (sometimes almost miraculously) out of trouble, just as West Ham (Tevez vintage) did a couple of years back. This year, the bottom three teams, joined by Hull in 4th bottom, appear to be universally "caught in the headlights", unable to respond. The fact that West Brom have won a few games, I believe, will prove to be an irrelevance, and that they are only performing because they were so far off the pace that the pressure was off.
As I write this Newcastle look like they might just secure 3 points and give themselves a chance. But will they take it??
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Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
Brave triathletes back in the water after fatal shark attack...
You're a triathlete. You are out in the water one day when one of your training group is killed in a Great White Shark attack? How do you go about getting back in the water? This video tells the whole story....--
Rob Robson
Co-founder, iStadia.com
