Why It Didn't Come Home: Psychological Perspective
As we all know, football didn't come home this time round. England were beaten in the Euros 2024 final by a precise, coordinated and youthful Spanish side. And unsurprisingly the majority of the nation is pretty heart broken as a result.
But why did it not come home, especially given the level of world-class talent we had our disposal, and the paucity of quality competition?
Here's my psychologically themed tactical analysis of the disappointing defeat.
We Often Revert To Default Settings
I believe that in life it is, usually, more difficult to elevate our standards to the requirements of our situation than to revert back to our default settings, which is the more likely outcome.
During the tournament we spent the majority of the time playing defensively, and therefore set the precedent that we were more pre-occupied with the goal of not losing, than we were with actually winning. This outlook of prioritising the avoidance of defeat is one that I believe, in most life scenarios, is a recipe for a disaster. Not only does it subconsciously send a message of inferiority, it also undermines you as a free agent and possessing the ability to control our own outcomes.
A Siege Mentality Is Only Beneficial When It's Valid
After the pretty abysmal performances during the group stage, the squad and Southgate, him in particular, came under deep scrutiny from the public, and even the historically loyal pundits. This was very much justified and necessary. However, instead of admitting to his mistakes and shortcomings, it seems that he twisted the nations concerns and effectively ‘gaslit’ the players into thinking that we were the guilty party, and therefore created a ‘siege mentality’ amongst the players. It is possible that this acted as incentive to prove to us that they were capable of winning the tournament, but regardless, I don't believe that this was an intelligent or noble decision to make.
Maybe Nice Guys Do Finish Last
If there is one thing we can say about Southgate it is that he is a decent man, he successfully rectified a historically fractious squad of players, although I do believe that the astronomical influx of player financial remuneration has played a significant role in the amelioration of this issue as well. However, I worry that when it came down to the final hurdle, he lacked the galvanisation capacity required to win competitions at the highes level. In my opinion the players looked very nervous before the game and even more so at the beginning of the second half. This is obviously justified given the nature of the opportunity, but nevertheless it is the job of the manager to instill nigh on complete confidence in their players and hopefully watch that be reflected back at him in the dugout. I wonder if his lack of ‘considered abrasiveness’ at certain moments seeped into the players subconscious at points in the tournament
Ultimately, we were beaten by the better team on the night and the best team in the tournament. We were exceptionally lucky to have arrived at the final given how we played in certain matches, and if we had won the tournament them it would have most likely been somewhat undeserved.
We go again in 2026.
I hope you found this blog interesting and worth the read.
Until next time,
OxJ
