In the third round of the Spanish Football Championship, Milan was defeated against Lazio, conceding four goals into his own net and scoring only one.

The head coach of the losing team, Vincenzo Montella, believes that the main cause of the defeat was the unstable psychological state of football players of the Milan club. The main mentor of the Rossoneri believes that the team lost an important match in the Serie A series because they simply could not get together and show themselves to be 100%.

According to the head coach of Milan, the opponent won, first of all, by the fact that his team at the moment is really considered a team. In the club opponents have long been no dramatic changes in the composition, the role of each player on the field is clearly defined. Vincenzo Montella believes that such defeats are necessary in order to learn to play better and be on the field really team.

After the defeat in the third round of Serie A, the Montella club takes only the sixth place in the standings, having scored only six points. The leader of the series, Juventus, won all three matches in the championship. In the fourth round, Milan will have to meet in his Udinese field. The meeting on the seventeenth of September will show whether Milan football players have learned to go out and play on the field with a strong and close-knit team.

Vincenzo Montella is seriously concerned about the psychological state of his players. Here's what the head coach said after the match: This is a very insulting result for the team. Quite a large number of negative external factors have affected the psychological state of players. In the first half we lost two goals. This slightly worsened the psychological readiness of the players to score, and the team lost control. Our opponents played perfectly, it is worth noting their sharp attacks, which almost always ended efficiently. I think we were weaker in psychological terms, and therefore could not give a worthy rebuff..

Questions of psychology are now increasingly of interest to professional athletes and their coaches and cease to be a lot of niche sports such as poker where knowledge of psychology is one of the main tactical advantages. The application of psychology in fact has broader boundaries and allows to increase the effectiveness and psychological stability of athletes. In addition, sports psychologists help to solve problems with motivation, and also support during rehabilitation periods.

What factors determine the psychological stability of the team? It is necessary to give the same attention to both the general microclimate in the team and the mental state of each particular football player. Very often these two concepts compete directly with each other. It should be remembered the recent episode in the meeting of soccer clubs Soton and Sparta within the framework of the League of Europe.

During the match, striker Charlie Austin earned a penalty. When the referee pointed to the penalty mark, the forward went to score a penalty himself. But as a team for a long time to identify the main leader, responsible for the penetration of a penalty - Dusan Tadic wanted to take the match in Austin. In the conflict, the captain of the team had to intervene - Van Dyke, who decided that the player who earned a penalty kick has the right to score an 11-meter. After much controversy, Austin was still given a punch, and he punched the goalkeeper rivals in the left corner. With a goal he congratulated him and Tadic.

But the conflict is much more complicated. Van Dyke acted quite wisely in this situation. He estimated that Austin is far from being the main player in the team, he is a forward. A hammered penalty can become for him an excellent motivation - to play and train better, to score and give all the best for 100%.

Tadic, in turn, may not even try, - he is always given a punch penalty and a penalty. Making the choice in favor of the beginner, the captain motivated him to a quality game for the remainder of the match time.

It is very important that the team on the field be a team. Such coach moments, alas, the coach will not always be able to solve. By and large, he does not care who exactly punches. It is important to choose the captain of the person who has authority in the team and can make strategically important decisions. The situation ended well thanks to the wise decision of Van Dyke and the psychological maturity of Austin and Tadic, who did not transfer the game conflict to other matches and personal relationships.

The coach must monitor the psychological state of the player at the training stage. Last season, the head coach of PSG, Unai Emery, refused the main player, Ben Arfa, only because the latter did not show himself well in training. Because of this, the football player did not get into the basis of four games in a row. According to Emery, only Messi has the right to play half-hearted and still score. The rest of the players will have to sweat to earn their place at the base.

But there are situations when the player puts on training, but in the games he plays frankly bad. The coach's task is to analyze what factors can influence such situations. For example, in Ukrainian championships try not to expose too many leagues from Premier League leaders at meetings with their clubs. The main players can leave on the bench because of internal conflicts in the team, personal problems and other annoying factors.

It is more difficult to establish mutual understanding in a team with a large number of foreign players. That is why in the contract of Barcelona there is a mandatory item on the study of the language by a legionary. This is important for communication of players and effective communication of players in the team. If there is no mutual understanding of the team in training or friendly matches, then hoping for a quality game in a real meeting is meaningless.

Let's see what work Montella will do before the match with Udinese - maybe he knows the secret techniques of increasing the psychological climate in the team?.