The crisis of two coaches: Thiago Motta and Sérgio Conceição

I often wonder what a coach’s mental approach is when his team fails to deliver the expected performances and, to put it bluntly, plays poorly. A current example of this situation is the coaches of Juventus and Milan, Thiago Motta and Sérgio Conceição, who are leading teams struggling with results, albeit for different reasons.

As professionals, the question to ask them is simple: what are the problems, and how are they addressing them? It would be interesting to know what they think about the individual players who are underperforming. For example: “Is this player struggling because he cannot fulfill the assigned tasks? Does he just need more time? Does he lack the trust of his teammates? Does he have little confidence in himself? Am I asking him to do something he doesn’t know how or doesn’t want to do? What motivates him? Is he dealing with off-field issues?”

It is not enough to simply say: “They are young, they need to grow, they feel the pressure of the jersey, they play too much,” and so on.

Another aspect to consider is the coaches’ mentality. Are they fully aware that they are leading two of the most renowned clubs in the world, whose primary goal has always been to win? Are they comfortable with this level of expectation? Can they handle the pressure that comes with a mindset focused solely on victory? And what are they doing to improve?

Of course, we will never get clear answers to these questions. At the moment, both Motta and Conceição appear defensive. Motta has stated that if he had children playing football, he would want them to have a coach like him. Conceição, on the other hand, has said that if the club is not happy, they can fire him, but the team is training well. I understand that it is not easy to show self-criticism without being perceived as weak leaders, but these are not rational explanations for the situation.

It is a pity that, in such high-level sporting environments, coaches are not provided with adequate psychological support to face these challenging moments. In major corporations and organizations, executives are often supported by experts in human resource management to improve teamwork. The same approach would be beneficial in football as well.