There's a new explanation for Pote's Sporting hold-up: too much... | OneFootball

Pedro Gonçalves experienced the final stretch of the season far below his usual standards and was one of the players most affected by Sporting’s bitter end to the campaign. Days after the defeat against Torreense in the Portuguese Cup final, the Portugal international took to social media to admit that he was unable to perform at the level he wanted and revealed that he had been struggling mentally.

“I’ve always accepted any criticism, I’m not afraid and I admit that I wasn’t at the level this club demands. Mentally, ever since I came back from the March break, I haven’t been at my best. My body wanted to, but my head was always with the ‘handbrake on,’ afraid of getting injured,” wrote the Lions’ number 8.

The numbers help explain the drop in form. Since returning from the FIFA break in March, Pote has scored just one goal in Sporting’s last 12 matches. The indicators related to ball carrying also dropped significantly, going from an average of 121 metres per 90 minutes to just 76.

To better understand the issue, newspaper Record spoke to Filipa Marques, a mental coach with a postgraduate qualification in Sports Psychology. The specialist explained that this kind of block often arises when the athlete stops focusing on performance and starts thinking about the consequences of their actions on the pitch. “They often begin to appear when the athlete stops focusing on performance and starts thinking about the consequences. ‘If I fail and get injured, will I be held back?’ And the truth is that it affects the internal dialogue. The athlete stops playing aggressively and makes more conservative decisions because they’re afraid of making mistakes.”

The specialist also highlighted the link between the psychological side and the body’s physical response. “The body is on alert,” she explained, adding that this tension can cause the muscles to tighten up and increase the risk of injury. “The mind isn’t ready and the body reacts to what the mind tells it, and the injury happens...”

In the case of top-level athletes like Pote, Filipa Marques believes that the pressure to maintain high performance levels can become an additional source of strain. “When a player reaches a certain level, they keep setting goals and always wanting more, because they know they need to perform well to get better offers, a better salary, move clubs, and all of this affects an athlete mentally because there are too many thoughts. There is the fear of never getting back to that level again, like you saw last season, of making mistakes, of failing, and of losing what has already been achieved.”

The mental coach also stressed that psychological recovery does not always keep pace with physical recovery. “With injuries, there is a whole recovery and physiotherapy protocol and we keep improving, but in the mind there are still doubts, fears and expectations that have to be managed. It is important to remember that events do indeed influence our career, but it is the meaning we give them that determines the impact they have on us. If you are focused on what you lost because you were injured, because you missed a goal... you will block. The focus has to be on recovery... acceptance is fundamental.”

Finally, Filipa Marques highlighted the importance of support from those around the athlete, especially in moments of greater emotional vulnerability. “However much you try to ignore the comments, it’s unavoidable. If a player is fragile, if the results are not what people expect, and criticism comes in, it will bring the athlete down even more. Especially when playing for Sporting, a team that always expects the best from him. And this is where identity comes in: sometimes the athlete makes the mistake of tying their identity to results, to achievements. If they are stuck on failure, it will shake things even more.”

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇵🇹 here.