“We’re looking at employing a psychologist”: Ian Evatt looks to boost the positivity among Blackpool’s players
Ian Evatt wants Blackpool’s players to be positive despite their tough run of results.
Ian Evatt admits Blackpool are considering hiring a psychologist to help his players as they look to climb the League One table.
Sunday’s 1-1 draw at Sheffield Wednesday left the Seasiders 19th in League One as their focus switches to the FA Cup this weekend.
Blackpool had prepared for the trip to Hillsborough with a Jersey Mike’s Trophy win against Aston Villa’s U21s last Tuesday.
Speaking after that win, Evatt had referenced the naivety among some of the squad at Bloomfield Road.
Asked how Blackpool go about improving that, he said: “It’s just messaging and reinforcement.
“We’re just trying to encourage the players to be more positive, to reset better.
“All of the fear comes from thinking about the end game, the result so to speak, we need to stay more present and more current.
“If we do face a moment of adversity, whether that be a misplaced pass or a last tackle, a lost duel or even a goal conceded, we then have to reset and play again like the score is nil - and just go through that process.
“If you are thinking about the process and thinking about how we do get that end result, it’s all about doing the things that we’ve coached to do throughout the week.
“If you forget to do that and you don’t reset after a moment of negativity or adversity, then it’s only going to snowball and you’re not going to get the end result anyway.
“For me (it’s) ‘the score takes care of itself’ mindset, providing we’re doing the things minute by minute that we should be doing in the game to make sure we try and get a positive result and outcome.”
Asked if that was something that could be worked on at the training ground, Evatt added: “Again, it’s constant messaging and reinforcement.
“We’ve been looking at psychology, we’re looking at employing a psychologist to help the players, but it has to be right, it has to be correct.
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“Those are the things that we’re looking at to try and help. For me, we coach the team with everything we’ve got to try and give them the best possible way of getting results and showing the players how we go about doing that and staying present within that.
“It would be easy to make excuses and feel sorry for ourselves.
“Defensively, the injuries that we had are catastrophic - there’s no denying that - and it remains catastrophic.
“We’re constantly firefighting, trying to fix things and find different ways and solutions - and that’s not helping things.
“That isn’t changing any time soon either, so let’s stop talking about it and let’s try and get on with doing what we need to do to get the results we need to shoot up this league.”