The problem takes hold when you start to think instead of feel. What was once instinctive now feels laboured. Doubt grips you like an anaconda, slowly crushing your confidence. One missed chance quickly turns into seven games without a goal. You can't switch off the noise. Boos reverberate around the stadium every time you touch the ball.
Your teammates offer some token words of support, but you know they're simmering with frustration. Your social media mentions hiss with vitriol. You don't want to sulk at home, but it's worse out in public. Nothing offers refuge from the unrelenting loop of frustration and self-loathing.
This is the world of lost confidence, a place players might find themselves trapped when they get stuck in a poor run of form. But life comes at you fast in the Premier League and there's always a chance to change things in an instant. Those who embrace the twists and turns of fortune can add another chapter to sport's rich history of redemption stories.
The first half of this season alone could fill an opus. Granit Xhaka, Marcus Rashford, Kepa Arrizabalaga, Aleksandar Mitrovic and Miguel Almiron are the main protagonists experiencing their own narrative arc tracking the rise of the fallen hero. For these players, especially Xhaka, a U-turn seemed improbable. So, how do elite players bounce back from setbacks? And what can we learn from them?
ESPN spoke to neuroscientists, psychologists and players to find out.
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Rashford made 32 appearances for Manchester United last season, but rarely did it feel as if he was actually present or in a state of flow, tormenting defenders with speed, guile and ingenuity. Scoring just five goals, his lowest-ever season tally, validates this perception.
Missing a penalty in the shootout at the end of the Euro 2020 final, and the subsequent racial abuse he endured, preceded a wretched campaign. He missed the first two months after shoulder surgery and struggled in an underpowered United side when he returned in October.
"I was struggling at times with more mental things," Rashford later told Sky Sports. "It wasn't really my own performance but other things off the pitch. Too often last season, I wasn't in the right headspace for games."
Talent, experience and athleticism are nullified when the brain is experiencing self-doubt. In some sports, this is known as the "yips" -- a sudden and unexplained loss of motor skills as psychological issues impact muscle memory and decision-making. Players in this state have to reframe their thinking, says sports psychologist Dan Abrahams.
"Players stuck in this rut feel helpless because they're rehearsing failure in their mind and paying attention to factors that are out of their control, like the opinion of others," he explained. "Focusing on what's irrelevant makes them feel social anxiety. These feelings are a consequence of how we perceive ourselves in our environment, in relation to our social status within the group.
"When players are going through a bad spell, they can't escape this unhealthy cycle."
When Abrahams met Carlton Cole in August 2007, the striker was stagnating in West Ham United's reserves and weary from poor form and criticism. Cole followed Abraham's guidance and within 18 months was in Fabio Capello's England squad.
Arsenal academy graduate Anthony Stokes also credits Abrahams for helping turn his career around. In the first four months of the 2009-10 season, Stokes had scored only four goals for his new club, Hibernian. Within a year of working with Abrahams, he was the division's second-highest scorer and on his way to Celtic.
"There isn't a one-size-fits-all to sports psychology, but by and large I try to help athletes understand a little bit more about how human beings function," said Abrahams, a consultant for Feyenoord and Forest Green Rovers. "We start by attacking the rehearsal of failure, and I tell them to visualise success, i.e., their best game and strengths, and then we focus on the controllables and the specifics of their game and how they speak to themselves. For example: 'I'm strong, I'm sharp, I'm on my toes, I'm aggressive, I'm scanning, I'm vocal,' etc."
Numerous scientific studies have found that picturing success has proven effects. One such paper found that an hour of mental training a day that incorporates the five major senses -- touch, hearing, sight, smell and taste -- improved motor skills, muscle strength, confidence and concentration, and in turn reduced anxiety. All of this is driven by connections pinging off in the brain when you stimulate its value areas in the striatum and prefrontal cortex.
Using the mind's eye -- the mental faculty of conceiving imaginary or recollected scenes -- to replay your greatest hits or picturing future success gives you a hit of dopamine, the chemical your brain releases when it experiences pleasure and reward. When this happens, different parts of the brain communicate with one another, sparking synapses, which in layman's terms form connections and, in this context, a pipeline for confidence.
It's powerful, but not impenetrable. Humans are hardwired for negativity, and players have to be equipped for that battle.
"They have to accept they will always have destructive thoughts, it's human nature -- I call them ANTs: automatic, negative thoughts," Abrahams said. "Negative thoughts are also feelings and emotions -- that's what it is to be a human being -- but you have it within yourself to direct your attention on success."
Even the most athletically gifted footballer will be less effective without factoring in proper recovery time -- as Rashford learned last summer. For the first time in years, he used the offseason as an opportunity to recharge both physically and emotionally.
"It's been a bit unnatural for me to have such a long break in the summer," Rashford told the Manchester United website. "I think I had just under four weeks, so I had a long break physically and mentally as well, so it's an opportunity to refresh and get ready to go again."
Research suggests that having the courage to take a rest, rather than grind harder, is an investment that pays off. A Journal of Sports Sciences study found that mental fatigue resulted in poor decision-making and tactical errors.
In theory, Rashford would have a sharper mind after a much-needed break that also gave his body, especially his shoulder, time to recover. When we rest the body, it adapts to the demands of exercise, replenishes muscle glycogen (energy stores) and repairs body tissue.
Rest complete, he continued the old-fashioned way -- hard work. Rashford's social feeds were energised with workouts in preparation for Erik ten Hag's arrival at the club, and hitting the reset button has had the desired effect.
Rashford netted eight goals for Manchester United before the World Cup, a run of form he continued in Qatar, where he scored three times for England. He marked his return to club football with a stunning individual goal during Manchester United's 2-0 win over Burnley (stream the replay in ESPN+ in the US.)
Having a new club manager has helped.
"It's a completely different energy around the club and the training ground," said Rashford in an interview with Sky Sports. "That puts me in a better headspace and I just feel really motivated now."
Sometimes, a new challenge can get a player back in form. In summer 2021, goalkeeper Lee Nicholls had just finished a wretched season with MK Dons, making a paltry seven appearances in League One. Huddersfield Town's head of goalkeeping, Paul Clements, had been keeping an eye on the former England youth international and wondered why he "fell off a cliff." They went out for a coffee to discuss a possible move to West Yorkshire, and Clements gave it to him straight.
"He basically said I was too fat and fat doesn't fly," Nicholls said with a laugh, before breaking eye contact over Zoom and dropping the smile from his face. "It all tied back to when Mick died."
He takes a breath before recalling a moment it pains him to relive.
"I got a phone call while I was playing golf ... 'Mick has died' ... he was my brother-in-law," Nicholls said. "I took it hard. I was in shock, but I made my way back up to Liverpool to be with my family and then two weeks later I had to start preseason with MK Dons. I never prepared properly. I was drinking too much and not eating right; I was miles behind."
Out of shape and consumed with grief, Nicholls lost form during a season derailed by the COVID-19 pandemic. An erratic display during a 3-2 loss to Oxford United in October 2020 cost him his place, and he never played another league match that season.
"I lost Mick and I had to go back down south, away from home, and all of a sudden I wasn't playing football," he says. "The one thing I thought would take my mind off it was taken away from me. It was heartbreaking."
His loss of form was so dramatic that MK Dons released him on a free transfer after more than 150 appearances for the club. Clements offered him a chance to revive his career; Nicholls accepted, committed to the rehabilitation programme and set about challenging the club's No. 1, Ryan Schofield.
The season opener was an EFL Cup game against Sheffield Wednesday, and Nicholls saved two penalties as the Terriers won a shootout. A fortnight later he made his league debut, and he hasn't let go of the No. 1 jersey since.