Everton football club are enduring a strange season, they currently lie in 9th position in the table but with big money signings during the Summer they would have hoped to be in the mix for the European places.
Part of the reason the Merseyside club are languishing in mid table mediocrity is their away form. Everton have only won on the road in the Premier League once this season, a 1-0 victory against Newcastle.
Manager Sam Allardyce blamed fear as the main reason for the clubs lack of success away from home:
You have to find a balance between complacency and fear. You lie in the middle, which is anxiety. You have to be anxious before the game, but not too fearful. Too fearful and you freeze. Too complacent, it's just as bad as being too fearful. Fear can do many things to a player on the field of play, where it looks like he has frozen and can't deliver what he can.
Allardyce revealed that Everton's in-house psychologist is working with the team in order to reverse their luck on the road:
They are getting some help. We have used our in-house sports psychologist who has been here for quite some time and slowly he is integrating himself with some of the sessions with the players. I hope it will have an effect on how we achieve a result. I think everything in the world of football today revolves around coping with the pressure. The way you cope with the pressure is being able to focus, and if the sports psychologist allows them to focus on the positives rather than the negatives around them, then it gives them a better chance of delivering a performance.
We have been using a bit more of working on the mind in the analysis room - who we are, what do we want to get, what do we want to achieve. The main aim is visualising your performance and visualising the performance that you give at the top level. Thinking about that to yourself in a positive frame of mind before you run out on a Saturday.
