Why Resilience Should Be Central to United’s Recruitment Strategy

As Chris Wilder calls for the team to bounce back from disappointment, a growing body of research suggests resilience can and should be a core part of United’s recruitment and development strategy.

Ben Ashdown: As a Senior Lecturer in Sport Psychology at Nottingham Trent University, my research focuses on how players respond to pressure and adversity during competition - what we might call psychological resilience. Increasingly, clubs are recognising that mental attributes are just as important as technical, tactical, or physical qualities. This shift in thinking came to mind while listening to the recent Pinch season review podcast, which called for Sheffield United to look beyond the numbers and consider the ‘intangible’ psychological traits that don’t typically show up in standard data. For me, one direction this should take is tracking how players handle in-game adversity, because if we can observe it, we understand it. And if we can understand it, we can develop it.

Sheffield United, not for the first time, have had their fair share of disappointments this season.

“Our reaction to disappointment has been outstanding all season.” — Chris Wilder earlier in 24/25

“You've got to harness this disappointment now to come fighting back”. — Chris Wilder following defeat in the play-off final.

To me, what he is describing here is psychological resilience, something we will need in 25/26.

Pinning it down

The media often use the term “resilient” to describe players and teams that perform well in the face of adversity or overcome challenges. Based on the formal definition, it describes the capacity to use personal qualities to withstand pressure, often seen when a performer learns from mistakes, adapts to challenging circumstances, and rebounds well from failures. As a quality, it is hard to pin down, but it’s clearly desirable to managers, to fans, and perhaps other players, too. But what is resilience in football?

Scouting departments will often base their assessments of players on The FA’s four corner model, which includes technical/tactical, physical, psychological and social aspects of performance. While technical and physical outputs can be measured by metrics like pass completion and distance covered, the psychological facets are much more difficult to define—they may not be measurable, but they are observable.

For example, scouts might take a view on how a player reacts to giving the ball away, what they do after conceding a goal, and what their responses are to a decision going against them. Observable behaviours in these situations can give an insight into the psychological make-up of a player, but no two scouts are likely to view these in the same way. And yet, the scouts are expected to assign a numerical score for a subjective view. That isn’t the most reliable way to measure anything. Perhaps then a more formal approach would be helpful.

Observing resilience

My research, alongside my role as a Senior Lecturer in Sport Psychology at Nottingham Trent University, is currently focused on developing an observational tool for resilience behaviours in football, to enable psychologists, analysts, coaches and scouts to have a better understanding of what to look for in their players and better assess how they respond to challenges during matches.

I had a research paper published last May, where a series of focus groups were carried out with 60 football academy staff from a variety of roles, asking them what resilience looks like on the pitch and what it doesn’t look like. For example, we found certain behaviours that are opposed to resilience, such as players hiding or starting to play safe when the pressure is on. But most importantly, the results showed that there are several distinct ways in which resilience can be demonstrated when we observe how a player acts in response to pressures or challenges.

These include:

Out Run, Out Fight, Out Play

In recent seasons, we have seen instances where players have not consistently demonstrated resilience, particularly during the 2023-24 Premier League relegation debacle, and even in the play-off final.

While we can accept that there might be physical and technical gaps between us and the top-tier teams, there are certain non-negotiable behaviours that need to be seen in a United shirt: if you lose the ball you quickly look to win it back, if a teammate makes a mistake you offer support rather than criticising, when things are going wrong you actively look to learn and adapt your approach. The “Out Run, Out Fight, Out Play” principles that are etched in the academy philosophy give a good indication that these types of behaviours are highly valued at the club.

Based on the findings from my research, scouts can formalise the way that they assess these behaviours. For example, United’s scouting team might currently be asking questions such as: Does Emil Riis hide after an error? Does Oli McBurnie’s body language tell us anything about his reactions to pressure? Does Kwame Poku rally his teammates when they’re in a tough spot? Using a behaviour analysis approach, there could be some tangible and objective evidence to answer these questions.

Importantly, resilience is also a developable quality, so this can apply to the current squad – the coaching staff can (and no doubt do) create conditions to develop these behaviours and encourage players to reflect on how they react to pressure. Part of this is related to the environment that the manager creates – Wilder often says he has “tried to make the shirt as light as possible”. In other words, creating the conditions to demonstrate these behaviours without fear.

So, what does resilience look like on the pitch? Our research suggests that there are certain indicators: instead of hiding after an error, players demand the ball again; whether we’re chasing a game or protecting a lead, they maintain their standards; when things get difficult, players try to impact the game and encourage their teammates. In a game that is increasingly looking to measure the intangibles, United could be well served in using these behavioural markers to formalise the way that resilience is assessed and developed.

As Chris Wilder said, “You’ve got to harness this disappointment now to come fighting back.” If resilience can be reliably observed and nurtured, then it becomes not just an ideal but a competitive edge. And for a club like United—always fighting to punch above its weight—that edge might make all the difference.

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