While French football is just embarking on a program to improve performance in penalty shootouts, Liverpool are already further along in their thinking. Before the final of the Carabao Cup (English League Cup) scheduled for Sunday February 25 against Chelsea (4 p.m.), the media The Athletic reports that the Reds called on German neuroscientists during the week to help players prepare for a possible penalty shootout.
The neuroscientists in question, Niklas Hausler and Patrick Hantschke, have been working with Liverpool for two and a half years, as reported by RMC Sport before the 2022 Champions League final at the Stade de France. Their job includes attaching electrodes to players’ heads to measure their brain activity, with the aim of helping them get into their optimal mental state when hitting the ball.
“Manage distractions”
“We provide these tools so that when a penalty is called, the player is able to deal with all the distractions around him and knows exactly what he needs to do to score that goal,” explained Niklas Hausler.
In 2022, Liverpool won the Carabao Cup and FA Cup finals, both times against Chelsea… and on penalties. Of the 18 attempts made, 17 were successful by Jürgen Klopp’s players. Only Sadio Mané failed against Édouard Mendy. Fortunately for the Senegalese, César Azpilicueta had failed before him on the Blues side and Mason Mount had done the same at the start of the sudden death period.
Original article published on RMC Sport
2024-02-24 10:46:11
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