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Mental Skills Toolkit:

Here’s How to Be More Creative in Soccer (It’s Not What you Expect)

Published: July 10, 2022
Updated: February 22, 2023
By: Jenn Ireland

Category: Confidence, Growth-Mindset, On the Soccer Field, Perfectionism, Performing under Pressure

Being a more creative soccer player is a common goal shared by many players across all age groups, genders and levels of competition. Many soccer players struggle with this skill and want to know how to be more creative in soccer.

So, what’s going on here? Why is creativity a skill that so many soccer players want SO BADLY but they just can’t seem to incorporate into their game consistently and with confidence?

Here’s the truth – many players are actually limiting their own ability to play creatively by holding themselves to impossibly high, unrealistic standards of perfection on the soccer field. Because of these expectations they have of themselves, and the pressure that comes with, they are unable to challenge themselves, push themselves or take risks in games because they are afraid of failing.

When soccer players feel pressured to live up to this impossibly high standard of not making mistakes, they hold themselves back and are unable to play to their full potential. When soccer players have a mindset of not wanting to try anything unless they are 100% sure they can pull it off, they kill all capacity for creativity.

What IS creativity in soccer?

Before we dive into how to be more creative in soccer, let’s briefly talk about WHAT creativity in soccer actually is.

How to be more creative in soccer has much to do with decision making and problem solving. Soccer coaches can design a style of play and and teach their players how to execute tactics, but once players are on the field in a live game environment, a player’s ability to make decisions, adjust and solve problems is what makes a great, creative soccer player.

“Players are faced with an endless series of problem-solving micro-moments during games. These micro-moments could last anywhere from a split-second (for example, controlling the ball in very tight spaces or a goalkeeper reacting to a sudden shot on goal) to a handful of seconds (for example, a midfielder moving with the ball looking for passing options). These micro-moments force a player to make immediate decisions about how to solve them. And as the standard of play increases, the player has to use increasingly creative ways to deal with the micro-moments.” – James, Viking Barca blog

Essentially, creativity in soccer is a player’s ability to solve soccer problems and make things happen. To be a playmaker. Soccer problems meaning: how do we keep possession, how do we move the ball forward, how do we win the ball back, how to we get in behind the backline, etc.

Being more creative in soccer also isn’t something that just happens when you personally have the ball. Much of what makes creative players GREAT is their ability to adjust and manipulate the space with movement OFF THE BALL.

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The difference is pressure

Now that we’ve defined creativity, let’s dive back into the issue at hand: how to be more creative in soccer.

As we said, being more creative in soccer is a common goal shared by many players. An interesting piece of the puzzle though is that many of these players don’t have trouble playing more creatively in training, just in games! In practice, they can push themselves, take chances and work on new skills. But in games, not a chance in heck are they going to risk it.

The difference is PRESSURE.

Pressure is the reason that soccer players struggle to play creatively in games. Pressure to perform, pressure to not make mistakes and pressure to live up to impossibly high expectations on game day is what kills creativity.

It kills creativity because the pressure can be so strong that it inhibits players from playing freely, confidently and with joy. Joy and enthusiasm for the game are very important pieces of creativity and joy goes straight out the window the second you start to feel the heavy weight of expectations and pressure.

It's not you, you've been taught to be this way

Creativity in soccer is especially difficult for players of the female gender because social conditioning has specifically led them toward self-criticism, people-pleasing and fear of failure. Toxic perfectionism in soccer also runs rampant and is a major cause of players setting unrealistic expectations of themselves, leading to feelings of inadequacy and failure when they don’t perform and live up to their (impossible) standard.

A part of this is that players can also get caught up in what other’s think, in needing a certain amount of external validation in order to feel good about themselves. They can become so afraid of letting down their teammates, their coaches and their parents that they, unknowingly, completely block their ability to be creative, play freely and with authentic passion and drive. They self-defeat.

So – you can see why creativity might be difficult right? Experimenting, taking risks and trying new, challenging things is NEVER going to happen in a game if you are constantly plagued by these things.

How to be more creative in soccer

Creative soccer players have many elements to their game that make them creative. Beyond healthy expectations of themselves (which we’ll get into a minute), they also have:

game intelligence and awareness
strong technical ability to execute in tight spaces
confidence and belief in their abilities
good field vision and decision making skills
they don’t hold themselves to standards of perfection

This last one is what we’re talking about here. Soccer players that play very creativity don’t hold themselves to standards of perfection. In fact, they even understand that the more they push themselves to be creative and playmake, the MORE MISTAKES THEY ARE LIKELY TO MAKE. This is because the more you push yourself, the more involved in the game you will be. And the more involved you are in the game, the more mistakes you will make, AND THE MORE SUCCESS YOU WILL HAVE! They go hand in hand.

The pressure that you are putting on yourself to execute with perfection and not make mistakes is HOLDING YOU BACK from leveling up your soccer game. You are getting in your own way by having these impossibly high, unrealistic expectations of yourself. Which – btw – are IMPOSSIBLE to reach anyhow because you can’t control every element of the game.

If you are setting impossibly high, unrealistic expectations of yourself, leading to feelings of inadequacy and failure, then you are dealing with toxic perfectionism. Moving away from toxic perfectionism is how to be more creative in soccer.

You can move away from unhealthy perfectionism and be more creative in soccer by changing the expectations that you have of yourself on game day. This is much easier said than done of course (and requires a dedicated, mental skills training plan) but it is something that you CAN do if you put your mind to it and get invested.

A change of expectations

High, but HEALTHY and PRODUCTIVE, expectations of ourselves is one of the biggest things you can work on changing if you want to be more creative in soccer.

This means consciously choosing to move away from expectations of perfection, and instead choosing to focus on new objectives. Objectives based on this you CAN CONTROL. While you can’t control the expectations that others have of you, you CAN control the expectations you choose to place on yourself.

Controllable objectives are things that you can use to gauge your success at a game. They are manageable, SPECIFIC actions that you have the power to do in a game, yourself, no matter what everyone else is doing. They are conscious choices that you can always make, and whether or not they happen is completely up to you. The focus on the PROCESS of improvement and not the outcome of the game.

Examples of controllable objectives:

checking your shoulder
making runs off the ball
communicating
recovering on transition
effort and work rate
minimizing touches

By focusing on controllable objectives and working to meet these objectives in a game, you are changing your definition of success in a match from one of ‘not making mistakes’ to one of executing the things you can control, things that can help you impact the game positively. This puts the power in YOUR hands (the power to feel good about your performance) because every piece of what you are expecting from yourself is within your control and not dependent on anyone else.

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Giving the green light to creativity

Pressure is a red light, it stops creativity in its tracks.

What’s the remedy then? What’s the green light for creativity? The green light is awareness and ability to finally recognize what is going on. The green light is choosing to try and look at things differently. The green light is working toward mental toughness AND self-compassion. The green light is getting invested and diving in headfirst into mental skills training (such as Expand Your Game’s transformational, 10-week mentorship program designed specifically for female soccer players).

When you can truly commit to progression and focus on the CONTROLLABLE process instead of on impossibly high, unrealistic UNCONTROLLABLE parts of the game – you’ve found the secret to unlocking your creativity.

Focusing on controllable objectives, redefining what success looks like, and choosing to leave behind toxic perfectionism is what removes the walls around creativity and lets it flow freely into your game. It is how to be more creative in soccer.

GREEN LIGHT.

Hi everyone! I’m Jenn and I create content to help female soccer players and coaches maximize individual and team potential by developing healthy mindset skills. Join other subscribers and sign up for the newsletter for all my best tips and advice!

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Hi everyone!

I'm Jenn, a USSF C-licensed youth soccer coach, mental skills coach & founder here at Expand Your Game. I created this site because it is the site I needed when I was a soccer player.

About me: I am a former newspaper photojournalist who loves downtempo electronic music, guacamole and books of every sort. And of course soccer! On days off you can find me researching tiny farms in Portugal , tossing a frisbee for my dog, or tending to my growing collection of indoor plants.