Hi Sam

i think just striking up a conversation with him about your own story

maybe he can resonate with his own start in football.

once that relationship has developed then maybe work on his confidence on believing in himself again where matches are concerned.

there is always a place for someone, somewhere in football as long as they can feel a part of it

all the best

lee

Hi Sam 

I think the conversation that Lee referring to is a very good idea because when you talk to the player personally about his problem I think he will feel that you the coach is caring about him and you want him really to regain confidence and in addition to telling him about your own story , you can tell him that football is for all and it is for every one want to play regardless his level in performing in the sport and you can encourage him by keeping give him opportunities to play in match day and may be give him some gifts or prizes for his performance regardless he playing well or with lake of confidence .

I signed a player at the latter end of last season that had been released from an academy, my approach to him was different to the other players in the team. Once I had established the reasons for his release I set targets for training and for each game. He was a striker who had lacked confidence, he was unable to make that decisive decision whether to shoot or pass. I told him that if he took more than one touch in the box he would be closed down, also that as soon as he could see the 18 yard box that he should shoot. I told him that no one would recriminate him for missing or fro not passing. After a few weeks there was no improvement. I pulled him aside at the end of training an explained that in the last game I had counted the amount of shots he had taken as opposed to the number he potentially could have. We discussed his thinking on a few opportunities he could recall. HIs mindset was that of fear of being reprimanded by team mates and me. I explained that I would deal with any decent by players and that I would only pull him uo again on the number of opportunities that he didn't take. the following game he scored an hat trick and a scorcher into the top right and corner. He went on to score thirty goals in the rest of the season and has moved on to another academy. My parting words were, there is no such thing as a selfish striker, that's your job to score goals...