When a coach loses his cool over his players’ performances, it may be time to contemplate the “hairdyer treatment.”

Inspiring and motivating his or her players to perform at a given level is one of a football manager’s main responsibilities. They must find a method to lift them up if they fall short of that.

Finding the correct balance can be challenging, especially when there are so many different people in the dressing room, each with their own peculiarities and sensitivities.

Some players respond better to a direct approach while others require patient cajoling over time.

A manager may, on occasion, feel obligated to administer what is known as “the hairdryer treatment.”

So what is it exactly? The “hairdryer treatment” is examined by GOAL, along with some of its most well-known practitioners.

In football, a manager will typically give a player or group of players the “hairdryer treatment”—an irate verbal reprimand—while they are in the dressing room.

It is a straightforward metaphor that compares such a diatribe to the agitated and noisy air emitted by a hairdryer.

The “hairdryer treatment” is often verbal in nature, although occasionally things can get heated and lead to physical altercations between parties.

While managers who are enraged with their players during or after games are typically linked with giving them a dressing down, players can also do so, and it need not take place in the locker room.