In an age where social media is ever so important in the day-to-day lives of society, it's arguably unavoidable for football players to see instant reactions from the millions of fans who follow the game.
As recent as early this decade, social media didn’t have the influence on society that it does today. For top footballers back then, it was a simple choice of whether to pick the newspaper up or put it down, or whether to change the channel on your TV or not.
However, in the world of football today, social media makes it a lot harder to avoid the noise of the critics and focus on the next game.
Although a lot of a players are obliged to maintain an online presence due to their individual brand deals, it is still possible to avoid them personally as some players use an agency to take care of their accounts. Many, however, do not.
Speaking about Jordan Pickford’s recent dip in form, Chris Kirkland slammed the effect that social media can have on a player’s game.
“Get off that [social media] straightaway. I was never on that when I played, I wouldn’t have been that popular anyway on it, but I just thought, you know, you get hammered enough. I very rarely read the papers because you can have 10 brilliant games, make a mistake, and you get nailed,” Kirkland told GiveMeSport.
“And it does affect you. Listen, you read anything bad about you it doesn't matter who you are, it plays on your mind.
“So he [Pickford] needs to come off all that, don't read the papers, don't look at the news, knuckle down in training, work hard in the gym and wait for his chance again.”
The difference between newspapers and social media is that you only receive the opinion of a few people in a newspaper, but with social media, it’s thousands of reactionary fans voicing exactly how they feel directly into your comments.
Kirkland’s point is clear. It doesn’t matter who you are, it plays on your mind. Depsite all of their fame and wealth, professional football players are, at the end of the day, still people.