Stick or twist?

by Adam Clark | Aug 16, 2022 | Coaching Blog

When the going gets tough and results aren’t going as first envisaged, there could be the temptation to quash all your previous work and go back to ‘basics’. At this moment in time, there is a well known Premier League outfit that hasn’t had the best start to their campaign. The media are now asking lots of questions, with one being about the system that the manager is using. Here we will discuss the pro’s and con’s, that face this manager and the processes he may have to take, to implement change…..

At the start of pre-season a new manager can come into a club and can start getting to grips with the culture of the workplace, as well as exploring what ideas may/may not work. Previously, we have discussed the importance of taking your players abilities as a starting point, before applying tactical principles and formations.
Once the manager in question is underway with his new team, he will of course start conveying a message about ‘how’ he wishes to set up his team and their intentions when playing. Pre-season usually compromises of a programme that lasts around 6-8 weeks and varies massively, depending on what club you are at. (Why it varies is due to the application of each manager and with most, their subjective application coming first – “we need to run 60km this week to get top fit!?”)

For this example let’s say that the manager wants to play a certain style of football and is working around the clock to implement his ideas. Days and training sessions pass, with around 6 games taking place to improve football fitness. During this time of the season, there should be a clear idea of the objective(s) you wish to achieve and how you intend to reach these.

Throughout pre-season there maybe some ‘surprise’ performances where your team may not perform as well as you wanted, or there was a negative match result. Either way, there isn’t usually much attention given, as it’s just ‘pre-season’ and the players are getting ‘minutes’.

These excuses are often heard and while there is no real impact from match results, the process (how) you set out for the game, should be regarded highly. These matches are ‘experiments’ and allow you to test certain hypothesis, while evaluating after to see if you set up correctly or not.

Regardless of the evaluation process (if you do this or not), the start of the season will arrive and the games begin. No matter how much work you do in pre-season, there are no guarantees that you will win. There is of course a higher chance of achieving success, if you have planned logically and have prepared your players for the unpredictability, that they are about to experience.

Fast forward to match day number 5 and to date you are yet to register a single point on the board. In professional football, the pressure would of course be building and there would be a lot of media attention. Most of the reports would no doubt be negative and as you can probably imagine, there would be talk of the manager getting removed from his position.

Onto the next game and the hope of achieving the first 3 points of the season. While the manager may not bring attention to this fact, we know that the fans will be asking if today is the day!

Before this game is due to be played, the manager will have to decide on what his intentions are for the next game and how he’ll achieve these. Work will of course been applied on the training pitch and the players would (hopefully) know. what their requirements will be to be victorious.

The question now is, does the manager stick to the exact process he has applied previously – but lost all 4 games? Or, do they abandon these principles and start a new process? The pro’s and con’s of this are explained below;

Pro’s

Players responsibility – The responsibility of the players is removed and the manager is now signalling, that it is very much his problem and is now attempting to fix it
Manager acknowledging that change maybe needed – By changing the way things are being done, this would signal that the manager identifies that something hasn’t worked and is now intending to change it

Con’s

Team communication – This takes a lot of time to build and the longer that the process is given to improve, the higher chance of it getting better. Changing something at the first sign of a struggle, will effect the communication across the field
Loss of trust – By changing what the manager initially conveyed, he/she could be showing signs of not believing in the initial process, which then effects the trust. If the manager doesn’t believe, then how would you expect the players too?
Listening to all of the ‘noise’ – Outside of the football club, the media have been applying a lot of external attention on what is happening on the pitch. By changing things, it could show that these outlets are now causing discomfort and the manager is losing control
A sign of pressure – The first sign of pressure building and acknowledging that things are now getting tough, is changing principles amongst all of the negative attention. This could look like a ‘reaction’ to what has been caused…..

While there could be a lot more to add to both of these lists, upon reflection it’s clear to see that the con’s of changing amongst a negative period, outweigh the pro’s.

The manager should revaluate the players abilities, adapt his tactical principles and maybe consider a change in formation. By doing this, the initial hypotheses could still be used, but it has been adapted to cope with the challenges, that have already been faced.

Maybe, in this situation the manager has to stick firmly to his beliefs, even though it could cost him his job……

Team talks

by Adam Clark | Aug 1, 2022 | Coaching Blog

The moment arrives just before the game, or even during it, where you as a coach or manager have to provide some sort of information for your players. Every team will have these talks (or we can call them meetings), to deliver, discuss and feedback on certain events.

At any level of football, there has to be some sort of guidance that the players must understand. To summarise on how you could possibly structure your talks and maximise this opportunity, I’ve listed some areas, for you to consider;

Intentions – Before any meeting, you should have an idea of what the outcomes are, that you wish to achieve. If these aren’t clear, then you’re simply guiding your players into a random direction with no clear end goal.
Having the outcomes set, will allow you to describe the process that you may wish to use to get there. These intentions (what) should align with your end goal and the behaviours (how) of your players should contribute.

Structure – The structure of your information should be planned, with considerations on how much you will provide, within a certain situation. If you are working with under 7 players, this will differ to that of senior players. Why? The attention span of a child and adult is obviously huge and the information (verbal/non-verbal) that you provide, could easily overload someones brain. The consequence of this, is that the unconscious brain will go to sleep and the players are consciously questioning what you’re saying.
When planning what you wish to say, maybe consider how much of this is relevant, needed and how many words you use to get the message across. Keep it simple!

Language – It’s half time and your team is losing 2-0. While some players haven’t performed badly, there are 4 or 5 players that need to perform better football actions, to contribute to the team intentions. How do you address this problem within the group? Do you speak to the team first and look at the communication between players, or do you immediately zoom into the players, that in your eyes, aren’t performing well?
While learning more about how you could structure your talks, the language that you use to convey this message, is vitally important.

If you use non-contextual language, then you won’t be describing any of the potential problems that may have been identified, which then leads you into further problems.

Example – If you address the changing room and tell the team that they aren’t sharp enough, then you aren’t describing anything within a football context or even explaining what happened. The consequence here is, that you could have 16 players with 16 interpretations, of what you wanted to convey.

The solution, say what you see and use universal football language. The receiver will then be able to visualise clearly what you’re saying and get closer to executing your request.

Overload – This occurs when there is so much external stimuli, the brain will feel like it can’t cope. What would you do in this situation? Allow your attention to drift away – think about what you’re having for dinner or what you have planned for work next week?
While these suggestions are only a myth, this could well happen in your team talks on a regular basis. The consequence here, could be that your players ‘fall asleep’ and you are merely just talking without saying anything!

As mentioned above, keep the information clear, short and concise. This will allow your players to digest the information, visualise and then, the opportunity to execute what is needed.

Emotions – Everyone has and will have, different emotional responses to situations. This is a type of human behaviour and can often display how someone maybe feeling non-verbally.
You may have heard of a term such as, “in the heat of the moment”, meaning at that given time, things may have got out of control and something happened that wasn’t planned.
Using this term, doesn’t excuse someone from behaving inappropriately and obviously, all actions have a consequence.
If you weren’t happy with a decision, or a behaviour that your players were or are displaying, consider the impact it has on your team intentions and if you can help them align with this. There is no need to shout, swear or even get angry with players, as this then gets personal and massively detracts from what you want to achieve.

To summarise, the conversations I’ve had about team talks in the past, have all been varied. This is your subjective application (how) of the objective reference of what you wish to achieve. Consider what your intentions are and how your going to get there. Structure, language and behaviour can have a huge impact on your messages!