The football coaching world can be a very subjective place. There are hundreds of thousands of videos and articles online, which deliver all types of messages. These could be recipes on how to play a certain way, or there could be explanations on how Guardiola sets his Manchester City team up.
What is apparent in a lot of this content, is that the message is largely on ‘how’ a coach did, or is doing something.
The question now for you is, by reading and observing all of this available content, could it help you become a better coach?
While observing ‘how’ another coach implements a certain idea, the observer in question needs to understand a number of things;
Are these your players?
Are your external factors the same?
Do the abilities in your squad replicate that of said players?
The recording or passage of text, is someone else’s subjective observation. Does this correlate with your application?
….the list could go on…..
While only you know the answers to these questions and it would be extremely rare, if you were able to say ‘yes’, to any of the above.
So, now where would your approach take you in order for you to discover objective truth, in order to help yourself improve? By using objectivity as a starting point, you know that what your processing is truth and can be applied to your players, regardless of their abilities.
A number of methods you could use, in searching for an objective starting point could be;
Learning what the game of football is
What can be universally applied in South America, as well as Asia?
What are all footballers taking part in, independent of their abilities?
Is the objective of the game the same across the globe?
By answering these questions to yourself, you will see that you have given yourself an objective starting point. This isn’t going to improve you as a coach over night, but it what it will do, is give you further understanding of the game itself.
If you know that the game is 11 vs 11 and the objective of the game is to score at least 1 more goal than the opponent, then you already have a foundation to build on.
How do you ensure you know what your processing is objective, though?
Is it someone’s interpretation of the game, through their own eyes? Do they use words like, I use or I think??
Is the language they’re using non-contextual? In other words, are they using descriptions that aren’t in action language, non – use of verbs?
Is the report or imagery, purely their own description of a certain scenario?
If any of your answers to the above are ‘yes’, you will be falling into the whirlwind of subjective jargon that has taken over the coaching world.
Learn about what football is, alter your lenses and change your viewpoint. By doing this, you will understand so much more and really be able to improve your players! Copy and paste coaching and flavours of the month, can only get you so far. What are you going to do when you reach your glass ceiling?
Every week a coach takes to the field, to coach their respective team and in some cases, leads them in a fixture in the following days.
For some this is voluntary and others, it’s paid. One thing that is the same for both coaches, is what they’re coaching…or should be, in this case.
At the start of the training session, a coach should have some sort of plan that can be used to execute a given intention. Whether this is achieved or not, is another discussion, but as long as the intention is there, we have a starting point.
The next question is, what are the coaches intentions based upon? Was it last weeks result, pressure from the parents or just a ‘feeling’, that the coach had? While none of the previous mentioned are objective, they are familiar as we know and are often used as a subjective starting point.
Each coach has there own application of doing things (subjective), but if you also use a subjective factor from outside of facts (objectivity), you will eventually encounter some chaos. Subjectivity + subjectivity…..
By using this start point, you are also leaving many things open to interpretation and why would your opinion be more suited, than some else’s?
From reading the above passage, a subjective starting point, probably isn’t the best idea. If you did use this approach, my question would be; what are you coaching and how did you come to that decision?
Firstly, before any coach steps onto the touch line or into any training arena, they should have an understanding of the sport that they are participating in. If a coach doesn’t know a lot about football (bare brain), what could the players possibly learn from this person?
Imagine that someone walked into a cockpit of an aeroplane, with no experience or very minimal training. How could they possibly begin to understand the job that they have signed up for?
If you take the game of football for example, the weight on the shoulders of the coach is extremely different that that of the pilot. As we know, if a coach makes a wrong decision, no one will die….
We can’t use this as an excuse though and must have a higher bar. How could we achieve this?
Coaches will have to take a certification of some sort, before being ‘licensed’ and allowed to lead a certain group. These certifications are different, depending on what federation you use and what pathway you to choose to take. One thing they all should have in common though, is what content they provide.
At the end of the course and in most cases, coaches are given their certification, independent of their competency levels.
Back on the grass with their respective clubs, the coaches now need to deliver a training session that will aid the learning of all and hopefully improve performance.
What starting point does the coach need for this?
What is the coach going to instruct and how is it going to effect all players?
What information do you know on the given topic?
If you don’t know the ‘what’, how can you expect to coach the ‘what’? The ‘what’ in our case is football….
This question should be reflected on, by all coaches at every opportunity available. Stepping onto the pitch and coaching can be daunting enough, but going onto the field and not knowing ‘what to do’ or ‘what to say’, leaves you in a very difficult position.
Communication in football is of the highest order, so how important is the language that we use?
Throughout our everyday lives, our brain filters through millions of stimuli that are received through different means of communication. This then enforces some kind of decision and then, execution can be made.
In football, there are lots of external stimuli that could effect a players decision. These include the weather, the referee, opponents and the pitch for example. All of these things aren’t within our control, but still have an effect on what we may do or how, in a certain situation.
One thing all of us do have an element of control over, is our voice. Sometimes we are provoked into a response, or even deliver information when requested to a respective recipient. Ultimately, we chose what we say and how we say it.
Now, within a football context, verbal information can be delivered from many departments, but today we’ll look at the relationship a coach could have with their players.
During a game, the coach will at some point give some verbal communication to his/her players. Whether this vocabulary is useful is another conversation, but the language this coach uses, could determine how the respective player understands the situation and then acts. So, the question is, what type of language should be used?
Language is a tool to express yourself in a certain situation. Whether you say what someone wants to hear (confirmation) or disagree (falsification), it is a very powerful method of communication, especially when instructing.
When you use verbal language, you are communicating and providing a stimuli for others. This stimuli is then interpreted by the receiver and they can then decide, on what response they give and how they do it.
This all sounds extremely simple, but by now, you should understand that it isn’t….
If a coach uses language that isn’t related to the game itself, we can call this non-contextual. Some examples of this could be, ‘sharpness’, ‘confidence’ or ‘work rate’. As you can see from these words, it doesn’t actually describe anything within a football context and could lead to confusion. If we zoom in further, ‘sharpness’, really doesn’t describe what is really meant.
“Our no.9 lacked sharpness today”…If you were told this comment, what would you think? The comment itself is too vague and will create areas of uncertainty. We can call these grey areas, where it could mean 1 thing, but could also mean something else.
To give this comment clarification, we could say; “Our no.9 wasn’t explosive, with his runs off of the ball today”. This now gives the receiver a much better idea of what the coach is describing, just by using different language.
A few small lessons we can learn here, are;
The clearer the language you use, the less uncertainty you create
By using ‘action’ language, the receiver can visualise what is being said
Using non-contextual words will create uncertainty
Say exactly, what you see
What you can now understand from this blog post, is that language can be the root cause of many problems, but can also be a tool to give you a higher chance of success. Look at other professions such as medical, military or aviation…how important is language to these professionals? We should be following suit in football and raising the bar with our communication.
To finish, reflect on what language you use and how effective it is?
Throughout your coaching journey you will have come across the format of small sided games (SSG), whether it be in foundation age groups (5-11), or youth development age groups (12-16). Within the senior game SSG’s are also used for many different purposes, that will be highlighted below.
Foundation age groups
The match format widely used for these age groups is 5 vs 5 and 7 vs 7, including the goalkeepers. A 9 vs 9 format is used at the latter end of this process.
Youth Development age groups
The match format used for these age groups in 9 vs 9 and 11 vs 11, including the goalkeepers.
Senior age groups
The match format as we know, is 11 vs 11 including the goalkeepers.
A SSG can be defined as smaller format teams (3 vs 3, 4 vs 4) with different methods of scoring. This could be;
Goals
End lines
Gates
By having a directional practice and a reference point to score, you can then coach players within a context, that is seen closer to the match day. Without a goal at each end of the practice area, it will reduce the decisions a player can make and that of the realism, on the main stage.
Here are some benefits for using SSG;
More touches of the ball
Quicker turnovers
Higher speed of football actions
To overload players
By understanding the above 4 points (there are plenty more), you can see that there is an increase in demand, of what a player will have to do.
More touches of the ball – there are less players on each team, so a higher chance of getting ball contact
Quicker turnovers – the playing area will be smaller, thus enforcing less space and time
Higher speed of football actions – by having pressure applied quicker, it will enforce a decision to be made sooner
To overload players – fatigue will set in a lot quicker, so they player will have to control their thinking
The benefits that SSG are clear to see. But, if you don’t have a scoring system, you may fall into the trap of conditioning another type of behaviour.
Typically you could end up using a scoring system, based upon how many passes a team make. The issues with this, are that you’re conditioning the players to think that passing will score you a goal. Passing is just a tool to use in game play and doesn’t guarantee, that it will end up in creating a goalscoring opportunity.
In SSG there are many opportunities to pass the ball, most probably over shorter distances, so the success rate maybe higher. It could seem easy to reward this, but as a coach can you guide your players to use this tool, in order to create the goalscoring opportunities.
The next time you plan to use a SSG within your training session, consider the above points and see if it has any positive effects on your outcomes.
The exciting moment comes at the end of a training week and you wish to pick your team, ready for the game ahead.
Before we discuss the formation, we really need to understand what it actually is? Traditionally the formation is the arrangement of players that will take the field in that given game. The ‘shape’ is announced and with it, players given a specific position to fulfil this ‘structure’.
From previous experience (coaching, management and an avid watcher of games), I’ve witnessed the following, that could be falsified;
The formation is often announced without a goalkeeper – “Today we’re playing 4-3-3”
It’s only mentioned in 1 moment of the game, usually in what it would look like while attacking
The formation has been picked before the players are considered. Thus ‘forcing’ a player into a certain position
Using a rigid format can take decision making away from players, as they may feel that they have to stay in a certain part of the field
There isn’t much emphasis of when the team, doesn’t have the ball
While all the above isn’t exclusive to a certain team, or a full accurate measurement of every coach, formations could be somewhat misunderstood.
When selecting a formation to use in your game, it could be wise to consider the following first;
The playing ability of your squad and that of the starting eleven – Understanding what your players are/are not capable of, should be analysed first. This then gives you a firmer starting point and an idea for what’s next….
Team intentions – This is the application of your team and how they will try to do something. This is their ‘intention’, when they’re defending, attacking or transitioning. By doing this, you can narrow down the decisions of the players – thus meaning a higher chance of getting one correct – and it can allow your team to be more predictable (better communication)
After this, the formation can be introduced to the team….
The formation is a tool in order to help the team intentions come to life. If you had a team intention of depth before width, more specifically – passing the ball long into the no.9, who is only 5ft 4”, while playing a deep 1-4-5-1, you may struggle to gain success. So, firstly you need to ensure that the team intentions align with the playing personnel that you have at your disposal, followed by a formation that could allow more chance of this happening.
During match play, it is safe to say that the formation will change almost, immediately. This could be due to both attacking and defending intentions of the team, as well as the position of the ball. So why are formations given a higher element of focus?
When selecting the team, coaches could be concerned of what spaces will need defending and which ones will need exploiting, when attacking. Or, it could be the fact that ‘choosing’ a formation is easy and used with a subjective starting point. Taking into consideration of what spaces will need attention is important, but it shouldn’t be treated as an objective in itself.
The overall objective of the game is to score at least 1 more goal than the opponent and take victory, so the formation is only a tool, in order to help you in achieving this.
To conclude maybe consider the following when you’re preparing for your next game;
Player abilities > tactical intentions > team formation.
An area that can be used as a massive marginal game if executed properly, but why don’t more take it seriously, in preparation?
After recently talking to a coach at a well known professional club, he highlighted to me that out of the last 4 managers he has worked with, there was only 1 who practised these religiously. The reward? Their conversion rate in both offence and defensive moments of the game changed dramatically and this propelled the team into a position, not previously seen.
In my previous management role, set pieces were given time on the training ground and the attention before kick off. I highlighted our intentions regularly, for attacking and defending corners, throw ins and free kicks, which allowed us to be more predictable, in the hope of gaining an advantage. These rewards were seen and before the season was stopped due to COVID, we had scored 12 of our 28 goals from attacking corners. We also had a centre back in 2nd place of the scoring charts, with a further 2 other defenders in the top 5. Is this relevant information to all? No it isn’t, but what it does prove, is that if you give time to this part of the game (it should really be equal to everything else, as it still part of the GAME!), you could see some positive outcomes.
The intentions were the key part to this process and using the right players, to individually apply their own decisions, made this work even successfully. I took the following into consideration (a few points);
Attacking corners
In swinging or out swinging?
The area of the penalty box to exploit?
Creating space for the best ‘headers’ of the ball
Counter attack prevention
Defending corners
Using a mixed scheme of man marking and zonal coverage
Awareness of the best ‘headers’ on the opposition team
Counter attack exploitation
Attacking throw ins
Creation of space
Creating overloads
Defending throw ins
Making the attack predictable
Keeping the opposition in one part of the field
Attacking free kicks
Convert an opportunity
Create an opportunity, to then convert
Defending free kicks
What type of wall do we need?
Can we exploit them on a counter attack?
While this list isn’t exclusive, there were many other decisions that were taken into consideration and after 6/7 games, the players showed competencies that allowed us to progress further.
We could then add a 2nd different plan to our attacking corners for example or revaluate the progress with our throw in’s.
In the professional game, you can now see set piece coaches that are working full time and taking this area of the game seriously. It does beg the question, why all clubs aren’t doing this and maximising every opportunity to get better? Learning of managers and coaches that don’t consider this in their match preparation, leaves a void within their responsibilities!
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