Don't Get Too Creative

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We’re going to talk about player creativity and flair. How to create and foster a player with flair, what happened to flair players, and are coaches beating the flair out of players? All of those questions and more will be talked about this week.

Neat Reads

Neat Reads is a segment where I share an article or post that interests me and relates to our weekly theme.

This week I have a few things for you to add to your reading list as well as a podcast episode. 

James Beattie wrote about player movement in his newsletter titled “Creativity: The Role of the Receiver.” He talks about the importance of movement from more traditional forwards like Erling Haaland and Robin Van Persie, as well as hybrid forwards like Thiery Henry and Timo Werner.

I wrote about what I do to develop creative players who use their flair effectively over on my Medium page.

And finally, I’d like to share a podcast episode that was recommended to me by my friend Luke. 

It’s an episode of Inside The Coaches’ Room podcast that features Saul Isaksson-Hurst, an english coach who prides himself on developing elite one versus one players. It was a great listen from someone who I’ve respected for a long time.

In Defense of the Flair Player

I’ve got into a lot of discussions about managing flair players here in Malawi. The difference between the Malawian flair player and one from a more developed country is that the flair player in Malawi is celebrated like a goal is. 

The crowd in Malawi gets excited when a player can nutmeg someone or do a neat trick. This, in my opinion, is largely affected by the fact that there are so few goal posts set up so most Malawian football is just a big possession game. 

Players grow up playing on dirt pitches and only the top flight players get to train on grass (which still isn’t very good grass.)

So, we talk about flair players a lot here. 

I think that coaches and analysts are against the traditional flair player because they perform too many high risk low reward scenarios that end up losing the ball. When youth players are told that they made a mistake by trying to beat their defender they understand it as something to avoid so that they don’t get yelled at by their coach again.

When youth players are repeatedly told that they’re making mistakes they practice their natural flair less and less, and eventually become so ineffective because they haven’t been given the environment to refine their flair. 

This problem is consistent in youth sports where players are told that certain actions are right and wrong by coaches who don’t understand the potential harm being done. 

Where I sympathize with the flair player is that as football fans we want to be entertained and the flair player believes it is their job to entertain, even if it’s subconscious.

I find that I’m increasingly having to debate with myself about what I like to watch and what I need to coach because what I need to coach isn’t always fun for me to watch. 

Perhaps ultimate player freedom isn’t realistic and I just need to accept that. 

Exercises of the Week

Exercise of the Week is a segment where I share some of my favorite relevant exercises I have used in training before.

I’ve used the above game and conditions a countless number of times. It’s as effective as it is simple. Players don’t need to spend much time learning the rules and can just focus on having fun with whatever condition you’ve given them. 

My old technical director and now mentor Darryl Hellam explained that player creativity can be taught by limiting how many options they have. Darryl was inspired by the Brazilian national team of the late 90s and early 00s because of their ability to manipulate the ball - so he learned how to do it. 

The four goals are important because I find that defending teams will just crowd around the single goal they need to defend. Giving the defending team a second goal to defend gives the attacking team a chance to entice the defending team to press them one direction. 

Coaches Corner

Coaches Corner is a segment where I ramble about training this week and answer some questions I get from Substack or Twitter.

Ramblings

This is the part of the newsletter where I say how stupid flair players are. It is almost infuriating to see players go and isolate a defender one versus one and lose the duel because of a poor touch, a move too extravagant, or the worst offender of them all going backwards. 

We’ve coined the term “The Malawi Turn” here at Ascent Soccer. It’s when an attacker goes one versus one against a defender and turns around to go the way they just came from. 

It happens at trials we do when scouting. It happens in our academy. It happens at the top flight of Malawian football in the TNM Super League. We cannot escape the Malawi turn.

Most of our flair players are fast and agile. I would prefer if they used their athleticism and first touch to beat a defender when receiving a ball to feet when they’re running than to kill the ball momentum completely and stand up their defender. 

The decision to stand up their defender is just another chance that the defender has to win the ball. 

In moments of settled possession and the one versus one is slower, the decision to stand up the defender makes more sense. The attacker entices the defender to come forward which leaves space in behind the defender for the attacker with the ball to dribble to or to pass to for an oncoming teammate. 

Teaching this to Canadians was easy but they just couldn’t execute the movements. They understood it but their movement was slow and easy to read.

Teaching this to Malawians was easy but they just couldn’t understand when to use the ball in their stride versus standing up their defender. They can do the movements well but can’t do it in the right situations.

I traded one problem for another.

Q&A 

What is your go to exercise when planning a session?

I don’t really have a go to exercise. I have some favorites, sure. But I don’t think I have one exercise that stays in all or most exercises. So, instead I’ll do my best to explain how I create an exercise or how I choose to use one I found online/from a friend/coach.

I begin planning my sessions with a very analytical perspective. I look at the concept as it’s whole and break it down to its most basic level. The most basic level means unopposed with anywhere from three to five steps. 

Once that’s done I think about the level my players are at. If they can execute the most basic level of an idea I make it harder or more opposed. This could be done by increasing the speed at which the exercise is done, limiting touches or including mannequins or targets that need to be hit in a goal. 

After that it gets closer and closer to a real match with a few conditions to keep the game relevant to our theme. I try to make sure that the exercises don’t go beyond four or five people per team so that everyone gets enough touches on the ball,  but for some ideas this isn’t realistic or possible.

For older groups I’ll move into games with seven or eight players per team. This is only done when the players are either preparing to move into results driven environments or are already there. I haven’t had to do this often. 

Thanks for the question Luke.

Leave a comment this week and I’ll answer it in the next newsletter!

Conclusion

Thanks for reading this week!

Go check out James’ article and tell him I sent you. I’m sure he’d appreciate it. While you’re back up at the top of this week's newsletter, be sure to check out my piece on flair and creative players, as well as the Inside the Coaches’ Room podcast.

I’m always interested to hear your thoughts and ideas so please feel free to send me a message on Twitter or leave a comment above in the Q&A section.

I’d greatly appreciate it if you shared this newsletter with a friend or every single person you have ever met.

Thanks for reading The Weekly Rondo! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work.

See you next week! 

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