Who do we coach for?
Football: Entertainment, Development, Results
Preface
Hey guys, normally this would be for paid subscribers only but I’ve fallen behind my writing schedule. My tardiness makes for great content. Enjoy!
There is an ongoing debate that I have with myself where I question who I coach football for. Yes, at the end of the day we can be introspective and say we do it for ourselves, because we love the job, the players, etc.
This is selfish because my reason for doing something is irrelevant when the future of others is in my control. I’ve long believed that when I move to top flight coaching I will struggle for a number of reasons, but mainly because who I coach football for is not clear. In truth, this mystery is extended to football outside of top flights.
Do I coach for the fans? Do I coach for the people who pay with their time or money to watch what I put on display? If yes, it is my job to entertain them and to make them happy.
Do I coach for the players? Do I coach to ensure that the potential of every player I work with is met? If yes, it is my job to put them in an environment that allows them to grow and learn as individuals.
Do I coach for the club? Do I need to ensure that every game is won, or at least not lost, in order for the club to achieve as high a standing as possible and as much prize money as possible? If yes, then winning is necessary above all, even at the sacrifice of long term player and club development.
This dilemma is not one shared with the best clubs in the world because the best managers in the world are able to check each box. They’re able to play entertaining football, with a young and developing team, all while accruing enough points to keep the owners happy. They’re the best coaches in the world for a reason.
For the vast majority of coaches and aspiring coaches, we will not coach at this level for a number of reasons, mostly due to lack of opportunity and not being good enough. At the aforementioned level, you are granted the resources to check each box much easier than you would be at a more realistic coaching level.
It’s at coaching with a more realistic club that creates the discussion we’re having now: who do we coach for?
Do I coach for the fans?
I always believe that I put entertainment at the forefront of every decision I make with regards to development and what we see on match day.
We are entertainers. The players are our tools. The pitch is our stage.
Entertainment can be as simple as just winning lots of games and scoring lots of goals, but that isn’t enough.
Entertainment is vague and subjective. Entertainment can be the least efficient way of doing something, like scoring a winning goal on the final day of the season in the final minute of the season, instead of wrapping the title up a few weeks in advance. It is that pure and raw excitement on a scale that cannot be obtained through systematic, machine-like match grinding.
Entertainment in football is defined by moments of both sadness and excitement, together. One is necessary for the other to exist.
Constant dread leads to resentment and constant glory leads to boredom. It’s one of the reasons why I’m finding it harder and harder to watch Manchester City, my boyhood club, play football. It is through their systematic, machine-like efficiency that they have become the best team in Premier League history, all at the cost of magical moments that no longer seem to be possible. Efficiency is not entertainment.
But I still like how it feels to win… for now.
As a coach, I never set my team up to lose, but I always set my team up to play the most exciting, eye-catching, forward-thinking style of football, often at the cost of very poor goals conceded in transition because of how many attacking players I love to use.
Fans want to be amazed. Fans are just big kids looking to you for their next smile. It is therefore our responsibility to make sure that happens.
That smile can come from beautiful football, a last minute equalizer or winner, or seeing a young academy player make their debut at senior level.
Fans want to feel like they’ve been on a journey. They want a story and they want you to tell it as long as there’s a happy ending. Whether they want to admit it or not, fans need to suffer in order to appreciate the good to its fullest — this is entertainment, the grand finale or the final act.
We need to provide that on a consistent basis, but not so consistent that it becomes stale and unpalatable. So, a change in playing style and personnel is needed to keep the club fresh and fans happy.
But what if you can’t coach a different style?
As a coach, I have believed that a fluid positionless style of play where players move in and out of each other’s positions with frequency is the most exciting football to me and the fans, while also being one that best develops young players.
However, I no longer find this fluidity to be as entertaining as I once did. It’s likely due to the overwhelming reliance on fluidity at the elite level that it has turned me off completely.
It begs the question:
If this is what is being played at top level, is avoiding this style of play preparing our players for failure?
I am now developing a new “preferred” style of play that better represents what I like to see in football now. Admittedly, it may not be the best style for player development, entertainment or results. It is simply a style that I find fun to coach and watch.
“Footballers from the street are more important than trained coaches.” — Johan Cruyff
Viewers demand to be entertained and it is my responsibility to oblige.
Do I coach for the players?
The development of the players is important, more than anyone who doesn’t coach or plays can understand. Players put a level of trust in you that isn’t really matched elsewhere.
“We will do as you say and be happy for the privilege of working with you.”
Players, youth players especially, are moldable individuals who often want to learn. They expect you to be their teacher and guide. It is our responsibility to ensure that we help them get to their destination, their potential, as efficiently as possible while still fostering that child-like love for the game.
I want every player to reach their potential — it’s what they deserve. It is in this pursuit that we must train and play in a way that fosters development.
I won’t pretend to know what the absolute best way to develop football players is, but I have a hunch.
“Best” can be subjective. For the sake of argument, “best” is being able to play in the Premier League in England.
To develop a player of this quality they have to first be physically elite. The pace of football, elite football, is often undermined by inexperienced online amateurs, so often that the majority does not understand what physical elite looks like in person.
In short and mind numbingly simple terms, we are looking for young teenagers who play at the same speed as adults.
Once you have eliminated 99% of the playing population from the elite physical bracket, we can begin to develop them.
You need an environment that is safe to fail in. Players need more than just “touches”. We are looking to create an environment that forces improvement of the minor details. The ones that improve how they receive the ball, where they receive the ball, how to create space, how to take away space, how to hit the ball, when to hit the ball, and so on.
This level of development has to have an incredible technical foundation, one that, again, is often undermined by amateurs, that sees them playing with the technique of adults as children. Remember, I’m still keeping this mind numbingly simple for you.
Now that the environment exists, the player is selected, we can begin development.
The most success I have ever seen with regards to player development at youth levels is playing players in unnatural positions — on top of all the aforementioned superiorities they have over their peers.
Their technique might keep them out of trouble and their physicality will help them when they get in trouble. Young people make mistakes.
The real development comes from the decisions players must make when asked to play in a role and position that is foreign to them. Only now, once removed from their natural habitat, can we see the instincts these physically elite and technically great players rely on.
This must be done over the course of months, years if possible. I like a ratio of 70/30. 70% of the time in position, 30% of the time out of position, although it varies depending on the intelligence of the player.
We need that 70% so that the player doesn’t get homesick and so that we can evaluate their improvements — if there are improvements.
We need that 30% because it’s just long enough that it’s uncomfortable but not too long that it’s scary. A right-back being asked to play as an 8 for a month is only four to eight games and a terribly small sample size. Three months is 12 to 24 games and a much healthier amount of time to see improvements.
This is how you develop players. Find the best ones and then make them smart by playing them out of position. It’s simple, but not easy — or else everyone would be doing it.
The consequence? Nobody wants to be the team that experiments with different player positions but every team wants to develop young players.
So, players are put in their strongest positions to guarantee results now and keep the fans happy now. “Development will come later.” says the chairman.
Developing a young person is a beautifully endearing experience. It is a tragedy to wrong the player by not preparing them. We must do them justice — we owe it to them. Development is, above all else, the most important thing to players who want to play professional football.
“Today, if a footballer is only able to play in one position he is dead” — Youri Raffi Djorkaeff
Players demand to learn and it is my responsibility to oblige.
Do I coach for the club?
The club asks that we achieve a certain goal, be it not getting relegated, finishing mid-table, developing youth players, earning promotion or qualifying for a competition.
The manner in which these goals are achieved seldom matter for the vast majority of clubs in the world.
Just get it done.
My job is to get points on the table. It is shortsighted and boring, but that’s my job. How you do it is irrelevant.
How you do it is irrelevant.
It is in this approach that we see managers leaving after one or two seasons. There are no managers who stay around for long outside of the very elite because the majority of clubs do not have a long term vision.
New manager comes in. New manager requests certain signings for a certain style of play. New manager becomes the old manager. Repeat.
Manchester City, Brighton, Liverpool, the usual cast of elite level clubs, now have a defined recruitment strategy for a type of player they look for and the type of manager they look for.
At the elite level stylistic fits are no longer a phenomenon but the norm. Do not expect this at the club you work with at your peak for it is rare.
So, outside of the elite, we must do the job as efficiently as possible with the tools we have. The players may not allow us to play a style of football we know and may actually force us to play a style of football we don’t know how to coach. In time, you’ll become the old manager.
As bleak and gray as this sounds, this is our dream. We will happily accept the next role because we coach for the club. We owe them the results they want because they owe us a salary. Whether you know how to achieve the results or not is irrelevant, you need to perform.
The board demands points and it is my responsibility to oblige.
“It’s better to go down with your own vision than with someone else’s.” — Johan Cruyff
No one is right
The fans are idiots. Their shortsightedness is only bested by that of the board of the club that they follow. Their enjoyment is as simple as not losing. The majority of fans don’t care about your philosophy, style of play, passion for development, anything.
The fans will soon forget you, the old manager, when the new manager arrives and repeats the same verbiage synonymously before they become the old manager themselves.
Alternatively, it is the power that these idiots give us that makes us want to serve them all the more. For when they are on your side you are invincible. Before you are the old manager, you are a God, you are loved.
The players deserve everything. The show does not go on without them. We are simply the director assembling the perfect cast, or at least the most adequate. The players make our jobs easy if used correctly.
The players should be the priority above all else but never will be because every year a new batch of youngsters comes through to take their place. They are easily replaceable and therefore not as valuable to those who make the most important decisions in club football.
Life goes on with or without the players, so putting so much effort and energy into developing and cherishing one can seem pointless in club football, especially since you’re soon the old manager.
The club is stupid. Owned and operated by people who often don’t have the same attachment to the club as the idiots who follow them. Owned and operated by people who are looking for resale value on the players you spend countless hours developing. Owned and operated by people who don’t care about what style of football you play.
Who we coach for is a question without a correct answer. It is through brutal self-reflection that we must abandon the idea of finding the perfect fit for us: the coach, the new manager, the old manager, and instead focus on who we coach for — if we coach for anyone at all.