Craven Cottage Newsround

Well tomorrow the new era begins.  It may be a short new era - that’ll depend on results - but whatever, it begins tomorrow.  And we’ll be there from the front lines (literally, we’re in row B) reporting on all the action.

Things are feeling a lot brighter now aren’t they?   What with the new management team, the thought of a more attacking lineup, and a sort of beatable side that may be sort of going through the motions by now, and is certainly in pretty ropey form.  More: they’ll be missing Sonko, Convey, Murty and Lita.  Kevin Doyle might be out, Steve Sidwell might be too.  Lawrie Sanchez couldn’t really have asked for more in an initial away match.

So that’s positive.  Add to that a raucous away crowd (well we’ll be excited, and we’ve sold it out, so why not?) and players trying to make a point, and, well, let’s hope it all goes to plan, eh?   This year’s been full of so much dashed optimism, almost every time I expect anything good to happen it hasn’t, but tomorrow’s different.   COYW!

If you type “football (or soccer) tactics” into Amazon.co.uk you get some interesting sounding stuff. The first in the list is “Flat Back Four” by Andy Gray, which I scrolled past because I think he’s an insufferable blowhard, but straightaway there’s a really good book called “Soccer Modern Tactics: Italy’s Top Coaches Analyze Game Formations Through 180 Situations” by a man called Zauli:

A comprehensive look at modern zone formations through the eyes fo the author and ten high level professional Italian coaches. Arrigo Sacchi (Milan, Italian National Team), Marcello Lippi (Napoli, Inter, Juventus), Walter Novellino (Venezia, Napoli, Piacenza), Carlo Ancelotti (Parma, Juventus), and Renzo Ulivieri (Parma) are among the impressive list of contributors to this valuable coaching reference.

You really get an insight into the game. Much of it goes over my head, but I’m glad I have the book.

There’s a Charles Hughes/FA book next on the list, which I didn’t look at either (done a lot more harm than good, that), then something called “Soccer Strategies and Systems” by Jens Bangsbo, who’s a Danish coach. I have that book too, it’s not as interesting to me as the Italian one, but there’s a lot of food for thought.

The final book I picked up was “Match Analysis and Game Preparaton” by Henny Kormelink and Tjeu Seeverens, a pair of Dutch coaches. This is described thus:

An inside look at the match analysis and game preparation methods of some of Holland’s top coaches. Included are chapters by Foppe de Haan of SC Heerenveen, Bert van Lingen, Frans Hoek, and Jan Rab, Chief Observer for the Dutch National Team. Examples of actual match data reports and a full match analysis are also given. Also included is an analysis of World Cup 98 with Jan Rab.

This is another fascinating little book. You might think I’ve gone too far in this, turned from supporter to trainspotter and lost the plot. And you might well be right, but I’m one of those people who likes to understand things, to find out more.  It drove my mother mad when I was a lad, me asking why every ten seconds, but it’s the way I am.   As I said, much of the information within these books was too hard to follow, and to be honest, not especially interesting on a piece by piece basis (e.g. if defender 2 does this then defender 4 must do this, especially if attacker X is doing this… gets a bit dry). But being so obsessed, I kept trying. Why, I wondered, could four defenders who all seem quite capable, who are being protected by a lot of defensive midfielders, concede so many goals? What is it that they’re doing that I can’t see when I watch a match. And while I can’t pinpoint the answer, I now understand that there are about 50 *little* things defenders need to do when an oponent attacks. Presumably then these little things all add up, and the more of them you do the better able you are to cope with the unexpected.

From reading the books I think I understand why Jan Lastuvka has had issues. And I definitely understand more about formations and why Italian coaches might use different formations for different games. Incidentally, on the latter, Gianluca Vialli’s book is quite good on comparing the differences between English and Italian football cultures: the former eats, sleeps and drinks tactics, wanting to learn more, whereas over here we’re not fussed, don’t want to overcomplicate things, and are more concerned with motivation. Who’s won more World Cups lately?

And what on earth has this to do with Fulham?

Les Reid. Reid, by almost all accounts, is a first rate coach. He wasn’t made for managing, but he’s been there, done that, and got the t-shirt where coaching is concerned. I’ve spoken to Charlton supporters who all agree on this, and all think he’ll be very useful at Fulham. When I was reading the books above I sometimes wondered if Coleman would do the same. Would this big, striding Welshman be devouring information on the finer points of the game, as his Italian counterparts surely would? Perhaps… but perhaps not. 

There’s a danger of me sounding like an arse in this post: I don’t for a minute mean to suggest that simply by reading a couple of theoretical manuals about defending Coleman could have improved the team.  Of course not.  He’d done his diplomas, he knew what he was doing.   What I am suggesting is that there are always degrees of knowledge in these things.  There has, for some time, been a suggestion that Coleman is a) fairly weak tactically and b) had relied too heavily on Steven Kean for this side of things, something that he had been encouraged to change if the rumours are to be believed.   We, of course, cannot know if the above is true.   We don’t understand the game enough, so we can’t make this sort of judgement.

But, Les Reid is, by reputation, very strong on the very thing we *suspect* we’re bad at.  And if coaching and tactics are important, and I think they are, and we’re going to be a little bit better in these areas, well, that can’t be a bad thing can it?    That’s why I’m positive.  But it’s all speculation at the moment.  We’ll see how it plays out on the field.