Roy: modern coach

I’ve just received “Coaching Soccer: Match Strategy and Tactics” by Luca Prestigiacomo in the post. This in itself is not interesting, but straight away Mr Prestigiacomo has me gripped. I’m only up to page 12, but he has already described what he sees as the modern coach. Here are some chopped extracts, which are not doing him justice, but that might be interesting to some of you:

The modern coach…

the coach has freed the team of individual improvisation and aims for collective play that is well defined, easily recognizable and based on innovative tactical themes

…

With such coaches we do not usually get ranks and grades of importance among the players. No one player is to be considered indispensable, and, at the same time, each single player feels he is as important as any other…. everyone knows they are at the service of the group

…

this type of coach is like the conductor of an orchestra. He has to synchronize his musicians, who, they may excellent at playing their own instrument, would only give rise to an annoying din without someone who can organise them

…

(mental preparation)

The first things he must get over to his players are the principles of total soccer: offensiveness, a feeling for the group, collaboration and reciprocal assistance. The team must be looked upon as a compact block moving on the whole field – the point where everyone is at the same time both a defender and a forward…

Defensive play should begin in our opponent’s half, in the first place to force the rival team to play as far away as possible from our goal, but also to crush them into their own area so we have as many chances to shot as possible.

…

(programming)

In the possession phase our manevers must be fast, fluid, based on incessant movements without the ball which are synchronized among all the players…

Short passes are preferable to medium or long range ones, the ball should be kept as much as possible to the ground and a collective solution (a pass) is always better than an individual one (dribbling)…

The coach must make sure that the movements without the ball are correctly timed and coordinated… the team must repeat all these things again and again until they have become almost automatic.

…
(micro programming)

We could compare a soccer team to a Formula One racing car: it has its own shape and well-defined characteristics, and yet at the same time from race to race it undergoes small but decisive alterations to its set up.

By only taking the odd chunk here and there I’ve over simplified and perhaps made it look like Mr Prestigiacomo is merely stating the obvious. But in its full version his writing is very impressive, and at every turn you can see something Roy has said or done. Team ethic: definitely – this is said to be the unspoken Bullard issue (not because Bullard is not a team player, but because he might not be the best at adhering to fairly rigid instructions); short passing: definitely; repetition: yep, we heard about this too; pressing high up the pitch: Andy Johnson is well known for this; synchronisation: same as for the repetition, but this is what Roy was working on at length last season.

As I say, this is 12 pages of a long book, but it’s really emphasising to me that Roy’s got this sorted, and that he can make things work if his players listen and go with the plan. Which they stopped doing on Saturday, he says. It also emphasises how much work goes into this (I didn’t bother excerpting any of the defensive stuff, which is pretty heavy), and why people who say that Roy didn’t get instant results when he took over are slightly missing a point.

Anyway, fascinating stuff. I recommend the book to anyone. I got mine from forsport.com.

Torino reaction

“It is a poor result which has come as a result of not following the type of play we want to see and players deciding it is all too easy and playing how they wanted to.”

“I was anxious to win today. I didn’t want to gift our opponents anything and that’s what we have done. People use the word ‘disappointed’ too much these days. I’m not disappointed, I’m very angry about it.

“We got in good situations time and time again you have to make the right decision. We had two good finishes first half but could have had more. But in the second half our game was too individual.”

Says Roy.  Good man.

Openness from on high

Not Fulham, but Southend’s Chairman Ron Martin has another open letter to his supporters up on the Southend site. It’s really interesting stuff.

Several players have left the Club in the close season but many were considered just not good enough to compete at this level.

The exception – in my view – was Mark Gower. The Club had started negotiations with Mark (and his agent) several weeks before the end of the season and discussions, from both sides, were, so we thought, progressing well.

Indeed just when we believed terms were agreed with the agent, Mark said to Steve Tilson that if the Club could improve the offer to – such and such – he would sign. I immediately and without reluctance sanctioned the request. Mark then started talking to other clubs and the rest – as they say – is history.

Then this:

Some might say that “losing” Darryl Flahavan was a mistake but I agree with the Manager’s decision – for whilst Flavs was a great shot stopper his lack of height was an impediment to commanding his area – which itself also puts pressure on the defence.

And finally:

I would rather have an enthusiastic player committed to the Club – and perhaps of a little less quality – than a “better footballer” who was just here to pick up the wages.

Some pretty interesting feedback from the club’s Chairman. He does this a fair bit, and I think, on balance, it’s a good thing. Thanks to Mart for the link.

Set pieces

The Guardian’s preview supplement reveals that 10% of Fulham’s goals last year were from set pieces, the second highest proportion in the league.

We’ve lost Carlos Bocanegra and Brian McBride, our two set piece aerial threats.   Is this cause for concern?