English football coaches in Australia (All levels)

[fozzie]

I favour the identification of those nations from which we should source coaches from a strategic viewpoint, rather than a scattergun approach.

Your thoughts ?

[marinermick]

fozzie said:

I favour the identification of those nations from which we should source coaches from a strategic viewpoint, rather than a scattergun approach.

Your thoughts ?

we should source the best possible coaches regardless of where they are from

we should also develop our own coaches

all this should be done strategically

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

fozzie said:

I favour the identification of those nations from which we should source coaches from a strategic viewpoint, rather than a scattergun approach.

Your thoughts ?

how bout we develop our own football style to suit the strengths that we have and the strengths we want to develop, rather than trying to ape others, and then work out which coaches we want to hire based on how well they fit that style and quite remember to simply look at how good they are.

i'm not pro-british coaches, but i'm not anti-british either. i think we just need good coaches.

more importantly than that, we need to train good aussie coaches, and lots of them. that's the only way to get a system working right to the grass roots.

EDIT: what mick said, basically

[fozzie]

There are a number of reasons why I support the acquisition of a foreign coach of sufficient quality by no more than two A-League clubs prepared to spend the money and the requisite time to find the right candidate.

Firstly, in a word, quality. We need both players and coaches from abroad in small numbers and of a requisite standard, to add a level of quality technical experience to our local product. This is the same anywhere in the football world, and when managed properly it yields excellent results. Odzakov, Adzic, Ivanovic, Thomson and Arok all contributed here, and I argue the new league should be financed to continue this trend in a regulated fashion.

Secondly, the salary cap as it stands is too low and precludes the signing of enough players of international class, outside of the marquee player. I believe a quality coach can have a stronger influence on the performance of a team than one quality player, who can of course be subject to injury and form variance. Time pressures notwithstanding, when putting together a club the first point of call for me would be a quality coach, with players being secondary to the man at the helm.

Thirdly, to impact positively on the standard of coaching here in Australia. If we are to one day ever win a World Cup, and we must plan to within two decades, there are two areas that need urgent attention. Development of a better class of player by age 15, and markedly better coaching standards and education in Australia. Both will take many years and require the expertise of an experienced international technical director, but for current purposes lets consider the quality of our coaching.

Begin by accepting that our isolation makes difficult the constant influx of ideas from the world?s best and also that being external to the best leagues inhibits our coaches' professional growth.

We need, therefore, to update our coaching methods and content to produce a generation of world class coaches to staff the A-League in five to 10 years time, export to other parts of the world to gain experience for Australia's benefit (excluding South East Asia), and supply our national teams in future.

The question is how best to apply limited resources for maximum effect?

I favour a three pronged strategy:

* Appoint a technical director with no less than 10 years international coaching and technical experience with a country in the top ten of FIFA rankings to revise all our development programs;

* Appoint a small number, no more than 25% of the league, of quality coaches from abroad to A-League clubs who must have at least three local assistants for the two-year term of their contract to educate;

* Implement a program to bring international coaches here for education seminars, and send our best abroad to learn.

Essentially rather than an 'us go to them' or 'they come to us' solution, I would strike a balance between the two.

I believe that two years working under, say, an Arie Haan, who has won two Belgian titles with Anderlecht and therefore whose ability if not motivation is proven, is not only the fastest but the best way for a young coach to learn the tactical knowledge, assessment of a player and the management of a season through highs and lows by a quality coach.

The only way to get similar education would be to spend two years in Europe, which many of our coaches are unprepared or unable to do.

The rest of the league should be coached by our best locals. The different perspectives, tactics and personas would add much to the coaching fraternity here and kick-start the coaching careers of at least six retired international players.

Fourth, professionalism of our clubs and players is enhanced by bringing in the best. Many observers commented in the last NSL years that while salaries rose markedly, team performances did not necessarily follow suit.

Many of our coaches here have never played or coached in Europe and I don?t accept that seminars or time spent as an onlooker in Europe bridges the gap. There is a difference in the way the game and player is treated and respected in 'A class' football countries and we need more of this aspect.

Fifth, the positive impact of 'foreign' coaches in major leagues around the world. Wenger's influence in England has been profound in terms of player selection, professionalism outside the game and the way he sets his team out to play. Equally the work of Jose Mourinho has already borne fruit at Chelsea and Cruyff's work at Barcelona was responsible for a decade of excellence.

Local media rejecting foreign coaches is common, but ask David Dein whether he wants an English coach?

Football is now a global marketplace and players and coaches a global commodity. No sooner is a young coach identified as promising than he is snapped up by a bigger club, not always in the same country. Our goal should be to participate in a coaching sense in this market in the same way we do with players.

The Asian Club Championship or Asian Champions League will be central to this as the coach of an Australian club, whether local or imported, who wins such a competition will receive global exposure and the chance to test himself further. We need to ensure our local coaches are not only good enough, but prepared properly to do so.

The French remain a model for us in many ways with so many coaches around the world, which adds to their football knowledge and encourages further generations. Troussier, Wenger, Houllier and Perrin's success in France leads them overseas to lucrative contracts, which opens positions domestically for the new generation to continue the cycle.

Nor is the international game any different, as evidenced by the success of 'Big Phil' Scolari with Portugal and Otto Rehhagel with Greece at Euro 2004. You cannot argue that Portugal had no decent domestic coaches, but a visionary decision to bring in foreign experience paid handsome dividends for both countries.

So far we have exported coaches to Asia in particular, Pacific nations and Greece. My issue is how to expedite the export of our best to Europe, at this time we will have raised the bar.

Sixth, promotion of our game. While loathe to promote any decision on the basis of marketing value alone, we can't discount the need for the A-League to differentiate itself from the old.

Quality coaches from 'A class' football nations are, we must accept, a marketer's dream in terms of promoting the A-League as a quality competition. I stress though, this is not a good enough reason to spend half a million on a coach, rather a happy benefit of a reasoned appointment.

Lastly, the Venables factor. As a former Socceroo under Venables back in 96/97, I know the well publicized impact the players felt in a technical sense from the former Socceroos coach. Despite different coaching influences here the players were shown a different side to the game from a coach immersed in the world coaching fraternity at the highest level.

Few would question the football the '97 Socceroos team played and I doubt you would find many players who would say they didn't enjoy playing the style of football Venables espoused.

The fact is that Venables had a higher level of knowledge and experience than any coach in Australia at the time, and had won an FA Cup and had success with Barcelona. World Cup qualification aside, both the players and the game benefited from his quality.

In an A-League context had three young coaches such as Arnold, Mitchell and Davidson trained under him for the term of his contract all would have, in my opinion, benefited significantly.

Now to the provisos, which there must always be to avoid the common and well publicized disasters where a poorly accredited foreign coach is appointed on big money.

One, the imported coach must have a UEFA A badge, no less than 10 years coaching experience in an 'A class' league, and have won a meaningful League or Cup title.

Two, the coach must be employed not only to manage the club, but to train a number of local assistants, as well as hold seminars for all our elite coaches, particularly those coaching elite juniors.

This is where motivation comes critical, the coach must be aware that their job is considerable and wide ranging. In this way we fast track our local coaches who are eager for knowledge.

Three, don't overpay. Understand the European market and pay the market rate, let's not have any stories of underperforming foreign coaches on ridiculous wages, please.

I must point out that all of the above does not serve to demean our local products, rather I seek to add to their education. Football is coached at the top level by very experienced, technically proficient individuals.

To me it is all about how high we want to raise the bar, and my goal is to help our local coaches reach the Wenger and Mourinho level as soon as possible.

When they do, we can be sure of producing smarter and technically better players at young ages, and of strong and successful national teams.

That to me, after all, is what we are all about.

[fozzie]

One of the challenges facing this country, and particularly the FFA in their quest to make improvements in the long term to Australian football, is to develop a culture of football, which is almost the complete opposite to where we are at this point in time.

A culture, which values the ball over the athlete, skill over strength, and football intelligence over graft and effort.

We will need to develop intuitive players who are adaptable during a game by instinct not input, and the natural precursor to this of course is first to develop intelligent coaches.

As Johan Cruyff once said, how can the student be better than the teacher?

So, to produce outstanding players we need excellent coaches who have an understanding at the highest technical level.

This is indeed a long-term project requiring tremendous improvement in our licences and methodology, but in the meantime one area that can be addressed is to continue to advance the understanding of the football community, particularly at the grass roots level, of what represents ‘good football’, and of the importance of a philosophy of play based on possessing the ball.

Yet when we talk about a culture of the game and particularly a philosophy of play, all those reading this with a good understanding of the game will know that all around us are signs that at present our national philosophy is deficient.

For instance, visit any junior club around the country and you will see more running than playing, and most players being encouraged to play the ball forward as soon as possible, regardless of the quality of the pass or any evaluation of the option chosen.

In other words, there is a predominance of lumping the ball forward for big, quick and usually strong kids to chase, to the detriment of players who prefer to hold the ball and build up play in a slower and more intelligent manner.

This is a by product of a poor football philosophy inherited from England, which values fast play over good, and which manifests itself in poor youth coaching.

But this is a short sighted strategy which is anti player development since, whilst this may win games for now, this style of play produces technically deficient players who will be learning nothing about how to play the game which is precisely, and only, what junior football is for!

And not only is it boring for the players, enforces results over fun and enjoyment and therefore arguably produces a larger drop out rate of youngsters in the early teens, it is in fact also ineffective once the players mature and their physical strengths converge as adults.

Every junior club in the country should be teaching their coaches to appreciate that until the very late teens, the total focus must be on producing players who understand and can play the game, that is to say they can control and manipulate the ball with great skill, maintain possession both individually and collectively, intelligently construct an attack and respond well in defence, and that teaching these principles of play fundamentally must take total precedence over results.

And we will only be starting to improve when every youth coach is judged on the quality of players he produces, not on the amount of trophies he wins.

We must all recognise that effort and running alone don’t win football matches, technique, skill, and intelligent players do. That is why Brazil and Italy have nine World Cups between them, Germany three and Argentina two. Because their football cultures, and their philosophy of play, are based on these characteristics.

If you want absolute confirmation of the need for change, this year take a look at the Under 14 or 15 National championships where tour best juniors come together, and you will see that I am right.

These championships are shockingly low on teams that are both technically (that is the individuals are capable), and tactically (the team works together, demonstrates good cohesion, and can solve problems collectively), competent at keeping the football for long periods.

Or, better still, take a look at our national teams.

Both the Joeys and Young Socceroos who failed at even the earliest Asian pre-qualifying stage could not keep the ball, clearly neither could the 17 girls. In fact the only team that played with any reasonable tactical skill was the Under 20 Young Matildas, as yet our only youth age team to qualify though Asia, who were intensely trained to do so and proved, as did the Socceroos, that when our teams are well coached they are capable of adaptation.

This inability to play to a high level is a factor of both culture and philosophy.

And it remains a fundamental problem even at the highest senior levels of our game.

In the last few weeks you might have noticed Sydney FC struggle for long periods to keep the ball against pressure, likewise Adelaide United against the Vietnamese, and the best sign of what our poor philosophy of football and no insistence on playing from defence at junior levels produces, is to see Australia struggle to play under defensive pressure against China in the second half of the recent international.

So, enough of where we are, let’s explore some key elements of a good philosophy of football.

Here is a start for any youth coaches and parents interested to know where they now stand, and in what direction they should be heading:

1. To play the ball on the ground at all times, which requires both supporting play and good technique;

2. To play short passes, which requires players to support each other in attack and defence, and is harder to defend and anticipate;

3. To play only longer balls in response to a movement by a team-mate not in the hope of one - to move and ask for the ball after which the pass is delivered;

4. To play longer passes, and particularly those in the air, predominantly only when there is no closer option and always into the feet of an attacker, never just into space for them to chase;

5. To discourage young keepers in kicking the ball long unless there is no other option (and even here one can almost always be manufactured) and at all times have the keeper roll the ball to a team-mate so the team can begin to play immediately from the back;

6. If, at any time, a youngster has no option to find a team-mate, they should be encouraged always to keep the ball. This may mean shielding it, keeping it moving to wait for a pass, or to dribble forward to attack an opponent. At no time should they be told to kick it away regardless of the position they play or where they are on the field, and if the child loses the ball they should be encouraged to try again;

7. To encourage players to express themselves through their football and recognise that everyone is not the same, and shouldn’t play so. Some play fast, others slow, some play simple, others read situations and find more complex solutions, and some have enough skill to individually dominate a game, while others can only dream of doing so, but all should be allowed to find their own game not forced to conform to a uniform way of playing;

8. And, to SLOW DOWN, or more specifically, vary the speed of play during a game, which requires a team to hold the ball. After working to recover possession, every young team should break forward only if they have an advantage in attack, otherwise they should slow the play down and possess the ball, back and across the field, resting and starting to position themselves in attack to take advantage of overloads in numbers, or weaknesses in defence. Youth coaches need to understand that the object of football is to keep the ball and to score goals through breaking down a defence with passing and skill, not by booting the ball forward hoping for a defensive mistake.

And of course a change in philosophy has ramifications for youth training.

It means that at youth levels, the only suitable training sessions should be completely with the ball, with every player touching the ball between 500 and 1000 times, refining technique and 1 v 1 skills, learning the game principally by playing in small games of 2 v 2, 3 v 3, 4 v 4, 5 v 5 and overload practices such as 4 v 2, 4 v 3, 5 v 2.

In this way good coaches can coach the key moments when in possession, the opponent in possession or the changeover, build awareness in the players to aid understanding and decision making, and allow the players to develop a fee for the game that comes only from thousands of hours playing it.

But at the same time the uneducated coach - such as the voluntary parent supervisor - can, by playing these games, give the players a structure, which aids their learning process without having to coach specific points of play.

All fairly straightforward, but a long, long way from where the bulk of our young teams are at right now.

So, how do you know where your club or coach stands from a philosophical point of view? One of the best ways is by their instructions to the players.

If the coach encourages players to slow down and relax on the ball, to take their time, to possess the ball, to support each other, to play together, to take opponents on, to take up positions at angles to each other, to circulate the ball quickly around the team, to play one and two touch football, to create triangles and diamonds in their play, to pass backwards when no forward option is rational, to use the goalkeeper to maintain possession, to read game situations and play away from pressure not into it, and to recognise and create numerical overloads, they are on the right track.

If you hear a coach telling players to ‘get rid of it’, ‘clear their lines’, ‘get it in the box’, ‘get stuck in’, ‘don’t play at the back’, ‘don’t take risks’, telling a keeper to kick the ball long or players to ‘hit the channels’, run a million miles.

Your child is in danger of becoming a boring and uninventive player, and is most unlikely either truly to discover the joy of playing the ball, or to even excel in the game against other players who have spent a decade or more possessing the ball.

And as to the physical aspect and all those coaches who want to make their young players run instead of learning to manipulate the ball and the game itself, yes, at the elite level players are very strong and often gifted physically like Thierry Henry and Kaka, but just like these two the best are footballers before athletes, and value technique over physique, because they recognise that runners don’t make it to the top any more in football.

And don’t forget that Australia has always been physically strong, but we only started to improve when Guus Hiddink finally told the players to keep the ball, to play out from the back (or in his words, ‘to start the attack from defence’), to use space more intelligently through better positional awareness, to stop hitting the ball forward in hope or desperation, to understand how to utilise the team’s spare man to keep possession, to support the ball possessor in attack, and to be patient and play in all directions in the build up phase until in a position to strike at the opponent.

These are the principles, which underline the correct philosophy of football, and the very ones every junior club and coach should be required to teach.

Sometimes, of course, pictures tell a story most effectively and I was recently sent an excellent video presentation by former Marconi player and now youth coach Vince Colagiuri, which is one of the best discussions into a youth development philosophy of football that I have seen.

It compares the philosophy of play at youth level in the USA against that of Brazil, and the findings presented about the USA correlate exactly to what is happening here in Australia.

The video, titled Player Development Philosophy can be seen by clicking here and should be required viewing for every youth coach in the country.

Once you have watched it, you would do the game a great service by distributing it to your entire football email database, and thereby being proactive in encouraging debate about Australia’s philosophy of football.

Because through debate comes understanding, and until we arrive at a better one, our kids will not be given the best chance to excel.

[bakery5]

fozzie said:

I favour the identification of those nations from which we should source coaches from a strategic viewpoint, rather than a scattergun approach.

Your thoughts ?

Is this Craig Foster? ;D

[marinermick]

bakery5 said:

fozzie said:

I favour the identification of those nations from which we should source coaches from a strategic viewpoint, rather than a scattergun approach.

Your thoughts ?

Is this Craig Foster? ;D

no, because the essay above did not have technical or tactical

[dibo (pron. "DIB-OH")]

bakery5 said:

fozzie said:

I favour the identification of those nations from which we should source coaches from a strategic viewpoint, rather than a scattergun approach.

Your thoughts ?

Is this Craig Foster? ;D

i doubt it.

[marinermick]

Just to get sidetracked a bit:

One thing that annoys me the most in regards to coaching is to see junior coaches putting their teams through fitness drills without the ball.

I have already seen it at three different local clubs this season and it makes me angry.

Juniors don't come to training to do laps and sprints, they come to learn and play football.

If the football training is structured properly they will get all the fitness they need.

[brett]

The essays above are from Craig Foster, they are his column from twg website.

The forum user is pretty obviously not.

Mick - not getting sidetracked. You just reiterated what's in Fossie's second article there. It was very good.

[fozzie]

marinermick said:

Just to get sidetracked a bit:

One thing that annoys me the most in regards to coaching is to see junior coaches putting their teams through fitness drills without the ball.

I have already seen it at three different local clubs this season and it makes me angry.

Juniors don't come to training to do laps and sprints, they come to learn and play football.

If the football training is structured properly they will get all the fitness they need.

I would suspect that these aforementioned teams were coached by the English football coaching mafia??

[dru]

I thought the idea of junior sport was to have fun and to promote an active life style from an early age.

To me the real challenge will be to teach skill and technique in a fun way that will aid our future elite while not abandoning the less naturally gifted kids and having them disillusioned and not developing a love of the game.

At a youth level you also need to battle the short attention span of your charges and doing repetitive drills just doesn't work

Training youth needs a different style than training adults and each age bracket has different challenges for coaches. There needs to be more focus on giving coaches the skills to train all age groups (not just in football, and probably is something that needs to be looked at by dept of sport and rec or through the ncas)

And remember some of the best coaches were not great players.

[T]

The coach does need to suit the level and style of play. I have seen a coach totally demoralise a side of great kids with stacks of potential to the point where the entire team switched clubs than play another year under that coach.

[fozzie]

thres said:

The coach does need to suit the level and style of play. I have seen a coach totally demoralise a side of great kids with stacks of potential to the point where the entire team switched clubs than play another year under that coach.

Was he english??

[T]

No he wasn't he was just a D!@khead

[jigsaw]

Quote: The French remain a model for us in many ways with so many coaches around the world, which adds to their football knowledge and encourages further generations.

The French were successful because they invested eighty million dollars into youth academies at the same time they scoured North Africa for football talent. If FFA invested the same amount (intelligently) then we could be on our way to a World Cup within 20 years.

[theboyroy]

Fozzie, just who are this English Mafia you mention. You seem very good at spouting off about how the game should be developed, but the intresting thing is, you never hear of you actually coaching anyone. It seems that you are a bit of studio potatoe, sat in your nice SBS air conditioned studio telling everyman and his dog, how the game should be developed, when everyone knows that's the easiest place to coach from, we can all be an expert from the luxury of a chair in a studio or a stand. Isn't it about time you started to put your money where your mouth is and lets see you at, say the Youth Super League coaching an U14's team. Come on fozzie take up the challenge.

[jigsaw]

theboyroy said:

Isn't it about time you started to put your money where your mouth is and lets see you at, say the Youth Super League coaching an U14's team. Come on fozzie take up the challenge.

This is not fair, Fozzie's coaching CV includes a successful stint with Nerds FC

[brett]

I don't know what's funnier:

- Someone spending the extensive time and effort to rip off Craig Foster to a relatively small audience here
or
- People responding as if it was actually Craig Foster!

[forzamariners]

wyomingtiger said:

I don't know what's funnier:


- People responding as if it was actually Craig Foster!

Its not!!