The Tecnician May 2008

8/14/2019 The Tecnician May 2008

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Editorial:Interdependence

Interview:

Lars Lagerbck

Star PupilsandStar Teachers

The 18th Team

Football,Developmentand TechnicalAssistance

NEWSLETTERFOR COACHES

N O . 39J UN E 200 8


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GettyImages

IM PR E S SUM

EDITORIAL GROUPAndy RoxburghGraham TurnerFrits Ahlstrm

PRODUCTIONAndr VieliDominique MaurerAtema Communication SA

Printed by Cavin SA

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Hlne Fors

COVERPortugals Simo Sabrosafends off ChristosPatsatzoglou of Greece,

who nonethelessbeat Portugal again,this time in theirpre-EURO 2008 friendly.

(Photo: Witters Sport-Presse-Fotos)

Children in

Internazionale shirts

celebrate the

Milan clubs centenary

at the San Siro.

Meyer/AFP/GettyImages

Captains go headto head in the 2007/08

UEFA Champions League:Inters Javier Zanetticompetes withSteven Gerrard ofLiverpool.


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INTERDEPENDENCE

E D I T O R I A LBY ANDY ROXBURGH,UEFA TECHNICAL DIRECTOR

Recently, I had the pleasure totake part in a special birthday party.FC Internazionale Milano celebrated100 years of existence with an officialdinner, youth matches against Man-chester United FC, Real Madrid CF,SL Benfica and AFC Ajax, a seminarfor their network of grassrootsleaders, and a San Siro extravaganza(following their Serie A match withReggina) which gave their supportersthe opportunity to pay their respects

to the Nerazzurri heroes who builtthe clubs reputation. Sandro Mazzola,Giuseppe Bergomi, Lus Surez andnumerous other former stars walkedonto a pitch which they had gracedwith footballing distinction. FC Inter-nazionale (European Cup winnersin 1964 and 1965, UEFA Cup holdersthree times, and club world champi-ons twice) has its own history, but itis also part of something bigger the

game in a global context.

In football, independence and inter-dependence, like twin strikers, oper-ate in juxtaposition. We have a sharedhistory, a shared involvement in thegame, and a shared responsibilityfor its future. Of course, everyone hashis personal agenda, and each cluband national team has its identity andits aspirations. But there must alsobe a collective commitment to pre-

serve and respect the roots of thegame, to care for its core values, andto promote an image of footballwhich youngsters can aspire to andthe public can admire.

An icon of footballs past sat besideme during Inters centenary match.Eusbio was world famous for hisexploits for SL Benfica and Portugaland, if fate had played its part, hemight also have worn the colours ofFC Internazionale Milano. The maestrofrom Mozambique had agreed to signfor the Nerazzurri but because Italylost to North Korea in the 1966 WorldCup, the Italian authorities indulgedin protectionism and put a ban ontheir clubs signing foreign players.Fortunately for the promotion of thegame, players of Eusbios statustranscend national boundaries theyare universal treasures, whose humilityand respect for others set the bench-mark for sporting dignity. For example,Eusbio cannot understand howsome of todays players perform histri-onics when they score from a penalty.

You are expected to score fromthe spot why should you overdothe celebrations when you do?, heargues. The image of Eusbio scoringat Wembley with a penalty duringthe World Cup in 1966, collecting theball from the back of the net, andthen consoling Englands goalkeeperGordon Banks with a friendly pat issomething which will endure.

The spirit of Inters Giacinto Facchettiwill also live on. The clubs trainingground for youth development hasbeen named after their former captainand president, and as a mark ofrespect for the great man who passedaway in 2006, his number 3 shirtis no longer in use. Giacinto twicelifted the European Cup for FC Inter-nazionale and footballs original attack-ing full-back then made it a personalhat trick when he captained Italy to

EURO triumph in 1968. Eusbio andFacchetti were never team-mates,but they were from the same schoolof gentlemen who gave more to thegame than they took from it.

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PAArchive

s/PAPhotos

Eusbio beats Gordon Banks with apenalty in the 1966 World Cup semi-finalbetween England and Portugal.

Forty years after Italys victory inRome, European football reaches anew milestone with the staging ofEURO 2008 the thirteenth cham-pionship for national associations.It is an appropriate moment toacknowledge the legacy of those whocreated the games popularity thegreat players, clubs and internationalteams. It is also a time to reflecton our responsibility for the imageof the game, the development ofits future, and the respect shownto those on the front line players,referees and coaches.

You cant buy history, you can onlycreate it. Its time to turn a new pageas FC Internazionale Milano embarkon their next 100 years, and 16national teams set out to create amemorable European Championship

in Switzerland and Austria. Whateverthe future holds, the clubs and thenational associations cannot avoidtheir collective responsibility they areinterdependent, and the advancementof the game and its continuing popu-larity will, to a large extent, dependon their concerted commitment to thepromotion of football which is bothcompetitive and spectacular.


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I N T E R V I E WBY ANDY ROXBURGH(UEFA TECHNICAL DIRECTOR)

AND GRAHAM TURNER

LARS LAGERBCK1 How do you rate Swedensperformance in the qualifying phase?In the qualifying phase we drew withNorthern Ireland and lost in Spain, soit wasnt until the last game that weearned our place in the finals. We didreasonably well, even though westruggled a bit against Northern Irelandand we were totally out of it when

we played Spain away. Yet we beatthem at home so I think the overviewis that we did rather well.

2 Based on what you saw duringthe qualifying phase, would you saythe standard was high?Yes, I think so. If you just look at thegroup we were in, a team like NorthernIreland surprised everybody, I think. Itbecame a very tough group, especiallyas we had our neighbours Denmark in

there and its always special playingthem. I think the overall quality in ourgroup was very high. I know you canalways discuss the quality of the footballin individual games for example, we

had a very tough physical gamein Northern Ireland, which is some-thing that, if you want to succeed,you have to know how handle.It all added up to a good standardin the qualifying phase.

3 Looking at the otherqualifying groups, were there

any surprises for you?To be honest, no. If you look atthe 14 teams who have qualified,I cant say that anyone has surprisedme very much. Maybe Poland alittle bit, because they were in aneight-team group and they hadntbeen that good for the last fouror six years. OK, if you look at theteams who missed out, you canalways point to England. But weplayed Croatia in the World Cup

qualifiers and we know that theyare a tough team to beat. Ofcourse, growing up in Swedenmeans that we are very close toEnglish football and all of us have

high expectations of the Englandteam. But everyone can see thatthere are not many English playersat the top clubs over there anymore and thats probably a bigproblem for the national team.

4 What are your expectationsas you go into the final round?

I think your expectations are alwaysfocused on qualifying from the groupphase. I try to describe myself asa coach as a realistic optimist andI think there are different ways toapproach a final round. When wefirst got in and hadnt got muchexperience, I talked to the playersabout setting goals and so on. Likemany teams, if we have a goodday, we can beat anyone. But at atournament of this nature, you need

to produce five really good games and, when you come from a rela-tively small footballing country, itsreally tough to hit that target, so tospeak. But, even though were in

LARS LAGERBCK JOINED THE SWEDISH FA 18 YEARS AGO AS COACHING DIRECTOR

AND NATIONAL YOUTH COACH AND, FOLLOWING THE DEPARTURE OF TOMMY SVENSSON FROM

THE NATIONAL TEAM IN 1997, HE WAS APPOINTED ASSISTANT TO NATIONAL COACH

TOMMY SDERBERG. SOON, HOWEVER, LARS WAS ELEVATED TO JOINT NATIONAL MANAGER, A RARITY

IN INTERNATIONAL FOOTBALL, BEFORE HE TOOK SOLE CHARGE FOLLOWING TOMMY SDERBERGS

DECISION TO TAKE OVER THE UNDER-21 SQUAD. LARS LAGERBCK HAS THEREFORE BEEN RESPONSIBLE,

EITHER AS CO-COACH OR AS THE HEAD IN HIS OWN RIGHT, FOR SWEDENS FIVE CONSECUTIVE

QUALIFICATIONS FOR WORLD AND EUROPEAN FINAL ROUNDS. LARS, WHO IS A MEMBER

OF UEFAS COACHING PANEL, IS A QUIET, MODEST MAN WITH A GREAT KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE

OF PREPARING INTERNATIONAL TEAMS. HE IS ONE OF SWEDENS MOST SUCCESSFUL COACHES,

A MAN FOR THE BIG OCCASION HE IS

Nackstrand/AFP/GettyImages


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all over Europe, there are players fromall over the world. Many of them aretherefore happy to travel home to play

for the national team to be with long-standing friends and to speak theirown language. There are often com-munication problems in the dressingrooms at clubs so, with very fewexceptions, players are glad to comehome for national team games.

8 How do you keep in touchwith your players during the season?The telephone is obviously yourbest friend. But, basically, we follow

in greater depth a group of around35 players who are in 12 to 15 differ-ent countries. Roland Andersson andI travel around a lot in order to seethem live as often as possible. Then,during the six weeks before the finalround, we ask them to give us moredetailed information about how muchthey have been playing and training,whether they have ill or injured, andso on. We do this mostly by email.

9 What specialists do youinclude in your team-behind-theteam for a final round?We basically use the traditional squadof medical staff and so on. The onlydifferent element is that we havePaul Balsom working with us as aphysiologist. Thats his basic job but hedoes all the analysis on the computer.Otherwise its a standard approachwith a goalkeeping coach and all that.

10 How exactly does Paulhelp you?He tries to make sure we have theright levels of intensity in our practice.We started about ten years ago with

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a tough group, Im confident. We haveexperienced players, we have playerswith individual skills, and we have

the advantage that we have workedtogether for a long time. We know eachother and we know how we want toplay. So I think we have a fair chanceof going on to the quarter-finals.

5 Whats your view on theother groupsWell, I think the toughest is Group Cwith the big elephants, as we say inSweden or the group of death asthe media were calling it after the draw.

But, looking back over the years, I thinkthere have been important changessince the Bosman ruling, because thesmaller countries such as Switzerlandand Sweden now have most of ourplayers operating abroad at good clubsin good leagues. Thats why its becom-ing tougher and tougher at internationallevel. The other two groups are veryopen, so it really is a case of anythingcan happen.

6 Do you think we can haveanother surprise like Greece?Of course you can always have sur-prises. In the European Champion-ship, we can talk about Denmark andGreece. But, from a historical perspec-tive, this competition and the WorldCup have usually been won by oneof the big countries. So you have tosay that it would be a surprise if oneof the smaller countries was to win it.

7 How important is nationalteam football for the players,do you think?Thats another interesting after-effectof the Bosman ruling. At the big clubs

GettyImages

GettyImages

LARS LAGERBCK

GIVES INSTRUCTIONS DURI NG

SWEDENS MATCH WITH

TRINIDAD AND TOBAGO IN THE

2006 WORLD CUP IN GERMANY.


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a bit of testing. But then we decidedthat testing was maybe not the bestway to go. Instead we started to focus,during the two or three weeks beforethe tournament, on the intensityof the work we were doing with theplayers, based on the information wehad gathered during the previousweeks. We know pretty well what sortof physical shape each player is in, sothe only thing we use is the max. pulse

data to monitor the body responsesto exercise. We have experimentedwith different systems but, bearing inmind that theres a tough scheduleof one match every three days, weveopted to use only the basic materialsupplied by UEFA.

11 So what do you focus onwhen you get the squad togetherfor pre-tournament training?Well, the plan is to have the players

in on 22 May. Then, during the firstweek, we individualise the work asmuch as we can. Some players mightneed more physical exercise; othersmight need something else. We endthe first week by playing a friendlyinvolving the players who are in mostneed of some match action. Thenwe give them a day off, followed by asecond week when we concentrateon the way we want to play. Normallywe train for 8090 minutes and we

normally have a theme in defence orattack which we work on for 30, 40or 45 minutes. Thats when we try toperfect our game and make sure theplayers are in the right positions. Thatsour priority because, as I said before,they come from 12 or 13 countrieswhere the game is being played a bitdifferently. For example, we operatea zonal defence and some of themmight be working in a marking system.So you have to work on the mental

side as well so that they can make thetransition as smoothly as possible andmake sure the mechanisms are work-ing as soon as they go on to the pitch.It means that we have to repeat a lot

of things and I must give the playersfull credit because they are motivatedto go out and do this sort of practice and Im not sure that this is the casein every country.

12 Do you use any technicalsupport tools?We use the computer analysis pro-gramme and monitor the heart rate.Otherwise, we rely on our own

knowledge and experience.

13 How would you describethe Swedish philosophy in relationto a style of football?Part of it is closely connected toSwedish club football. But, havinglooked at club and national team foot-ball over the years, its obvious thatwinning teams have a very clear wayof playing. So the basic thing is tohave a concept that the players accept

and want to work with: how you wantto defend, how you want to attack.Then you need the sort of individualskills that can help you to win things and maybe thats why we struggleto go beyond the quarter-finals. I thinkthats the basic philosophy whichexists in Sweden: a team ethic, goodorganisation, and emphasis on creat-ing enough space for the individual

elements to express themselves.Trying to find the right balance is oneof the most interesting things aboutbeing a coach.

14 How would describe your style?I want the whole team to participatein attack and in defence. We haveclear ideas about how we want ourforwards to defend and what their rolesshould be. When it comes to attack,

we want as many players as possibleto participate. But you cant throweverybody forward, of course, so wealways emphasise the importance ofkeeping a good balance in the team.But what we have tried to developover the last four or five years is that,with more fast players in the team, wewant players who, when we win theball, look to see if we can make a quickmove towards the opponents goal.Its no secret that, with todays stan-

dards of team organisation and fitness,a rapid transition into attack givesgood opportunities to create scoringchances. If we cant do that, we talka lot about having patience in thebuild-up. Im quite happy if we keepthe ball in our own half of the pitchand wait for the right moment. Losingyour patience makes it much easier forthe opponent to rob the ball from you.

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Lars Lagerbck surrounded by Swedish internationals as they prepare to face Spainin the EURO 2008 qualifiers.

Henriksson/AFP/GettyImages

Nackstrand/AFP/GettyImages

DISCUSSIONS WITH

HENRIK LARSSON DURING

A TRAINING SESSION.


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coach and good all-year training facili-ties for the 16-19 age group. This hasworked very, very well since 1992.But the difficulty we have encounteredin recent years is that our clubs dontreally go far enough in the Europeancompetitions. So, three years ago, theassociation and the league agreed ona scheme that has been operating forthe last eight months or so. Its givingcoaches opportunities for re-education

not only the senior team coachesbut, more especially, the youth coaches.Were putting a lot of money into thatat the moment and also working oncreating better-quality academies, asthey call them in England. So were try-ing to build further on the project thatstarted in 1992. We need to work hardto get more clubs playing internationalfootball. This is important because, frommy point of view, a player from theSwedish league comes into the national

team with very little experience of inter-national football. We need the clubsto do better on the international scene.At the same time, I think the associa-tion has done very well with regard tobuilding indoor halls full-size andsmaller pitches where we can practisewith the young players all the yearround. I dont know if you rememberRoger Gustafsson, who was the coachof IFK Gteborg. Hes now working withtheir academy as well as being head

coach. He says that, if youre broughtup in Sweden, between the ages of 10and 13, you play football for six monthsa year. In the southern parts of Europe,kids of that age play for 10, 11 or 12months of the year. That means a15-year-old in Italy has, perhaps, 10,000hours of football. A Swedish kid hasto be 18 or 19 to have accumulatedthat much football. Thats an importantfacet for us if we aim to get closerto the top in terms of individual skills.

17 In your view, is there a brightfuture for international football?Im a little bit worried, even thoughI see how much interest the European

Championship and the World Cupcreate, with so many supporterscoming in. It looks very bright. I thinkUEFA has done a marvellous jobof bringing together all the differentelements and creating a situationof peace. But when you talk about24 teams getting into EuropeanChampionship finals, its going tomake it easier for smaller countrieslike Sweden to get in. But you have

to wonder about the quality. And youhave to ask whether a reduced quali-fying phase will, in fact, mean fewercompetitive games for the nationalteam. Will the clubs seize a chanceto reduce the number of nationalteam games? As a national teamcoach, you cant really afford to giveaway more time than you have atthe moment. But, if UEFA, the clubsand FIFA can really cooperate on this,I think the future is extremely bright.

18 Apart from having goodplayers, what are the factors thathave most influence on thesuccess of a national team coach?To have really good staff aroundyou and to have a lot of confidence.You need to believe in yourself, notto listen to too many people aroundyou, and to do what you honestlythink are the best things to do. Work-ing with the national team gives you

so little time. That means you needto have the right priorities all the timeand to have a really good organisa-tion around the team so that every-thing is as efficient as possible.

19 If you had to give one pieceof advice to a youngish coachstarting with a national team now,what would it be?Get your priorities right. With solittle time, you need to organise the

team and practise the way youwant to play. Even players from thetop nations are nowadays playingin other countries, so thats the bestpiece of basic advice I can give.

Baron/Bongarts/GettyImages

15 What impact does theSwedish leagues calendar haveon your preparations?Very little today less than when westarted with the national team in 1998.But, these days, the players in theSwedish top division are professionaland train all the year round. And wedont have that many players from theSwedish championship in the national

team because, with all due respect,it is not good enough. In the squad forEURO 2008, youll probably see onlythree or four players from the Swedishleague, so the effect is not that great.

16 What is the Swedish FA doing topromote the development of talentsfor the future of the national teams?We are working on one of the bestprojects that I have experienced in theFA. In 1992 we started a special pro-

gramme with the first and seconddivision clubs whereby we work veryclosely together. The association distrib-utes money from sponsors but oncondition that each club has a qualified

THE COACHES OF THE FOUR

EURO 2008 GROUP D TEAMS AFTER THE DRAW

IN LUCERNE: LUIS ARAGONES (SPAIN),

OTTO REHHAGEL (GREECE), GUU S HI DDINK (RUSSIA)

AND LARS LAGERBCK (SWEDEN).

Lars Lagerbck congratulates ZlatanIbrahimovic, who scored the late equaliser

against Italy at EURO 2004 in Portugal.

EmpicsSport/PAPhotos


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HOW SIGNIFICANT IS IT THAT PEOPLE OFTEN REFER TO STAR PUPILS BUT NEVER TALK

ABOUT STAR TEACHERS? ARE EDUCATORS IN GENERAL UNDERVALUED? AND ARE THEY ESPECIALLY

UNDERVALUED IN FOOTBALL? THESE QUESTIONS MIGHT EASILY HAVE BEEN POSED

BY AN EAVESDROPPER AT THE 17TH UEFA COURSE FOR COACH EDUCATORS STAGED RECENTLY

IN CASCAIS, WHERE THE PORTUGUESE FA HOSTED AN EVENT FEATURING COACH EDUCATORS

AND TECHNICAL DIRECTORS FROM 52 MEMBER ASSOCIATIONS.

STAR PUPILSAND STAR TEACHERS

There was a varied programme ofpresentations, interviews and practicalwork. Portugals Luiz Felipe Scolari,Swedens Lars Lagerbck, the Republic

of Irelands Pat Bonner and EnglandsSir Trevor Brooking discussed issuesaffecting coaches and their educators.Paulo Sousa, now a UEFA pro-licenceholder, helped Andy Roxburgh to con-duct a coach-the-coach practical sessionwith the Under-19 squad from SportingClube. Germanys Erich Rutemllerworked on combination play. AustriasPaul Gludovatz focused on changesof pace and tempo. And the hostscoach educator, Jorge Castelo, teamed

up with CF Os Belenenses coachRui Jorge for a session based on thedevelopment of technique.

But the course was fundamentallyan exercise in self-appraisal. The coretheme was an examination of therole of the coach educator and thevirtues required by the people who,as UEFA Technical Director AndyRoxburgh put it when he opened theproceedings in Portugal, aim to pro-duce professionally competent coacheswho, in turn, produce skilful playersand create successful teams.

As in many sectors of the businessworld, the starting point for self-

GILBERTO MADAIL, PRESIDENT OF THE

PORTUGUESE FOOTBALL FEDERATION AND MEMBER

OF THE UEFA EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE.

appraisal is an accurate job description.And, for coach educators, this is notalways easy. In other sectors, teachertraining can be focused on equipping

the students to teach a specific subjectto pupils from a specific age group and,very often, a specific social background.In football, this is not the case. Thesubject matter is extraordinarily diverse,age groups are not clearly defined andthe student coaches playing (or non-playing) backgrounds can vary consider-ably. Nor can they be prepared for aclear-cut role. One training group canaccommodate students whose aspira-tions cover the whole footballing spec-

trum from the top of the tree to thegrassroots, from Champions League tojunior league. In addition, coach educa-tion embraces emotional and psycho-logical responses. In how many sectorsof the job market do students need tobe prepared to do a Rafa Bentez andbounce back after two early dismissals?

As Andy Roxburgh stressed in Cascais,the very complexity of the job is whatmakes it so stimulating. A good coachof coaches, he says, is a person whocan get the best out of student coaches,to help them realise their potential.Coach educators develop coaches asindividuals and contribute to the coach-ing profession by educating the next

generation. They dont just teachfootball. They teach ideas, principlesand values. They prepare coachespsychologically for a profession which

requires them to deal with players,media, technology, football politics andcrisis management.

Whats more, the coach educatorneeds to implement a different styleof teaching based on the philosophythat its more important to teachstudents how to coach rather thanwhat to coach. The educationalprocess focuses on illustrating alterna-tives rather than trying an absolute

truth which, in football, doesnt exist.In fact, diversity is the lifeblood of foot-ball. So, as Andy Roxburgh underlined,the aim is to develop from within;to inspire a coach to develop individualtalents and beliefs. You could say thatthe educator has five specific tasks:to inspire, to educate, to protect, toprepare and to assess.

The educational component must evi-dently be based on thinking and learn-ing, using work experience, coachingcompetence and management skills asthe foundation stones of development.

The element of protection is crucial,Roxburgh reflects. Someone coming


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LUIZ FELIPE SCOLARI,

PORTUGALS NATIONAL COACH.

into the game as a coach must bemade aware of the importance ofprotecting individuals, players, clubs,national teams indeed, the futureof football. Everything we do shouldbe inspired by a love of the game.

There is a temptation to think thatthe role of the coach educator is fun-damentally about tactics and playingstrategy. But, in this day and age,

coaches and not only those who workin the elite bracket need to be pre-pared to navigate comfortably throughthe potentially troubled waters of playerpower, media demands and commer-cial or political factors which can exerta direct influence on team buildingand collective performance. Theseseemingly peripheral issues have nowpenetrated into positions much closer

to the core of the coaching profession.Another fact of life in the modern gameis that coaches increasingly have towork in contexts dominated by high,short-term expectations. Coach educa-tors as well because, during thediscussion sessions in Portugal, it wasremarked that the institutions whoinject funds into coach education alsotend to do so with high expectationsof short-term dividends. Concern was

expressed that these pressures couldbe translated into over-theoreticalcoach education and, in consequence,a risk of producing stereotyped foot-ballers. Creativity and imagination,the participants in Cascais maintained,are precious assets which need tobe stimulated and encouraged notstifled by negative coaching whichtakes the fun out of the game.

Once a job description has beendrafted, the next questions relate to thecoach educators profile. And this wasone of the issues which Andy Roxburghbroached during his presentation inCascais. If were trying to describe theperfect coach educator, he responded,he clearly needs to be a communica-tor. As a person, he would blend humil-ity with an open, outgoing personality.With the students, he would be patient,

contagiously enthusiastic, reliable anddemanding. I quite like the old axiomabout a good manager is easy to workwith and difficult to please. In his every-day work, the coach educator needsto be practical, he should be a goodplanner and organiser, and he shouldbe decisive and confident in what heis doing. At the same time, he needsto have vision and imagination coupled

Photos:Sportsfile


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NICO ROMEIJN,

COACH EDUCATOR

AT THE ROYAL

NETHERLANDS FOOTBALL

ASSOCIATION.

Paul Gludovatz of the Austrian Football Association gives instructions to the playersfor a practical demonstration.

with extensive experience. I rememberthat Sven-Gran Eriksson once saidyou can sell experience, but you cantbuy it. You must gain it. Bearing in mindthe sort of coaching students youredealing with, its an extremely valuablecommodity.

But how do you gain it? The answer,of course, is that the coach educatorcan absorb experience from different

directions: from playing experience,from work experience as a coach, fromcourses and seminars, or via collabora-tion with mentors or further educationprogrammes. At the same time, it hasto be said that self-reliant learning is aheavy weapon in the coachs armoury and also in the coach educators.

This was cause for a degree of concernamong some of the participants inCascais. Some advocated the increaseduse of internet technology to compen-

sate for a shortfall in coach educationliterature and documentation. Othersexpressed concerns about the costsof coach education reaching prohibitivelevels, increasing the risks of excludingcertain target groups and losing stu-

dents with great potential. This, inturn, raised questions about subsidies,methods of spreading the financialburden over a greater period of time,or support from Olympic Committeesor other organisations though withthe proviso that national associationsshould run their own programmes.

With the European football family radi-cally changing shape in a relatively short

space of time, there are obviously chal-lenges to be met. But the coach educa-tors vocation remains the same: Thebasic objectives are to educate studentson how to coach and how to manage and they are two different things, saysAndy Roxburgh. There must also bea balanced emphasis on facets suchas helping the students to organise, toplan, to prepare what is going to hap-pen on the training pitch and to use thetools which are available to the mod-ern-day technician. And lets not forget

that many of our students may not benaturally good communicators and willneed guidance and tuition in that area.

Eusbio would agree with that. Afterthe Portuguese national associa-

tions technical coordinator, ArnaldoCunha, had explained the host nationscoach education philosophy, thelegendary striker was asked for hisviews on what qualities add up to agood coach. It is someone whois able to talk to the players, Eusbioreplied, and get the maximum outof them. The ability to communicateis essential.

This view was wholeheartedly endorsedby Andy Roxburgh, who added, inturn, a good educator of coaches issomeone who can communicate withthem in such a way as to get the bestout of them, to help them realise theirpotential. Student coaches alwayswelcome guidance on how to developthe individual player and on the artof team building.

But the prime concern for the coacheducator is which methods to use

when coaching student coaches. AndyRoxburgh is convinced that, bearing inmind the nature of the pupils, the stu-dent coach needs to be fully engagedin the learning process. I rememberArsne Wenger saying at one of ourmeetings that players memorise betterwhen they are actively involved inthe learning process and I think thesame is true when it comes to coacheducation if not even more so. Soyou need to carefully weight up the

balance between direct teaching andguided discovery, pointing students inthe right direction and allowing themto explore the issues for themselves.

Roxburgh also stressed the importanceof offering students all possible options and this later tied in with concernsexpressed in the discussion groupsabout the shortage of coaches in cer-tain sectors, notably the youth areasin mens and womens football andin futsal. This, in turn, was linked tovital questions about the status of thecoaching profession in general andnot just those who work at the peak ofthe pyramid. Although you are not inheadlines, Roxburgh told the audience


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PER RAVN OMDAL,

MEMBER OF THE UEFA EXECUTIVE

COMMITTEE AND CHAIRMAN

OF THE DEVELOPMENT AND TECHN ICAL

ASSISTANCE COMMITTEE.

Jorge Castelo of the Portuguese Football Federation supervises exercises during a practical session in Lisbon.

sufficient investments in self-knowl-edge, self-assessment and their owneducation. Some were concernedthat coaches tend to prefer tried-and-trusted methods rather than innovating.There was a call for wider implan-

tation of the sort of refresher coursesthe Danes are staging. Some main-tained that dedicating resources to thefilming of training sessions (to enablestudent coaches to review what theyhave done and pinpoint mistakes) ismoney well invested. Others advocatedregular communication and exchangeof ideas on internet platforms. Andthere was support for the developmentof education courses which encouragecoaches to be more self-critical.

As well as training the next genera-tion of coaches, Andy Roxburgh com-mented, coach educators are vitalin supporting the current generationto ensure that coaches are kept

up-to-date. Coach educators haveto be aware of the latest trends. Theyhave to keep in touch with how thegame develops in terms of speed andtactics. They have to embrace newtechnology, research new teaching

methods and seek innovative waysof getting the maximum out of theirstudent coaches.

As UEFA Executive Committee mem-ber Per Ravn Omdal told the partici-pants in Cascais, the education ofcoaches can never stop and we haveto keep pace with the developmentof the game. I ask you all to contributeto footballs development by sharingknowledge with each other as muchas possible. Gilberto Madail, presidentof the Portuguese national association,closed the course with the concisestatement: Good coaches and qualitycoach educators will help football inEurope to develop further.

in Portugal, please remember thatyou are extremely important to thedevelopment of football.

But where is the development offootball taking us? And how do we pre-pare coaches to cope with the trendsthat directly affect the coaching profes-sion? Globalisation and pressure toachieve instant results are by no meansrestricted to the top end of the game.

The image of football has changed meaning that the public now regardcoaches with slightly different perspec-tives and expectations. Never beforehave there been such high demandsin terms of playing with style, of enter-taining while winning. Specialist staffhave been drafted into the coachsteam-behind-the-team, meaning thatthe head coach has to be equippedto build an effective backroom team.The greater speed of the game and theconsequent lack of time and space

add up to differences in training-groundactivity and physical preparation. Andnewly introduced club and coach licens-ing structures are also changing theshape of the coaching profession inmany European associations.

But technology is available, meaningthat distance learning and online com-munication have become useful tools.Fast-tracking former players into thecoaching profession is an option cur-

rently being explored by many associa-tions. Mentoring schemes are becominghearteningly more frequent. And therewas applause for UEFAs commitmentto encouraging and upgrading exchangeand knowledge-sharing programmes.

In Portugal, KNVB coach educator NicoRomeijn explained the assessment con-cepts currently being applied in Dutchfootball and Denmarks Peter Rudbkled the audience towards another highlyrelevant issue by reviewing the DBUsrefresher courses.

One of the viewpoints to emerge fromthe discussion groups in Cascais wasthat too many coaches to do not make

Photos:Sportsfile


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Itll be two teams in fact: well avoid

the quicksands of calling them the

A team and the B team by pointing out

that its a purely geographical split.

Jerzy Engel (Poland), Holger Osieck

(Germany), Morten Olsen (Denmark)and Gyrgy Mezey (Hungary) will be

based in Zurich, while Vienna will be

base camp for Jozef Venglos (Slovakia),

THE 18TH TEAMIT HAS BECOME A EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP TRADITION TO CALL THE MATCH

OFFICIALS THE 17TH TEAM AT THE FINALS. AT EURO 2008, THERELL BE AN 18TH: THE TECHNICAL TEAM.

THE NAME CERTAINLY APPEALS TO THE TEAM MEMBERS. IN UEFAS PLANNING DOCUMENTS,

THEYRE USUALLY CALLED THE TECHNICAL STUDY GROUP, OR TSG FOR SHORT. ANDY ROXBURGH,

WHO CAPTAINS THE TEAM, IS NOT ALONE IN FEELING THAT NAME HAS A MISLEADINGLY

ACADEMIC RING TO IT. SO, WHEN THE BALL STARTS ROLLING IN JUNE, ITLL BE THE TECHNICAL TEAM

WHOLL BE KEEPING SOME EXPERT EYES ON IT.

Grard Houllier (France), Roy Hodgson

(England), FIFA representative Jean-Paul

Brigger and the team captain, Andy

Roxburgh.

Simplistically speaking, the role of theTechnical Team is to represent absent

colleagues. Only sixteen national team

coaches will gain first-hand experience

in Austria and Switzerland and, as

Lars Lagerbck explains elsewhere in

this issue, experience is a valuable

weapon to have in your armoury.

The Technical Team aims to relay sec-

ond-hand experience.

Of course, the team also performs

more media-orientated tasks and

Stollarz/Bongarts/GettyImages

GettyImages

AUSTRIA (ANDREAS IVANSCHITZ, RIGHT)

AND THE NETHERLANDS (JOHN HEITINGA) TOOK PART IN

A HIGH-SCORING FRIENDLY AHEAD OF EURO 2008.

Italys

Antonio di Natale

in possession

of the ball

against Spain during

a EURO 2008

warm-up match.


13/1613

they are usually demanding ones

at that. Its not always easy to select

the man of the match; it takes hours

of debating to come up with a team

of the tournament, and a great deal

of soul-searching to single out a player

of the tournament. But, as neutral

observers, the members of the Techni-

cal Team represent a logical choice

when it comes to looking for judges.

In terms of passing on information to

colleagues, the first date in the diary is

the National Team Coaches Conference,

which will mark a return to Vienna at the

end of September. This is a three-day

debriefing during which technical and

logistical issues will be discussed. This

serves a dual purpose as, apart from

passing on information to those respon-

sible for the national teams of the other

37 associations, suggestions can beput down on UEFA debating tables with

a view to further improving the final

tournament in the future. The Technical

Team is therefore responsible for the

input of information and for identifying

the areas which most warrant discus-

sion during the plenary meeting of

Europes national team coaches.

Their other brief is to produce a tech-

nically-orientated record of the eventwhich can be reliably used as a refer-

ence work in years to come. This is

based on the coaches observations

and backed by official data.

But, as the team members would be

the first to admit, the final tournament

also represents an all-too-rare oppor-

tunity, in what is essentially a solitary

profession, for a group of coaches to

exchange views and strike sparks offeach other. The end result will not

only be a printed technical report on

EURO 2008, but an opportunity to

identify trends in the international game.

All of this technical observation and

assessment is by no means restricted

to the finals of the European Football

Championship, although this probably

generates the thickest volume produced

by Andy Roxburghs Technical Teams.The word probably is in that sentence

because the UEFA Champions League

Technical Report the tenth edition

of which will be published this summer

is also a bulky volume, bearing in

mind that, whereas a EURO involves

16 teams and 31 matches, the premier

club competition involves 32 and

125 respectively.

Technical Teams are now at almostall of the final tournaments organised

by UEFA in order to observe, to detect

developments, to provoke debate and

to present all this to their colleagues

in the form of a technical report. Its

a fascinating exercise to read through

the booklets which have been filling

reference shelves for the last dozen

years or so as Thierry Henry found

when we recently went to speak to himin Barcelona with a copy of the 1996

U18 technical report tucked in the

bag. He re-read the observations he

had made as captain of a French gold-

medal team that featured William Gal-

las, Mickal Silvestre, David Trzguet

and Nicolas Anelka, and then looked

at the photos of Emile Heskey, Michael

Owen, Frankie (as he preferred to

be called at the time) Lampard, Simo

Sabrosa and Gennaro Gattuso. Letshope that the Technical Team at EURO

2008 will also produce a report that, in

years to come, will not only be a refer-

ence work but also a collectors item

A show of strength from Michael Ballack of Germany in the recent friendly against Switzerland.

Koepsel/Bongarts/GettyImages


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FOOTBALL, DEVELOPMENTAND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE

ITS 32 YEARS SINCE ANTON ONDRUS AND FRANZ BECKENBAUER SHOOK HANDS

AT THE LITTLE MARACAN STADIUM IN BELGRADE AS CAPTAINS OF THE CZECHOSLOVAKIAN AND WEST

GERMAN TEAMS WHO DISPUTED THE FIRST EUROPEAN CHAMPIONSHIP FINAL TO BE DECIDED IN

A PENALTY SHOOT-OUT. AT THAT MOMENT, NEITHER OF THEM WOULD HAVE DREAMED THAT THEY

WOULD SHAKE HANDS AGAIN IN 2008 AS MEMBERS OF UEFAS DEVELOPMENT AND TECHNICAL ASSISTANCECOMMITTEE, REPRESENTING HOW TIMES HAVE CHANGED SLOVAKIA AND THE UNITED GERMANY.

But lets not get distracted by anecdotesor nostalgia. The real message is thattechnicians now have two UEFA commit-tees to represent their interests andthe 14-man line-up for one of themincludes Anton and Franz, led by chair-man Per Ravn Omdal of Norway.

Alongside UEFA Technical Director

Andy Roxburgh, Franz Beckenbauer oper-ates in a midfield role linking the twocommittees. But, on the Football Com-mittee that he chairs, he and fellowlegend Dino Zoff will need to do somerunning to keep pace with slightly morerecent champions of Europe such asDejan Savicevic and Fernando Hierro.

However, the important thing abouta star-studded team is the way it plays.So the first item on their respectiveagendas was to establish tactics and

strategy. In short, the brief of the newFootball Committee is to: Exchange views on the protection

and further development of the game; Draw up recommendations on national

team and club issues, the Laws ofthe Game, player protection, image,and other football-related matterswhich have an impact on the game;

Act as ambassadors or representativesof UEFA at professional events,courses, conferences and youth orgrassroots activities;

Offer expert help in the productionof UEFAs technical reports;Offer football-related proposals

regarding UEFA competitions; Support top-level players and the

development of young talents;

Consider major issues which impacton the referee and the coach;

Assist in promoting UEFA and thegame of football.

By way of a warm-up, the committeereviewed some logistical issues such asguidelines for disputed goals and how totreat goals, cautions and dismissals from

forfeited matches. The use of technologywas discussed, and the committeeendorsed the view previously expressedby the elite coaches that the use of LEDtrack advertising boards should be dis-couraged, bearing in mind that, when theball is in play, laterally-moving images canrepresent a severe distraction for players,coaches, match officials and spectators.

By contrast, the Development andTechnical Assistance Committees briefis to: Supervise UEFAs technical and foot-

ball assistance/exchange programmeswithin its member associations;

Assist in the flow of informationregarding training, education andtechnical reports;

Support UEFAs technical advisersand consultants;Monitor the development of the

UEFA Convention on the MutualRecognition of Coaching Qualifications;

Oversee grassroots and playerdevelopment, especially through theGrassroots Charter;

Cooperate with the Union of EuropeanFootball Trainers.

The committee is supported by theJira Panel, the Grassroots Football Panel

and UEFAs technical instructors. At thefirst meeting, a series of priorities wasestablished: To define a concept and to imple-

ment further technical exchange andassistance;

To assist in the promotion, protectionand development of the game throughtechnical activities (technical reports,grassroots schemes, online education,etc.);

To monitor the activities of theJira Panel and the Grassroots Panel;

To assist the associations via eventsand specialised advice in the furthereducation of coaches, educatorsand grassroots leaders.

As the saying goes, watch this space!

THE COACHES IN

GROUP C FOR EURO 2008:

ROBERTO DONADONI,

VICTOR PITURCA, MARCO VAN BASTEN

AND RAYMOND DOMENECH.

GettyImages

UEFA-pjwoods.ch

Fernando Hierro, Champions League winner, andnow a member of the UEFA Football Committee.

THE UEFA DEVELOPMENT AND

TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE COMMITTEE

WITH UEFA PRESIDENT MICHEL PLATINI

AND GENERAL SECRETARY DAVID TAYLOR

AT A MEETING IN NYON.


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T RA I N I N GROU T I N E

2 0 0 8

June 7-29

EURO 2008

(Austria/Switzerland)

July 7-19

7th European Womens

Under-19 Championship

Final Tournament(France)

July 14-26

7th European Under-19

Championship

Final Tournament

(Czech Republic)

August 29 UEFA Super Cup

(Monaco)

September 8-9

10th Elite Club

Coaches Forum

(Nyon)

September 22-24 8th Conference

for European National Coaches

(Vienna)

AG ENDABYMIRCEA RADULESCUDirector of the Romanian FA Coaching School

(with Under-16 federal coach Lucian Burchel)Sportsfile

GettyImages

THE CITY OF

MANCHESTER STADIUM

IS THE VENUE

FOR THIS YEARS UEFA

CUP FINAL.

Aim To develop build-up play

and to launch waves of attack.

Numbers 21 players (9 v 9 + 2 goalkeepers

and 1 joker).

Area Full pitch.

Duration 50 minutes: 30 minutes coach-led

15 minutes free play5 minute half-time

rest periodRules

The ball must be dribbled acrossthe halfway line.

Only the player who takes theball across the halfway line can jointhe attack.

WA V E S O F AT TA C K The joker is a midfield player who

plays for the team in possession.Offside applies 30 metres from

each goal. After a goal restart with a goal kick.No pressure on defenders when in

possession inside the 30-metre zone.

Coaching focus Build-up play space creation,

passing accuracy and goalkeeperinvolvement.

Waves of attack overlappingmovements, combination play andswitching the point of attack.

Pressing pressing the ball, closingthe space and offering cover.

Four-man zonal defence collectivemovement of the back four, using off-side and dealing with mobile attackers.

The Ernst Happel

stadium in Vienna,

venue of the

EURO 2008 final.


16/16

UEFA

Route de Genve 46

CH-1260 Nyon

Switzerland

Phone +41 848 00 27 27

Fax +41 22 707 27 34

uefa.com

Union des associations

europennes de football

The Tecnician May 2008

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Transcript of The Tecnician May 2008