Warrior Coaching

Fabio Capello has had an amazing career as a Football Manager so credit where credit is due he deserves to be respected as a manager.  However, sadly his ability and experience is not coming together how he would like for the England Team right now in South Africa. 

One thing that is very different from club management to International management is the time that you get with the players and the time you have to get the team to gel.  Even if you walk into a new club you know the team have already gelled to an extent.  Whereas England have not had that cohesion for a very long time.  But don’t worry help is available and all he needs to do is call the Warrior Coach and I’ll be there!

So what would I be saying if I got his ear?

Preparation

Games are rarely won on the pitch but in the preparation and build up that precedes it.  Currently the squad are kept in the dark on team selection until the final hour and none of the players have the opportunity to mentally focus on the task at hand because they don’t know what part they will play.  So if the team selection is this up in the air how can they be able to carry out tactical orders that are not fully rehearsed?  Confidence comes from preparation and the team don’t have a full opportunity to bring it all together before the big day.  You can see in the player’s body language that this confidence is missing.  This was shown by Wayne Rooney as he expressed the pain of being booed by his own fans.  The players are so low that they need every scrap of support they can muster to rebuild their own belief.  Abuse from the fans will signal another nail in the coffin.

Tactics

Fabio Capello has World Class stars at his disposal however they are only World Class in certain areas of their game.  If these areas of their game are not maximised then even the best player in the World can look very average.  One of the phrases that keeps coming up is ‘square pegs in round holes’ and I fear that is exactly what Fabio is doing.  He is taking World Class players and operating them in a system where they can not show their full capabilities.  To make matters worse not only are the players struggling and losing belief, but the media slam their individual performances which pushes the players even further down.  If confidence comes from preparation then taking a player out of his comfort zone and asking him to perform how he has never performed before will certainly create doubt in their minds.  If I was with Capello I would rapidly be running through a SWOT analysis of each player and highlighting where the weak areas of their games are as well as their strengths.  This way we can neutralise their weaknesses and play only to the positives.  Also if you insist on a stubborn set of tactics then you have to admit at some point that sometimes your star player will not feature in them.  As despite their obvious talent their abilities don’t fit the tactics.  This is how surprising stars are made in big tournaments and also how surprisingly big stars fade in tournaments.  Look at Sir Alf Ramsey when he chose not to play Jimmie Greaves in the final against West Germany in 1966.  Greaves was in many ways a much better footballer than Geoff Hurst, but despite that he wasn’t the right man for the job.  It is key decisions like this that earn managers their money.

Motivation

As the players run out of the tunnel you want to see the fire burning in their eyes.  You want to see the hunger spilling over as they can’t wait to get on the pitch and show the world what they were born to do.  The World Cup is the pinnacle of a Footballers career so if you can’t motivate them for this then what can you motivate them for?  The truth appears to be that Capello is mismanaging the pressure and offloading it on to the players.  The players are playing like they have the world on their shoulders and to be fair they have.  The level of expectation now is so high that the squad are getting concerned they don’t have what it takes to deal with it.  This is what Managers get paid for.  Managers who offload stress and pressure to those below them have no right being in that profession.  Players have to be responsible and accountable for fulfilling the roles that the manager asked them to deliver.  But the buck ALWAYS stops with the manager.  If it didn’t get done it’s because the strategy was wrong or the personnel ordered to carry out the task was wrong.  Both were selected and dictated by the manager.  This has to be made clear to the players that their responsibility is to do that task to the best they can and they then have to be empowered with all the tools required to carry out that task.  At the moment the England players appear like it is their responsibility to win in spite of their manager and that the pressure is on them to work out how it is going to be done.  Removing this pressure and blockage and playing the players in formations and roles that they are fully prepared for will allow them to play without fear.  And we need to see England play without fear against Slovenia.  A full answer to motivation should have started a long time ago with a full understanding of the values of the individual players and a common guideline of shared values adopted by the squad.  The players need to know how they personally fit into the team and be reassured that they are an integral part of that team.  At the moment I fear that every player is treading on eggshells and many don’t feel integral at all.

Belief

It costs nothing to believe in yourself and everything not to.  The players have had a rough ride so far and there is no doubt that without the appropriate measures in place it will have affected their mindset and their opinion on their chances.  The management team need to work hard at making sure each player is fully aware of their potential and instil the belief that the only ones that can stop them are themselves.  England are still in control of their own destiny here and an emphatic win in Slovenia is likely to see them progress.  It’s ugly but it doesn’t matter its results that matter.  And if they progress they have the same chance as anyone to lift the cup.  Creating the belief shouldn’t be difficult as virtually every player in the squad has experience of playing in Finals in the domestic league and even winning championships.  Most have played in the Champions League which in many ways is a much higher quality of football due to the time the teams get to prepare together.  England CAN win the World Cup and whether they do or not is simply a choice.  Do they choose to win the World Cup?  Sounds like an easy decision however they do have to be empowered to make that decision by the management in place.  And I know what you’re thinking.  What if all the teams make that choice?  Then it comes down to the team that is not just paying lip service but genuinely believe it the most.  Not as individuals but as a team.  From the guys who don’t get to play to the star of the tournament.  And even down the staff all the way to the physio and the kit manager.  Belief has to be instilled at every level and it has to be backed up by the preparation to win and the actions that show that you came to win.  No good saying that you are intent on winning the lottery someday but never buying a ticket.  Actions always outweigh the words and its what you do that speaks volumes about your belief.  The manager has a responsibility to demonstrate actions that scream the level of belief he requires from his players.  Dropping Green was one of those decisions that weakened the squad’s belief as it distinctly showed lack of belief.

I could write for another week about what I’d love to discuss with Fabio but today is not the day.  Maybe when I meet him I can go through it properly

Yes it’s true the country is Football crazy for the next few weeks as all eyes look toward the national Football team to make us proud.

 
Some love football, some hate the game but no matter where you stand there are some fantastic lessons to be taken from observing the games and thinking how we can apply those lessons to other aspects of our lives.  Watching the England v USA game got me thinking about Man Management.

Now there are many people up and down the country right now discussing their choice of line up to play Algeria on Friday and what tactics they would propose if they were in charge for a day.  Though only one man actually gets the honour of that task and that is Fabio Capello.  He’ll be mulling over the performances and considering his options for the next throw of the dice.  As an armchair fan it appears that maybe his choice of Man Management so far is flawed. 

When selecting personnel for a task it is important to fully understand their strengths and weaknesses and position them in such a fashion that you stand the best possible chance of succeeding as a team.  Then you must decide on how you will go about implementing the plan with your line up in place.  And sometimes it is advisable to tweak the plan to accommodate the limitations of your staff.

So what does this have to do with Fabio, England and Man Management? 

Well from the performances so far it appears that Fabio is hell bent on forcing square pegs into round holes and there is a lesson to be learnt.  Fabio has been very open about the fact that he likes his team to play with width; he looks for wingers to run down the flanks and cross the ball in to his target men to attack the goal.  It was this preference that cost Theo Walcott his place in the squad because time and again Theo didn’t do as he was told and played too narrow for Fabio’s liking.  Now the good news is Fabio has a plan, but the bad news is there is a flaw.  The tactic he has chosen does not fit the strengths and abilities of his staff.  And instead of revising the plan he is more interested in forcing square pegs into round holes.  You see, without Beckham England’s wide players have shown they are not that good at crossing the ball.  And to make matters worse England’s talisman Wayne Rooney actually has been removed as a threat to the opposition by Fabio’s tactics as Ferguson will tell you Wayne Rooney is very competent in the air but his World Class ability only becomes apparent when the ball is at his feet.  If we had Shearer, Drogba or a centre forward of the style of Les Ferdinand in the squad then I could understand the tactic.  But we haven’t?  Yet the tactic remains.

So what are the alternative options?  Well you only have to look at the style of play of Argentina.  They have a player called Messi who many dub as one of the biggest talents at the World Cup and in many ways he is similar to our Rooney.  He is short, tenacious, fast and World Class coming from deep with the ball at his feet.  Both play almost like midfielders upfront and can finish as good as any player that has ever graced the game.  Yet Messi is allowed to play in a system which allows him to shine and Rooney is left to get so frustrated he is in danger of getting himself red carded as for 90 minutes he watches the ball constantly flying over the top of his head.  And if he does lose his mind and get himself sent off then as much as Rooney has to be responsible for his actions you also have to look at the guy who put him in that position.  You have to question the Man Management.

Man Utd and Barcelona have developed a free flowing style where Rooney can get involved in attacks with the ball at his feet.  The ball is played on the deck and often never rises above waist height as it is threaded through the opposition’s formation.  This is the environment where these players have flourished and if you don’t provide them the conditions they are accustomed to then you can not expect the results they are used to achieving.

So what can we learn from this?

Well next time you are in a meeting considering a strategy for the next phase of the plan spare a thought for the personnel you have and ensure you really do understand their strengths and weaknesses.  As much as it is good to stretch people and develop them it is not always effective to re-invent them into something they are currently not.  It is possible, yes, but why would you do it when you don’t need to?  It takes huge resources and they won’t be as effective as they are in their preferred style.  Simply be prepared to compromise on the plan so that you get the best possible output from the workforce that you have and refrain from trying to hammer square pegs into round holes.

 Like the saying that trainers have in sports:

‘You can make a fast man faster, but you can’t make a slow man fast’

And teams in other environments can share the principles in their own agenda’s.  Don’t be fooled into believing that there is only one way to sell, one way to pitch or one way to implement a plan.  That is not the case.  There are many ways to realise an idea and to do it the right way you have to maximise the strengths of the individuals involved and create and environment that caters for the weaknesses ensuring they are minimised. 

That is the art of Man Management.