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A Professional's Perspective, Part 2
March 25, 2009
The following is the second part of a two-part interview series that will take you further into world of soccer from a professional's perspective, and let you in on some of his everyday superlatives.
Q: Let’s return to coaching for a moment; what is your own coaching philosophy?
A: I’m still trying to figure out. Look, historically there have always been two major schools of coaching, each boasting outstanding individuals. All over the world it’s the dreamer, the romantic, the swashbuckling knight in shining armor versus the meticulous pragmatist, the empiricist. I think Menotti versus Bilardo exemplify these two schools. So, sometimes I’m in the first camp, sometimes in the latter. For example, for years I’ve been studying Valeri Lobanovsky’s methodology of modeling games and training that was the source of the scientific approach to football. The Football Research Center at Dynamo Kiev FC already in the 70s was elaborating computerized programs of training algorithms that later were copied and emulated by everybody and taken to its extreme today in Italy. I can quote some of the principles elaborated by the center twenty=five years ago that are still relevant today to illustrate the point – 1.All redundant actions must be discarded. 2. Training must create premeditated, precalculated and anticipated menu of technical/tactical elements and brought to players in a comprehensive form. 3. Function is primary, tactics is secondary. 4. Evolution of modern football is along the lines of continuous fast motion and instant decision-making.
And so on…And yet during one of my meetings with the late Lobanovsky, the coach who was driven by science and who wanted to “put a number on everything” in his own words, had offhandedly remarked – All of this cybernetics is fine, but without a keen intuition it isn’t worth one dime. And really, how many times we have seen the best organized teams fall prey to spontaneous burst of talent, that incalculable ingredient of magic that some have and some don’t; the ingredient that cannot be taught by the most sophisticated coaching. Probably, one of the best and rare examples of teams that could integrate scintillating talent with solid organization was 1970 World Cup winners Brazil.
Q: What are the priorities today for the coaches that are involved at youth level?
A: Unequivocally, and without any hesitation – preparation of versatile players for the game in the 21st century. Early attempts at specialization must be discouraged, every child should be given a variety of roles and functions and only later an expert technician could decide the role that most suits the players’ technical/tactical ability and genetic make-up. So again, that’s where futsal is so instrumental.
Q: What football books do you read to keep up to date?
A: One category of books I don’t read is the ones with descriptions of drills. All of those are but variations on ten or twelve basic themes and every coach should be able to design his/her own according to talent pool available. My advice is not to look for magic drills, there aren’t any. It’s amazing how many exercises came to the training ground from small-sided games of street football; when the numbers were uneven, we played numbers up or numbers down, a simple adjustment that today has become an “overload game”, a semantic incongruity and a linguistic monstrosity. If the team that has more players is “overloaded”, then the one with fewer players is “underloaded”?. Give me a break!
Q: Still there must be some books you can recommend, I assume.
A: Of course, for example any football manual written by Eric Betty. I believe, most are still available on Amazon. My coaching bible was Boris Arkadiev’s “Tactics of Football”, unfortunately there is no English translation available. That book was selected by the Four-Four-Two magazine as one of the ten best books in football history. Also, the Czech author Houtka’s excellent “Essays on Football Strategy and Tactics”, and certainly Lobanovski’s “Modeling of Games and Training”. Sorry again, no English translations are available, but I’m currently rendering some of the material into English to share with colleagues, although I have to be mindful of such legalities as copyright, etc. For general interest Brian Glanville, Galeano, Rob Hughes, and Jonathan Wilson are the most authoritative. Wilson’s recent book “The Inverted Pyramid” is one of the most exciting and well-researched books ever written on the evolution of football tactics. You know, when years ago I mentioned some of my former mentors it didn’t ring a bell, well suddenly the world football community is discovering that the “godfather of modern football” is Viktor Maslov, the coach who put a stop to Stein”s illustrious Celtic at the prime of their glory and who invented the 4-3-3 years before Sir Alf Ramsey. There is also one other book that I strongly recommend – “The Soccer Revolution” by Willy Meisl. I guarantee it, you’ll enjoy reading it.
Q: Who are your favorite players?
A: Messi, Kinkladze, Robinho, Ibrahimovic.
Q: What do you dislike?
A: Arrogance, hubris and bad manners.
Q: What is your favorite movie?
A: Casablanca.
Q: What is your favorite book?
A: “Humboldt’s Gift” by Saul Bellow.
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