Reader,
Recently I was watching a webinar featuring Paul McGuinness, the ex-Manchester United coach who has been a strong influence in the player development space for a long time.
His work around “the arrogance of timing” and the use of street football to encourage players to dribble 1v1 and flow through opposing teams with quick combinations has inspired me for a long time.
Most coaches are “magpies” – we all take ideas, use other sessions and adapt them. I actually used a couple of Paul’s practices this week with my playing group after we were a little ineffective at breaking a block, our opposition sitting deep for long periods of time in a well-organised defensive structure.
During the sessions, where we played 11v7 with a focus on combinations for one team and dribbling for the other, the players took quite a while to adapt. At times, they occupied space well, and kept possession nicely, but there was little progression or penetration.
This got me thinking about the role of coaching in the last 20 years where positional play, rondos and the increasingly tactical focus (control) of coaches at younger ages has potentially impacted kids when they play.
We need to be mindful that we don’t always design aesthetically pleasing practices, where we can exert control and manage the outcome. We need to embrace chaos in our environments to throw players into a variety of scenarios that allows them to solve problems under pressure with representative information (realism) that they might find in the game.
Three things to consider.
- How often do you genuinely work on overloads, attacking outnumbered, providing players repetition of retaining the ball under pressure, dribbling and driving 1v2, 1v3, or more?
- Do your sessions always involve a focus on the tactical but neglect the technical?
- Is your coaching approach allowing players with game-breaking attributes or strengths to excel, or are you more focused on “fixing” the things they may not be best at?
One thing for you to try this week.
Consider planning a practice that allows for high repetition of combination play or dribbling that doesn’t require you to step in and coach explicitly.
One critical resource on the topic.
Check out this Masterclass Discussion with Paul McGuinness where he shares insights from his time working at Manchester United with the likes of Marcus Rashford, Paul Pogba and Jesse Lindgard.
