Football coaches need to invest in themselves

(Courtesy of KickOff)

Watching Orlando Pirates and Kaizer Chiefs play, most Absa Premier League teams for that matter, it is easy to see the backgrounds of these players lacks fine details required to play well at that level. Furthermore, how much coaching contribute in formulating attacking patterns of the country’s biggest teams, remains to be seen.

One African coach was on my case after the 2010 Fifa World Cup opening match, South Africa versus Mexico. His point was that the best South African player leading to the tournament could not control the ball, not once, not twice. In all cases, losing great scoring opportunities that could have put the match to bed, before Simphiwe Tshabalala scored and after he did, and before the Mexican goal as well as after. Just the conduction of the ball, choice of controlling surface and direction of the touch was enough to conclude that our best player was bad. (and so were his coaches).

Kaizer Chiefs thrive more on their superior defensive behaviour rather than the incisive penetrating patterns. The teams swing hammers at them until they cannot lift their arms and then get battered. As to why the defence is that solid, it is the foreign elements comprising the European nature of the English coach, Stuart Baxter, local players with foreign experience and the massive destruction efforts of bulldozing Zimbabwean anchor, Willard Katsande.

Katsande, like the rest of the best of the South Africa’s central midfielders over the years, comes from Zimbabwe’s development production responsible for products like Tinashe Nengomashe and Ezrom Nyandoro, just to name the recent like for like. The northern neighbours’ systems are flawed but are streets ahead of their local counterparts in many aspects.

In Zimbabwe, each city or town has a strong and active junior committee that is responsible for the fixtures, referees appointment and competitions. The same goes with the schools’ program. The massive differences lie in the hunger to do well by the Zimbabwean coaches. They hunt for information and update their skills at every opportunity.

The support they give to each other spurs them to obtain even superior quality and they utilise every resource available. It is unbelievable the extent to which they can go to seek advice and information. They pay through their nose to attend local and foreign courses and the best part is that they share whatever they get. They sell houses and property if necessary.

By contrast, getting a full house to a free seminar in most parts of South Africa is a huge luxury. Coaches feel they are doing someone a favour by attending. Some feel they know the game, and that exact mentality prove how much they do not. Imagine how hard it would be to have people pay for their coaching education, but proper coach education is expensive.

The cause for this occurrence is simple. Few ‘accidental’ successes made people believe that they are good, and therefore, they became comfortable. They may have been, but the game evolved and they remained in one stubborn spot. Forming solid coaches’ structures may assist, if they can germinate to start with. Coaches need to meet weekly in known informal settings. This is good for the public image and the aspiring coaches get to meet the best mentors in their society.

That platform, above all, affords concrete and relevant discussion about football development, exchange of ideas as well as referrals and recommendation of players. Interaction by coaches from different levels of the game evens out the inequality of the perceived huge gaps between different leagues.

Professor Neto Esphezim attacks South African coaches at the SAFCA symposium

I could not believe my eyes when I saw Professor Neto Esphezim, my mentor at the Brazilian Football Academy in Rio de Janeiro in 1999. Together with Carlos Alberto Perreira and Julio Cesar Leal, they formed a formidable team of instructors for the Advanced Diploma on Brazilian Football for Foreign Coaches and Trainers.

Professor Neto humbly introduced himself as an expert of the game with over 60 years of experience working all over the world with associations and Fifa. He has been an instructor of the Fifa since 1978 while sitting in their technical committee.

The Prof allowed for the excited coaches to laugh at the 7-1 before he began a frank address. In a symposium attended by the country’s top coaches from the ABSA Premier League clubs, former Bafana Bafana coaches and junior coaches and legends of the South African game, he began with the state of the Brazilian coaching arrangement.

In their 21 states, with each having an association for the coaches, he explained how their 100 000 registered members obtained police clearances to weed off paedophiles. All coaches worked full-time and earned a minimum of $1,500.00 per month.

He went a level higher to ask how many coaches were in the room. As excited as we were, we raised our hands. He asked who had read a football that day, then that week, month and year. None raised their hands. He barked that loudly with a disappointed voice, how the room was full of imposters.

This was in reference to the Amazulu versus Moroka Swallows match that appalled him.   The biggest problem with that game was the great athleticism and hard running from the very beginning. ‘If you score a goal in the first minute, how do you spend the next 89 running like headless chickens clocking the ball forward like that? When do you breathe and when do you think? Incredible!!’  

Prof Neto authored many books and he informed the audience how he read over 960 football-coaching books in his coaching life. Coaches needed to update their knowledge with changing trends of the game and training methods. ‘You are all nothing.’

He wondered if we could plan and conduct a proper professional training session and even read and analyse the game. H expressed his disgust at what he saw on television. He watched 6 matches during the past week which were fair. He saw something else he never had a clue what it was. He had to ask someone what it was and the answer was that it was ‘soccer’.

That answer proved that he could have never known since he was a football man, and not a soccer man. Already he was addressing the people who coached soccer and not football. The challenge for all to up their game and work professionally was emphasised as the most important aspect for all.

He made this point stronger with an example of single mothers who struggle to make ends meet in poor Brazil. The women prefer lunch boxes for the boys, take them by hand to school, go back to school later to pick them up and head to the football training grounds.

These children feel the need to come daily from training due to their love for the ball. Parents invest money and emotions as these children mean everything to these mothers. However, more often than not, the children drop out of school before even reaching high school to pursue football. What justice is there that these football-loving children end up with coaches who coach them wrongly?

Who would love to bear the conscious of knowing that they have been robbing the children’s future with bad technical and tactical training from inception? The obvious truth is that the human spirit dictates that no effort is spared to equip youngsters with the best ever coaching possible and by the best possible coaches dedicated to the game.

He briefly went through the 2014 Brazil Fifa World Cup Technical Report. African teams played 5 % higher than normal except for Ivory Coast who were below par. Costa Rica and Columbia were 10 % better than normal. The world top nations from Europe and South America played below par.

The African problem remained that of poor mentality and inability to handle pressure. They failed to handle the excitement to qualify to a higher level and collapsed when they needed to be firm. That lack of competence to deal with the pressure of success destroyed the inroads made in technical and tactical improvements.

Chile and The Netherlands were the most productive teams while Algeria and Germany fixture was viewed as the most interesting match of the tournament tactically.    

‘In Brazil, we don’t like football. We are in love with the ball’. He concluded to a huge round of applause.

Did Pep Guardiola have anything to do with Germany’s World Cup triumph?

To confuse you further in the debate of the success of Germany in the 2014 Fifa World Cup, I throw doubts in your beliefs about the greatness of one Pep Guardiola. Sunday Oliseh even says that Tiki Taka is alive and sound., a point I greatly dispute. Few claim Die Mannshcaft went through the back door to have Beyern Munich hire Guardiola so he can coach the nine players in their squad to play the Barcelona way.  The theory is noble given that 2010 Fifa World Cup champions, Spain had Pep’s nine players from Barcelona. To the preachers of that gospel, that is not coincidence.

I will take you to the days before the Backlays English Premier League. Nottingham Forest was coached by Brian Clough. Many dubbed him useless as a coach and manager. His team ran on a shoestring budget. He relegated and promoted that team perpetually for over half a decade. He built a team and destroyed it. Built it up and destroyed over and over.

Pepe inherited a Frank Rikjaard Barcelona that was already playing a philosophy set up by Johan Cryuff of Holland. Cryuff introduced the system earlier, the Dutch football that Ruud Gullit tried to employ at Chelsea when he prescribed it as ‘sexy football’. Guardiola did a great job in maintaining a legacy that had lived and will live for many years longer. Those players had been doing the same thing, with a few more foreign contingent than they did with Pep. Rikjaard and Guardiola both played for Barcelona previously.

The former Barca captain took over treble winning Jupp Henynckes Bayern Munich side. The later coached a team left by both Andreas Jonker and Loius van Gaal. The influence of Pep was visible in many Munich matches, and some Germany matches. Prior to Guardiola’s arrival, Bayern dismembered the Spanish giants in the UEFA Champions League, proving their superiority and fluidity. How easy it is to say he brought a wholesome change to the squad and to Germany national as a whole. Both these clubs, Barca and Munich, had funds to buy anyone they wanted, anyone who played the way they loved.

Without much need to compare Jose Mourinho, who won the Portuguese championship and UEFA Champions League with little known Porto, Brian Clough who yo-yoed Nottingham Forest, Harry Redknapp who saved Tottenham Hotspur from relegation and took them to UEFA Champions League pinnacle in a couple seasons, one has to look at the margins of success and the resources. Keeping firm on what is there is a lot easier than building anything from the ground.

As for Germany playing Tiki Taka football, I am not yet converted. The Chileans put to death Spain. If Spain come back anytime soon, it could be a different story, but to say Germany Tiki Taka-ed, is a little bit over the top. They moved and passed the ball well. They had a plan in place before Pep arrived. Their game revolved around the quick recovery and long retention of the ball. The crisp one touch passing to open defences was never their strength. The biggest weapon in their arsenal was the mentality of stay strong and focused. The aggression in combats and transition was complemented by the precision passing and efficient goal scoring.

The table below will illustrate how playing too many needless passes was almost fatal for Germany. The Germany struggled against Ghana, only benefitting from the Africans’ naïve play. They survived the Algerian scare as the fasting Arabs succumbed to their nutritional demands of extra time. As for Italy and Spain, we all know their fate. They were not so fortunate.

GROUPS STAGE TEAM STATISTICS

#	NUMBER OF PASSES BY TEAMS	TOTAL	AVERAGE
1	Germany	1934	645
2	Spain	1913	638
3	Italy	1735	578
4	Argentina	1694	565
5	France	1576	525

 

Given these first-round statistics, France, Argentina and Germany benefited by going through to the next round. At a later stage, one can guess the champions had a field day of passing against a pedestrian Brazilian side. If one uses that data to claim Tiki Taka is alive, there can never be a misleading statistic. For the propagation and perpetuation of the name, and not concept, what Germany played can be accepted as a positive variant of Tiki Taka, the game both Bayern Munich and Borussia Dortmund played to reach the 2013 UEFA Champions League final.

Remember that Tiki-Taka is football characterised by short passing and movement, working the ball through various channels and, most importantly, maintaining possession. Germany maintained possession well without moving the ball with short quick passes through various channels. They made efficient use of that possession and made it count, sometimes against all odds.

The Barcelona type of football would equal to walking the ball into the net as they intrinsically weaved the passes in the 12-yard box until the goal-line. Save for corner-kicks and goal melee scrambles, that did not characterise the Germany goals in the 2014 Brazil Fifa World Cup. A little more similar aspect of their game was winning the ball as high as possible, especially where they lost it. This made them dangerously pounce vehemently and attack simultaneously before the opposition defence organised themselves.

Many coaches and managers find teams like Barcelona and Bayern Munich and take them to the doldrums. The genius of Guardiola made sure such never happened. To credit Spanish and Germany titles to the man is a little too generous. If there are coaches worthy of Fifa World Cup praise, can’t we look at Joachim Loew, Alejandro Pasella, Louis van Gaal and Jurgen Klinsman? also in their successful 2012/2013 treble run. There could be some truth in that but then they were more defensive-conscious and played most of the passes in their own half.

It his analysis, Oliseh noted that German goalkeeper ‘Manuel Neuer and central defenders Hummels and Boateng were the initiators of most attacks and a passing game that averaged 645 passes in a game’, scoring 17 goals in six games (a goal every 34 minutes), with 64 attempts at goal. All Germany reaped was fruits of a work that began with the squad which campaigned in 2010 South Africa Fifa World Cup, when Diego Maradona asked Muller if he was a ball boy. It was their grand plan after the failure to deliver in 24 years, not the mastermind of the great Pep Guardiola.

As for Tiki Taka, until its revival in the future, it is gone. We welcome the trend of the new world order in football, a fast paced forward moving game based on quick transition by fore-checking and crossing into the prime target areas. The Spanish football has proved it passed its usefulness, being nothing more that romance in the child-bearing process.