AS A football technical director and/or coach, one must have a set of beliefs and principles for achieving objectives.
One must also have a thick skin, as many times in football and most sport a game’s final score doesn’t reflect a team’s performance. There is a saying that most coaches fully understand and accept: “When the team loses it’s all down to the coach, but when a team wins it’s all down to the players”.
Players expect to have full clarity of what they are required to do individually, and as a team. Most coaches would prefer to work with players after a win rather than after a poor team performance as the players’ confidence is usually high. It is often said that in football the best team does not always win.
I have witnessed many a game where a team has played a great game but walks away with a loss. The fact is that often coaches and players learn more from a loss than a win.
Post game reflections (analysis) must always start from a coach asking one’s self if the team was prepared well enough for the game.
While coaches recognise that their team’s performance is their responsibility, they ought to expect that their players gave everything and followed instructions and most importantly walked away from a football pitch with no regrets, having the awareness that everything was done to get the result on the day.
Coaches and players should KNOW that they prepared and managed the game in the best way possible, having pushed their hardest to perform as required no matter the outcome.
During the “development” phase of a player’s football journey, the biggest achievement is not necessarily the result but rather to have the awareness of having performed at one’s best on game day, having applied all the principles and actions that the team has worked on together during the preparation.
At the “senior” level, it’s more about the result than the performance.
Regardless, be it as a professional player or amateur, learning from mistakes with positivity and readiness to work harder to face the challenges ahead is a MUST mindset.
Coaches ought to make sure that all members of the team feel valued and are involved in every step of the preparation for game day.
Players close their ears to advice, but open their eyes to example.
Ideally coaches should develop a squad of “leaders” with a solution-based mindset. Only then can players produce football quality actions on the pitch.
