Book Review: Mindset

As someone who tended to do well at school, quickly getting to grips with ideas that others struggled to absorb, I grew up thinking of myself as rather good academically.  My teachers told me I was and so did my parents so eventually that became part of my identity.

On the other hand, I always struggled with more manual and physical tasks.  Sports, for instance, didn’t come as naturally to me and so, while I loved watching it and envied those with greater ability than me, I never really did anything to challenge that concept.  I simply accepted that I wasn’t cut out for sports.

In time such beliefs spread elsewhere.  I loved writing, finding it easy whilst others sweated at it.  When I tried learning French, however, I struggled massively and eventually concluded that languages weren’t my strong point, even though I was fluent in three by that point.

Why am I sharing all this?  Because those beliefs are what this book is all about.  More specifically, it is all about how we – and those around us - straightjacket ourselves through such belief.  The words that we tell ourselves or are told have a powerful impact on how we think.  As Dweck points out in the book, there is research which shows that tests can be impacted negatively simply by reminding people of their racial background before the test kicks off.

Mindset is filled with such examples and how they impact people’s daily life.  It is such, frankly, a life changing book that will lead you to question your own beliefs, how you act and what you tell others.  This is a book that everyone should read regardless of where they are in their life.

Naturally, it is much more valuable if you have a group of players in your care.  It makes you appreciate more how to deal with them and how to talk to them if you want them to progress.  It also makes you realise that regardless of a player’s ability, you can make them better by guarding the way you talk to them so that you don’t put artificial limitations on them.

Analysis of Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund

by Nicholas Baldacchino

After analysing a number of matches from Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund, one could easily understand the passion and intensity in the football being presented.

Klopp presents a very intense and hyper type of play which also embraces the main factors of all great teams which is organisation and teamwork. When defending his team is very compact and, when the possibility is on, presses high with all his players staying high in order to keep team compact keeping the pressure on their opponent. 

When in possession, Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund had an array of different solutions; keeping the ball through possession, playing on the counter, playing direct on the striker, keeping a wide front or attacking with the three up front and gaining width through both fullbacks, whatever the solution it depended on the strengths and weaknesses of his team and the opponent.

When it comes to formations Klopp is a one-trick-pony mainly as his teams are fixed with the 1-4-2-3-1 formation which gives balance all over the pitch and the much needed flexibility when going forward.

Defensive setup
Defensively, Klopp’s Dortmund side operated with a flat back 4 at the back which shifted in unison depending on the area of play. When a long ball is played centrally, one central defender pushes out to win the ball from the striker the ball is directed too, whilst the full backs squeeze in to give cover and the other central defender falls back to give adequate cover for his defensive partner.

The 4-2-3-1 turns into a 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 when defending with two perfect defensive lines which function in unison, are compact and within a perfect distance from one another.

The two central midfielders always give the much needed defensive cover and are a barrier in front of the defence at all times when Dortmund are not in possession. They give cover to the central defenders in switch into the back 4 if one of the central defenders ventures out. When the ball is played in transition onto the sides, the two central midfielders are quick to give necessary cover and defend the sides especially when full backs are caught in attack.

When loosing the ball (negative transition) – Dortmund are set up to press the ball immediately in order to win the ball back and attack therefore countering the counter. This takes place mainly when the opposing team has the ball at their defenders and Dortmund are pushing the whole team in the opposing halve to condense the area and not give the opponents time on the ball. When pressing is not on, the team gets behind the ball very quickly and start pressing when they are organised in a 4-4-2 or 4-5-1 shape.

When defending Dortmund condense the strong zone with as many players as possible to create a numerical advantage at all times in order to win the ball and counter quickly.

When defending dead ball situations, Klopp’s Dortmund defended man to man and with 10 men behind the ball.

Roman Weidenfeller has been Klopp’s No.1 throughout his tenure, a good goal tender, very capable with his feet but the most important characteristic is his height and strength in the air, his guts and leadership which has helped Dortmund in becoming one of the best teams around.

The main actors of the central defensive bloc of the Dortmund teams managed by Klopp are players who are very intelligent, capable of anticipating, very strong in the air and good in 1 vs 1s.  During the first couple of years players like Santana, Dede, Nevan Subotic and Mats Hummels were a fixture in the central positions, the only addition which was able to slip into the team during 2013/14 was the Greek international Sokratis Papastathopoulos who is still playing very well within the side.

The two full back roles which are an integral part in the  team set up have been filled in well by Marcel Schmelzer, the German world cup winner on the left and with Owomoyela in the first two seasons and the Polish great  Pisczek on the right which has turned out to be one of the best right backs in the world. 

The midfield pairing which give the balance and are pivotal to the team in both defensive and attacking functions have been mainly defensive midfield and a creative midfield maestro pairing for Klopp which have seen the likes of Club captain and stalwart  Kehl be paired with the technically gifted Nuri Sahin, later on Sven Bender and Ilkay Gundogan, two very good technically gifted midfielders who are full of energy and work hard.

In possession and attacking
Borussia Dortmund build play from the back in a very patient way. The team, when keeping possession in their own half, do so at a slower tempo and with the team wide, when ball is in opponents half, tempo is higher and more movement is made in order to create fast short combinations until a killer ball can be executed. 

When building up from the back they keep the ball with a very wide team with one midfielder come in between the central defenders who in turn receive the ball and play through the middle or on the full backs that are set up wide.

When the two central defenders are pressured, ball is played directly onto the striker who tries to combine with the three players behind him.

Up front the striker gives depth and drops to receive ball in order to combine with the three behind him in quick short combinations. The two side attacking players take different positions either giving width in the front line or tucking in to create an overload in the central areas with the full backs joining in attack wide to cross into the area. 

Figures 1-3 : in this passage of play Dortmund are quick to play ball from midfield into forward on the left hand side who in turn plays the ball into the attacking midfielder who quickly turns the ball into the right hand channel where the oncoming right winger plays a dangerous ball into the area

Fig. 4-7 : Borussia Dortmund in this passage of play keep possession of the ball for a minute starting play from the left hand side of midfield and ending up with a good chance to score. One may evidently see, the positional play of the team with all players supporting and creating angles at all time.

Positive Transition
Klopp’s Dortmund excelled in positive transition (the moment when the ball is won and an attack starts) as the game plan was built around winning the ball and going fast to attack the opponents when they are least organised.

In fact the high pressing is the defensive equivalent to quick transition as after winning the ball after an aggressive pressing the team can attack the opponent before it gets organised.

Thanks to an array of quick players behind the striker - which throughout Klopp’s era was always a good player capable of holding up the ball and scoring goals both with his foot and in the air - Dortmund were equipped with the correct mix to be able to play in many different ways and have different options in order to break the defensive block of the opposing teams.

Fig. 8-9 : In these figures we can see how from 5 players in own half in less than 5 seconds Dortmund have 5 players in proximity of Mainz’s penalty area whilst still in possession. 

The players who have been most influential up front during Klopp’s rein have been Lewandovski who has turned out to be one of the top strikers, Lucas Barrios previously and Aubemeyang later. In the attacking midfield positions players such as Grosskreutz, Blaszczykowski - mainly wide on the right, Kagawa, Goetze and Reuse and Mkhitaryan have all been of impeccable service.

This was the thesis carried out by Nicholas Baldacchino as part of his UEFA B Licence qualification.  Nicholas, who has since obtained his UEFA A Licence, is currently the Head Coach at Mqabba Youth Nursery in Malta and can be followed on twitter.

Bite Size: Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Syndrome

Why is it that some players show exceptional talent at one side but then look utterly lost when they move to a bigger club?  Often this is blamed on a generic reason - character - when in truth the big-fish-little-pond syndrome explains it better.  The main points of this syndrome are listed here:

- Research has shown that an individual who attend a high-ability school had a greater possibility of lower academic self-concepts than another individual who went to a low-ability school.

- When someone is in an environment that expects high achievement there is the tendency that such an individual shrinks away rather than rising to the challenge.

- To put this in context if two fish of roughly equal size are put into different ponds - one large and one small - there is the probability that the one in the smaller pond does better.

- In 1966 American sociologist James A Davis warned parents against sending their children to those that are typically considered as the better colleges if there was the chance that they would be towards to lower end of the graduating class.

- When an individual feels that he is among the best in his team he will act in that way. Placed in a team where he is one of many - talent wise - there is the chance that he loses that edge.  

- A prime differentiator is intrinsic motivation: those individuals who find the drive to improve within themselves, rather than needing external motivation, tend to do better when placed in high achievement surroundings.  

Go here to read a more in-depth piece about the Big-Fish-Little-Pond-Syndrome.

Liverpool's Blueprint: A Wrong Turn

The following is an extract from Liverpool's Blueprint; an e-book that looks at the past, present and future of Liverpool's academy.  This e-book is available for sale here with profits from sales made till the end of December 2015 being donated to Alder Hey hospital.

“The road to hell is full of good intentions,” goes one saying.  “Hindsight is 20/20,” goes another.   Both are apt when it comes to discussing Liverpool’s academy, particularly its location in Kirkby.

When Liverpool announced that 55 acres had been bought in Kirkby with the aim of building the club’s academy in the area, it was seen as a visionary move.  This was to be Britain’s first club-based football academy and would be providing Liverpool’s youths with all the facilities that one could dream of.  Such was the state of youth development at the time that one newspaper, in reporting the news felt the need to highlight that the academy was going “to supply youths even with beds”!

Yet within the club there was a realisation that transfer fees were going to spiral and, equally, that the best way to ensure a degree of player loyalty was by developing them.  The pending impact of the Bosman ruling, and the lack of loyalty that could result off it, also preyed heavily on the management’s mind.

“We believe that it will be vital in the future that the club be able to produce as many of its own players as possible, as a consequence of the Bosman judgement. Although our record is an excellent one, the soccer academy will enable us to compete with anyone in the world.”

It was an understated move but very much in the style of the man who made that statement, club secretary Peter Robinson.  His work never received the credit that it deserved by this was a man who had played as important a role in building Liverpool as had the various managers who had been put in charge.  Most of the decisions that he took, along with chairman Sir John Smith, ensured that Liverpool remained well ahead of the rest of the league both on and off the pitch.  

This move, in their mind, was going to ensure that Liverpool’s dominance would continue.

He had every reason to feel confident.  Liverpool had looked at the various models that existed around Europe, in particular those at Ajax and Auxerre.  At the time, Ajax had just won the Champions Cup with a team heavily made of home grown players whilst Auxerre had enjoyed substantial success in France adopting a similar model.  Both had off-site academies and it was their lead that Liverpool were following.

In truth, a reluctance to leave Melwood also played a big part.  “We did look at great length at combining the academy with the senior set-up, but we would have had to leave Melwood for that to happen and that would have caused a major amount of upheaval,” he admitted years later.  “In the end, we decided to go along the Ajax route because we wanted to retain Melwood.”

Sadly, it proved to be the wrong decision.

Gary Neville talks of the importance that seeing Manchester United’s first team players train on a regular basis had on his career.  It allowed him to see first-hand what they were doing and how hard they were working in order to succeed.  This, in turn, helped him determine just what he had to do in order to make it into the first team himself.  And all of this was possible because everyone at Manchester United trained in the same complex: he could physically see what the first team players training.

Liverpool were losing this and, although it was a conscious decision, the impact was there nevertheless and it was being felt years later.

“The manager wants it. The owners would like it. It would be great for our kids to be close to the first team. It would be fantastic for us to do it. Everyone would like it to happen. The manager has spoken about it a lot,” Frank McParland, by then academy manager, said in 2012 about the possibility of having all players on one site.

Worse than the issues caused by young players not seeing the first team players and learning off them, however was the resulting ‘us and them’ mentality that fragmented the club, wasted millions and – worst of all – stunted the career of dozens of young players.

It is all too symptomatic of the leadership – or lack thereof - at the club at the time that this was allowed to happen.   The decision to bring in Gerard Houllier as joint-manager, rather than as an outright replacement of Roy Evans, was a prime example of this.  

Liverpool had not sacked a manager since Don Welsh in 1956 and, as the Liverpool board at the time didn’t want to break that tradition, they pushed on with the farcical idea.  Closer examination of Liverpool’s past would have educated those running the club that success had always stemmed from the club’s ability to take tough decisions when the time came.  Sentimentality was rarely shown towards players when their performances were faltering, selling them to ensure that the team remained on top.  Yet this time they abdicated and, even worse, they continued to do likewise every time that they were faced with a similar situation.

One of the reasons that Houllier was brought in was his experience in setting up the Clairefontaine academy from which so much of France’s success at the time stemmed.  The idea was that, apart from reshaping the practices at first team level, he could also provide help the academy by dipping into his experience.

On paper, it was a good enough idea.  The problem was that a man like Houllier was never going to be content with making suggestions and let others decide whether the wanted to act on them or not.  He was a man who was convinced of his methods – as most top managers are, it is fair to point out – and so felt that whatever he was proposing over the academy should be automatically adopted.

This would have been fine if his remit also covered the academy.  Alas it did not; that was Steve Heighway’s job.  And Heighway, whilst willing to listen to what the manager had to say, was also convinced of his own ideas on how best to develop players capable of playing for Liverpool FC.

Actually, the relationship didn’t get off to a bad start.  Soon after Evans had resigned, making Houllier the sole manager, he went to watch the reserves train and quickly pointed at two players who were good enough to train with the first team.  A couple of weeks later and one of those players – a certain Steven Gerrard – was making his first team debut for Liverpool.

Indeed, Houllier played a pivotal role in shaping the career of young players like Jamie Carragher, Michael Owen and Gerrard.  He provided them with a disciplinary framework that allowed them to thrive and guided them in a way to ensure that they were could develop properly thus ensuring that their potential could be fully realised.

Sadly, he was less patient with others.  After Gerrard made the step to the first team, no other player progressed.  Stephen Wright (the other player that Houllier had identified alongside Gerrard) made some appearances but his progress was cut short when Abel Xavier was signed.  Another Stephen, Warnock, showed promise yet he too found himself unable to break into the first team.

Things hardly improved when Houllier left.  Initially some players were given an opportunity.  Neil Mellor got some games and scored a couple of memorable goals whilst others like Darren Potter, Stephen Darby and John Welsh featured briefly.  With time, those opportunities started to get less and less.  If anything, the situation worsened.

Whereas Houllier had at least kept up appearances, Benitez wasn’t interested.  Instead, he quite visibly started setting up his own reserve team in Melwood.  Players were bought specifically for the reserves with the intention being that of having a ‘B team’ training with him at Melwood.  Some of these players had potential (Mikel San Jose, Antonio Barragan) but others had clearly been signed to make up the numbers (Jordy Brouwer and Vitor Flora).  

The message was clear: if you won’t give me a say in the youth system then virtually no player will make the jump from Kirkby to Melwood.  The physical distance between the two training complexes became an unsurmountable barrier and it was as if the two were distinct clubs. 

It should have been up to those running the club to put an end to this but, again, it was symptomatic of the leadership at the time that nothing was done.  Money was invested in the academy and money was spent on Benitez’s reserves with no clear idea of having anyone accountable for all that investment.

Heighway’s departure provided the club with an ideal opportunity to start re-uniting.  Sadly, by then the political infighting had taken a turn for the worse and rather than giving Benitez some say, the policy of alienating him was stepped up with the appointment of Piet Hamberg.

The Dutchman had a good reputation in youth development and his appointment was partial admission that perhaps the academy needed some new ideas having been for so long under the guidance of one man.  Even so, it was a strange decision not least because there had seemingly been no consultation with the manager prior to his appointment.

The result of this decision was the gap between Kirkby and Melwood grew wider than it had ever been. 

Those were wasted years; a period where Liverpool were knowingly throwing away the money that had been invested into the academy not to mention the emotions and aspirations of those players who were enrolled during that period.  Whilst the chances of a player making it at a big club like Liverpool are always very remote, they became practically non-existent during that time.

Blueprint for Football Extra Weekly Digest Issue 29

Talking Point
Torquay United close youth academy as part of cost cuts
At a time when football – at least in the higher levels – is so awash with money it is disappointing (and, frankly, a bit shameful) that a club should opt to close down its academy.  One can only hope that the kids who were let go get over the emotional trauma of this decision and wish all the best to the staff who lost their jobs as a result.

Coaching
Phase - Pressing High To Regain Possession
How do you coach your players so that they are in a position to win the ball back once they lose possession?  This is the first part in a series showing coaching practises in how to achieve such an aim.

Insight
Opposition Scouting at AS Monaco
The level of detail into which clubs at the highest level go these days is astounding and this extends to the way they analyse opposition before facing them.  Joao Sacramento carries out this job for AS Monaco and in this interview details what this entails.

The Digest is sent out to Blueprint for Football Weekly subscriber every Monday evening.  To make sure you don't miss out, subscribe here.

“Collaboration is Key to a Coach’s Success”

Blueprint According to Dean Atkins

With Steven Gerrard and Frank Lampard moving to MLS clubs, there is a growing interest in England on how football is developing in America.  

To find the real English influence in the American game, however, one has to look deeper than that.  Down in the grassroots there is a multitude of British coaches who are working away developing the future generations of American players.

Dean Atkins is one such coach.  But, more than that, he (and those like him) should be an example to the large number of promising British players that each year are devastated after being released by their academy.  At sixteen, Atkins was told by Wycombe that he wasn’t going to be given a professional contract and this eventually led to him moving to America to play in the NCAA, a move that allowed him to get a top quality education as well as kick start his coaching career. 

Blueprint for Football: Was coaching football always the target once it became clear you wouldn't make it as a player? Why?
Dean Atkins: I began coaching when I was sixteen years old with Wycombe Wanderers Football in the Community in England after being released from their Centre of Excellence. I continued to do so on and off for approximately eight years whenever I had time in and around my studies. 

It wasn’t always the target.  I studied to get my Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in the US and entered the workforce, before electing to dedicate my career to soccer.  I’m a firm believer in “choosing a job you love and you’ll never work a day in your life” – and that’s exactly how I feel about it.

BfF: What qualities did you feel made you a right fit for the job?
DA: As a youth coach there are a lot of qualities that I feel cater towards working with younger players. I feel the ability to demonstrate is important for young players, especially those that are visual learners. I don’t think it’s the be all and end all of coaching, but I definitely think it helps. Organization is a quality that I also feel is necessary to coach young players. 

The initial setup, the ease with which you can progress and regress sessions without changing too much in terms of layout, as well as the flow of a session are all vital. Any time in between or breakdown in organization and you can lose a player for the entire session. So, in a nutshell, organization and the ability to demonstrate.

BfF: And what is the most important skill for a coach to have?
DA: The ability to connect with the players they’re working with. Whether it’s a five year old doing a mini kick session or a teen who’s coming to practice after a day at school, being able to connect with the player in the session is the base from which everything else can be built.

BfF: Have you had any mentors who have helped develop your way of thinking and of coaching?
DA: Absolutely. Is this the bit where I should namedrop? Everything began with Dave Evans

back at Wycombe Wanderers Football In The Community (he’s the head of Reading Football In The Community now). He gave me my start when I was sixteen and had high standards for timeliness and professionalism which I feel have stuck with me.

I’m also very fortunate to be in a position where I have access to ongoing coach education with the New York Red Bulls Training Programs. Not only are there great coaches to learn from who might be considered mentors and educators but also being in and amongst other talented coaches has helped to solidify ideas or challenge my thinking on coaching and sessions.

BfF: You write a lot about the game - something to which we'll return later - which indicates that you think a lot about it. What, then, is your coaching philosophy?
DA: I read a lot about manifestos and coaching philosophies and I can honestly say that I don’t have one. Maybe it’s a question of sitting down to write one out or someone teasing the answers from me or perhaps I should have given it more thought before talking to you about it, but I don’t have one.

Being adaptable would be somewhere high up in any philosophy I had. I think there are very few things that are black and white and the ability to adapt and change to the needs of your players is right up there.

BfF: As a player you opted to come and play for a University in America. Was it a difficult decision to make?
DA: The decision itself was easy to make. I was eighteen and adventurous and had my

sights locked on it for a while. I was able to continue my higher education after my A levels and also keep doing the thing I loved most: playing the game. While you could argue I could’ve done that back home, the scholarship element and the challenge of living in another country outside of my comfort zone was just what I needed.

BfF: Would you have remained at Wycombe - even if the education you would have received would have been much less - if that had been possible?
DA: I was offered a few positions with Wycombe Wanderers Football In The Community from when I first started at sixteen but always had my eyes set on higher education. At that time I still had the ambition of playing at the highest level I could, but didn’t want to gamble and go all in. I wanted to have a solid education to fall back on in case it didn’t work out.

BfF: Looking back, what has the education that you received given you?
DA: The education I received was very good and I had the benefit of moving halfway around the world to get it, meaning that I took more life lessons away from it than most.

Most importantly, I think it allowed me the time to experiment and figure out what I wanted to do with my life. I stayed on for my Master’s degree, interned for a Global Media Company in England, Germany and Japan and took a job as an Accountant after graduating. It all led me back to coaching which I could have taken on when I was sixteen – but I have so much more to draw upon and infer from my other experiences that make me that little bit different from other coaches.

BfF: Are you surprised that there aren't more English youths who make a similar journey, especially when scholarships are offered? What would your advice to them be?
DA: There are certainly lots of young English players in the US making similar journeys and

there would probably be many more if the young players understood how the NCAA worked.

University and College programs in the US are highly competitive and always looking for the best players. Typically, the best young players available in England are academy dropouts. Therefore, they would be the prime targets for scholarships. The problem is, most players deemed surplus to requirements from academies, then get paid to play by lower league clubs. In the eyes of the NCAA getting paid to play means you’re pro and therefore, you can no longer be an “amateur” and play in the US College system.

My advice would be to forgo getting paid if you have a desire to play in the US college system.

BfF: You are currently the coach for the Regional Development Schools of the New York Red Bulls. What is your job exactly?
DA: The Regional Development Schools of the New York Red Bulls is our gateway to the Academy. It’s a tryout based program that is supplemental to a player’s current training and helps us identify the top players in the area for showcase teams and eventually the Academy.

The curricula are based on the individual players and are focused on elite level players and the technical aspects of their game.

I coach these players and prepare them for the Academy. Knowing that not all of them can make it, my secondary goal is to give them the mindset of proving the Academy wrong. If they don’t make our program, if they’re not selected for the showcase teams or the Academy, it’s then up to them to prove us wrong and put in the work to show us what we’re missing.

BfF: How do you look for talent? What kind of players do you look for?
DA: Because we’re a supplemental program, there are no teams or age specifications. As a result, we get to form developmentally appropriate groups based on technical ability rather than necessarily size or age.

I think this is where the adaptability comes in: there isn’t a kind of player we’re looking for. Big or small, fast or slow, players are assessed on a number of factors; their technical ability, understanding of the game, ability to follow instruction, interaction with coaches and players, and much more.

BfF: America does not really have that tradition of clubs building from within. Is this changing and what is the hardest obstacle you are finding to changing the mentality?
DA: The biggest obstacles are probably executive decisions that I couldn’t influence. I think other teams around the world pump money and resources into their academies for two reasons; to produce players for the first team or to sell those players for a profit.

I’m not sure that’s exactly the same end product in the MLS and, therefore, producing players for the first team would be the only incentive if you can’t sell players to make a profit.

Again, I’m fortunate that the New York Red Bulls has a clearly defined pathway for players from our Training Programs to RDS to Academy to Red Bull II and the NYRB First Team. I would imagine that other teams will follow suit and we’ll see MLS Academies expand to more teams and more residential programs in the near future.

BfF: What do you feel are the essential elements for an academy - or even a youth football club - to succeed?
DA: I don’t feel I’m in a position to truly comment on what’s essential for an academy to succeed as I don’t currently coach within one. However, that is a long term goal for me as a coach and something I’m fascinated by. I think with anything; an academy, a youth football club or a business, the environment has to be right.

From the coaching staff and players to the facilities and standards set, everything needs to be geared towards providing the perfect environment for players to learn, play, make mistakes, fail and ultimately have a pathway where if they’re good enough, there are opportunities to progress and prosper.

BfF: Before I mentioned your writing. What makes you decide to write an article? What provides the spark? Why do you make so much material available to others? What do you get from it?
DA: I have a little notebook that I’m often jotting things down in but every now and then, typically when I’m able to switch off from everyday distractions, an idea of an article starts to form. I’m currently writing articles related to coaching as a method of providing clarity for myself. This is helping me to identify what I believe in and what I think is important with regards to youth coaching.

I suppose it’s quite selfish really. I’m writing about coaching so that I can get better at coaching. I don’t claim to be an expert in my field but I don’t think you need to be. If others find use in what you’re writing or it gives them a spark or idea or guideline then all the better! As with anything to do with teaching or coaching; steal what you like and leave what you don’t.

BfF: Is the collaboration aspect important for you and why?
DA: Collaboration is key to a coach’s success. It’s very hard to reinvent the wheel and therefore I think it’s important to learn from others, get to the point that generations of coaches have got us to and build from there. Sharing best practices is key to this and I don’t think it’s necessarily something that everyone is comfortable doing.

I write and share to help myself get better, it helps clarify my thoughts on a topic. And in turn, I’m sure people will challenge me on those views and I’ll have to defend them. And in that process, I might find something that I hadn’t thought about that changes everything. But without that collaboration, I might never be challenged. I might just sit there in my comfort zone and do things the way I always have. And I think that’s the scariest part, opening yourself up to criticism by sharing your work or your thoughts on a topic. But in my opinion, that’s where you’ll learn the most – just outside of your comfort zone.

BfF: How valuable a resource has the internet been for you?
DA: The internet is a great resource and the modern coach has a number of advantages over those of days gone by. It’s limited though. I’ve found the greatest learning in terms of coaching and teaching is through watching other coaches in action and playing in their sessions. 

Getting a feel for the nuances of when to stop a session or different ways of addressing players is something you just can’t pick up from reading an article or watching a video of someone coaching.

BfF: If you were to recommend one book for football coaches, what would it be?
DA: Leaders Eat Last by Simon Sinek. There are some wonderful football books out there of which Dennis Bergkamp’s is wonderful (Stillness and Speed), but I always find myself transferring ideas from other sources and this is one of the best. I mentioned earlier about building the right environment and this really looks at leadership and organization’s in a structured way that can be ported straight across and applied to teams/players.

BfF: And, finally, what do you want to achieve to be satisfied with your career as a coach?
DA: I’d be satisfied with my career as a coach if players could look back and say, “Coach Dean taught me that.”

Liked this interview?  Then you'll love our Blueprint According To...series.  And you can get Volume 3 of that series completely for free if you join our weekly newsletter Blueprint for Football Extra (that is also completely for free!).

Thanks to Dean Atkins for his time in carrying out this interview.  You can follow Dean on Twitter.

The Reality of Being A Football Manager

Book Review: Living on the Volcano by Michael Calvin

I take my daughter swimming, early on Sunday morning.  We also go out for a coffee, and walk around the local lake…One day we were laughing, messing about.  Someone came up to us and said ‘You find losing so funny, do you?’

In a book filled with poignant comments that was, for me, among the most shocking.  There are a lot of fans who think that a manager’s job is an easy one – a belief that has been strengthened further by the popularity of games like Championship Manager – and, whilst I’ve never held such an illusion I also never really appreciated the complexities of the job.

I had never appreciated the stress of having all that expectation resting on you, the constant thinking about the minutest of details or the difficulty of trying to get young players to appreciate the opportunity they’re being given.  And I certainly hadn’t thought of the possibility of having an afternoon with your children interrupted by an angry fan.

All that – and more - is laid bare in ‘Living on the Volcano’, Michael Calvin’s latest masterpiece of a book.   The concept is fairly simple – interviews with various managers about how and why they do the job they do – but the execution is masterful.

Indeed, as he had done with his previous football themed book The Nowhere Man, Calvin has threaded together the various interviews intelligently, teasing out the stories of the compulsion that drives these men and the harsh realities they face without ever allowing these to become either frivolous or overbearing.

Surprisingly, the least revealing chapters are those where top flight managers – Mark Hughes, Roberto Martinez and Brendan Rodgers – are involved.  There is little which they haven’t revealed elsewhere although Rodgers’ admission that these past four years – which, professionally, have brought him huge success – have been hard on his personal life due to the death of his parents, divorce from his wife and his son being accused  (and, eventually, exonerated) of rape.  Again, those are the kind of managers’ personal emotions that fans either are not aware of or else willfully ignore.

Rodgers is a recurring theme in the book with practically every manager interviewed (again, bar the established ones) mentioning him as a role model and inspiration.  They talk of him and his methods in a tone that approaches awe which is partly down to his achievements – he is, after all, the only British manager at a club with genuine top four expectations – but also due to his generosity in mentoring others.

Overall there is very little talk of tactics or playing styles and you get the impression that, whilst each manager has a clear idea of how they want their teams to play, pragmatism rules the day.  All are aware that good football won’t keep you in a job; results will.

It means that ultimately the job of a football manager is like that of any other manager in an everyday job: it is essentially about recruiting the right people and then getting them to perform.  With the fairly significant differences that corporate managers don’t expect to be sacked after a bad set of results or to be insulted in a park over how they have performed on the job.

Intrigued?  Looking to buy this book?  Help Blueprint for Football by doing so through the link below.

Full disclosure: a review copy of this book was provided by the publisher.