The Best In The Business

[Tal]

Joking aside, I'm interested in your rationale for building the system first. It's detailed and seems very structured and controlled, which is hard to manage in practice:
- Football has lots of variables (injuries, performance, opposition)
- Unlike how I would expect you play poker, it's completely GTO and has no interest in the opponent's strengths and weaknesses. This is deliberate, so what's the thought process behind that?
- Your team will bring in and develop talented, skilfully players with great awareness and strength, yet you will be employing a No Dribbling rule. How will you maximise the resources available to you?
- How will you cope with variance? A pass was well executed but your striker misses, the team goes up the other end and scores. This happens three weeks in a row and you face criticism inside and outside the resting room. What do you do?
- Teams will pick up on your strategy quickly. How frequently will you change patterns? How will you ensure players are comfortable learning playbooks?
- How will you measure success? Will individual players be targeted/performance monitored?

Lots of questions but this is me with my coaching hat on for a moment. A fabulously interesting reopening of the diary, if I may say so.

[DrDreh]

If you could please check your PMs and reply that'd be lovely.

Thank you

[Gazza]

If you could please check your PMs and reply that'd be lovely.

Thank you

Ditto.

[pleno1]

Hey I have Dorka who starts tomorrow as a full time assistant. She will start with the 163 unread emails on Monday (facepalm)

[pleno1]

Joking aside, I'm interested in your rationale for building the system first. It's detailed and seems very structured and controlled, which is hard to manage in practice:
- Football has lots of variables (injuries, performance, opposition)
- Unlike how I would expect you play poker, it's completely GTO and has no interest in the opponent's strengths and weaknesses. This is deliberate, so what's the thought process behind that?
Having a strategy everybody understands means there is development throughout a season, the team evolves into a strategy/formation that people are comfortable with. Its pretty hilarious when managers are like ohhhh gonna go with 3 at the back today and just send the troops out. Its ridiculous, like playing without a HUD! Ofc if there is a really weak left back we will play more balls to that side or whatever is a really basic adjustment, but we are going to be confident that we say to the other team "this is our strategy, try and stop us"
- Your team will bring in and develop talented, skilfully players with great awareness and strength, yet you will be employing a No Dribbling rule. How will you maximise the resources available to you?
I just tried to think of a midfielder who dribbles and I can't think of one world class central midfielder who dribbles. Driving forward with the ball and dribbling with the ball is very different. Sure sometimes you may be in a tight area and need to beat a man to get out of it, but generally I don't think any central midfielders ever really dribble. Iniesta for example who was the king of dribble was often moved to the left wing to do that stuff. When we was central he often played 2-3 touches maximum. Thinking in the premiership, Matic, Fabregas, Coquelin, Carzola, Schweinsteiger, Scheniderlin, Carrick, Henderson, Milner, Yaya, Fernandinho, Silva and whoever else you will very rarely see them doing a "trick" in the centre of the pitch.
- How will you cope with variance? A pass was well executed but your striker misses, the team goes up the other end and scores. This happens three weeks in a row and you face criticism inside and outside the resting room. What do you do?
The whole point is to build up trust in the system with the players. When Barcelona were losing 1-0 with 3 minutes to go they don't hoof the ball up top, the players are comfortable and confident in the system and are determined to make it work.
- Teams will pick up on your strategy quickly. How frequently will you change patterns? How will you ensure players are comfortable learning playbooks?
I'm not sure they will and if they do and spend their energy on stopping us then we just have to show the extra quality in the final third to beat out opponents. Norwich City will spend 20 hours preparing specifically to stop Silva, Aguero and Sterling but eventually class prevails.
- How will you measure success? Will individual players be targeted/performance monitored?
We will aim to win the league, second would be failure. No performance monitoring.

Lots of questions but this is me with my coaching hat on for a moment. A fabulously interesting reopening of the diary, if I may say so.

.

[UgotNuts]

It seems you put a lot of work into this, a lot of detail. By always playing out of the back the play becomes predictable at times, and switched on teams will eventually push their forward players on to your centre backs and push their midfield and defence up and will win the ball in your final third often enough to create a few goal scoring opportunities. Normally to counter this teams play a long ball out to a fast winger/striker who can get them up the pitch, win a throw in or a free kick. When the play resumes you can play keep ball in a more dangerous area and look to pick their defence apart with smart runs and passes. And you have stopped any chances being made by the opponents. another option would be to have ball playing centre halves with pace, this will allow for your defensive midfielder to draw his man out of midfield and for your centre half to bring the ball into the space and look to find your playmaker or striker who can then bring your forward players into the game, with your defensive midfielder becoming a centre back for that passage of play.

World class midfielders often look to dribble powerfully to get their team up the pitch when the pass just is not on. Iniesta, Pogba, YaYa, Gerard(in his prime) all did this. Having the ability to do it makes them world class players. Barcelona often throw pique up to when losing with 15 mins to go and knock the ball up to him to win the knock down for Messi, Neymar ect.Man United do the same with Fellaini. It's important to mix it up at times often in the second half when the opponents may have tired legs and their is more space in the middle of the park as the game gets stretched. Flipping it around it can also be good for opening up space for other players as the run will draw opposition players out of position for you to play a ball into that space. 
 

[booder]

Hey I have Dorka who starts tomorrow as a full time assistant. She will start with the 163 unread emails on Monday (facepalm)

Picture of Dorka obv.

[Omm]

Hey I have Dorka who starts tomorrow as a full time assistant. She will start with the 163 unread emails on Monday (facepalm)

You know your successful when...........................

[SuuPRlim]

once you're past it at poker like me, we can play a footy manage season HU and bet needlessly big on it

[pleno1]

First match of my managerial career today. We played a 8 vs 8 match vs a French team who had some players who used to play professionally in Germany/Austria.

We set up with a false 9 <3

                      1

       2             5            3

 
                      4


                      9


7                                          11

We won 3-1 and missed around 10 1on1 chances so that was good news. We had some new players come today who were very solid. First game is next week and we play vs the team I played for last year with a few of the other guys on our team so will be super super fun.

We need to work on finishing and working on attacking in 2-2 or 3-2 build ups.

Have a good drill where basically there is 4 players.

Player 1 plays a through ball behind player 2's back and player 2 runs on full intensity and attacks the goal and shoots with one touch.

Player 2 drives forward with the ball straight after player 1 has shot and they do a 1on1

Players 3 and 4 drive forward with the ball as soon as the previous ball has broken down and we go into a 2 vs 2.

We develop by putting a defender in there all the time and then develop again by putting a winger so we work on playing by yourself, with one other player, with 2 other players etc.

Finishing training is generally very poorly done by coaches imo, just passing the ball back and shooting just isn't game specific enough and once you get into a match its not realistic at all.

[pleno1]

So today moved house, will post some pics some time or something. Really excited and ready for WCOOP now, I feel a lot better than before so will definitely be playing from tomorrow. I'm looking forward to the next 3 weeks, will be posting updates as much as possible, maybe a few hands. Updates on my horses who will have quite a scary outlay!

Fedor is going to be streaming every day on Twitch, maybe he hosts me if I get a deep run and he's finished or something.

Good luck to everybody who's either flicking it in or grinding it out.

Good month to run good.

[George2Loose]

Fedor twitch name?

[Marky147]

Glad you're blogging in here again, and will hopefully get to rail you wizards on Twitch.

Tell Dorka not to worry about my PMs... My brother and his pals didn't end up going to Hungary for the stag do, and I can't remember what the first one was about

Best of luck for WCOOP!

[SuuPRlim]

None of my business,  but why would Fedor wanna steam on twitch? Giving away fortunes for literally no perceivable upside in a ever challenging industry, seems really dumb to me...

[pleno1]

None of my business,  but why would Fedor wanna steam on twitch? Giving away fortunes for literally no perceivable upside in a ever challenging industry, seems really dumb to me...

Doing it for charity and trying to raise money/awareness.