Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills | Tags: brighton, coach, gus poyet, manager, role of manager, role of the coach
Most professional clubs have a manager and a coach, but do they always do the roles separately?
I always thought that managers should be able to coach and have interchanged the word without thinking about the actual roles they perform. Why should managers coach? To me they should coach because they can see the problems on the pitch and should have some knowledge of how to correct them by coaching.
However, managers also need to be able to motivate players and I’ve seen some managers who leave the coaching to the specialist coach but then motivate the players on match day.
At Brighton Gus Poyet has come through the coaching side and is now a manager. However, he takes a lot of the coaching sessions, he is a manager who likes to get involved.
You can see how much he thinks about coaching and playing when he talks about the young players at the club and how he wants to develop them.
This is what he has to say: “We will have the time to go out and watch the under-15s and under-14s and get them playing the same way we want the first team to be playing so, when they get to an age where they can get a professional contract, they are as ready as they can be.”
So the roles can be interchangeable and I know most of you coach and manage your teams – it can be done successfully as Poyet has proven.
Watch Poyet coaching at Brighton below:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills | Tags: creative play, how to take a penalty, left foot, penalty
Often it’s that little bit of creativity or something different that gives your team the edge in winning matches. Allowing young players to do it is also part of your coaching learning experience. No you don’t want to see backheels when you’re defending the penalty area, and no you don’t want to see a fancy penalty that could go horribly wrong.
Or do you?
Giving players licence to try something different is keeping the fun in the game. For sure they may get some feedback from their team mates if it goes wrong but you should allow the mistake and forget about it.
Take a look at Ezequiel Calvente playing for Spain’s u19s against Italy in the Uefa European U19 championship.
The Spaniard beats the Italian Goalkeeper after running up to seemingly hit the spot kick with his right foot only to surprise everyone by hitting with his left.
Watch carefully as he totally out-smarts the keeper and just about everyone when he switches very late with his shot.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer Fitness, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management, Soccer Training | Tags: injury, Manchester United, nani, passing test, pre-season
A lot of pre-season work is about fitness, but you also need to work on your touch and precision. Coming back from an injury is often the same, players need to get strength back but the all important creative touch that opens defences also needs work.
At Manchester United Nani has been working on getting his passing and accuracy back to top form. It is going to be one of his weapons from day one of the season so he needs to practice.
In this video clip you can see him taking a touch to settle the ball then hit a 30 yard pass right onto the marker he is aiming at.
Try it yourself, all you need is a cone from where you kick and a target area which can be as big or small as you like.
It’s a great pre-season skills test.
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer Coaching, Soccer News, Soccer Skills | Tags: eduardo, enyeama, khune, skyrtel, valladares, World Cup 2010, world cup best saves
There were some fantastic saves at this World Cup (and even some shots that weren’t saved but didn’t count but I won’t mention that here).
This is my top five:
1. Vincent Enyeama Argentina v NIGERIA
2. Noel Valladares HONDURAS v Chile
3. Eduardo PORTUGAL v Brazil
4. Martin Skyrtel Italy v SLOVAKIA
5. Itumeleng Khune BAFANA BAFANA v Mexico
You can see them all in this compilation of saves from the World Cup in South Africa:
Filed under: Dave Clarke, Soccer News, Soccer Refereeing, Soccer Skills, Soccer Team Management | Tags: ghana, gyan, hand ball save, luis suarez, missed penalty, red card, uruguay
Luis Suarez saved the ball with his hands when the last kick of the game in the Uruguay v Ghana World Cup game in South Africa – the trouble is he’s not the goalkeeper.
The referee pointed to the spot and sent Suarez off. Up stepped Ghanaian Asamoah Gyan who had already scored two penalties in this World Cup, but he missed this one.
Suarez at this point could be seen jumping for joy and pumping the air with his fists. Ghana went on to lose the game on the resulting penalties.
Whether it was an instinctive reaction or not the referee did the only thing he could in awarding a penalty unlike rugby in which a penalty try could have been awarded for the breach of rules.
What would you do if one of your players saved the game with their hands – or didn’t save the game?
Whatever you think it was a dramatic end to a game and one which will live long in the memory for the controversy it caused.
CLICK HERE TO SEE THE HIGHLIGHTS
