Junior Development Philosophy

I have played at the highest level in Australia and I have coached at the highest level in Brisbane and from my experiences I have developed my own philosophy on how football should be played and coached in Australia.

My ideas have been guided by meetings and seminars with the FFA’s Technical Director Han Berger, FFA’s Assistant Technical Director Alistair Edwards, Barcelona Ecsola coach Ruben Della-Morte and SBS Chief Football Analyst Craig Foster.

I have attempted to read and study as much information as I can find on playing a 4-3-3 formation and how Barcelona play this formation in an effort to improve my ability to coach according to the National Curriculum.

The points outlined below have been adopted from a variety of articles on football, one in particular was written by Craig Foster of SBS called “Possess the ball – a new philosophy”. These points reflect the way I see football should be played.

This is the philosophy that I will employ at Olympic FC.

• Play the ball on the ground as much as possible, which requires both supporting play and good technique
• Play an intelligent passing game – this requires all players to support each other in attack and defence. Keep the ball and play football.

” Do Things That Make Sense” – Juan Cutilas ( previous Olympic coach )

• Play a long ball in response to a movement by a team-mate, not in the hope of one – the move and support the ball after the pass is delivered
• Play a long pass, and particularly those in the air, only when there is no closer option and mainly into the feet of an attacker or into the space relevant to a team-mates movement. Never just into space hoping for them to chase
• Discourage young keepers from kicking the ball long unless there is no other option ( and even here one can almost always be manufactured ) and as often as possible have the keeper roll or pass the ball to a team-mate so the team can begin to play immediately from the back
• If, at any time, a youngster has no option to find a team-mate, they should be encouraged to always to keep the ball. This may mean shielding it, keeping it moving to wait for a pass, ( using the individual skills that are learnt through Coerver drills ) or to dribble forward to attack an opponent. At no time should they be told to kick it away regardless of the position they play or where they are on the field, and if the child loses the ball they should be encouraged to try again
• Encourage players to express themselves through their football and recognise that everyone is not the same, and shouldn’t play so. Some play fast, others slow, some play simple, others read situations and find more complex solutions, and some have enough skill to individually dominate a game, while others can only dream of doing so, but all should be allowed to find their own game not forced to conform to a uniform way of playing. Every player has one favorite trick or skill that they are all good at in the back yard or when they are messing around with their team mates at training. I want players to show me these on the park during the game. Every boy has a little Ronaldinho in each of them – I challenge each boy to use the skills we will practice at training in our games.

“Young players need freedom of expression to develop as creative players……they should be encouraged to try skills without fear of failure. ” – Arsene Wenger

• SLOW DOWN, or more specifically, vary the speed of play during a game, this requires a team to hold the ball. After working to recover possession, every young team should break forward only if they have an advantage in attack, otherwise they should slow the play down and possess the ball, back and across the field, resting and starting to position themselves in attack to take advantage of overloads in numbers, or weaknesses in defence. Coaches need to understand that the object of football is to keep the ball and to score goals through breaking down a defence with passing and skill, not by booting the ball forward hoping for a defensive mistake.
• Support continuity of play – do not make excessive substitutions throughout a game. Coaches will be urged to offer even time to each player as much as possible throughout the season. I feel even time per playerper game with excessive substitutions creates confusion and disorganisation in the team. We need to endeavor to teach the team certain styles and formations of play throughout the year which would become exceedingly difficult if three substitutions have to be made every 15 minutes. The net result over the entire season should be equal playing time for all players in the team.
• LET THEM PLAY……….As a player I have experienced many coaching styles, some good, some not so good. I believe the most frustrating thing a player has to deal with is multiple and conflicting comments from the sideline. Players have enough to worry about on the field without constantly being told what to do by either coaches or parents. I disliked being yelled at every few minutes when I played, being told to do this or that and therefore have developed a coaching style where I rarely yell out to my team. I believe the more a coach yells at his team during a game reflects how poorly they have been prepared or taught to play throughout the week. Coaches need to teach players how to think and learn to solve problems for themselves rather than trying to teach them how to play during the game.
• Teams need to be prepared thoroughly for a weekend game. They need to be prepared before kickoff and further more at half time.

We can all support, applaud and inspire but….When the game starts let’s all LET THEM PLAY

Steve Glockner