Ferran Sibila

Who the chuff is Nate?

 

Players football intelligence is obviously extremely high. They're not going to be able to explain quantom theory, but on the pitch can see things you or I can't and probably could from a very young age.

That is why they are footballers.

 

When training, the players are confronted with problematic situations and they are asked to answer questions

"You've been caught pooing on the bonnet of a Vauxhall Vectra. What do you do next?"

 

Some footballers are highly academically intelligent as well. Harry Maguire and Bukayo Saka just to name a couple from the current England set-up.

 

And the much quoted Frank Lampard with his Latin gcse!

 

Thanks for posting this. I didn’t know that and I found it interesting.

 

Something new and different for us, its exciting good luck to them.

 

I bet Mads likes this sort of thing. He seems the studious type.

 

Pardon my ignorance but what does this actually mean? Do they fart a lot?

 

F eck me.

Control it. Pass it - preferably to someone wearing the same colour shirt as you. Tackle to win it back when the team in the other colour shirts has it - it is still allowed, believe it or not. If it’s in the air, head it.

When you have a dead ball (corner or free kick) it’s actually easier to kick it to where you want it to go because it’s not moving and the team in the other coloured shirts can’t try to tackle you.

Kick it towards that big space with the white rectangle and net. Regularly.

Don’t let people push you around. Stand up for yourself.

In “training” run about a lot so on match day you can do so for an hour and a half (you’ll get a quarter of an hour’s rest in the middle and a breather when the ball goes into the crowd).

 

The message to the players for the Saturday game should be “Red shirts good,,, white shirts bad.” And build from there.

 

There will be a question as to whether the head coach believes in this approach too to the same degree.

In essence, it sounds along the lines of what Clive Woodward developed that he called "T-Cup"... or thinking correctly under pressure.

I've felt for a considerable time that the weakest part of our play isn't technical or necessarily tactical, but instead our decision making, particularly under pressure or at critical times in a game where momentum can sway quickly.

I suspect that issue is exacerbated because of the lack of experienced heads we've tended to have.

Interesting though and we'll see if focus is applied there. I wouldn't expect it to be a particularly quick fix though, and at the minute we need a short term fast impact approach as well as a mid term development. Though we have to question what the point of mid term and long term development actually is at our club. Given that most things get thrown away every 6-12 months.

 

It means that a player is so much out of condition, breathing heavy , that his body could do with an extra orifice to help him breathe.

 

Exactly. Sod the marketing business speak.

Train. Train more. Train harder. Train harder than anyone else to become fitter than anyone else. Practice free kicks, passing, throw ins, shots on goal. Then practice some more. And some more. Play for each other, play as a team. Above all believe. Believe you can’t be beaten. Believe you’re a winner and you'll become a winner.

 

You attended one of Jose Morais' motivational talks recently? Believe!

 

Looks as though the squad will all need to study for an MA in football philosophy to get all that. Brings back memories of the Monty Python sketch with the intellectual interviewer and thick centre forward, "Well! I just kicked the ball and it went into the goal," or something like that. I wonder also how the methodology translates into footballers' English. Could be fun to be a fly on the wall at the first training session. However..... if it worked for Sweden's under-21s, why shouldn't it work for us? Can only wait and see.

 

Whooosh!!!

 

Wipe your arse with a doc leaf.

 

To paraphrase someone (Bill Shankly ? ),Football is a simple game, complicated by coaches.