MURAD TALUKDAR
So for my first interview on the site, who better to get than the man who has influenced me the most, my dad! I’m sure a lot of people reading this will know him, but maybe not how great of a coach he is, and how many of his players would run through a brick wall for him. I’ve learnt, and continue to learn so much from our football chats, which even while on opposite sides of the globe, average about 10 hours per week. One day I hope to use all of his teachings to help me take QPR back to the Premier League; with him as my assistant coach.
As this is a fairly conversational piece, due to me knowing him so well, I am putting F (Faris) or M (Murad) for who is speaking. All main questions are in bold if you want to scroll down and skip around for a particular piece of wisdom. This was recorded in August if some of the references seem a little old (I’ve been busy, it is also hard editing the football ramblings of two people with ADHD 😴). As this is a very long read I have recorded the first 15 minutes as a podcast.
Before we get into it I just wanted to ask that if you like this then please checkout my other articles as I’m sure you will enjoy them and learn something. If you really really liked it there is also a paid tier of subscribers if you want to support me/this website/my coaching journey. I was recently accepted to do my level 2 (of 5) coaching course in Wales in March which should hopefully allow me to get into men’s football next season.
Name
Murad Talukdar (Dad)
Age
52 (but looks younger than me at 26)
Playing position I put centre back yeah?
It was probably my favourite. I mean I started off as a left wing. The first competitive team I played in I played left wing and the main reason was because I was one of the few lads who could hit the ball with both feet. That was in the scouts, Fifth Headstone Scouts-I was in the Scouts League.
How many years experience would you say you have coaching?
So started 2006 and then maybe there was about three, four we've got five years in between where I didn't coach so it's about 12, 12 years all up probably.
What qualifications do you have?
M: A junior licence, like a FIFA junior licence. And then I've done a couple of senior coaching courses, like community based courses.
F: Like football Queensland ones?
M: Yeah
Was the first team you coached my Under 9s team?
M: No, actually my first ever team I coached was when I was at school. The senior boys had to coach one of the junior teams and it was the house, kind of like an inter-house competition. So I was in a house called Vaughn and I coached the Under 12s team with a guy called Andrew Weber. So me and him coached the team and we ended up coming second I think in the competition.
F: So senior you were 18 or something like last year of high school?
M: I was 17, 18 and I was at that point I was captain of the Second 11, the school Second 11.
Your current team is (Brisbane, Aus) Kangaroo Point Rovers Metro League 4 is that what it's called?
Met 3. Met 3 South. So there's 2 (divisions, North and South)
Alright, and then lowest and highest team you’ve coached? So say one division is one year age group. So Under 15 Div One would be equal to Under 16 Div Two, for example.
M: Oh, that would be that Under 16s Church League. Was it Under 16s or Under 15s? It was Under 15s Church League.
F: Would you put that below Under Nines?
M: Actually yeah sorry it was Under 16s Church League wasn't it?
F: Would you put that below the Under Nines, though?
M: I would actually. I know it was Under 16s League but because it's Church League so you know the Under Nines was
F: I was like Div 2 or something
M: Two yeah but there was a good you know like I think the general sort of like technical ability it was fairly high. I thought we played some good football
F: I mean, yeah, probably better than the Under 16s
M: That was just pure scrapping.
F: Yeah, um... And then, highest team, would you say, last year?
M: FQPL 5 Reserves (Football Queensland Premier League)
So what would you describe your playing style like when you played?
M: So I would have said that my playing style in general was quite calm. I wasn't wanting to get too angry during a game or any of that. I'd say calm but focused aggression. Definitely when I learned to utilise and focus my aggression that helped me become a much better defender. I was always trying to position myself to use space and see as much of the pitch as possible, especially at centre back. I liked to think I was fairly composed on the ball. I wasn't one to just hoof it.
I'd always try to find players. I wasn't a scorer. I probably only ever scored like five or six goals in my career ever. But yeah I was determined. I didn't stop running. I liked to encourage others to keep going to not give up.
F: Mm-hmm.
Alright, and then not tactics, but the man management side of coaching, how would you describe that?
M: Um collaborative definitely, because I think, and I mean I say this at work in my work team that I lead as well. As they say the wisdom of the team is greater than the sum of the parts, I don't have all the answers but hopefully I will ask the right questions to help a team and to help individual players find good solutions and working solutions. I'm not a disciplinarian by any stretch, but I will set boundaries when necessary.
F: Ok so like obviously I know you so you know I can pull examples, but on being collaborative, let's say two people have different ideas on how to fix something at half-time, how do you manage that? How do you decide what to go with?
M: I will end up having a final say on what needs to be followed through and how. I know and I've seen this from experience is that it will take time. There's always going to be a bedding in process where players will respect your directive enough to kind of put it into action. If you make a decision at half-time and say okay, well, we're going to play this way and I want players to do this for the time being. They do have to believe that you've got the solution but then that takes a bit of time for them to see the evidence of when I put this in place. Obviously the players are the ones enacting it, but if they can have enough input, especially certain players like leadership kind of players who have good footballing brains, they can see what the solution needs to be from on the pitch. Sometimes you can kind of work with them okay, yeah, we're going to do this for a bit of time because it's been kind of targeted. It might be that we need an extra player in midfield for a brief period of time or we need to swap in for some energy and stuff so sometimes the players get to call the shots on the pitch which is natural but I hope that when I make a change they'll follow through on it. Obviously if it's wrong then I'll hold my hand up and say oh well I made that decision I have to carry it.
And then philosophy as a coach, tactically, if you have one?
M: If I have one, I think my kind of watchword and the thing I value highly is adaptability to situations, to how the other team is playing, etc. If we can adapt the general goal that we've got to try and play a certain way, even if it's in game, even if it's for the last 15 minutes; sometimes. I think adaptability has to be my number one thing. That's got to be my philosophy. How can we adapt? I'm not above knocking the ball long and scoring. I'm not wedded to always playing out from the back or always making sure that we have plenty of passes to score a goal. I'm always about, what's the most effective in this situation? And can we adapt to how the other team is set up so that we can recognise their vulnerabilities as quick as possible and use them?
F: So yeah, that's kind of the next question as well. How religiously do you stick to this? And then I'll add one is how do you train that in training? Or is that more of a game day thing? So do you just do principles in training and then you trust that with instruction on the weekend they can adapt, or do you like players adapting during a drill, even if it ends up making it, not how you pictured it in your head?
M: Yeah, I mean, I've often had very direct feedback from players about a particular drill, either verbal, or through action. It could be them not actually understanding what they can do in the drill, what they can execute, and they may not always understand what it is about the bigger picture that the drill is trying to do. It's trying to create a game situation on a small scale that can then hopefully be recreated when they figure it out. I think it depends on the squad that you've got, because you might have a bigger mix of much more technical players who can do a lot more technical stuff and they’re much quicker at thinking and adapting on their feet.
Some seasons you might have a lot of players who can just do a job. If you tell them clearly this is the job you have to do, and you've got to keep doing it over and over again, then it might be the repetition of doing that over and over again that leads to success.
I think so much of it is about reading the group and going, oh, okay, so this is what seems to work well with ‘this’ group. I think it might again be about adapting to the group to say, if we have a lot of drills about pressing, then we're going to end up pressing a lot on the weekend. But if we have a lot of drills that are at the heart of them, not so technical, but they're more about trying to build chemistry and connection between players and going, how do we get these players who are a disparate bunch of dudes who seem like they're slightly annoyed with each other a lot of the time. How do we get them to actually gel as a group so that they are able to trust each other to receive the ball, pass the ball, move, receive the ball, pass the ball, move, and keep on doing that? I guess that's more of an almost mental kind of training for them.
I think it's like week in week out trying to get them to, in a footballing sense, trust each other, have a laugh with each other and then go, okay, yeah, I know if I pass the ball here, this player is going to take a touch and then make a shooting opportunity. Or, if I make this run, I know he's going to try and find me.
So do you think there's a shortcut to trust? Because I think a big example is knowing what run someone is going to make, or if you pass them the ball, that you’re going to get it back.
I don't know if there is, I haven't discovered it. What I find is, I can't tell people, you can't tell people to trust each other, really. You can remind them that trusting helps. But it's a bit intangible. You can see it when it's there, and you can see it when it's not. Trying to build it sometimes, is again, and I think there are limits to coaching. This is where you have to, or where I've had to rely on the players themselves being adult enough, even in the midst of any conflicts. They might have to keep building that trust, and to not take it just because they have conflict. That's not necessarily a bad thing. In the moments of conflict, and it might be when I've had words with players who are annoyed about not getting enough minutes, it's like, okay, this is where I'm coming from, and how do we keep players energised and hungry when they're not getting what they want, or what they think they want. I might say, well, this is a team sport, and how do we contribute to the greater good of something bigger than each one of us? A player can win a match, but it takes a squad to win a trophy. A single player's not gonna win a season by himself. I don't care who he is, squads win trophies, and players win matches; definitely.
So how do you coach adaptability into players?
M: I think a lot of what I'm trying to get players to figure out is solutions to certain things. And I won't always explicitly explain the drill, I might explain this is the drill, but I may not explain what I'm hoping will happen.
So what I'm hoping is that the drill itself will be good enough that as they start to reach the goal, they see the outcome and it might have a hidden learning aspect to it. If they do the thing enough times it becomes second nature and I think the amazing thing about football is that players will sometimes learn whether they want to or not.
They may not have a focus on learning but they will because they're gonna have to adapt to different situations. So I'll tend to have some drills that I'll do over and over again. I understand that boys get tired of it but when you see them reproducing it on the pitch you know it's working. Again, it might be hidden learning. One of my possession drills is also a pressing drill. You split the area into two halves, and then each team has to be able to get five passes in their own half and then to the other side, then back again.
It's a drill I'll do to death because naturally you see players starting to take up shapes that they would take up on a pitch if they were trying to possess the ball from the back and move it forward. It can have so many variations, too. It could become a transition drill with a few tweaks, not purely a possession drill. Then become a drill to create shooting opportunities. You can set it up so differently because it just takes a few minor tweaks and suddenly it's a completely different drill focusing on a different aspect of the game. This can work for ball out of possession, ball in possession, or transition.
F: Did you come up with that drill?
M: I found a variation of it online and then I started to tweak a lot of it. The good thing about it is you can adapt it size-wise and make it bigger. You could have say 20 players doing the drill, with two teams of 10, just over a bigger space.
F: Yeah.
M: If you set them up and say you've got three at the back and then go from there, then you'll see them start to adapt shapes and structures naturally. It teaches them to keep an eye on where their other teammates are, especially if they're pressing.
You can get them to press with three or you can get them to press with four. You can tweak and give instructions or ask questions such as, you went and did this, what was the thinking?
F: What was the thinking?
M: So trying to ask the right questions is good because I want the players to find solutions themselves. Sometimes they'll surprise me. Like I said, the wisdom of the team is much bigger than me.
I'm not the wisest person there. I do know some stuff but I'm just a piece of the puzzle. The rest of it is so much about me trusting players and going, okay, I trust you to figure something out. When people are relaxed and supported, I think it's amazing what they can do.
In the same way, sometimes it's amazing what players can do if they feel challenged or if they feel like you've forgotten them. They'll be like, I'm going to show you. It's good to have some of that determination every now and then.
And then a question that I had for you last year is, would your approach be the same without those leaders or high football IQ players in the team, the ones finding solutions and coaching on the pitch?
M: I'd have to. If you're working with more novices, it makes me think of a little quadrant that we used to use when I'd facilitate some of the student nurses and stuff way back when.
You start off at a level where you ‘don't know what you don't know’, and you don't know what you don't know, because there's so much to learn. Then you get to a level where you know a little bit, and you start to recognise the things that you don't know, and you can ask questions, and you can figure it out. Then you get to a level where you know a lot more. You know what you do know and what you don't know. Then you start to get towards advanced levels where you know a lot, and you know exactly where to go to find out what you don't know.
So as you level up, you have a lot less instruction for people because they become their own teachers. Down at the initiate level, you're having to give a lot more instruction or ask less open-ended questions. You have to be a bit more narrow in your questioning, so that people figure out for themselves the exact thing that they need to figure out.
So, the team would need a lot more instruction. If they don't have the, oh yeah, experience may be a better word, because I'm more thinking about it in terms of just men's football. If you have a young team, if you're coaching under eights as opposed to under 16s, even if they're top division under eights, they're going to know less due to experience.
F: Yeah, definitely. The style of question thing is interesting for me coaching under eights for the first time this year. I watched a lot of the other coaches before I fully took over the team and they're asking questions like, do you want to dribble fast or slow? You have to make it that basic. Then it goes back to trust and you hope they see you're right.
So tactical philosophy and coaching style. Did your playing career influence this and how?
M: Errrr... do I have a tactical philosophy?
F: Or coaching style as well can be, if it was influenced by you as a player.
M: Yeah, definitely. I think so. I was a defender and I know that goals get all the glory, but I loved watching people defend well and I still do. It’s an art form, and often still an underappreciated art form in football.
I remember there was a player in the year, no, two years above us. I remember watching a game, this is at school, and I'm watching a game that the first 11 was playing. It was before we had our game. I remember watching this game and watching the way that the team defended as a whole. I still remember the coach saying to them, every one of you is a defender.
Like when we don't have the ball, we're all defenders and it's stuck in my head ever since.
F: It's one of my favourite quotes too, so you must have said it thousands of times to me over the years.
M: I say it all the time, I say how many defenders do we have? And people all go four. I'm like no no no, we have 11 defenders on the pitch. That has to be the basis for defence; always if I can get the defence right and the defending as a team right then it can so easily become an attack.
You know I remember my cousin who’s into American football and basketball, saying, the best the best offence is a good defence.
If you can have at times a bit of a siege mentality and you can weather the storm then you can turn it into attack when the other team is vulnerable or spent or feeling tired. It's amazing how long you can actually sustain that for if you have a good enough shape.
I suppose that’s the other thing as well. I still think that shape wins games. Good shape can win a game, even with players who are feeling tired or with players who aren't having the best game on the ball..
The other thing I'll say and I probably would have said it last year as well is for all the four core skills that FIFA will focus on, they're all about having the ball at your feet.I'm like, well 90% of the game is spent without the ball at your feet. So you better figure out how you build off ball skills into players as well. Your game awareness has to be so good, and you can see when coaches train towards that a bit more.
Even at the highest levels with quote-unquote average players being able to beat teams with multi-million pound signings, there’s your proof you just have to be well drilled. It makes a big difference even if it's the non-glamorous part of the game. It's just where are you going to be? How do you orient yourself to the pitch and to the ball and to the man and to your team? You know all the dimensions.
F: I don't remember if we did it that much last year, but 11v0 shadow play is still my favourite drill for defending in terms of shape. If you can have that good shape once and you're fit enough to do it for the full game you can keep a clean sheet; particularly if players don't get beat 1v1 which simply means not diving in.
M: Yeah.
F: And then the quote about how many defenders, I don't know if you remember the game, my first year as a head coach at Grange Under 13 Div 1s on the bottom pitch at Lions. We were 3 -0 down at half time and I was really annoyed and I said to them, who are the defenders here?
All of the goals were like one guy lost his man or got beat and we scored an own goal as well. It was purely the defenders, everyone else had done their job. It wasn't a 2v1 or anything like that. I yelled at them, put your hand up if you're a defender here and everyone starts to put their hand up because I had drilled it into them so much that, yeah, you know, the striker is the first defender and all that kind of thing.
M: I still remember a manager of mine saying this was at school, Mr. French used to be my, he was my biology teacher as well. He said that to us one season, he goes, we're going to defend from the front. He goes, like Liverpool do. I can't remember whether he was a Liverpool fan.
He could have been. He mentioned Ian Rush. He was the first defender in their team and he used to press. Sometimes he'd do it solo, but he never stopped running. Sometimes he'd get goals from it, you know, just from hounding centre backs. It was a complete wow moment, especially when they used to have the old rule where they could back pass to the keeper and the keeper could pick it up again.
He'd still press because they'd think, oh, that's an option. I'm just going to knock it back to the keeper and he would nip in. It was very interesting.
F: I wonder if that pass got messed up more than people complain about mistakes from goalkeepers playing out now. To me, it sounds more dangerous although it may have felt safer for them.
M: Yeah, it would be interesting to go back.
I remember, we used to have interesting things around goal kicks. People used to just go long. I also remember we started doing this thing to get around the rule when we were smaller because we couldn't particularly kick it that far. So the keeper would wait outside the area, right? And you'd knock the ball to him and he'd knock it back into the area and pick it up. And it was totally legit in this case. Then he'd pick it up and he'd kick it from his hands. We worked our way out around the rules.
F: But then wouldn't the striker just mark the goalkeeper?
M: And then you'd go, okay, now we have to change it up. I guess that's the thing, again, coming back to adapting, adapting, always adapting. It's interesting, there's a whole chapter in Michael Cox's book about, you know, Premier League tactics.
F: Yeah?
M: Yeah, and how it changed from that season (first season of the Premier League with back passes now not allowed). They were kind of saying, oh, what's this? With hindsight it was probably one of the best rule changes because it made a massive difference to playing more directly. It also started to bring players like Peter Schmeichel into the game and actually be part of the attacking process.
F: I feel like it's the closest rule change to football getting a shot clock (in basketball you have 24 seconds to shoot/score or the other team gets the ball).
I remember seeing highlights of Graham Souness when they're one nil up and he's ten yards into the opposition's half and he just turns around and pings it back to his goalkeeper.
M: You have to find ways around it or use the rules in your favour to be effective and to win. I've just looked up what you said about shadow play and stuff. I was trying to remember the name of the coach who kind of pioneered it.
There's an article in The Guardian about Alan Brown, so he was Sunderland and Sheffield Wednesday manager back in the 60s. And...
F: I know Sachi popularised it, but I didn't know who invented it.
M: Conte also did it when he was at Chelsea. He was always kind of like creating stuff. There’s a good little article about it.
F: Send it to me.
Jonathan Wilson
M: It's going, okay, I want this pattern, I want this pattern,I want this pattern. ‘Til it becomes second nature for people to do it.
F: On the defence leading to attack how you said Mahaan likes American sports. I was trying to find this stat the other day for my team, the percentage of goals that are scored within 10 seconds of a turnover because even with current tactical trends of high possession etc it is still a very high percentage that are scored within 10 seconds of regaining the ball.
This article is a few years old so the numbers may be slightly different but the principle is the same.
F: If you think about the NBA, the amount of points you get off a missed shot versus a made shot from the opponent is very significant. If they score you have to inbound it as opposed to catching a rebound and being able to attack straight away. (I won’t put the stats for all sports but high turnovers are worth their weight in gold).
M: So for me I would say a good defence leads to a good attack more than a good attack leads to a good defence. Unless you're a Man City It's very rare that your possession is so good, and even then they learned last season, it's rare that your possession game is so good that you can prevent their attack because it's so much easier to counter attack than it is to possess the ball for 75 percent of the time and also stop every counter attack because they only need one to go through to make the difference. I think the pace of individuals is really important in those aspects, but also the average pace of a team makes a massive difference.
If you were to measure how quickly a group of players can move up the pitch against another team is often not appreciated enough. I think there'll be correlation and causation in terms of goals, especially if you're a counter attacking team. It's great if you've got one player is quick, but if you've got a whole bunch of players who are quick, the overloads can happen so much quicker.
F: I don't know if you saw the Man United vs Wolves game?
M: Yeah, Wolves were quick.
F: Yeah.
M: And what's his name? The Wolves player? He was destroying, I mean that was counter attacking brilliance there. The result didn't match what I think most people thought of the game.
F: Yeah, exactly. Plus they're unlucky with the no penalty.
Did any coaches from your playing career influence your tactics or man management in a big way?
M: In a big way? Yeah, interesting. I always go back to talking about, you know, me not being a disciplinarian. I always think of this moment where, and I was captain at the time, so I had a lot more responsibility. I remember being late to the team bus and we had an away game. What we used to do was turn up to school and drive out to the game. The coach who was in charge, I really liked him, I had a lot of respect for him. He was very much about hard work, always about hard work. Like, just keep working, keep running, keep running. So he influenced me a lot in that aspect. But I do respect the way he handled the situation of me being late because I turned up late and they'd left. So I couldn't get to the game. He dropped me the next week. He just goes, “well, there you go”. I was devastated, but it really taught me a good lesson. I think out of anything, because I used to be late a lot to school, I used to be late everywhere, pretty much. If there was one thing that taught me to be on time was that moment, of having to live with the consequences of well, too bad. So I think part of that has kind of stayed with me just in life in general. So, you know, definitely.
F: Do you remember his name?
M: Yeah, Dave Rimmer. You taught me a very important lesson. It was a really good play. It was funny. It was an all-time play.
F: And I'm sure the boundary would have been set at the start of the season. Like the bus will leave without you.
M: Yeah. I can't remember why I was late. I was devastated and I remember writing a letter of apology. I think my mum might have even got involved and said, “you know, oh look, you know, he's really sorry” and stuff like that. But yeah, it was important. The thing was, I can't remember whether we lost the game or not, but we missed out on making the finals by probably a couple of points, that season. It could have been to do with it. I can't remember whether we lost that game or not to be honest, but it was important. It was an important lesson for me. After that he still gave me a good write up in my leavers card. The report card at the end of the season, he gave me a good write up. I actually got what was called colours, which means that you've done an exceptional job during the season, despite that moment.
Favourite formation, if any?
M: I think, oh man, I don't think I have a favourite formation. I suppose my little curio slash unique thing would be Ancelotti’s Christmas tree. Just you know, the brilliance of going, I have these midfielders. What do I do with them? And figuring out that, oh, look, if we play this formation we can actually do really well with the players that we've got. I actually tried it at the beginning of this season and it didn't quite work. It needed some tweaking to now become like a four, two, three, one, but that middle player in that three is back a lot more. So it is almost like a four, three, two, one, but with the branches of the thing, really, really wide. So it's kind of like a slightly adapted Christmas tree because we've got some new midfielders and strikers and wingers. It's just like, okay, well, what do we do with all these players where they need to be? So it worked with a few tweaks.
But yeah, I love a good four, four, two. If I had enough legs, I'd probably play four, four, two all the time. If players had the legs to do that. I love playing a double pivot just because, defensively, it makes a lot of sense.
Depending on who you've got up front, I do like a four, two, three, one. I like trying to get people out of the idea of it being so rigid. Everything is just a combination of shapes. If you were to take snapshots of games, you'd see that is not actually what it quite looks like most of the time.
I mean, at the back is probably where it's most rigid, where you have to keep it structured. Well, at least I think you do have to. Otherwise, you allow gaps in very vulnerable areas, you know.
F: Yeah
M: If you see that they've only got two centre backs left and they're all the way over on the right hand side, just go to the space.
F: Yeah, just let one guy cheat and trust.
M: If you're too rigid then you're going to snap at points. So that's what I think what the strength is with the relational stuff. It's kind of like pouring water through a grid. It'll flow through the holes because it's so fluid.
Rather than it being put off by the fact that you've got like you know, two lines of fluid.
Favourite drill for each phase? So we've already got the progressive passing one
M: Yeah, then my other one is to have, it's a possession-based drill, fairly large square, maybe like 30 by 30 split into four.
The point of the drill is to get the ball to one of your players in each one of those squares, progressively. Then you can say, it has to go 1, 2, 3, 4, or it has to go red, yellow, blue, green, whatever. You can change it up because again it's about that building of the relationships between the players so that they can communicate. I'm here, I'm trying to get there and knowing that they have a shared small goal, the bigger goal is always to score the goal. But within this space, what is our goal? Our goal is to keep the ball and try and get it to this space here because that's where our space is or this is where we're trying to aim for because we're trying to break down the defence. So that one is one of my favourites as well.
And then the old 4v4 plus 2 where the two are in little end zones and trying to transition the ball back and forth, back and forth.
Try and win the ball, move it as quickly as you can, ball speed, finding space. Because so much of it is about finding space at all, being patient in tight areas to try and build your confidence together.
F: What's the pressing one?
M: One I described first, yeah, so like the pitch in the two halves and you've got to hold onto the ball, you know, do five passes amongst yourselves, get it to the other side and then back, and then the other team are pressing with two, three or four, you can vary up the numbers. I like that because it recreates the game, if a drill can recreate what it's like to be on the pitch, even if it's in like small sections, I think that's all you need. Then you can focus on little details within that.
F: I think the main thing is that it has to have shape and direction for me to make it game realistic even if it doesn't have goals. If it at least has shape and direction there's the goal of playing forward or playing left to right which helps you play forward.
M: Yeah. The other thing as well, I've done a lot of this season is because I recognised that’s where our weakness was at the beginning of the season when we were shipping a lot of goals was 1v1s.
So I focused a lot on 1v1s. Both sides players have been able to beat players and it's helped our attack because we've started to really attack players. Gary scored a whole bunch of goals from just steaming at the centre backs.
So when he's playing as a 10 and he's essentially running at the defence and then it might open up a space and we've got wingers and a striker who can move into that space.
So not only does it help defending and our 1v1 situations. Our defensive record has improved so much in the second half of the season. It's made a massive difference. I think a lot of that was identifying what the problems might be. Every team has its vulnerabilities and if you can identify that and work on it enough to get some marginal gains and changes, I think you can make a big difference.
It's like working the same muscle over time and then suddenly you'll see, oh, okay, it's gotten stronger. I can actually do this. I guess that's a good thing about certain drills is it's both a ball out of possession and ball in possession.
F: Yeah, 1v1s is very tough to beat as a base for anything because you get to attack, defend, it’s competitive without even trying. If you have goals or it's dribble across this line or…
M: And people love it. They love doing it, it doesn't matter. People love defending and not letting someone score and people love scoring, you know, or trying.
F: People will shit talk and that kind of stuff as well which helps.
M: Yeah, and they'll bring out tricks or they'll do things that you might not expect it and you go, oh, you can actually be a player. Why don't you do that on the weekend?
Favourite warm-up after you've done your dynamics on a game day?
M: The little square in the middle of a big square. Then I can use that in the bigger possession game that comes after that. Because it's like, okay, can you keep the ball and pass it through the square or into a player in the square, that kind of thing. So then it's an easy transition. I don't have to overthink it.
F: And once everyone gets to know it, they just go straight into it and start doing it.
M: Yeah, and especially that thing of releasing some of the nerves, I think is a big component to starting well.
Managers who influenced you? Let's see if I can guess. Bielsa, Mourinho, Ancelotti?
M: Bielsa, Mourinho, Ancelotti, Beckenbauer, definitely Beckenbauer as a player and I liked something about his attitude you know. I think with Bobby Robson was probably his man management. He always seemed like, underneath it, despite any stress that he was always having a bit of a joke. He always had a bit of a smile in his eyes that he was having the time of his life. You know what I mean? Like managing England or Ipswich or when he went to Barcelona, when Mourinho used to be his translator, he looked like he was having an absolute blast, he was just loving it. So not so much anything about his tactics, but I think his man management. Getting the absolute best of the players that he had and that together they were a formidable opponent to play. I know they didn't end up winning anything, you know but they came close.
F: What about Bielsa?
M: I guess you know he sees the game in a quite unique way and just how much influence he's had on everybody else because of his unique approach to things. Oh no, I think that was probably the main thing with Bielsa. Insight, insight into what is possible, when you have the ability to get that work rate out of players as well. I suppose if you had a bigger squad, it would be easier. It would be devastating to play against that if you had a big enough squad.
F: Yeah, I think one of the ways that you can see, like you said at the start, how much players believe in you is everyone says that no other coach in the world would get away with playing murder ball on Wednesdays or whatever day it is. You see the videos of it and it's way more intense than a game.
You have to have a pretty high level of belief to do something weird like that or take on someone bigger than you. How do you convince someone that they're good enough to defend against Messi or Haaland? If they don't believe it, they're going to have a worse game, they’re not as good as them already. If you have belief, at least it bridges some of the gap.
M: Which makes me think of Shankley and you know obviously, one of my favourite quotes ever ‘that football is not a matter of life and death, it is much more important than that.’ If ever you see him giving his speeches to the people of Liverpool about how important football is and how important the people of Liverpool are to the club, it's stirring.
He was a real inspirational leader. Kevin Keegan tells a story of when he was a young lad and he was playing up against Bobby Moore. Bobby Moore's kind of coming to the end of his career and he was playing up against him.
Before the game Bill Shankley’s like, “you know they'll probably be hung over and they'll be rubbish. He's no good, he's past it.” Then Kevin Keegan had a blinding game.
Then after the game, he said, “that Bobby Moore, bloody great legend of a player, isn't he?” And then Kevin Keegan's like, “oh, man, I just had a great game against a legend.”
I thought it was brilliant. I'm like, yeah, that's just Bill Shankley. That's him thinking about how players are and what their own inner sort voice, their self talk is about. I think Shankley probably when he was a player went, I have to work out how to defeat my mind half the time because it's probably lying to me.
He worked out that if it happens to me, it happens to all players at some point, apart from say, Zlatan, but like, I've got to bet that most players probably doubt themselves at times.
I would say that doubt doesn't necessarily make you a worse player, but it can hold you back at moments.
F: Well, I would say it doesn't make you a worse player, but it can make you play worse.
M: Yeah
F: And tactically?
M: Mourinho... Which is so pragmatic.
F: I would say tactically he's probably one of your biggest influences. I remember in Under 15s with that terrible team that we had away game at Taringa. I don't know if you remember that game.
M: Yeah.
F: And Eric scored. I think maybe we still lost, but it was like a way closer game.We scored a brilliant counter attacking goal. Played four, five, one and sat super deep. Where our back line was on the edge of our 18 yard box and our midfield was like 10 yards ahead of them.
M: And there was a game that we played at home where we drew one all. The team that we were playing had to win to make finals and we stopped them from making finals and I remember putting up as a bit of a reward kind of thing, or not reward, but like that was the focus I said…
F: Bulletin board material
M: Yeah. I don't remember who the team was but they didn't make the finals. It's good to be petty. I think they beat us like four or five nil the first time around and they were so frustrated. I was like well sometimes I'm just gonna set out to frustrate you, I don't care. It's all part of the game, I'm not gonna go let's just play expansive stuff when we can't. I'm just gonna say, we're here to do a job and we can actually do a fairly decent job of defending with players who are not particularly technically gifted as long as you keep shape. Park that bloody bus!
Happiest moment as a coach? And then the next one is proudest. So it's two different things.
M: I think winning the league last year was, well it would be my proudest moment actually and in the way that we did it as well and how everybody kind of grew. It was a, it was kind of a disrupted season as well and I think the thing of again adaptability through that season because I guess being a reserves coach you don't always get to pick your players.
It's just okay, these are players who aren't playing firsts this week so you have to figure out a lot of that and I think that made me proud of everybody. How people adapted and believed and started to believe as we went through the season and obviously because you were pivotal in that and it made a massive difference so I was proud of the fact that we could work together and to achieve that.
F: Reserves you don't get to pick your team and then we were away from home because our pitch was getting redone ’til a little over halfway into the season and we still only lost one game in the first half of the season, or maybe only drew one or two in the first half and didn't lose a single game by more than a goal the whole season
M: We ended up losing three.
F: Lost to yeah; Willowburn, Brighton and Tarragindi. We beat every team in the bottom half of the table both times we played them. We only dropped points to the teams in the top half, best defence by 11 goals we conceded 20, the next best was 31. I think we had the fourth best attack as well. For me easily the best, funnest and most together team I've played in and I learnt so much as a player and a coach from you to bring that mentality and spirit and whatever else you want to call it to the other teams that I work with, because yeah second to none. It felt like being, you know you hear about the Ferguson United teams and it's like we'd already won before we got on the field, it felt like yeah, we're winning this game, conceded a goal doesn't matter, we’re winning.
F: What about the happiest moment?
M: The grand final. I know we lost, you know, two seasons ago.
F: That's definitely the happiest moment?
M: Yeah, like getting there and given the beginning of the season. Especially the fact that we gave the team that gave us a complete thumping, two much tougher games after that.
F: And on XG probably deserved to win the grand final, even though XG doesn't matter in a one game sample size.
M: We gave everything. There were some fairly tough moments in the season. Like I said, we didn't start great, but improved through the season. I'm always proud of that, any part I might have in helping teams and players individually improve. That team improved a hell of a lot through the season.
F: We came third, didn't we?
M: Yeah, we came third. They did 1v4 and 2v3 in the finals so we had to play at Rochedale remember?
F: Yeah
M: The semi and Kingy’s winner
F: Koko’s winner?
M: Oh Koko's winner, yeah.
F: We won 2-0, that was the first, Kingy’s was the icing.
M: Yeah, icing on the cake and the fact that, I think Russell said he wasn't very good the season before us and he got a goal. I was just so happy for him. I remember after the game there was a kangaroo that bounded across the pitch.
F: There was two before the game, I'm pretty sure. That's why we won 2-0. I think it was before the game. It might have been after, but I definitely remember two kangaroos.
M: The grand final was a great day, just as an event. It's memorable, the spectacle of it. With the highs and lows of that season it would have been nice to have a win, obviously.
F: Yeah, the other thing I wanted to add for last season, which I think should make you proud is that people preferred to play for the reserves and play for you than they did to play for the top team, which you know doesn't really make sense without context.
M: I guess it doesn't make sense.
F: I think that's something to hold as a testament to team spirit and one of your favourite quotes of mine is um, ‘you want people to come back next week’ at that level of football that you coached or you know, we've coached the last few years. No one's getting paid and players can easily in men's football go to another team. They can drive 10 minutes down the road and play for a team in your division so why should they come and play for you? Results obviously and then team spirit but results can come and go, even if you're the best coach and you have good players you can still lose, so why should players come back or want to play for you?
What about the lowest moment as a coach?
M: Um...lowest moment as a coach? That's a good question actually, I don't know. Low...yeah, I'd really have to think about that, I've not really thought about it. I mean, I think the closest I probably came to that would have been that 6-0...
F: When we lost against North Brisbane? (2021 season)
M: But even then, up until a certain point, we were competing and playing good football, and everyone was doing what I asked, and more, but then you know, we...
F: I think it was one nil at halftime.
M: Yeah. So, yeah, maybe that. Because then obviously the team talks not worked. It's like, okay, well, what's gone wrong? What have I not put into place? I felt bad about it and I suppose in a way maybe it was good that I felt bad about how it turned out because then there were obvious improvements after that.
F: After that we only lost one more, maybe two more games after that.
M: Yeah. We lost after that to Redcliffe and North Brisbane again, where we lost 1-0 but we played so much better because we changed shape. I think that 6-0 forced a change of shape. We realised, okay, we can't...we couldn't quite match. Then when we went to three at the back it made a huge difference for the rest of the season.
F: You win or you learn.
M: Yeah, exactly. So low points are in a way helpful. They can be helpful if you're willing to sit there in the uncomfortableness and go, oh my god, what's going on? Why did this happen? And what can we do? Where's the solution? That kind of thing.
Favourite teams to watch lately?
M: Atalanta, Napoli, I loved watching Napoli. You know, it was really good to watch them, lots of fun to watch them, their energy and their movement, their utilisation of the players that they had. It's great to see them win the Scudetto as well. After 30 or 40 years,’89 I think was the last time so that's pretty epic.
Atlanta just you know the gung ho go for it, just scoring goals for fun because of their movement and swarming kind of effects and stuff.
I love watching Brighton, I really enjoyed watching Brighton and Brentford because they weren't scared. They played with so much confidence and courage, to go we're planning against these big teams and not change, I mean Brentford got two good results against Manchester City.
F: I think they won both
M: Yeah, there you go. De Zerbi did really well there and looks like continuing to do as well. Good structure and Brentford as well. Same again, you know, they're fairly simple kind of tactics that they have. But they've got the players to be able to rely on to do it. If they had a lot more depth, I think they'd continue to grow. I think they might struggle a bit more this season.
City, obviously I love watching them play.
Burnley played some very nice football in the Championship and last year.
QPR at the beginning of the season (last season) was very good to watch and then the wheels kind of fell off. It looks like it's going to be middle ground again this season maybe. I think Ainsworth's still trying to figure out a few things. I think if they give him enough time, he'll stabilise them. I'm not sure they've got enough resources to be able to challenge to get promoted, unfortunately. But you know, I'll have hope around that.
So what percentage for you is tactics versus man management?
This is based on that Nagelsman quote. To paraphrase; ‘tactics and social competence, he says 30-70.’
I probably agree a fair bit with him because so much of it's about getting the players to believe in the project. Believers, you need a few, but everyone else…so yeah, I'd probably agree with that. 30 to 70 because tactics sometimes go out the window and you still win a game. People just run around like headless chickens and it just comes down to fight and luck sometimes. Maybe that's a bit of a tactic in itself, like I know you and I talk about that chaos factor sometimes and you need that. Sometimes you can rely on that to help momentum in your game. It's when things go a little bit crazy. It can't all be structured.
What is your opinion on stats in football?
M: It's interesting, I'll go back to what I remember reading years and years ago about Graham Taylor. He was probably one of the first managers that I would have seen, this would have been the late 80s where he started to gather a lot of stats. He was one of the first people I think that I ever heard mention about how many goals get scored from restarts, basically, set pieces and so on and so forth.
F: Who was the coach of?
M: Watford at the time, probably one of Watford's most successful periods. He was very much about long ball tactics. He was very much tied to the stats because he was like, most goals get scored in, I don't know, like five passes or less or something. So, he focused on that, very quick transitions. A lot of route one direct, very direct football. His transition into the more quality competitions, i.e. when he became England manager, you could see the gulf in ideas, his tactics fell over partly because of his use of stats and maybe he didn't have enough stats to look at international games. To go, oh, actually at this level, being able to keep the ball makes a massive difference. I guess, as you get more stats, you get more data, you understand more about the game. It's kind of like a bit of a Bayesian question, isn't it? Like, if you change your approach based on new data, as you get more data, as you get more evidence towards something, then you might have to change your position, which I think works across so many fields. If you can use the things that stats reveal, they might be revealing about individuals, but they might be revealing about teams. So I think they do help a lot. They can be used well, and you look at, what's his name? Beane at the Oakland A's? How he used stats, especially to identify players for them and also where games can be won and lost and to focus more energy in those areas, especially at those levels.
At the level that I'm coaching at, it's much harder, you try to get a bit of an understanding of what your own team is kind of capable of by trying to see the patterns that happen over and over again. So even stats like that can help.
F: Yeah, I feel like the biggest one that you can do without a proper mathematical model is most coaches will base how they feel about the game on their perception of what the XG has been. Even at the lowest level you're like oh we created more chances than them or maybe you didn't quite have the shot but we got into the box more than them like box touches or field tilt.
M: So yeah, in terms of like using stats as a motivator, to kind of cement, okay, yeah, we've done this well, we've done that well, this is where we need to improve.
So I've definitely used that and kind of said, here's the stark reality with, we had three friendlies before the season, we played five games and we've shipped 25 goals in that time. There's something wrong and we need to fix it.
Where does football go from here?
F: So like, if you split it up tactically, technically, and then like the mental side of the game. I always think about that period of German national football where they reflected a lot after the late 90s, early 2000s. They put in place a lot of projects from grassroots through to the academy level etc, for the youth to start to get into the game. Find a way of playing that kind of suited the talent that was already there and bring the best out of the talent.
M: So I think most countries have recognised that, but how they put that into place, how they execute that is gonna be key to how well they do in general. I've always thought that the future needs to be grassroots. It needs to have more focus on grassroots for all of the structures beneath the Premier League, all the billionaire leagues. There's some utilitarian aspect of the most good for the most people as opposed to let's try and make 200 odd players exceptionally amazing. I think, I hope that that's where it goes.
Tactically, I think it's always great to see teams trying to come up with new stuff, something becomes the tactic of the day. It works because it might be new and then someone develops a way of defending against it or exposes its weaknesses.
I like a lot of that stuff coming out about relational rather than positional football. It makes for really great football to watch and I imagine for certain kinds of players, it's great football to play. It's a lot more free flowing, free form, like the jazz of football, very improvisational. You can definitely develop players to be a lot more improvisational. I imagine that the drills are different for it.
So I think I wouldn't be surprised if you see some more of that in European leagues coming up, but it's still very structured.
At the Women’s World Cup you can see every team had an iPad, I imagine they were using it to track where players were. They never showed any of the software, which was interesting. They didn't go, oh, and this is what people are using it for. It was interesting being at the Women’s World Cup Final the other night because from where we were sitting and we were really high up, it was a brilliant view of the game to see where people are and where the space is, especially where free players are and where you could potentially exploit. I just kept saying it because...it's like playing FIFA when you're that high. Aaliyah and I had this debate about whether Serena Wiegman would change formation in the second half. We're like look, if she brought on Lauren James possibly, but she hadn't changed formation in game before that, I don't think. So she did and it made a massive difference because then England dominated and when you're up high, you can identify where players are getting outnumbered and where it's happening consistently. You're like look, the midfield of that three, four, three, essentially two players were getting outplayed by Spain's middle three because they always had an extra player. Plus they pressed really hard, their front three pressed very, very well. So they had to keep on going long and the ball just kept coming back to them. It was interesting you could see it from there and we're like, oh, will they make the change.
I think once upon a time it would have been a lot harder without the technology to see things from different perspectives to go, oh actually, I think this is what they’re playing because when you're at ground level, you can't see that. It's much harder to be able to actually see unless you've got that kind of brain where you can kind of see players and then in your head you've got like this eye to mind view.
Technology will play it’s, continue to play its part, especially at the higher levels and will have its impact on being able to shift tactics. If there's one thing it's adaptability to being able to change formation, which is not something teams really used to do.
What's a coaching or motivational method that you have used to develop a player past the same mistake that they keep making?
M: I guess sometimes being able to frame it to them as what's the best way to do it? What are they trying to achieve when it happens? Understanding would be the first thing. Going, okay, I can see what you're trying to do and I can see that you want to positively impact the game. I'll always go into any session or any situation, fully believing that no one's going out there to fuck up on purpose, that's not their aim. Their aim is to impact things. For some players, it's about them as much as it is about the team. For other players it's just about them, and that's okay as well. There's nothing wrong with that intrinsically but being able to kind of thread that into the team structure is the tricky part. I always try to bring it back to what is each individual person doing for the team?
I like reminding them of the times when they have done the stuff for the team. Cause players just in terms of doing stuff for themselves can benefit the team. When you can line those things up, it makes a big difference. For instance, I had a player this season who loves to score goals and when he wasn't scoring goals he was getting quite frustrated. So as we talked, I was like, how do we get you to bring other players into the game because you're neglecting that part? It's a really important part of your game and it's an important part for the team. So then over the next couple of weeks he's slowed down a bit, but brought other players in and they've scored around him. So he set up a lot more goals. There you go.
He’s making the contribution, but it was about identifying and hearing the person out. What do you think you were aiming for? What are your frustrations? What do you see is happening? Then being able to say, what if you took that extra touch? What if you held the ball up because you're really good at that? That kind of stuff. So that can make a big difference. Then next thing you know, he's scoring again as well. So he's kind of relaxed a bit into the game and relaxed into being confident in his own ability. I suppose that's a big thing. People often say, oh, such and such is a confidence player and I think that kind of applies to pretty much everyone on some level. Having that confidence is very important.
F: I use that term and I think everyone is a confidence player at the end of the day. Although for some players I think it's more of a self fulfilling prophecy. When I use that term, it's more to mean how good of a self-motivator are you? How good are you at getting yourself out of ruts?
M: Know that people's self-talk is whatever it is. In your own head people will say all manner of stuff to themselves. Like, “you're never good enough,” it will range from everything.
I don't think that absolutist thinking saying, “I'm always going to make the shot or I always get this or I'm always the best or any of that.” I don't think it necessarily materially makes you better but your self-talk can definitely make you worse at something because it can influence you. How relaxed you might be or how focused or how alert you are. If that's going on in the forefront of things, that sort of monkey chatter or that negative monkey chatter, then it can definitely make a difference.
I think beliefs are a big part of it. I don't think it's everything, I've seen players who are very neutral in that. They just play and they're quite zen. They don't have a lot of self-talk. Whereas some players it could be how they learn about handling mistakes. So that's got to be a big thing is always trying to get players to go, it's ok to be disappointed about mistakes because we can use that, that emotional part of the game to help us improve. What happens when we're disappointed? What happens when we've gone behind? What happens if we've made a mistake? Not being afraid of mistakes is a massive thing. We've got to play with that freedom of...we've made a mistake, we're going to talk about it. We're going to feel disappointed as a unit or as an individual. At the end of the day however, people still have to feel like they're accepted.
I think you have to use the word that they’re still loved, even if they've made that mistake. That players still feel the support and respect of the...especially the coach, and the teammates as well. So yeah, we screwed up there, we can fix this and we still believe that we have it in us.
F: Yeah, I think the self-talk versus zen is normally anecdotally, just something that comes with age. I'm thinking of the men's teams that I've been a part of and you have some of the best players be the young players and they come in, classic, supremely confident, because they don't know any better kind of thing.
That can obviously have a positive impact but then also young players, more often than not, I think anyway, get more down on themselves. After making a mistake and needing the positives pointed out to them. Older players can, after the game, still be self-critical but it wouldn't affect them during. If they missed one pass, they won't miss the next one because they’re still thinking about that one. I think that's the difference, is being able to recognise a mistake, but not emotionally react to it.
Some younger players when they get a little bit down on themselves, it was very obvious. Their touch would go a little bit or they weren't the same player that they were the rest of the game or potentially for just a little bit after that. Then it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy at that point.
How do you keep spirits high for a keeper or a defence that's shipped a lot of goals? What would your team talk be?
It was interesting, because I had to do that this season with our defence. I mean, when we talk about it all the time, about saying, we've got 11 defenders, but we do have a defensive unit within that.
Their focus is much more about defending and not just direct defending but being the basis for moving forward, attacking, etc. So I created a subgroup. I opened up the discussion of how are we going to solve this problem. There's lots of smart players there who can contribute to the discussion.
I think they really took to it, so they started conversations amongst themselves. What do we need to do? Especially once we identified this seems to be where the issues are, then they worked harder on it.
I set quite a vague goal. I didn't do a SMART (Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timely) goal where, for the rest of the season, I just said a vague like, I want there to be an improvement in the goals we concede.
That's measurable and I suppose it’s time-bounded. I said for the rest of the season and especially the second half of the season the improvements have been huge.
Some of that has been about identifying who can play in those positions and who can play in certain positions at the same time. I have to be conscious of age and speed and average speed across the defence. The long and short of it being we couldn't have too many of the slower players. We have got, I think, the oldest squad in the division. Maybe only Yeronga came close but we've made finals. A lot of that was around discussions with the players.
It was definitely about engaging with select players and going, here's what's been happening, here's what we'd like to happen, take responsibility, or coming up with some solutions. I'll enact the bits in training so that we get better at those bits.
That was kind of it really. I just called it a defensive unit, the group. We only had to have a few conversations around it, and then the improvements were obviously things that the boys had come up with and spoken to each other about.
We've also had a few major injuries and we've still had probably the best form bar, the team that finished first. It was us and them that had the best form in the second half of the season.
What does team spirit mean to you?
M: I think every team will have its own little mini teams within the team. Like nationality groups etc. Some people who just get on better with each other. I think that's a natural thing. I think team spirit can be very much about what happens off the pitch. How people might rally around each other.
Even in non-football related matters, just in life. Life gets tough and the team mates hopefully will be there for you when you need them. I hope that gets translated to on the pitch as well. Like a family where you might have conflicts. Those conflicts don't...they need to get resolved enough that you can continue to create opportunities to learn and grow. Whether that's in football on the pitch or whether that's as people off the pitch.
So if you can allow that and foster that. that sense of connection between people in the moments that matter. It doesn't have to be artificially pushed onto players or squads or teams but if you get a few of the right people in the right spots, to be able to have those conversations, then it can make a big difference.
F: Then something that you said in a few team talks is that some conflict is good and necessary as long as you can maybe not fully resolve it, but at least get it to the point where we've talked about it and we can agree to disagree. Even with our team there's been not proper fights, but handbags kind of moments in training between players, which I feel some coaches would blow up a lot at and suspend both players or make them run laps or depending on the age group, fine them. It appeared that you were kind of just like, yeah, whatever.
M: As long as it gets resolved to the point that it's not going to happen on the pitch and negatively impact us and you both still pass to each other, then it's fine. That's a crucial point it'll always impact how much you trust them but if it gets irreparably damaged, that can be a really tricky thing.
I think a lot of players of the I've had the good fortune of coaching have been able to be humble enough, to say ‘actually, maybe I'm part of the problem and I want to be part of the solution as well.’
It’s few and far between that I think players don't want to be part of the solution, very rarely. I always got to have in the back of my head that I was especially at this level, players have got stuff going on, players have histories of lives and I have no idea what they've been through or gone through or what's got them to this point at that moment.
Sometimes I don't even know why they play football. There are so many reasons and I don't always have time to find that out or people don't want to share it with me and that's okay. I'm not their therapist or anything, but it was a really interesting interview with Dele Alli by Gary Neville, a fascinating insight into what goes on for people.
What their influences are, good or bad. I think we have to keep that in mind as much as possible. So, yeah, I always think of them as human first. That's the amazing thing about them. They bring all this stuff with them and sometimes it shows up on the pitch.
F: I can't remember where I heard the term, but healthy conflict. In a romantic relationship context, if you're just agreeing with someone 100% of the time, you’re probably not speaking your whole truth. Even if you love each other, which in a team, hopefully you do as well, you're going to disagree on things. Even if you agree on how to do things tactically 80% of the time, there's still 20%, which you don't always have to speak about, but sometimes it's going to come to a head.
So, yeah, better to, if you need to talk about it, to talk about it than sweep it under the rug and have it impact your play.
M: Yeah, definitely.
Any other thoughts that you had in between last weekend today?
M: I suppose I always go back to that quote, the Albert Camus quote.
F: For the record…
M: My favourite quote. ‘All I know about man's moral obligation to his fellow man I learned on the football pitch.’
I always think of it as more than football. We're watching Ted Lasso at the minute and just started watching it and there's so many moments in there. I know, like he's pretty exaggerated, his endless optimism and they overplay it for a comedic effect but there's a lot of truth in there, I think, as well. I haven't watched season three yet, but in terms of just building an environment, it's very rare that you can be too positive.
F: Yeah. I know there's stories of players about Graham Potter, for example, where he's too positive, but that's way rarer than losing a dressing room because you're just an asshole all the time and you only call out the negatives. So, yeah, in terms of man management and caring about his players, I think there's a lot to learn and being real and human.
M: Yeah.
Credit to Editors
Jenni
Murad
Thank you to Patrons
Eric
Murad
Aaliyah 3️⃣🥳
FURTHER STUDY/THOUGHTS
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