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[Jamie]
Hello and welcome to Coachcast by England Football Learning, the coaching podcast that brings you insight from people across the game. I'm Jamie and I'm here with Louise and today we're chatting with Matt Jones, an FA coach development officer, who's returning to Coachcast to provide an introduction into individual tactics. Well hi Matt, welcome back to the show, how are you?
[Matt]
Very well thank you, mark out of ten I'd probably go eight.
[Jamie]
Eight, eight is reasonable,
[Louise]
Quite a solid number for today.
[Matt]
What percent is that, Jamie?
[Louise]
80%, we'll take it!
[Matt]
And the maths questions won't get any harder because that's about the level of my maths to be fair.
[Jamie]
Best not, But hopefully you'll leave this studio as a 10 out of 10 afterwards after spending some time chatting with us.
[Matt]
Well, the only way is up and I have to say any opportunity you get to come to St George's Park always knocks it up a point or two. So yeah, privileged to be here.
[Louise]
It’s a nice place to be. Well, thank you for joining us again today. It's really nice to have you back on.
[Matt]
Pleasure.
[Louise]
For those who haven't heard from you before, haven't listened to the episode that you were on, can you give us a recap of what your role is at The FA?
[Matt]
So my role is I'm a regional coach development officer with a bespoke focus on supporting coaches from underrepresented groups, so a D&I piece, and the bread and butter would be supporting coaches who are just starting out but then who maybe want to, at the top end of the spectrum, become more intentional in establishing a career within the game. So yeah, grassroots in all its glory.
[Jamie]
Brilliant. Well, just before we kind of dive into the main part of the show, Matt, as you may remember from last time, and also as this is a coaching podcast, we'd like to give our listeners some top tips at the start of the show.
[Louise]
Yep, So you're arrival activity, to get you limbered up and ready to go. We're going to ask you to give us as many top coaching tips as you can in 30 seconds. Are you up for that?
[Matt]
Yeah, I'll try and squeeze three in if I can.
[Louise]
Okay. Okay, well, once the music starts, you can begin.
[Matt]
So the first one would be the use of cones as a visual for players, what we might call a micro pitch. So it's like a big tactics board on the floor. The second one would be if you coach on an artificial pitch with a fence perimeter, hang your bibs upon the fence because it almost resembles the shirts being hung up on a match day, so there's a link between training and game day. And the final one is a good simple arrival activity for players is to put them into groups of three or four with a ball per group and ask them to take 50 touches each as a team. What does that look like? And they will show you their own ideas and explore.
[Louise]
A little bit of ownership there and creative thinking for your players.
[Matt]
Yeah, I suppose I'm big on that. It comes from being brought upon the youth modules, which were a big part of our coach education and coach development officer back in the day. And they've been drip fed into our current qualifications and coach development offer. So some of those messages around the environment and giving players ownership and empowering them is really important regardless of the age, but certainly when they're younger, they come with a lot of ideas. So it's good to tap into that and see, see where it takes them. And just to add, I know I'm going into extra time here on tips, but if you're going to use the idea around the cones as a micro pitch on the floor, then just writing the players names, one per cone, just make sure it's a whiteboard marker, not a permanent marker, otherwise That cone is forever called Jamie or Louise. But I find it's a really good way to visually communicate to the players on the floor, but it's also a good register. So as the players arrive, going back to ownership, as they turn up, if it was you, Louise, you would give me your cone as the coach, we'd have a connection moment. I'd put that cone on the floor. Jamie would then arrive 10 seconds later again. So I'm building up a picture of who's there and I'm manipulating the cones on the floor to say right when we start, we might be doing 1v1s. Jamie, you're going to partner with Louise and there's a visual on the floor. You can see that you're paired together. So yeah, swimming I've started to use more and more.
[Louise]
I love that. Really good idea though. A great start to the show. It is,
[Jamie]
I hope all the top tips are as good as that. No pressure. Well Matt, as we said, you were last on Coachcast, it was back in December actually in 2022, so it was a little while ago. So how have you been? What have you been up to since?
[Matt]
Continuing to work across the areas of recruit, support, develop, which is the fundamental part of what we contribute towards the FA Games strategy and I suppose my favourite is to challenge those intentional coaches. Every coach is important to us, especially those just starting out, But I really enjoy challenging those that want to develop themselves and potentially, whether it's moving to a career full-time or part-time, or at least get experience to one day, potentially have a career change into the game with all the opportunities that are available in the modern day. I really enjoy challenging those coaches. So between UA for C, UA for B, maybe they have aspirations to move on to a licence one day, but qualifications is only one indication of a coach's competence. I'm always interested in looking at bits in between and how we can support them. So that coach development piece is just as important as coach education. So how can we tailor that to meet the needs of that coach in that specific moment whilst they're on that chapter of their journey. So I really enjoy that challenge, definitely.
[Louise]
Is there any things that you've kind of reflected upon over that time or kind of things that you've learned about yourself or the way that you work?
[Matt]
I guess around the D&I piece is I'm quite privileged as a white male working in, well first of all football, but in society so I've definitely learnt about what white privilege means and I've understood it, taken the time to learn about it from colleagues, from coaches that I've worked with, people from different backgrounds, different heritages. So I think once you have that understanding and appreciation for what's meant by that, It's trying to make sure that the game is accessible for all and that we shouldn't be judged by the colour of our skin or our gender or our religious beliefs or our sexual orientation. So I think appreciation is definitely the thing I've learnt as a white male who's privileged to work in the game. And that's learning that I've continued to add to as I spend more time with colleagues and people from a multitude of different backgrounds and different contexts. So yeah, huge piece of learning. Self-awareness, huge.
[Louise]
And I guess it's one of those things that just keeps on going doesn't it? It's not like you've learned it and that's it, everything evolves.
[Matt]
I try to be, yeah, yeah, keep it topped up.
[Jamie]
Yeah. And are you still coaching outside of work as well?
[Matt]
I am, although slightly changed from when I was last here. I think I was involved in university football at the University of Worcester, something I thoroughly enjoyed for, what, six years. And then I took a year out to go and invest in my own coach development, thoroughly enjoyed that and then I had the opportunity to get back into the game, what I would call more traditional weekend football, although it's not just weekend, there's a lot of mid-week preparation around training and matches. And I took the opportunity to transition from university football into club football with Worcester City women, which was an obvious link because we had players who were playing at both university who played for Worcester City come the weekend. I got to know a number of the coaches over the last two or three years whilst they were playing at tier five in the regional league. Built up a really good relationship with the owner and CEO who was very aspirational. She's a football person as well, which as a coach and coach developer makes our conversations really rich. And to fast forward the story, the stars just aligned for everybody involved for me to take on the head coach's role. They're newly promoted into tier four, which is a huge challenge. It's the first time in the club's history but it's one that I'm relishing. Occasionally it keeps me up at night as you attempt to solve problems, whether it's the X's and the O's or managing players emotions, but it's certainly what I signed up for in the way of a coaching challenge. So yeah, I'm enjoying the next stage of my journey.
[Louise]
Congratulations!
[Matt]
Thank you.
[Jamie]
Now Matt, the theme of today is individual tactics and we may be hearing a little bit about your experience with your team involved in this as well. But to start, what do individual tactics mean to you? You know, what does that term get you thinking about?
[Matt]
Yeah, it's a really good question and I've tried to summarise it in my own head by saying so individual tactics is a progression, if you like, from individual possession. So if you think about the games made up of 1v1s, So if we take the 11v11 game and then work backwards, so you could have 11 1v1s, or if you go outfield players, it's 10 1v1s and then the goalkeepers. So I think that helps for players to see it and it helps the coaches to, I like the analogy around the jigsaw piece. So looking at 1v1s all over the pitch, and if you take that down to 9, 7, 5 a side, you can see how, why we do what we do, or why we encourage what we encourage at The FA around starting with smaller formats. It helps players to learn the game. But we're really breaking it down into those 1v1 moments. So as coaches we spend time equipping players with techniques, so the what and the how to do something. Then we progress on to skills, so where and when they might use that technique, to which my understanding of individual tactics is then the application of both of those combined to make any given individual more purposeful in their actions as well as how they then might use those intent for actions to help a mate, a few mates if they're a unit, and then in the 11v11 game the whole team. So I think it's your individual unit team, but what the individual does purposefully with their super strengths, whilst not ignoring their weaknesses, to help them more purposefully in what they contribute to any given moment. And if we break it down to the six key capabilities, so scanning, positioning, movement, timing, technique, deception, those six things making players aware of them and better at them will make them wholeheartedly much better at being able to bring to life individual tactics in any given moment of a game.
[Jamie]
Fantastic, so just to kind of emphasize the point a little bit because we have touched on it a little bit, but for coaches that maybe are new to really thinking in terms of individual tactics, like why is it so important to understand them basically?
[Matt]
So if we take a foundation phase player, We want to take them on a journey. So someone asks me, what does success look like for a coach, starting out? So I coach my oldest son at the moment, he's involved in an under-8s football team, so he's seven. Success for me, in all its glory, is my son and all of my son's friends still wanting to be involved in football in nine, ten years time and then hopefully going on to have a lifelong love affair as a player, wanting to be a coach, referee, administrator etc. But also throughout that journey is making them better at the game. So not only enjoying the thrill of the beautiful game as we all know it, but they're also seeing some real development in being able to play the game. So if we just hone in on 1v1 tactics, there were four words that came to mind for me, almost tell a bit of a story. So confidence, comfortable, creative and competent. So if you let me explain, we want young players firstly to grow their confidence on the ball So they always want to get on it or around it or near it certainly not fearful of it This will then make them more comfortable when they have individual possession whether it's five, seven, nine, eleven aside or if they're just starting out 1v1, or just a ball at their feet if they're playing a classic game like King of the Ring. From here, they're more likely to then express themselves and demonstrate creativity, or at least be willing to explore, because they've got that underpinning confidence, and they're comfortable on the ball, so they're more likely to be risk takers. And if something goes wrong, they'll fall back on that, okay I can get comfortable on it again, I've got some confidence there, I've made a mistake, here's how I might learn from it, or the coach might intervene and support. And then as a result, over a period of time of becoming more confident, comfortable and then being creative and adapting to things when they maybe don't go quite so well or they go brilliantly and you get a bit of purposeful praise, they're going to become more competent and be able to then solve game related problems that might come their way. So those four words for me, like tells that story. So confidence, being comfortable, having a creative capacity and then growing that competence. That's why for me it's really important to spend time on individual tactics on top of technique and skill development.
[Louise]
I think I know the answer to this but are they relevant to players in all positions and if so can you paint a picture for our audience of how individual tactics can look both in and out of possession?
[Matt]
They're most definitely applicable right across the pitch. I think our head naturally takes us to attacking play or players when we think about individual tactics because my brain does that. So I think about showboating players like Phil Foden or Lauren James who are both two players very competent on the ball, very comfortable, very creative, and they clearly exuberate a lot of confidence. So they've got those four words beginning with C ironically, in abundance, and their six key capabilities are on point. But what they do with the ball stands out to us because it attracts us. It's exciting to watch isn't it when you see Phil Foden take on maybe not one but two players and they use the ball creatively to disrupt what might be an organized defensive unit to them becoming very disorganized and chaotic and Phil Foden's applied that Cleverness to be able to pull them out of position same with Lauren James Who's I was watching video clips of Lauren the other day for a piece of work She's equally as competent with both feet because I thought what foot is Lauren James But I see a cutting in from the left cutting in from the right So her her tactics and her ability to perform technique and skill under pressure on both sides makes her a real weapon. So your brain takes you to in possession players. But then I also think no team has possession of the ball for 100% of the time. I mean Pep Guardiola tries to get close, doesn't he? I think his average stats are about 78 to 80%. And Serena Vigman with the England Women's National Team, they dominate teams quite often. But we've also got to prepare players for being comfortable, confident, creative and competent without the ball as well. So think about when you've played in a game, if you're a player or if you're a coach and you're working on out of possession, how do you sell it to them? You've got to almost got to glorify it. And that's something that I'm working on with my team because our possession stats are probably more out of possession than they are in possession. And if ever you've played in a defensive position, so I was more often than not in the position of a fullback and if that ball went over the top of me and they managed to exploit the space in behind, I then had to be really clever with how I manipulated my body, maybe to try and get an advantage over the fast winger who was coming from my blind spot and might be quicker than me. So that was something that I needed back then, maybe didn't always have because the game's advanced since then. We see it as more of an individual moment possession and this is where tactics links to that technique and skill and players who come to mind, I mean, Luke Shaw was clearly missed in the recent international tournament with the men's in the Euros and there was almost an imbalance to him not being there in possession, because it made us maybe a little bit more predictable at times. So out of possession, teams could read us a bit better. They could almost dictate a bit easier because they know Kieran Trippie was coming inside. And that's not to criticise the tactics of Gareth in any way, shape or form. He was trying to solve a problem, but being able to have Luke Shaw there, who's a left-sided thinking player, who can both cut in and go around the outside, gave us more weight in possession. But then I look at how he dealt with moments one v one, when the ball went into transition or into out of possession for a longer period of time, especially with the problems that Spain presented to us in the final. He was having to think almost one step ahead, you know, what's my positioning like if the ball goes there, am I going to press, am I going to try and slow the opponent down and delay. So yeah, hopefully there's something in there for coaches to take away that it's super important both with and without the ball in and out of possession individual tactics.
[Louise]
And how about goalkeepers and stuff like that? Would you say the same still?
[Matt]
Yeah, and it's a position that's quite often forgot. I can only boast to have played in goals or jumpers for goalposts when I thought I was brilliant because someone would drill a shot and I would choose to tip it over when I could have actually caught it. So I was going for that Hollywood save playing on Man Wembley, two Man Wembley, three Man Wembley, whatever it was we did to fill our school lunch breaks and have fond memories of that. But yeah, goalkeepers can again get quickly forgotten and I go back to, it's an area that I've had to spend time learning about in terms of my coach development, that the last line of defence, first line of attack, so they can be used both in and out of possession. So again, I think our brain might take us to okay, what are they doing when we're defending? But they also kickstart a lot of attacks, whether it's playing direct, if you're dealing with a lot of pressure, let's say your opponent's high pressing you, and again at the moment with my work with Worcester City women, we're being pressed a lot as the new kids on the block playing tier 4 football for the first time, our opponents are pressing us higher at the pitch, but if the goalie's retain possession for us from an attack we've had to absorb, then we've looked at, okay, where's the space? It might be in behind, so we need to exploit that. So we need to make sure that the goalkeeper is equipped with that, or if the goalkeeper is not equipped with that, we might drop our two centre-backs, who might be able to play a more direct, longer, purposeful pass, not long ball. There is a difference. A pass has purpose, whereas a long ball is a hit and hope. So the individual tactics there is between the goalkeeper recognising, I can't reach that, but I know that my two centre-backs can, so they drop off, maybe form the base of the dish if the full-backs go high and wide, and then the goalkeeper will then choose to distribute the ball accordingly to the centre-backs, and maybe distribute it in a way where the centre-backs can play forward off their first touch, or the centre-backs might go a little bit higher into the penalty box, they distribute it to one of the centre-backs who sets it and then the goalkeeper can get more distance and reach off a ball that's moving as opposed to a ball that's still. So you can start to see there there's some individual tactics between players and the goalkeepers thinking I'm not just a shot stopper, I'm an attack starter, we're gonna build possession, I'm not just here to stop opponents.
[Jamie]
We've kind of talked a little bit about what individual tactics look like and thank you for sharing some examples that you use with your team as well, But I imagine maybe at this point, like the question that listeners or anybody who's watching this might have is how can coaches actually start working on individual tactics with the players then?
[Matt]
So I would encourage any coach to use their observation skills to learn about their players. It's a key coaching fundamental, one of the brilliant basics we would call it. So organisation, management, observation, communication. So go through organisational skills, look at what your players can do, rather than just fixating on what they can't do, and maybe replace that, what they can't do with what they can't do yet, but you're going to focus in on their super strengths because I think that'll help you hone in on their individual contributions to what it is you want to figure out. And I mentioned earlier about the jigsaw analogy. If you can get the players understanding what they're good or great at and turn in a super strength from something that's good into something that's brilliant, you'll get their buy-in first and foremost into individual tactical work and then if you get them joining the dots between one player's individual tactic and another player's individual tactic, you then start to get the formation of an individual becoming a pair, a three and it becomes a unit So you can start to work together, that teamwork ethos, or I like to call it a squad game, because there's always game changers who are coming on to influence the game. So individual tactics can be worked on by going, okay, you're really good at this for us. I want you to use it more and more often. So if you're a dribbler, dribble. Don't coach dribbling out of them by focusing in on passing. I'm not saying at some point you shouldn't focus in on passing because it's good for a dribbler to know when they keep the ball and when they release the ball. And I love that term when to loan the ball or the term that we're using with my under eights is when to share the ball, because we know that sharing is a word that's used a lot with kids, not just in football context, but at school, I certainly use it between my two sons, seven and four, it's a work in progress. It doesn't happen overnight. So I think some of the child-friendly terminologies, if you do work with the foundation phase about sharing the ball, will get them to think about, oh when do I keep it, when do I stay on the ball? Because staying on the ball, as Pete Sturgess used to talk about, isn't about being selfish, it's about being purposeful. So knowing when to share it with your mate and why and then how to share it is crucial. And then almost drip feed in some of those areas that might be something that they need to work on, almost working covertly and doing it in disguise So if they are staying on the ball longer than they should, it's rewarding them when they do share the ball and loan it. And then if we flip it around, focusing on out of possession tactics, if you're trying to praise a player being brave and you see them be brave, or you want to highlight the importance of bravery. So go into press, which means engaging in a 1v1 and denying your opponent time and space, as opposed to maybe being more reserved and blocking and letting your opponent come to you. Again, a child-friendly turn that comes to mind to add to bravery is, how good is your shield and how good are your your weapons to be able to steal, pinch and nick the ball. I think that's a really good way to again promote out-of-possession work and sell individual tactics of, okay you're quick so when your opponent Dribbles the ball out in front and you're in that 1v1 moment Good time is when they kick the ball Dribble the ball out of their feet and it's the furthest point away possible That might be the time to strike or maybe if quickness isn't one of your super strengths But you're built in such a way that you can use your body to nick the ball and then shield and protect it, not necessarily pinch it and then accelerate away. It's okay, you might steal possession of the ball and then turn and use your body position cleverly to protect it. And then when your opponent tries to get around the left hand side, you might turn out to the right hand side so you manipulate a 1v1 situation to your advantage. Again that might be a couple of ways that I'd get the coaches thinking about how to introduce 1v1 tactics into their coaching.
[Jamie]
I have interest like individual tactics does it always come from like observation of the coach or does sometimes, I suppose it depends on the age groups maybe that you're working with, that players are aware of what weapons they've got to select almost? Like do they sometimes come to you as a coach and go, you know, I'm really quick at, or I'm really good at this? Like, or is it purely through coach observation to help players really identify and understand what advantages they can have over others?
[Matt]
Yeah, it's not purely about observation, that's just my go-to, because I think I as a coach am always working on what can I learn about my players before I give them anything that I know? And I'm certainly doing that with my underage. Yes, they need a bit of guidance. They need a framework to work within. Otherwise, if you're working in mini soccer and they're just starting out, it's gonna be more organized chaos than it needs to be. So there needs to be those parameters set, but giving them freedom within the framework will allow me to learn quickly around, okay, what are they, going back to some of those words I used earlier, what are they naturally comfortable doing, what is their confidence level at, are they demonstrating any creativity. There are some players in my sons under eight team who are naturally, well I say naturally, again I don't know what they've done pre my coaching or the other dads who are helping me and we're working together as a team on it, is was it nature or nurture that's made that player or those two players good at dribbling? Because we've got some really good players who are confident and competent on the ball and are already demonstrating some dribbling skills which for an under-8 are probably in that category of forging ahead whereas we've got that managing difference which I know was a topic I spoke about last December, where we've got other players who are striving to keep up. So yeah, observations is the one I would use, but don't assume is another one, because I think as coaches, we assume that they can't do something, but if we haven't given them the environment to show us what they can do, then we can't learn that for ourselves about where they're at on their journey. But yeah, managing the session and making sure that you are challenging them and progressing them at a rate that's comfortable for them certainly helps around the managing difference piece when you've got age and stage to consider, whether they're a beginner, whether they're, I don't like the term expert because I think that takes years and years and can you only really qualify yourself as an expert when you may be towards your retirement years and you've got an abundance of experiences and I love that word more. So a player who's more experienced in being able to demonstrate certain individual techniques, skills and then that might lead to individual tactics.
[Jamie]
Just picking back on something that you mentioned there in terms of like giving them the environment first and foremost kind of ties into a question that I've got in terms of do you have any maybe like fun games or activities that you could use to kind of bring out individual tactics I suppose a little bit.
[Matt]
It's an obvious one but I think the more games you can play where there's 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 scenarios, the better. And I think of the best games are godlike. So if you think about these three key ingredients, and we've talked about this a lot as coach developers at the FA. So the G stands for, does your practice include goals? The O stands for, does your practice include opposition? The D stands for, does your practice include direction? And if you're playing 1v1, 2v2 and 3v3 practices where you've got goals, opposition, direction, I think you're giving yourselves the opportunity as coaches to observe and get a feel for your players. But you're also giving players a showcase opportunity to demonstrate 1v1 tactics, even if it's within a 2v2 or 3v3 game. And then you can start manipulating it and think, okay, we've got two high flyers, maybe they're going to play against three players who are striving to keep up. So we manage that difference piece a little bit, it's two versus three, and the two might have one goal to play into, and the three might have three goals to play into, and there's one ball in the game. And so you're hoping then that you're not only managing difference, but you're giving the three, who maybe need a little bit of hand-holding within the practice to get more success. Three times as many chances to experience scoring a goal, whether it's shooting into a goal or passing into a goal, depending on what the technical tactical areas of the game you're wanting to bring out of the practice. So I would spend, yeah, time working in smaller groups where you can. It can be a little bit scary for, again, a coach who's working with mini soccer, because it might involve splitting the group in two. But again, if you've set your parameters and you can get there early and mark your pitch out and assuming you've got space to work within and the players see that in effect it's almost like two mini matches as we call them because when we play any kind of 2v2 or 3v3 with the group I've got yeah what kid doesn't want to play a big match What's the most common question at the start of a session? When can we have a match? In fact, I know it's going to come up. I've almost pre-empted it and I've printed it on the back of one of my whiteboards. This could have been one of my coaching tips at the start. And I've laminated it because we know we get wet weather in this country. So it's not just a piece of paper, it's a laminated card on the back of my whiteboard and it says, are we going to have a match? So whenever the kids ask, are we going to have a match? I show them that question and I go, what do you think their answer is? And they'll go, yeah, I'll say, when has there ever been a session when we haven't had a big match? I said, in fact, last week we started with a match, then we did some bits in between, and then we ended with a match. I said, so how many matches did we do? They said, two. I went, brilliant. And they thought I was the best coach since sliced bread, because we played too many matches. I'm not always the best coach since sliced bread, because I don't get things right all the time, despite what I'm lucky enough to do for a living. Because sometimes the bit in between is a car crash, especially with mini soccer players who are, you know, bouncing around and having a go at stuff and getting it wrong. And you're the coach trying to problem solve constantly and just keep their attention on point. But the fact we played two big games got their attention. And then the bit in between was maybe the breakdown of 1v1, 2v2, 3v3 stuff, where you can really focus in on individual tactics, but you're disguising it and you're wedging it in between two games. So again, that's a clever coaching tactic to almost sell it. But referring to them as mini matches, I've seen the kids eyes light up because it's got that word matching. And I have to say that sometimes they've played that game longer each week and they've never once complained. So the mini matches might have been five minutes one week, then next week they're six minutes, then they're seven, because we know that one of the benefits around playing smaller number practices or mini matches where they're opposed is they get more touches of the ball, they get more experience in possession, out of possession. I think about in a 3v3 you're only ever one pass or dribble or one tackle or one block away from the ball. Whereas even when you move into a 5v5 which is the big match if you're under sevens and eights sometimes you can feel lost in the game. Especially if you're the goalkeeper and all the action's taking place further up which is why there's benefits in some of those younger age groups of rotating players' positions. Cause if we're going to get them to develop individual tactics, they've got to get comfortable on the ball. They've got to get confident. They've got to be willing to be creative going back through those, those C's again, because that's the only way that competence is going to develop if they're spending as much contact time with the ball as possible. That goes back to one of the key messages with the foundation phase of master the ball, stay on the ball that Pete Sturgis has been promoting for many years.
[Louise]
Would you introduce it to them as individual tactics or like when they're younger, do you actually sit down and say, right, this is what we're working on or this is what I'm looking for or do you kind of just weave it in?
[Matt]
Younger players I'd weave it in because what does the word tactics mean to them? What does the word individual mean to them? So it's more a case of what ideas have you got? So I think back to sometimes you get them into the mindset of a character. So one of their favourite characters might be a superhero, and we all know that different superheroes have different superpowers. So I might sell it to players there around, well what are your superpowers or, you know, we mentioned super strength. So I think again that child-friendly terminology is how you start to sow the seed of individual tactics. If we fast forward to working with youth development phase or professional development phase, so 12 to 16 or 17 plus, so in the adult game where I work, then yeah, I'd make no disguise about it. Because I think when you start to talk about individual tactics, a lot of the players that I've worked with have not been familiar with that. So if they've got an appetite for learning, then their ears up. Well go on then Matt, what do you mean? That makes them inquisitive. And I love inquisitive players. That's not to say I don't want my sons on the Rates team to be inquisitive, but my terminology, if I'm too detailed or too adult-like, I might lose them. So my intent's on point, but actually what I get isn't what I'm after, because the appetite doesn't grow, because they're like, Matt, what the heck are you talking about? And in fact, sometimes my sons will look at me even when I'm trying to use child-friendly terminology, because they'd rather be doing something else. So I think sometimes less talk, more action. It's chuck them into scenarios where they have to problem solve. I mentioned earlier about the importance of game related problems. Yes, they might need help solving those problems if they're early on, but I know that with my Water City Women's squad, I put them into scenarios all the time with the intention of actually stressing them out and I'll make sure that we are working in situations where the 2v2, 3v3 small-sided practices or even 5v5, I help them see how those pieces of the jigsaw link to the 11v11 game but I'm still putting them into those situations with little input from myself I'm almost taking them through that teaching games for understanding so using my constraints relate restrict reward So relate might be try to do something, restrict might be you must do something or you can't, and then reward is, well, if you can do this, I'll give you X amount of points. So using those cleverly, and that's taken from the work of Ben Bartlett, which I came across a few years ago. I think using those three R's cleverly within your practices will then start to tease out 1v1 tactics. If you can highlight that to your players at any given moment where you think, ah, you were on the ball there, you were trying to manipulate it, why? Did you see this? Did you know that your teammate was here? No, what could you do? Scan, check your shoulder. So then we start to link it back to some of the six key capabilities. When did you release the ball? Timing, where did you release it and why? Okay, link to the players positioning and movement. So, yeah, some of those dots start to join.
[Jamie]
So, you've brought this up a couple of times now, so may as well jump into the question that we had down on it is, can you explain the six core capabilities and how they can help with individual tactics?
[Matt]
Yeah, so the six key capabilities for those coaches that aren't familiar with are fundamental to a player's individual contribution to any game of football, probably any invasion game to be honest. We're using them in the world of football, something we've adopted at the FA in terms of coach development and coach education. But they would be the fundamental key ingredients if we were baking a football cake that every player needs to have in their locker to a certain extent. Now there's going to be certain key capabilities that a player is better at than others, whether it's by nature, whether it's by nurture, and obviously as coaches we're going after the latter. We're trying to nurture them. If they bring things naturally to the table as players, then it's our job to spot them and certainly not make them any worse. Going back to what I said earlier about don't coach qualities out of players, look at what they're good at and turn them into world beaters if you can. But a couple of examples that jump off the page are, go back to what you asked earlier Louise which was a great question, So let's go out of possession. How can I use my body effectively to manipulate a situation to my advantage if I'm going to steal the ball off you? So am I going to tackle you? So we're going into some of those core skills now. So linking key capabilities to core skills. I'm going to tackle you and take the ball off you 1v1. I'm also going to think about the timing of when I engage with you. I'm also going to think about my movement in terms of my body movement. So my body could almost encourage you to play a particular way so that I can be clever and cunning in showing you into an area of the field that might make you more uncomfortable which will increase my chances of dispossessing the ball from you. So you can start to see how we're using some of the six key capabilities. Then when I've managed to pinch it and I then become in possession and you go out of possession, but you might think, oh, I'm going to get it back off you. I almost have to think, especially if I'm in a 1v1 practice where I've got nowhere else to go, I've got no mate to play it to. I then have to think about all my body movement to protect and shield the ball so that I can then find a way out of what might be a highly stressful, highly pressurized situation. So there's an out-of-possession one. In possession it's, okay let's take it on to a 2v2 or 3v3 I've got the ball and how you might expect again I'll use those two players Lauren James or Phil Foden to think so Lauren James might have the ball and Lauren James is really good at traveling with the ball and she's so brave, she will happily take the ball into a situation whereby if she's playing a 3v3 game, she will entice the opponent and more than one opponent into an area of the field because she's that confident and competent on the ball, the opponent will think, well, it's going to take two of us to get that ball off you. So she's outnumbered, but if she's manipulated two of the opponent players into the area of the field, we now know that we've got an outnumbered situation elsewhere where we will 2v1 them. So Lauren's then got to think, okay when do I release the ball and who do I release it and how do I release it? So she might be thinking about scanning, she might be looking at the positioning of the players that she's playing to And those players, those two teammates who are somewhere else in the practice, they will also have to think about their key capabilities. Because individual tactics can also be in possession, but when you don't have the ball. So one of the things we use in coach education and coach development is there's what's happening on the ball, there's what's happening around the ball and there's what is happening away from the ball. So on the ball might be the 1v1 or in the case of this scenario Lauren's engaged two opponents so 1v2, three players in close proximity. Around the ball is Lauren's two teammates and that one defender in simple terms. Away from the ball is probably further afield, so it doesn't really happen in a 3v3 practice, but it could be in a 5v5, 7v7 or 9v9 or even 11v11, so what's happening further away. Hence why your coaching observations have to be on point, because most coaches look at what's happening on the ball and around the ball, they don't necessarily look at what's happening away from the ball. But if you think about it, only one player can be in possession of the ball at any one time and usually one up to two opponents can be engaged. So if Lauren's influenced the opposition and dictated them into an area of the field where they didn't want to go and created space for two teammates, The two teammates also have to use their six key capabilities of movement and positioning as well as their scanning to think, oh I'm anticipating when Lauren might give me the ball but I've got to make sure that I'm keeping the passing lines open. Or we position ourselves so cleverly that the opposition forget we're here and they become so engrossed in Lauren. She's able to then use her super strength, her superhero power of travelling with the ball, dribbling, and actually finds a way through those two players. So then we become 3v1 momentarily. Or maybe we're able to keep Lauren on the ball for longer because our movement is so clever and our positioning creates gaps for Lauren to work within, that we want Lauren to stay on the ball for as long as possible because we know she's going to hurt teams.
[Jamie]
One of the core capabilities that's really important, I just kind of want to shine a light on it, is deception. Like how important can deception actually be in its role with individual tactics?
[Matt]
It's fundamental to tactics because, again, if we were going to come up with a definition of what tactics is, it's trying to outwit your opponent. So deception lends itself naturally to I'm going to try and outsmart you. Football isn't a game of chess, but it could be compared to it. So I'm moving my pieces accordingly and then preparing for a moment to strike. And again, I'm using child-friendly terminology there. Kids can play chess at a young age, of course they can. It's not a game that I've really spent a lot of time in. I was more of a drafts player to be honest, but maybe that shows my level of intelligence. Simplicity is genius, I believe in. But I think if you get your head around, yeah, we're trying to move our pieces as players, certainly in possession, to pick a moment in time to be able to strike and maybe create a moment in our opponent where they feel vulnerable. Deception will help us do that because we'll lead them to somewhere where they wouldn't want to go and we'll do it in such a way where they think they'll want to go there but actually we've led them down the garden path and when they're at their most vulnerable we will pick and choose a time to strike. So yeah, deception is key. I would also argue that that could be applied out of possession. So again, one of the things I might work on with my adult players in the context we're in is if we're going to spend more time out of possession than we are in possession, we've got to be really crystal clear on where we want to dictate our opponent to go. So we'll defend on our terms and show them into areas of the field where that actually might play to our strengths and potentially their weakness. I mean, we live in a world where you can analyse games now because social media makes clips readily available. So again, a coaching tactic is how can I pick up on information on my opposition that's upcoming and be able to use it in my preparations to help my team, help the units within the team, but then also help individuals? So let's say we might be playing against an opponent who has a player that left back, who is right footed. We know that could hurt us if we're not aware because that player would be cutting in, but equally if we're aware of it, we might be able to show them onto their non-dominant foot and make them feel more uncomfortable. So that's a legitimate out of possession individual tactic if our right winger shows them onto that side. Equally we might get our centre forward if the goalkeeper's playing out to their back four, dictating so they show in such a way with their body movement and their positioning of where they start and where they travel to, so the goalkeeper thinks, oh I'm going to play out to my left-sided centre-back who then might play to my left-back. And we know that their left-back is uncomfortable on their right foot. So we've almost got two players there, the centre-forward and our right winger working together to set a trap. And I love that term, setting a trap. That's one that I would encourage any coaches to explore with their younger players around setting a trap and creating a human shield in one V1, two V2, three V3 situations where you're trying to encourage them to win the ball back as a unit. Love that.
[Louise]
Yeah, I can imagine them getting their brains going, thinking about how
[Matt]
to try. They will not break through the human shield. Exactly. They'll die trying. The effort level is just going through the roof. Like Captain America comes out and we really see how strong that shield is.
[Louise]
You mentioned it a bit before about kind of managing difference and what have you, but how do you ensure that you match players up in training so that they can get a proper challenge and learn to develop individual tactics.
[Matt]
So knowing your players is the starting point. So what have you observed about them if you've invested in that brilliant basic of coaching? It's such an obvious one but planning your match-ups. So if you know you've got a high flyer, and I know that we've got a couple who are, if we're honing in on the core skill of dribbling, we've got two players who are very competent dribbling, I will sometimes match those two players up when we play those mini-matches. So if we've got 12 players in any given session, before we go into a 5v5, or we might even play a 6v6, because I don't like to leave players out, or we might play two 3v3s. Before we get there, the number 12 is brilliant, isn't it, because it can divide up quite nicely so we might play a 1v1, we might play a 2v2 and we might play a 3v3. So I will plan on my little bit of paper that sticks in my pocket who my matchups are going to be. So I might have the two high flyers matched up against each other in a 1v1 and then 2v2 I'll think about it might be a physical matchup so less about technical tactical but we might have some players who are going through a bit of a growth spurt so it becomes more of that physical challenge and then the 3v3 again I might look at certain super strengths and marry them up against what they can or can't do. So I think if you can get your matchups challenging the players and working off what they're good at, but then also maybe what they're not good at, again, you sort of level up the challenge appropriately. Now, I could have planned for 12 and then the classic happens, doesn't it? 11 turn up or 9 turn up. And I'll always say to coaches, you know, what do you do in that situation? And Quite often coaches can be scared or intimidated by that because as coaches, and I was the same when I first started out, we like things to fit in nice little neat boxes and there's nothing more nice and neat than the number 12 that splits up beautifully. So I'm thinking, okay, as the coach, how can I use this to my advantage? So if you've got a player who's a high flyer, I wouldn't necessarily put them up against two players who are really striving to keep up Necessarily because they still might cut through them like a knife through butter. I might put them against two players who are just coping because I want them to experience being without the ball more often than with the ball. Even though you could argue I'm already doing that because I'm putting them on their own. But I think about, I still want them to experience a balance of in possession and out of possession. So it's an opportunity for me to go, you're the one player that's on your own, you're going to go up against two players who are decent, but I think will give you a, an adequate challenge. And then again, think about the number of goals, the size of the area, going through that step principle of space, task, equipment, players. So using that accordingly will really help you to manage difference and working with a group of players. So yeah, matchups, use of step and adapting and using overloads and unloads to your advantage would be my top tips.
[Jamie]
Yeah, I suppose in that example there, like it kind of puts to the test obviously we frame the focus on in possession say the one's got the ball it's like it's almost like giving them more problems to solve isn't it doing it that way so they're working on almost on other individual tactics so if that player knows that they're really fast and that's sort of their weapon of choice So I will now all of a sudden if they've got two players to come up against They know that they might not just be able to run the one and get into space actually is somebody covering there So it's almost like having to figure out what tactics can I now try and use and adapt? So I want to obviously develop what my super strength but how can I use that with other things to now beat two players?
[Matt]
Yeah and I think also going back to what we discussed earlier around if you've got that one player on his own who normally dominates the ball and needs help understanding when to keep the ball and as we said earlier when to share it or loan it to a player. If they're on their own in that scenario for about five six minutes and the two players and this is where your matchups are key you've got two players who are coping who start to work well together and they spend a lot of time out of possession. One, they're going to grow an appreciation for defending. Two, they're going to work really hard and if they don't feel like they're getting some success, they're going to go, well that's because they've got two players and there's only one of me. So one, individually and tactically, they've got to be clever with where they spend their energy, who they press and how they press, going back to what we said earlier, set a trap and dictate. But they're also quickly going to grow an appreciation for, oh, when I next have a player on my team, I'm going to think more about how to use them, because I'm finding this really hard. And that's where it's a really good point Jamie around the game of football when you get into five seven nine eleven aside Which is what we're building up to and applying individual tactics That's key But they can only do that if they've been put in scenario after scenario game after game problem solving moment after problem solving moment, where they've had to explore different possibilities. So yeah, it's a great observation.
[Louise]
How can coaches help players link training to match day so they can bring out their individual tactics during the next game?
[Matt]
So first of all, put them in as many game realistic scenarios in training as possible. I also think that the warm-up is such a good opportunity and on occasions I think it's a missed opportunity for coaches to, if you've worked on something in particular in training and you felt that it started to sow the seeds around individual tactics and then you have, let's say, give or take 20, 30 minutes depending on the age and stage of your players to be able to warm them up, you should be taking the opportunity in the warm-up to revisit some of those messages. So the warm-up that we use for Worcester City women, I'll always think, okay, there's five or six minutes, which I know doesn't seem like a lot if you think they're going to go on to play 90 minutes I've got to manage the physical load accordingly there's five or six minutes I can always tinker with in possession and out of possession where we've got a game related practice it might be as one group so it might look like an 8v8, or it might look like two 4v4s. We might revisit something. If you've got two 4v4s, you've almost got like two units playing against each other. So you might have midfield against midfield, or the back line against the attacking players, or if we're working on an 8v8 it might be working on how two units work together. So I think the warm-up is a really good opportunity to link training to match day. I'll then take that one step further and say if you're using visuals, and I know I talked about my top tip around the micro pitch, you might use tactics board, you might use a whiteboard with some written information on. We know that players learn in different ways and coaches like to communicate in different ways, link to visual, audio, reading, kinesthetic, so it's good to mix it up and not necessarily always fall on your bias. So I'm big on trying to deliver the same message a number of different ways. So if I've shown it as a demonstration, if I've questioned it, if I've painted a pitch on a tactics board, I'll then try and revisit those methods on a match day. So, for example, yesterday we had an away game and we're lucky enough to travel to some of our away games on a coach. So if coaches listen to this, have that facility, appreciate you weren't necessarily in most grassroots football certainly not in mini soccer or youth football but in adult football we have that advantage playing at tier four so I took the opportunity to sit down with individual players they'd come and sit next to me on the coach and I'd just spend 90 seconds, two minutes, either going through something I wanted to paint for them or I'd question them, depending on whether or not I'd spent some time with them as an individual or I might get two players in and we might look at a particular tactic of how the centre mids might connect and combine or dictate showing their opponent inside or outside into bodies or into space. So again, that was a tactic I used to try and link training to match day and honing on my, might be some individual information around individual working in pairs or maybe even in threes. I might have things in the changing room that stuck up, like keywords. So it could be a case of, if we want players to be brave on the ball, it's the question might be on the wall, how brave were you? Or if it's again, going back to that example of using child-friendly terminology, you might have it written on the bottom of your whiteboard. What superhero are you gonna be with the ball? What superhero are you gonna be without the ball? Why? And then you might start your team talk with that question. Oh, Joel, Josephine, what's your super strength? Why? Ah, it's this, because you told me I'm good at this during the week, coach. Ah, but why did I tell you we're good at it? Where on the field did I say might be a good place or time to use it? How can your super strength help Joel's super strength? So again, I'm being clever in almost, we would use the word in coach education or coach development of, I'm retrieving something that I've already worked on in the players' minds through clever questioning and revisiting. Questioning that I might have thrown at them during midweek, but then I might just tweak the question so that it sounds similar, but actually it's very different. So, hopefully there's a few different ideas in there about how to link training to match day. Not forgetting the one at the start around, you hang bibs on the wall of the fence. Genuinely, players, I always say it to them verbally, I say when you pull on that bib, imagine you're pulling on the shirt playing Saturday two o'clock or whenever you kick off because that comes with an anxious feeling and it's one that you want the players to get Comfortable with sooner rather than later. You're pulling on a shirt. It's not a bib. It's a shirt So again, it's a little bit of a psychological one But it's one that I like to use.
[Jamie]
And what would kind of be the next step once your team's maybe mastered individual tactics or got a good grip on individual tactics, what comes next?
[Matt]
The next part of the jigsaw, because it's all very well they're mastering individual tactics as an individual, but if my individual tactics doesn't play into the strengths of the unit and the team, then actually it's nil and void, isn't it? And here's where we go back to, are you staying on the ball as an individual to be purposeful, or are you staying on the ball to be selfish? So key words like, I'm gonna stay on it for a period of time to entice the opposition into an area of the field where either they don't want to go or we know that it plays to super strengths because I've got mates I'm going to release the ball to at this time because we know it's going to hurt them we're going to be able to break lines we're going to be able to penetrate and play forward. It's going to disrupt them it's going to unbalance them it's going to make them feel really awkward and uncomfortable. So we've got to get individual tactics talking to unit and team tactics. If it doesn't, then you end up working in silos and it is still a team game, but If we take that back down to the mini soccer game where it starts, we're in danger of, if we go too heavy, handed on team tactics or even unit tactics with our younger players before they're ready for it, we're almost rushing them to the wrong finish line, as Pete Sturgis would say. So don't be in a hurry, even though your intent might be on point. We've got to give them the nuts and the bolts of the game. So we know that at some point, the team game will emerge. It might not emerge as quickly as we would like and if we're comparing it to how Manchester City men's or women's for that matter play on Match of the Day or women's Super League highlights show, then that's an unfair comparison because we might be comparing a group of nine-year-old boys and girls to adult men's and women's professional game. So don't rush them there before we've given them those nuts and bolts. Don't sell them short. They'll need individual technique first, individual skills, individual tactics and that will equip them with the player toolbox to be able to then connect and combine as twos and threes and be really effective in those units. Going back to your question earlier Louise of, I probably would never refer to them as units if they're playing mini-soccer but it might be right you're not just a superhero you're now a super mini team or a super group within the team, so you can sort of again be clever and creative with your terminology and your language.
[Louise]
It's been really interesting listening to all of this and kind of how it all pieces together. I feel like I've learnt a lot. But if we look back at everything that we've discussed, can you summarise the key top tips that you want coaches to take away from this episode?
[Matt]
So see individual possession as a moment and an opportunity to influence as a coach, go through the scaffolding of technique, to skill, to tactics. Cause I think once you get your head around that as a coach, it'll help you understand it and spot things in what can be a chaotic situation to be faced with, especially if it's mini soccer, balls flying everywhere, depending on the type of practice you've set up. Because if it helps you figure stuff out in what can be a chaotic situation, it'll also help you to help the players with those building blocks. It would be as simplistic as that.
[Louise]
And then just to kind of set a challenge for our listeners to kind of get them putting some of this into practice, can you give them a challenge that they might, or something that you would, an activity or something that they can have a go at to kind of challenge themselves into promoting individual tactics.
[Matt]
My challenge to coaches would be try and work in that period of transition, probably easier with the older age groups because it is a moment of uncertainty and therefore it's a moment that coaches sometimes steer away from. So that transitional period of the game where you've either just lost it or just won it. And I think individual tactics can lend itself nicely into making your players individually more at ease or maybe being more concrete or more certain with, well, what is transition and how can we identify when we're clearly moving into in possession or out of position? Because it is that real moment of, well, have they got it or have we got it? So a practice, if I can set it in the coach's minds, listening in is, imagine you've got players in groups of three, so a nice odd number, and one player feeds a ball in to two players on the same start line, so they're running from the same point and it's the first one to get to the ball, so you've got to win the race to the ball. As they're traveling to the ball, you can highlight the importance of individual tactics. If you've got two players who have equal speed, they're almost going to arrive at the ball at the same time, and so they're then going to have to think about, right, what's my technique? Am I going to use the inside or outside of the foot to try and hook it away from my opponent because I'm gonna have to be super quick on how I do that because they're similar speed to me or another way of looking at individual tactics as you arrive to the ball and you're in that moment of transition is, okay maybe the person's quicker than me, so you're up against Usain Bolt of the group, which is unfortunate. Actually I'm going to use my body as tactics here. I'm actually going to cut across into their line of travel rather than try and run as the crow would fly and then miss out because my opponent is quicker than me. So by getting into their line of travel, they've either got to go around me, which takes longer, or they've got to bump into me, in which case you might forfeit a foul. And by the way, that's forfeit or foul. It's not simulate or dive. Cause that would be a big no-no. There's a clear difference. And I think I'd want to be clear on that with coaches. That's one V one tactics. If you get your body in the way and you manipulate the situation to your advantage, you might be faster than me, but I'm smarter with where I'm going to position my body. I think that's application of individual tactics in a period of transition where you're trying to go, okay, I want the ball. Here's how I'm going to steer the odds in my favour.
[Jamie]
Brilliant, I like it. Well, Matt, we are coming up to the end of the show and I hope you've got another practice up your sleeve because it does mean it is time for our Swift Session feature.
[Louise]
Yep, so to finish the episode off we're going to give you 30 seconds and ask you to explain a session idea to us in those 30 seconds. Are you up for that?
[Matt]
Yeah, cool.
[Louise]
Okay. Once again, when the music starts, you can begin.
[Matt]
So football tennis, but rather than just hit the ball over to the side and hope to win, you've got to rally. I'd play in groups of twos or threes, and I would encourage players that you've got to connect and combine so you must or you'll get rewarded if you can play it to your mate before it goes back over the other side of the net and I would also then further challenge the players by saying when the ball comes over you must take a minimum of three touches so it hones in on first touch, hones in on getting them comfortable on the ball, also gets them thinking tactically around when they play it to their mate and when they might play it back as a soloist.
[Louise]
Just over, but I think that was fine, it was a tiny little detail. Is there anything else you want to add to that?
[Matt]
Well I went over because if we're staying on the theme of football tennis it was a five setter, a three setter. We were playing on centre court under the lights so there was no time limit in my head.
[Jamie]
Brilliant, well fantastic, Thank you very much for that Matt and we've kept you for quite a while today So we really do appreciate you giving us your time To come back on the show and there was so much insight and top tips to take away there Like we feel like we've learned quite a lot on this topic So hopefully the audience have as well and again, hopefully you've enjoyed being on again.
[Matt]
I certainly have and I hope there's something in there for coaches to pick out. Individual tactics might seem new to you but if you break it down and you afford yourself the time to look at your players, learn about their super strengths and hone in on those then you'll be able to hopefully join the dots between technique, skill and you'll get to individual tactics which will help them not just play the game better but goes back to enjoyment. If they're experiencing success individually and collectively when they're playing the beautiful game then you're certainly doing your job correctly as a coach. Absolutely, absolutely.
[Jamie]
There you'll be able to click through to the England Football Community. And this is where you can post your coaching questions for us to discuss on the podcast or simply to connect with loads of wonderful coaches.
[Louise]
Yep, we'd love to help you out with your coaching questions so please do check it out. We'll be back soon with another episode of Coachcast so if you haven't already, hit subscribe to make sure you don't miss an episode. From all of us at England Football Learning, thanks for listening.