Introductions
In 1953 a team came to English soil and became the first side form outside the British Isles to beat England at home. Led by the brilliant Ferenc Puskas, assisted by Sandor Kocsis, Zoltan Czibor and Nandor Hidegkuti, they did not just win, they won 6-3. In the return fixture in Hungary, the result was 7-1. Truly one of world footballs great teams. Since then, Hungarian football has slowly faded.
In the last 5 years we have seen one of histories great football teams. Barcelona have held the world in thrall with their style and success. With such awe also comes the urge to be like your heroes.
This is what is happening in Hungarian football.
During August 2013 I spent two weeks at Ujpest FC Academy. This time was spent observing and delivering training sessions with their age groups from Under 7 up to Under 21. All of these age groups are overseen by Gyorgy Szabo, an A licensed coach.
I met Gyorgy at one of Ujpest’s training ground. The club have three training facilities. One at the stadium, which comprises a large astroturf playing area, approximately the size of a full sized 11 a side pitch and the first team training pitch. The condition of the astroturf is below average while the first team pitch was in superb condition. The second facility is at Tungsram. This pitch is rented and forms part of a local sports club. The changing rooms are rather unwelcoming and in severe need of a makeover, while the pitch is little better than the majority of surfaces used by under 15s on an English Sunday. Finally, we have Cerna. This training center is being modernised thanks to a government grant. A brand new 11 a side all weather pitch is being laid along with a small sided area. Ujpest finished sixth in the Hungarian top division last season. This is the equivalent of Everton being subsidized by the government. I would discover that this is not uncommon in Hungarian football. The current pitch is the worst of the three areas. Set against the background of a factory, the pitch is beset by boggy patches and the ubiquitous flies. It was here that I met Gyorgy.
Gyorgy and I sat at a picnic table with a view of the Cerna pitch. Gyorgy was very proud of his record as a coach. He noted that 17 players he has been involved in developing have played international football from U-18 level up to the full team. During our introductory chat he highlighted three key areas.
1 – Ujpest Style – Possession – Pressing – Counter
These three facets of the game are the main focus of training and define the playing style of the teams.
2 – Developing in age groups – Each age group follows a set training plan.
Monday – Conditioning training plus 1v1 and 2v1 situations
Tuesday – Technical and tactical
Wednesday – Game Situations
Thursday – Technical and tactical
Friday – Speed
Saturday – Match
3 – Talent Management – If a player needs to play up an age group, they will do so.
Following this introduction he took me through some drills that form the basis of something he calls “automisation”. These sessions were formed around keeping the ball. The “automisation” part is getting the players to react quickly when they lose the ball and win it back, then getting into a triangular or diamond shape and restarting their possession. In the manner of Barcelona.
Observation
The Under 18s were the first team I saw train. The session took place on a Wednesday at Tungsram. According to Gyorgy’s schedule, revolved around game situations. Following the warm up the players split into two groups. One group worked on 2v1 situations while the other played a 4v2 directional passing game. The focus of this being to create triangles and play one and two touch football. The players switched groups. After this the players cooled down. There was no small sided game to finish off, just the core sessions.
From Tungsram I made my way to Cerna to see the Under 11s train. Their session had more of a skills focus, as might be expected when comparing Under 11 to Under 18. The Under 18s had one bag of footballs, with 9 balls for the 18 players. the under 11s had a ball each, but the players bring their own football to training. This is the case with all of the age groups up to under 15.
The players lined up in two lines, it might have been argued that the lines were a little too long, stretching the boundary between resting and queuing. A line of cones stretched out infront of them as they practiced core dribbling moves.
1) Foot rolls over the ball and zigzagging between the cones.
2) Outside foot touch followed by inside foot touch through the cones.
3) Sprint in and out of the cones
4) In pairs, partner shadows/links arms with the player with the ball as they zigzag. When the two reach the end the shadowing player takes over and zigzags back to the start.
5) The partners balance a ball between their foreheads and try to keep it there as they go to the end of the line of the cones and back.
The main body of the session used 1v1 situations. The make up of the session bore a strong resemblance to a Coerver session. Once again they did not finish with any small sided games.
In the evening the under 7s, 8s and 9s trained together. This session disappointed me. It has long been my personal belief that at the youngest age groups the focus should be on ball mastery and very small sided games. At Ujpest the training session consisted of the under 8 and under 9 teams playing a 6v6 match while the under 7s did a shooting circuit on a small area next to the pitch. After around twenty minutes the under 7s swapped with the under 8s. Twenty minutes later the under 9s swapped out of the match and on to the shooting circuit. I should also note that the match did not flow and the coach, using the command style, regularly halted play to position players. He stopped, corrected the player on the ball, the players near the ball, then those away from the ball, in the manner I was taught during FA Level 2 and the manner I found that that the younger age groups hated when I tried to apply it.
I observed the under 7/8/9s on two further occasions during my stay. The structure switched from this initial impression to one in which the players were split into three groups and rotated around three set ups. One set up would focus on ball skills while the other two worked on passing in diamonds and triangles. Shape and movement.
This pattern of observing three training sessions a day continued throughout my first week with Ujpest. At all ages the emphasis was placed heavily on possession. Heavily on triangular and diamond shapes. Heavily on playing one and two touch passes, winning the ball back and starting again.
Questions
The under 15s assistant coach is Gyorgy’s son, Mark. While Gyorgy’s English is quite good, Mark spent time in America and his English is excellent. My time observing formed a number of questions which needed answering. I put them to Mark whose superior English made for fuller answers.
How many “a-side” do the age groups play?
Under 7 – 3 v 3 – Formation – 2 – 1 (no goalkeeper)
Under 9 – 5 v 5 – Formation – 1 – 1 – 2 – 1
Under 11 – 7 v 7 – Formation – 1 – 3 -1 – 2
Under 12 – 9 v 9 – Formation – 1 – 3 -3 -2
Under 13 to under 17 – 11 v 11 – Formation – 1 – 4 – 1 – 2 – 3 or 1 -4 – 2 – 1 – 3
Under 18 to under 21 – 11 v 11 – Formation – 1 – 4 – 2 – 3 – 1
What is the training schedule?
Under 7 up to under 12 train 3 times a week for an hour and half, plus a match.
Under 12 and up train 5 times a week for an hour and a half, plus a match.
Does the club educate the players?
The players attend normal schools, though some are at sports schools and the club have an agreement with them so that the players can miss school in the mornings to train. If a player is struggling at school the club will help with tutors.
Are players sent on coaching courses?
The club do not see this as their role.
Are players recruited locally?
All players are recruited locally up to the under 17 age group. They are all based within just a few kilometers of the club. This is because up until under 17 the players pay the club fees, much as they would a grassroots club in the UK. They do not receive any money from the club. The fees are the approximately £500 a year and the players receive professional coaching 3 to 5 times a week except for 3 weeks during the summer and 2 weeks over Christmas and New Year.
The club does not have the money to support the youth depart department without these fees. If an age group does not recruit enough players then that coach will no longer have a job as the club cannot pay him without the fees.
As the players do not receive any money Ujpest often lose players to the richer clubs (such as Ferencvaros) who can offer the players family £100 a month to join. During the break between the 2012-13 season and the 2013-14 season they lost 20 players to other clubs.
What qualifications do the coaches have?
From under 15 and above head coaches are required to hold the A license. Assistants must have a B license. The age groups below need head coaches to have a B license while assistants can have the D license which is the equal to FA level 1.
Does the club use former professionals as coaches?
Ujpest will give a job to an ex professional if he has played for the club. Otherwise they do not believe that it matters.
I was surprised to learn that the players have to pay to train with a professional club. I later learned that this is the standard in Hungary. I was also surprised to discover the level of license required to coach at the club.
Ball Co-ordination
If a Hungarian coach asks you to put on a ball co-ordination session, do not give the players a ball each and set out to do some ball mastery. What they actually want from you is a passing and pattern of play session. I found this out during a segment of under 15s training.
During the second week with Ujpest certain coaches began to ask me to take a part of the training session. They would ask for a specific area to focus on, usually passing in a rondo or a pattern of play. The coaches wanted us to concentrate on the diamond and triangle patterns that characterized the majority of training.
One such session involved the under 18s. Their coach Attila asked me for a passing square, with players on the outside, three tacklers on the inside and what he called a playmaker on the inside. I added a goal outside the square for the three tacklers to attempt to score in should they win the ball. Attila seemed very pleased with what he score, but I was frustrated by the language barrier. I could not really offer individual coaching, it felt like putting the session on and letting them go.
After the players had worked with me they went to do some work with Attila’s assistant. During this he and I spoke (as best we could). He expressed his dissatisfaction with the facilities. The poor quality of the pitch. The cheap kit that the players and coaches have to wear. The low grade footballs and awful changing rooms at Tungsram. They try to be professional coaches and train the players to a high standard but the pitches and facilities do not let them.
“Small money, small football,” he said, pointing at the pitch, “Puskas said that”.
The Rivals
Arrangements were quickly made to visit other clubs. Three days before leaving, Ferencvaros.
Ferencvaros are traditionally fierce rivals with Ujpest. You could see it in the eyes of the Ujpest staff whenever they talked about Ferencvaros. In fact, Ferencvaros are fierce rivals to all clubs in Budapest as they are the most famous and most successful club in Hungarian football, with 28 league titles, 20 Hungarian cups and 1 Fairs Cup (UEFA cup/Europa League).
Upon entering, it was immediately obvious that it was whole other world to Ujpest. The training facility situated all in one place, with 8 grass training pitches and two artificial surfaces. In Hungary the clubs are not solely football clubs and the Ferencvaros facility also houses the basketball team and handball team. As you walk to the training ground the path is lined with the busts of Olympic champions from all sports. Immediately, the place feels special. It is easy to see why a young player, when offered £100 a month and the choice between Ujpest’s basic training facility and the surroundings at Ferencvaros, they would choose to move club.
Unfortunately no comparison between the training styles could be made. As we settled down to watch the under 21 team train a storm broke. They trained for 10 minutes but then thunder and lightning forced an abandonment.
Fortunately, another arrangement was made, this time to see Vasa Kubala Academy the next day.
Money
Vasas SC are another professional club in the Hungarian top division. The club have named it’s academy after one of the nations greatest players, Laszlo Kubala. Kubala played for Barcelona and was a contemporary of Ferenc Puskas but not a member of the Magical Magyar team that destroyed England twice in 1953 and 1954 before finishing as runners up at the 1954 World Cup. At that time he was playing for Barcelona and effectively a refugee, meaning he could not play for his country of birth.
While Vasa SC play in the top division, Kubala Academy have a team of their own that competes in the lower divisions. This is much in the manner of Barcelona B or Castilla in Spain. The focus is not on results, but on developing the young players and giving them match experience.
The facility at Kubala was not as vast as Ferencvaros but it was clearly well funded. The club was situated on the Buda side of Budapest in an affluent area. The players still pay until they reach a certain age (as they do at Ferencvaros) but, certain players can receive a scholarship (as at Ferencvaros), thus they can pick off players from clubs like Ujpest.
Again we did not see the players train. What we did see was a match. The under 12s were playing a league game. The game was played in thirds, three periods of 25 minutes. The pitch was surprisingly large for 9 v 9. The length ran from the penalty box of a full size pitch to the other penalty box, around 60 yards. However, the pitch was as wide as it was long, the full width a full size pitch.
The players on show were technically very good. Particularly a highly skillful left sided player, whose game was replete with tricks and flicks plus smart passing. At the back Kubala had an average sized boy who read the game superbly and showe3d great composure on the ball. Only for a brief spell during the second period did Kubala not try to pass out from defence. It was evident during the game that they had done lots of work on getting into the shapes that allow for crisp passing.
After the game I spoke to a former coach at Kubala who had organized our visit. I asked him, “Is there a Kubala style?”
He told me that the Kubala style is based on possession, counter attacking and pressing. Just like Ujpest. In fact, this in not a club style, but a directive put in place by the Hungarian FA. All clubs are expected to follow this style, though they may choose exactly how they implement it during training. The head coaches have A licenses from under 15 and up, with B license for assistants. Below that, B licenses for head coaches and D for assistants. This is also Hungarian standard.
Small Football
Despite the high caliber of coaches and the increased contact time, Hungarian football does not appear to be producing global talents at a greater level than the English Premier League. The national team is not filled with players who have become star names in other countries and nor is there a Hungarian team lighting up European competition. We do not see the new Barcelona that they dream of.
Why?
Domestically, teams are not filled with foreign imports. The core is Hungarian. Unlike the Premier league, the excuse that foreign talent is holding back local players can not be made.
Though the extra money at Ferencvaros and Kubala helps them, they are not the norm.However, facilities are not the key factor in producing players. Nor athletes or other sportsmen. Well defined, meaningful practices are key. The more you practice, the better you will become.
Surely practices with A and B license coaches 3 – 5 times a week will be highly meaningful practices?
Recently people have been asking questions about licenses. The talk has been that the Welsh FA are getting their B license right, while in England they are getting it wrong. How can this be if they are standardized UEFA licenses? Are different licenses in different countries actually carrying different values? At my club we have a Hungarian coach. He holds a UEFA B license. He played international football at under 18 level. During a conversation he explained to me that because he had played internationally the Hungarian FA gave him a B license. Licenses do not mean everything.
Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent. The development of a player does not end when he breaks into the first team. It has to continue during the first two, three or even five years of his playing career. Perhaps then, Hungarian football is suffering from the reverse problems of English football. A lack of foreign players, due to a lack of budget, means that the league is not at a high enough standard to make the match practice post academy level meaningful. In England the league is fiercely competitive but lacking in local talent. In Hungary, the local talent is there, but they have no one to play against. The next step, moves further and further away.
If the practices that the players are asked to do shapes them, then Hungary is shaping some excellent passers of the ball in small spaces. Whether they are shaping great decision makers is debatable. The phrase “automisation” springs to mind in review. It’s closeness to the word automaton, feeling pertinent.