As a football coach of over a decade I have coached many players and managed many matches, I can’t begin to calculate the actual number but in 2019 I figured the number of sessions to be approximately 1,000. Some of these were basketball, netball, tag rugby and the various other activities making up the school PE curriculum, but the majority would have been football (or futsal). Match wise, I can’t put a figure on it for the year, never mind the decade. It would certainly be in the high hundreds.
However, never have I experienced seven days like February 15th until February 21st, 2020. Between Saturday and Friday, I oversaw 38 fixtures of football and futsal. Not one of these was 90 minutes, ranging from 10 minutes to 50 minutes, but each was an individual match. A full Premier League season compacted into six days. Recorded and preserved here. In describing the events I will try to avoid using names of players, teams and coaches as it may be unfair to explicitly identify them (or indeed be a breach of safeguarding/data protection).
Saturday 15th February
Storm Dennis.
For the second weekend (or week) in a row the UK was battered by a storm, causing chaos, damage and loss of life. Compared to this a few football matches being called off is insignificant.
Being an indoor game, the futsal was safe from disruption. Provided people were able to reach the venue. Fortunately, in London at early afternoon the conditions were such that travel was not an issue and game number one was able to get underway.
The day’s opponents are one of the more established futsal teams in the south of England, with a well-established youth pathway into their National League futsal team. Having seen them perform during previous weekends I expected their 15- and 16-year olds to be of a high standard.
We are not one of the strongest teams in this competition, but there is a very good reason for that. Our resources are stretched thin. The 12-15 players who attend our training sessions fill the rosters of two teams. In fact, more players from the training session immediately prior to this round were in another team than my team.
We also have to deal better with distractions. One particular player habitually forgets things. Important things like socks and shin pads. This week his lack of shin pads was a huge distraction to the players. Rather than absorbing the pre-game information the players were attempting to mock up shin pads from anything they could find. Cardboard. A book. Two by four.
These efforts were eventually abandoned but the consequence was that my substitutions during the game were not based on tactics, or stamina levels, but on how to manage the shin pad swapping situation.
As for the performance there were periods of play that were on the money, but the opposition goalkeeper was exceptional. When we did eventually break through the goal was exquisite, wonderful, pirouetting spins with the sole of the foot before scoop the ball over the head of the goalkeeper. Possibly the best futsal goal I have witnessed in the flesh.
Unfortunately, when the ball ruffled the netting we were already five goals behind. The spirits of our goalkeeper crushed by a devastating thunderbolt strike possessed by one highly skilled opponent. The two rockets that cracked the inside of the post on their way in didn’t do the damage. The one that bent back fingers, hand and wrist did. From that moment our valiant goalkeeper would not be his normal self.
The group endeavoured, piecing together patches of very fine futsal but the goals kept coming, our double figure defeat was harsh, but not entirely unjust.
Monday 17th February
“That was entertaining”
A happy reunion. For today’s set of games, I was teamed up with a set of players who were either my golden group from last season or attend the futsal sessions. I had to trade a goalkeeper to get the group but it was worth it.
The instant delight from the boys was worth it. Their visual anticipation of the division of players followed by the fist pumps when they knew they were with me was glorious. Eight-year olds will do that. (Not a slight on our other coach, the players simply did not know him).
This group of players have lived my 3v3 books. The sessions and principles formed their training last season or their futsal sessions this year. This is a group of players who want the ball and want to do creative things with the ball.
Out of the six games I think only one was won. No one was particularly worried about the scores, every game was pretty close, apart from the game we won and the final game where a player playing down an age group scored four super goals, which we hope will help his confidence moving forward.
What everyone was talking about afterwards were the skills on show, the tricks, the bravery on the ball. One of the boys who never plays in defence normally spent a game there. He is a wonderful dribbler but not a great defender. This translated into him received the ball deep and carrying the ball through defensive lines to spark attacks. On one occasion it cost a goal, on the others it took everyone’s breath away. I told him that I didn’t particularly care about the goal conceded, just to log it into the memory as what “might” happen when dribbling out of defence but also to remember all of the times he launched attacks.
At the end of the games a parent commented “that was entertaining” and it was. It was a show. A showcase of their abilities with the ball, that we hope will serve them well in the future.
Tuesday 18th February
Developing Chemistry
If Monday was a return to the familiar this day was a step into the unknown.
We travelled to a set of fixtures in Berkshire with a mixture of professional club community project sides and sides from private academies. The group(s) today are new intakes into our football programme and effectively from the lowest rung. The tiered system is just beginning, but the aim is for it be very fluid in order to provide players with the right challenge for their development. I had not met any of these boys before. How to put a team together?
The answer was to ask them. They had been attending sessions together and knew each other far better than I could possibly know them. One of the objectives of the fixtures is to consolidate the curriculum learning of the previous term but that quickly become secondary to the idea of really getting to know each other. One of the players, clearly inspired by FIFA Ultimate Team talked about “developing chemistry” and there it was the theme for the day. Across twelve fixtures we didn’t focus on technical or tactical. We focused on the social and came out of it all the better for the experience.
Wednesday 19th February
Training Day
Respite from the barrage of fixtures (19 clocked in so far, halfway there).
Today was an opportunity to help prepare the players for their games on Thursday and Friday. I worked with a colleague to get the U13s ready. One of our challenges is that this is where players from across three centres come together. Some of whom will not have met before. Also in theory they will have all been working on the same topic, but this may not be the case. Preparation in this context equates to getting the players on the same page and, as that extremely wise child said on Tuesday, “developing chemistry”.
Thursday 20th February
Washed Away
A group I actually coach! Or, it should have been.
For the morning fixtures I was assigned the under 8s, who I work with on Monday evenings. I was unable to train with the on Wednesday morning so another coach took the group. We had enough players for two teams so we both took the group and divided the group into two teams.
Now, at this juncture I will pull some punches. I am discussing my professional environment and excessive criticism is unprofessional and unhelpful. While I want to paint a full picture of both successes and failings there has to be an aspect of respecting the internal functions of an organisation. Suffice to say that I was less than happy with the way the group was divided and the apparent reasoning for this.
None the less, the bright young things of my group expressed themselves. Once more results were of lesser importance. My explanation to the players was that I was not really looking at the full game, but the moments. When a player performs an excellent turn then surveys his surroundings before threading a beautiful pass. When another player beats three or four players in silky fashion then prods an effort wide. When two players go together and apply pressure in a way that we discussed before the game. The goal is to eventually knit together the moments into a whole. The parallels with the futsal group were clear, even with players half their age.
Then the rains came.
From the under 8s I went to the under 10s. A few familiar faces but equally some I was completely unfamiliar with. After a few minutes of game one the rain fall was biblical. And then it got worse.
Huge raindrops fizzed horizontally into their nine and ten-year-old faces, stinging the flesh and chilling to the bone. After the first game players were dropping hints “how many more games do we have?” By the end of game two four players had asked to go home and I said yes, there was no way I would force anyone to play football in such conditions. As game three (twenty minute games) was underway more players asked to come out and my role had nothing to do with player development and everything to do with player welfare. At the end of game three we gave the remaining players the choice of whether to carry on with the remaining thee scheduled fixtures or to end it. Sanity prevailed and everyone opted for a hot bath and cup of tea.
Friday 21st February
End Game(s)
Goalkeepers are so important. The older you get the more important they become, yet the older they get the more torturous the experience can be for young goalkeepers. Under 13 must be the cruellest age for a goalkeeper, stepping into the gaping chasm of full-size goals with bodies that are not ready to do so. While our goalkeeper this morning did not concede a deluge of goals, those that he did concede were cruelly just out of reach and perhaps more cruelly moving at tantalising speeds. The goalkeeper spoke to me after one of the games. “I didn’t play very well”. I told him that “it happens, put it behind you and see what comes next”. What can you say? One day he will be big enough for the goals, but to him that day is a long way off.
The final four games were with the under 15/16 group. A group where I was familiar with most of the players either from sessions this season or previous seasons. As coaches we will discuss creating versatile players by asking them to play in different positions. At a certain point this has to become logical. In my opinion under 15/16 is that stage. Asking a player who says he is most adept at playing central midfield/holding midfield to play wide left in a 4-3-3 is not likely to aid his development all that much. While asking a player who says their favoured position is left wing to play left wing back probably will. We have to be careful, otherwise players will lose respect for the coach (especially if they have asked the player for input and then completely ignored it) or worse, rebel on the pitch.
I try to give the players a set of rules to follow, allowing them to self-correct on the pitch. However many defenders the opposition have, make sure we have one more defender. However many midfielders the opposition have, make sure we have one more in midfield. From the remaining players ensure we have width. From here, we decide how many forwards we have. The players can sometimes see or feel what is happening before a coach does, so empowering them to correct it is important, the only rule is that they must communicate it to their teammates and their coach. This can take a little getting used to for the players, but once they are used to it ideas of positions become less important.
At 4pm on Friday the fixtures concluded. The season in a week wrapped up. I believe that the only way I was able to negotiate it and work with so many players in such a short space of time was because of my willingness to cede control and not get hung up on results. A colleague asked what my win ratio was for the week, I said I had no real idea but it must have been someone around 20-30%. It wasn’t important. The players building chemistry with each other, with me and with the club was far more important.