Top-tips: how to translate your playing identity onto the pitch
Game | Style | 16.12.2022
Coaches should adapt their playing style to the club, culture and context in which they are working Image: Getty Images /Getty Images Sport
Learning:
- Adapt your playing style to club and culture
- Use ‘trigger’ words to help translate your playing style onto the pitch
- Put an equal focus on attacking and defending
1. Adapt your playing style to club and culture
Coaches need a clear vision of how they want to play the game, but must adapt based on context – especially at senior level where results are crucial, says Steve Rutter, who has coached in the top professional men's leagues in Greece, Holland and Belgium.
“You start off with a template and you know the sort of football you want to play, but you have to quickly adapt to meet the day-to-day needs of getting results,” explains Rutter, who has worked with Panathinaikos and Atromitos (Greece), Roda JC Kerkrade (Holland) and KV Kortrijk (Belgium).
“At Atromitos in Greece, we wanted to start off playing 4-3-3 dropping into a 4-5-1. But we quickly realised that we hadn't got players who could play in those wide areas and who could get back and defend. So we had to change the system.”
2. Use ‘trigger’ words to help translate your playing style onto the pitch
“We can all talk about how we want to play in a certain way,” says former Arsenal U18 head coach, Dan Micciche. “We can talk about the ‘what’ but it's the 'how' that is important: how this works on the grass and how you then link your analysis to your grass work.”
One way in which Micciche helps bring his playing identity to life is through ‘trigger’ words which help break down complex ideas for players. “From a playing style perspective, I think you have trigger words which you can use with players.
“To the outside world the words might not make any sense - but with you and your players, they do. The trigger words can build a connection with the players. You build terminology which allows them to understand concepts very quickly.”
Knowing what information is for coaches and what is for players is a crucial part of the process, explains Micciche. “As coaches we might need to know how certain concepts work, but the players don't need to know all that. More importantly, the players need to know why it's important and how to do it.”
“From a playing style perspective, I think you have trigger words which you can use with players.”
3. Put an equal focus on attacking and defending
Young defenders must find a better balance between learning how to play out from the back and the detail needed to defend effectively, says Norway assistant coach and ex-Fulham defender Brede Hangeland.
“If you are a centre back, the focus has been more about playing out from the back, taking the ball out and passing it through the lines, which is fine.
“But football is two things: attacking and defending. So, we find that we actually have to teach them quite a lot of detail on defending. When, in my club career, it was drilled in every day in training. It's a challenge because most footballers think it's more fun to attack than to defend.”
Hangeland, who made 91 appearances for Norway as a centre back during his 16 year-player career, believes that defending detail has had less focus than attacking in recent years.
“Over the last five to 10 years there has been a pendulum swing in the direction of attacking football. When I watch some of the top games now, I think the attacking football is at a level we've never seen before. The defending, however, is not necessarily the best the world has seen. I think there's less training on things like defending the box and there’s less of a focus on defending detail.”
4. Challenge players to translate ‘values’ onto the pitch
Translating vision and values into on-pitch actions and behaviours makes everybody in a performance environment more accountable, says Tottenham Hotspur Women's Head Coach, Rehanne Skinner.
“If players are saying ‘we value this’, that's great, but what does that actually look like on the pitch?
“If we want to be the hardest working team, which we have openly said, then if you're not working hard on the pitch, I'm going to challenge that and every other member of staff is going to challenge that and the players should be challenging each other. Otherwise, we're just saying words and we’re just going through the motions.”
As part of the process, both players and staff have to be open to being ‘challenged’ says Skinner, who holds the UEFA Pro Licence.
“For me, it's about actions. We have to be taking actions that are going to help us to move forward. And we all need to be ok with challenging each other. We have to be ok with saying ‘you said you're going to do this, so do that. Don't talk about it’. So, there's driving standards and we all challenge each other's standards,” adds Skinner.
Summary
- Consider the context and culture in which you are working and tweak your playing identity accordingly
- Find an effective balance between attacking and defending work on the training pitch
- Challenge players to turn their ‘values’ into accountable actions and behaviours on the pitch