2013 - Coaching Spanish Soccer

This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected])

 Coaching Spanish Soccer by Jordi Pascual

Published by WORLD CLASS COACHING

First published June, 2013 by WORLD CLASS COACHING 3404 W 122nd Terr Terr (913) 583-0030 Copyright © WORLD CLASS COACHING 2013

All rights reserved. No parts of this publication publication may be reproduced, reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical,  photocopying,  photocopying, recording or otherwise, without without prior written permission of the  publisher.  publisher. Author - Jordi Pascual Edited by Antony Penna Front Cover by P2 Creative

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WORLD CLASS COACHING

INDEX 1. INTRODUCTION 2. THE 1-4-2-3-1 & THE “TIKI-TAKA” 3. THE MIDFIELDERS 4. THE FLANKERS/WINGERS 5. THE STRIKER (OR NOT) 6. THE DEFENDERS 7. THE GOALKEEPER 8. THE “BOSS” 9. THE KEY PLAYERS 10.THE CLUBS 11.THE COMPETITION 12.THE SCOUTING SYSTEM 13.TRAINING IN SPAIN (I) 14.TRAINING IN SPAIN (II) 15.THE SPANISH FA 16.COACHING COURSES 17.EXERCISES 18.FOOTBALL IN SPAIN 19.FACTS AND FIGURES 20.SOME CONSIDERATIONS 21.THE FUTURE •

APENDEX 01. THE END OF THE BOOK

•

APENDEX 02.THE AUTHOR

1. INTRODUCTION When Iker Casillas got the EURO ’12 Cup in his hands and showed it to the spectators in the Olympic Stadium in Kiev, for the people watching the match on TV, it was the first time that the captain of a National Team was doing this for the third time. But, more than this, it happened for the third consecutive competition. Yes, Spain won EURO ‘08 in Vienna, WC ‘10 in Johannesburg and this EURO in Poland-Ukraine. Nobody has done it before but, will we see it again?

Spanish players celebrating EURO2012

A lot of people would consider this a big surprise. For others, especially in Spain, it is not. Since the mid 90’s Spanish National Teams have reached, and won, many Tournaments at young levels such as the UEFA U-17, U-19 and U-21 and FIFA WC U-20 and U-17. These tournaments have seen “La Roja” reach finals, with several players been awarded as MVP of these Tournaments Casillas, Xavi, Iniesta, Fábregas, Mata, Torres, among others have replied, when asked about it, “I have a room in my house just to keep all the Awards I’ve got”: Champion, Runner-up, 3 rd  place, Best Goalkeeper, Best Coaching Spanish Soccer

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Midfielder, Best Scorer, Best… whatever and, all of these players clinched one or more of this prizes and recognitions. Spain won the EURO64 playing at home, in a final against the former USSR (2-1), in a match at the Santiago Bernabéu stadium (Real Madrid’s home), with dictator Franco in the stands. It was considered the beginning of a new era (in both terms, sports and politics), but the fact is, that the only other time Spain has reached the finals was in 1984, when the EURO was played in France. Spain lost the final against the host team France, where a certain Michel Platini (yes, UEFA’s President), was the best player. The final was played in “Parc des Princes” in Paris, and Spain lost 2-1, due to a freekick delivered by Platini that passed under the body of Arkonada (Spanish Goalkeeper, and one of the best in the World at that time) giving the title to the French. So from 1964-2008 Spain was unable to reach the Quarter Finals in any competition. Too much time? It’s possible, or better, sure, but the fact is that neither the Spain NT, nor the Clubs, were really competitive in Europe; yes, they were close to, but, if you look at history, you’ll find that from 1966 to 1992 no Spanish team were Champions in the Champions League; no Spanish Champion in UEFA Cup from the late 60’s until 1985 and 1986 and, from there on, nothing until 2004!! As a curiosity (probably coincidence space/time?) the team that won these two UEFA Cup finals was Real Madrid, with the famous “Quinta del Buitre”, with players like Butragueño, Michel or Sanchís, or others like Camacho, Gallego or Hugo Sánchez; also, in 1986, Barcelona reached the Champions League final in Sevilla, losing eventually to a penalty shoot-out against Steaua. The stadium of 70,000 spectators all supporting the Catalan players like Urruti, Victor, Calderé, Carrasco, etc. which were all in this squad. The Spanish National Team consisted of these players and others like Zubizarreta, Maceda or Señor. Spain reached the QF after an amazing match against Denmark in Querétaro (5-1); Laudrup, Lerby, Molby, Morten Olsen were in this Danish squad. Spain lost the QF against Belgium (in a penalty shootout). But that was all: 84 and 86 having a great group of players, but no success and, nothing in between. For many years, watching the Spanish NT playing football was a kind of fight. Spain was known as “La Furia” (The Fury), meaning football played Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) basically with heart, and not with intelligence, just as a “kick-and-rush”, but played more with aerial balls just like teams in England or Scotland, it was a run and chase without too much sense. Things started to change in 1988. After the defeat mentioned earlier of FC Barcelona in the CL final of 1986, the Club went down, on the pitch and outside of it, with a final mutiny of players on TV during prime-time, claiming for the resignation of the President Josep Lluís Núñez. The history is known as “El Motí de l’Hesperia” (The Mutiny of Hesperia) as the players were concentrated in the hotel of Barcelona, not far from the Camp Nou (Barça’s Stadium). Núñez hired Johan Cruyff as Manager for the First Team. Cruyff had previously played for Barça during 1973-78, gaining accolades such as a League Title (the first one after 14 years), and one Cup (1978), and losing in CL Semi-finals against Leeds United, in 1974. Cruyff didn’t come alone; he brought with him all the Ajax experience. Remember the Dutchman played for Ajax for several years, getting 3 CL titles (1971, 72, 73), before moving to Barcelona in summer 1973. Ajax and, as a consequence, the Dutch NT were famous for the so called “Total Football”, where players were moving constantly around the pitch, without losing the shape of the team. Rinus Michels was the Manager (he also moved to Barcelona at the beginning of the 70s), of that team. Cruyff had met Laureano Ruiz when he arrived at Barcelona for the first time. Laureano was working with the Grassroots Teams at Barça (he was the First Team Manager after the dismissal of Hennes Weisweiler), and he was the first one in Spain to introduce the “rondos” (keep away games or

monkey in the middle which it is called in some places), as a part of the training sessions. In the seventies, “rondos” and SSG (Small Sided Games) weren’t known and as popular as today; only a few had been starting to work in a different way. Think about a lot of running laps, long “physical” sessions during pre-season, and so on. This continued for many years (today also you can see a lot of it), but Ruiz was the first one to introduce something different in practices. Also, Ruiz, together with Oriol Tort (another Grassroots Coach at Barça, who died in 1999), “sold” the idea of creating a place where youngsters coming from other parts of Spain or Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) abroad, could live together, and train together. The idea took form at the end of the 70s and finally a place called “La Masia” started. La Masia is actually known as Barcelona’s Academy; with the new facilities in Sant Joan Despí, 10 km away of Camp Nou, outside of Barcelona, it is not a coincidence that the new Masia is called “La Masia-Centre de Formació Oriol Tort” (La Masia-Centre of Formation Oriol Tort).

“Rondos” at FC Barcelona training

With Cruyff, everything changed, but not only in Barcelona. The Club finally got close after 40 years of competition, the desired Champions League, in 1992. And that was playing a fantastic style of football. Everybody turned thier eyes to Barcelona, both inside and outside of Spain. A lot of Spanish Clubs started to see that it was possible to play “nice” football and win trophies. Clubs started to learn about the Dutch and the Barça way. It is not a surprise that the players that are World and European Champions have been developed, in their youngest ages throgh possession games, “rondos”, high pressure and similar concepts.

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2. THE 1-4-2-3-1 & THE “TIKI-TAKA” “Tiki-taka” is the popular way to describe this possession style used by Spain. The journalist Andrés Montes made the name very popular, and a lot of people think that he was the first one to use it; but this is not true. The term “tiki-taka” was first used by a Spanish Coach called José María Maguregui (known as “Magu”), when he was Manager of RCD Espanyol from Barcelona, during the beginning of the 80s. With that, he gave the name to a style of playing based in keeping the ball and not going so directly to goal. The important thing here is that the “tiki-taka”, together with the formation 1-4-2-3-1 is used by all Spanish National Teams, from U-16 to the “A” team. Everybody is playing the same way, which makes the players know how it works when following the entire path from U-16, until they arrive to the “A” team. Of course, some players arrive older to the National Team, but it is also obvious that the older they are, the more knowledge of the game they have, so it is not difficult to fit within the team. As can be seen in the picture, there are 4 Defenders, playing in a Flat-Four, 2 Defensive Midfielders, 3 Attacking Midfielders (1 centred a 1 at each flank) and 1 Centre Forward or Striker. First of all, let me say that I’m not a fan of “formations”. Formations, for me, is just a number or a name written on a chalkboard or a sheet of paper, and saying where a player will be at the beginning of the match. Also, it says, more or less, where the area of influence will be of that player, that’s all. Roles and responsibilities of players are given by the coach/manager of the team, not by the “position” you have. But that’s another story.

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The “formation” 1-4-2-3-1 used by Spain

In the Spanish case, the Back Four is a classic from the last years in football. That means two Full-Backs and two Centre-Backs, with none of the last two playing the sweeper/libero role. It depends also who is playing and who is at the front. The most frequent has been Piqué/Puyol, but, in EURO12, Puyol was injured so it was Ramos (normally the Right FB), who played there, while Arbeloa (usually starting on the bench), took the position of Ramos. Alba is now the Left FB (before, Capdevila played there). We’ll go back later with the Defenders. Two Defensive Midfielders (Alonso and Busquets), one Attacking Midfielder (Xavi), two men on the Flanks (Silva and Iniesta) and one Striker (Torres/Villa) complete the team. Obviously, we can’t forget the Goalkeeper (Casillas), one of the best in the World, we’ll go later into details. The first thing to notice is that the Wingers/Flankers play with their opposite prominent foot, for example, Silva is left footed and plays at the right, while Iniesta is right footed, playing on the left. Why? Simple: as a general rule, the Spanish game is not about crossing from Wingers (in the classical way); it’s about to touch again and again until a gap/space behind defenders is found; then, the ball is immediately placed there for someone Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) (can be also a Full-Back; remember Alba scoring in the final match of EURO12 against Italy) to score or, to make a back pass with 3 or 4 players arriving to face goal. And, the natural movement of Iniesta and Silva is from outside to inside. That’s the reason. Also, we’ll talk about the “9” (or the “false” nine, as Spain is now using this combination or position which is working so well for FC Barcelona), and the differences between playing with a typical Striker or non-typical striker. Once all this has been said, let’s go back to the formation as itself. As a general idea, the Flat Back-Four is considered one of the best ways to organize your defensive line. You are wide enough to cover all the pitch and, also, one or two of the Defenders can join in the attack (this will happen especially in the case of the Full-Backs).

In fact, this is more the shape you’ll find when the team is attacking. As you can see, when the team is attacking it looks something like a 1-2-3-2-3 (with the LFB in a Winger Position!). The next picture will show what happens when defending.

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) Now, we are showing a case where the ball is on the right side of the defence; in this case, the RFB is “pushing”, to provide cover, together with one of the DM’s. As the team is moving to the right, the LAM (weak side), must come to “close” the pitch. Depending how the other team plays, he can be in the position of the LFB. Now, the “formation” looks like a 1-3-4-21. So, as I mentioned before, “formations” are just names and numbers written on a piece of paper or a chalkboard. The important thing is how everybody is moving according

to the position of the ball, and the opponents. Also, the players are very close, No more than 25-30 meters from Piqué/Puyol to Torres, and everybody is ready to provide cover in case the first defender is beaten. That’s the important thing that must be remembered! Back to what happens, in general, during matches, in the Spanish case, the main problem is when there’s a counter attack; not because there are 3, 4 or 5 players, but because they are at half pitch when the team is attacking positionally; and this means a lot of space at your back, even if the Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) Goalkeeper is out of the box, there can be close to 30 meters between GK and DF; and, of course, this is dangerous.

Here it can be seen how much distance is between the Defenders and the Keeper when Spain is attacking; as you can see, there’s a lot of distance, with the Centre Backs on the half-pitch line and the Goalie at the edge of the box. The 5 Midfielders (in fact, we can say “2+3”, but they act just as an unit); that’s why we say it’s “2+3”; this shape covers all the wide of the pitch and, at the same time, create a lot of triangles because this disposition of the players

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These are the triangles created by the 5 Midfielders. In any defensive shape triangles are basic to keep the team cohesion; if we add the 4 Defenders, we’ll see how many triangles appear on the pitch. The result can be seen in the next picture; now, we have the connection between Defenders and Midfielders; a lot of triangles are formed, which means that a lot of support can be offered to any player by his teammates.

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We find that, with this disposition on the pitch, Spain has created a very crowded area. Think, also that there isn’t more than 20 meters from Piqué/Puyol to Xavi (We said earlier 25-30 to Torres). That also means that passing lanes will be quite difficult to find and, as a consequence, it won’t be very easy to create scoring chances. It’s a fact: Spain only conceded 1 goal in the EURO12; it was in the first match of the Group Stage, against Italy. From there on, 6 matches with clean sheet. But, if we go back to the WC2010 in South Africa, we’ll find something similar: 2 goals in 7 matches, with all the knock-out matches with the same score: 1-0 for Spain, 4 clean sheets in a row and the WC title flying to Spain.

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3. THE MIDFIELDERS In modern football, Midfielders have become the key players of the game. Depending how they are, your way of playing will be one way or another. Actually, the two Central Midfielders are Xabi Alonso and Busquets (who entered in the squad in the place of Senna after the EURO08). Both, Alonso and Busquets are very similar, but, at the same time, very different. Busquets is the perfect balance for any team, a player that makes complicated things look easy: tackling, recovering and passing. This pass is very important: it takes the ball out of the zone of influence of the opponents; it can be played backwards, to the Defenders, or forward, to the Wingers or Attacking Midfielder (Xavi). Alonso is as powerful as Busquets, but he is able to play very long passes (behind opponents Defence). Alonso needs someone close for short passing after recovering; Busquets finds this player very natural. Tactically, both are great players and this means that it will be very difficult to find them out of position. This is one of the reasons why Spain concedes a very small quantity of goals in open play: the position of Alonso and Busquets makes it very difficult for the other team to find spaces quickly to exploit them; one of them is always keeping the shape of the team, while the other is giving a more offensive support. I mentioned earlier that Xavi; the same as it at happens at FC Barcelona, is the same for Spain. Xavi is what the Italians call “il metronomo”, that means, the person who dictates the pace and the rhythm of the match: faster, slower, slower, faster, top speed, etc. It’s closer to what the English call the “skipper” to what the Americans call the “play maker”. It’s not only the “boss”: it’s more than this. It’s curious to see when you check some statistics of matches, that Xavi is one of the players that covered more distance on the pitch (if not the most); he always explains that his job is to look for space: here or there. At the end of the day, football is about time and space. And you’ll find him dropping a lot of times, while Alonso or Busquets are in the place where he should be. Because, as for his position Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) he might be the player that makes the last pass, this is not the main function for him; he’s simply “The Passer”. All the attacking game of Spain, except in the case of a very fast counter starts and finishes with Xavi. Finish with Xavi? Yes, he finishes the attack. As I said before, the ball goes back several times while the space is created, because, if there’s no space, then it has to be created, because it’s needed. So, the players are moving around the pitch –for a non expert viewer it looks like they are moving randomly- always keeping the shape of the team; Silva goes inside, Arbeloa goes up, Busquets arriving to fill in the place of Xavi, Torres/Cesc drops off and... boom!! Xavi to Iniesta who was at the left side and Don Andrés passes to Alba that appeared from nowhere. Alba has a lot of... YES, SPACE!!!!, so he can put the ball to Torres/Fábregas, Silva, Xavi, etc. A lot of players are inside the box, ready to receive the pass. But it was Xavi, with his movements back and forth the one that decided the moment to put the ball where it was needed. So, Xavi finished the play when he found it to be the right moment; if not, touch and pass again until the place to put the ball is found; how long? How many minutes/passes? You’ll never know; sometimes, just 4 players and 10 passes are needed. Others, Spain might keep the ball for more than 1 or 2 minutes using all the players, including Casillas having at least 1 touch of the ball, until the moment Xavi decides to finish the play.

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In the picture you have the movement of the 3 Midfielders; the arrows representing the Attacking Midfielder are bigger: Xavi is moving a lot around the pitch. Also Alonso and Busquets are moving, but mainly from own box to 3/4 of the pitch, while Xavi is moving from box to box and also very wide; as explained, he dictates the “tempo”, so that means he will be moving around, while Alonso and Busquets will be covering his area or escorting him. The idea is always the same: to keep the shape of the team and, that means to keep the shape within every line. The Midfielders are key to this aspect: if they are too close to Forwards (Wingers+Striker), then theres a big gap with Defenders, and this space can be used by the other team for a fast counter; if they are too close to Defenders, then this is very complicated to connect with the Attackers; it’s important to find the right balance and distance among everybody; and the same applies individually: if 2 of the 3 players are too far from the third one, unless someone is covering this area, the connection and support will be very difficult.

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Here you can see what happens when Wingers and Striker are too far from the rest: A big hole in the middle that can be used by the other team to create chances, given that 3 players will be “out” if the ball goes into this free space.

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Now, the players are much too close to each other, especially the Midfielders; it will be very difficult to counter or just to start playing. Only short passes can be done, while players are going wider and, this will give time enough to the other team to retreat to defensive positions. There is a common thread in all Spanish Midfielders: more or less, they are all very gifted technically and/or tactically: Xavi, Alonso, Busquets, Cazorla, Iniesta, Fábregas, and Javi Martínez. There’s no Midfielder in this squad that looks like the old Midfielder, strong and powerful, good with heading, tackling, etc. but unable to give a decent pass more than 5 meters away or, unable to keep his position when the team has the ball. I always say about Busquets that he is the kind of player that someone would sign because of his physical aspect (1,89m.), but he always plays because of his intelligence. All these are players with no fear when having the ball at their feet and that makes it quite difficult for the opponents. Also, all the Midfielders are different but some of them are quite similar. You won’t find any other Xavi or Iniesta, because they are so exceptional players but, the combination of other players can play the same way (style) but, of course, with some different details. Cazorla and Fàbregas can give Coaching Spanish Soccer

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you more chances to score, especially with the second one. If Javi Martínez plays together with Alonso or Busquets, perhaps the team loses quality when building up from the back, but Martínez is a very strong player, sure stronger than Alonso and, maybe, similar to Busquets. So, the replacement of players is always done looking for the ones that can be complemented with the others. That’s the idea that you can see on the pitch. Depending on the players, you’ll have more control of the ball, longer possessions, etc. If other players are on the pitch, there will be more room for counter attacks or the possessions will be shorter. It’s always to find the time and the space.

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4. THE FLANKERS/WINGERS As mentioned before, Silva and Iniesta are the men closest to the side lines of the pitch. When talking about the “normal” conditions of the game, their main role would be to make the pitch as wide as possible, in order to penetrate as deep as possible for crossing, looking for a header or similar. But this is not a “normal” thing in “normal” conditions of playing. As playing wrong footed, what they do is cut from outside to inside and not run along the line; this is creating two things. The first one is the space for the FullBacks to use and overlap them; the second is that, together with Torres/Cesc, Xavi and Alonso/Busquets, they create superiority: 4v2, 5v3, etc., this superiority is in the Midfield, but very, very, close to the box. Again, if the space is not found on the sides, then to find space here means that a player can be inside the box, with the ball under control and only the Goalkeeper in front of the player. Interesting situation, isn’t it? In the next picture you can see the space created when the winger goes inside. Room for the FB to arrive, cross and the Striker, together with the other Midfielders (including the Winger from the other side), will be ready to score.

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Also, we are not talking about two average players. Both are among the most technically gifted players in the history of football and, probably, Iniesta is the most. For many people, Andrés Iniesta has become “The Wizard of Oz” applied to football. He has explained several times that he watched a lot of Michael Laudrup (“the man that could play football dressed while smoking”). The Dane was playing for Barça when Iniesta arrived from his hometown of Fuentealbilla (Albacete), at 12 years old. He became the artist of the “croqueta” (a movement that consists in playing a very fast 1-2 with both feet (from right to left or vice versa). The most incredible thing is that he does all the movements, included the “croquetas”, “sotanas” (nutmeg) and so on with the same natural movement as if he was drinking a glass of water. It’s just amazing to watch him! David Silva is close to as good as Iniesta but, while Iniesta is not a scorer, Silva has more presence inside the box, so he scores more goals than Andrés. He is also a player that looks like he has a glove as feet, so sweet the ball goes from one place to another on the pitch. We could say that Silva is closer to Fàbregas than to Xavi. Silva is not a play-maker, but his Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) participation in the final third is very important for Spain. When he’s not on the pitch, the situation changes a lot. Another option that Spain can use is to have real wingers or players able to do that): Pedro, Navas, and Villa, can play in that position. But they’ll never play as British wingers; first, Spain, in general, don’t have finishers like Toshack, Jordan, Crouch or Carroll they have the kind of Striker that is closer to Wayne Rooney; a fast player, technically quite good, but not able to jump over the Defenders to connect the winning header. That means, when these players are on the pitch, they have to cross, but not crossing from the edge of the box; they have to run, to arrive at the end line to cross backwards; then, Strikers and Midfielders can arrive from behind facing the goal; and, of course, this is quite complicated for the Defenders, because nobody has eyes in the back of their head. When this happens (Playing with real wingers), the formation will seem more a 1-4-3-3 with an inverted triangle in the middle.

This is how the Spanish formation will be when right footed players (Pedro or Navas are on the right side and Villa at the left side), are on the pitch. Also it’s possible to see Xavi dropping and Alonso and Busquets going up; Coaching Spanish Soccer

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then, you have a real 1-4-3-3, and this happens when the team is attacking. Less with the “wrong footed” wingers, but it can happen at any moment of the match. This is not very usual (as starting team), but what does happen very often is that Villa is on the left side, and Torres is the Striker; then, Iniesta goes to the right but, obviously, he’s not a “real” Winger and with his natural movement moves from outside to inside to find Iniesta and Torres. The left side works in a normal way (WNG+FB), but now, the right side is totally opened for Arbeloa. In fact, nobody plays there; Iniesta is not as wide as the other side, so each side are different. They’ll look for combinations for Arbeloa having a “fast lane”, because nobody is covering the area.

There are more possibilities, of course, like Xavi passing to Villa and Alba overlapping, or putting an inside ball to Villa for the back-pass to Torres or Xavi or Iniesta; or maybe passing the ball inside to Iniesta, while Arbeloa is closer to give support and cross, this creates many options. With the original disposition (wrong-footed), you’ll find that when playing with a Striker, that this player is “living” at the edge of the off-side position. Coaching Spanish Soccer

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The first thought will be to always find the run of Torres/Villa; if not, start again.

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5. THE STRIKER (OR NOT) I don’t remember any match of Spain without a Striker; in fact, I think nobody has seen that. But this changed when Spain started the road to EURO12. The first match, against Italy and with all the media, fans, etc. wondering if Torres or Llorente would be a starter, Fàbregas appeared. He played (and not only in this match), a very similar role to Messi at Barça. That means a Striker that is never too close to the Keeper to profit from bad saves or similar after a long range shot, or a Striker that runs in the direction of the corner, to take a ball and cross it for a teammate arriving in the box, nothing like that. This position (or better, this role), is called the “false 9” because the player starts in the place where a “normal” Striker would be. But, from there on, there are no more coincidences. It’s a Midfielder, but “dressed” with the “suit” that Strikers wear. You have to think that in the possession style football it is where the idea of “team” goes to the top, more than any other way of playing football. The constant movement of players around the pitch can only have sense if they know why and how; if the players understand the importance of the constant movement in order to find the right space and the right time behind Defenders, then, everything becomes easier. As written before, Xavi decides when to finish the attack; so, it’s not necessary that this or this player is in a good position to receive the ball, but simply, someone (whoever) is needed, and they will get the ball. This makes a “new” midfielder that is really appreciated. As more people are able to make combinations with the ball, it will be easier to keep the ball. At the same time, this new player isn’t just in one position; sometimes the Centre-Backs of the other team will have nobody to mark, because the player has dropped off to help. And this creates a lot doubts to the defenders: Who must follow the “9”? Must we follow him? There are too many questions and problems for the Defenders.

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As written in previous chapters, one of the things created when this “9” is dropping, is the superiority (4v2 or 5v3, or other). Midfielders can combine with him (and vice versa), and you’ll find 2 or 3 opponents in the middle that don’t know exactly what to do. As the players on the outside (that means the team with the ball), can see everything, they can decide, at any moment, which is better: a pass between Defenders, switch the play to the other side, a back pass, or to open space. In the picture you can see the 4v2 situation created when the Striker drops off to help the Midfielders; as the CM (Alonso/Busquets), are giving support from behind to the AM (Xavi) and LW (Iniesta), when Torres arrives you can play easily in this situation. From there, play can be switched to the other side of the pitch or, put a ball splitting the Centre Backs of the other team. In any case, the situation will always be dangerous. If the ball is sent to the other side, which is the weaker side of the defending team, it can be a very clear 1v1 situation for Silva; meaning that the closet CB should cover, leaving many gaps inside their defensive system.

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) If the ball is sent splitting the CB, then the best option is for the player to score, as normally he will be alone in front of the Goalkeeper. The biggest problem for the pair of CM (Defensive Midfielders) of the other team; is if they go for the ball, a lot of space can be given on the other side; if they don’t, Xavi can dictate whatever he prefers and look for the better option without any kind of pressure. The next picture shows one of the options when the “False 9” is dropping. The CB is following him and creates a big hole in the middle of their defensive system; a fast combination between Fàbregas and Xavi can put the ball through for Silva, who can arrive from either side, in front of the Defender or behind him. That will make the rest of players (Fàbregas, Xavi, or Iniesta) arrive for a second chance if the first shoot wasn’t successful.

Playing with a “false” nine is an option, but not the main one. Normally, Spain will play with one Striker (if Torres is fit, he’ll be the starter). But, as usual, nothing in Spain is like what it looks. Talking about Torres is talking about a very fast Striker, able to make a lot of runs (diagonally or with the ball into the space); also, Torres is very fast with the ball and has a very Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) good definition. He’s not a static player waiting for a cross from one side or the other, and he can’t be static waiting for crosses because he’s not one of the best when heading. Similar to Villa: both can run, score with accuracy, able to play with both feet, good vision and anticipation. But not the kind of players that "hide” inside the box or the Goalkeeper’s pocket, just in order to profit from any ball. As a fact, Fàbregas (as a false nine), or Llorente (as a real one), are more the “B” and “C” plan. Llorente was considered to be more the second option, as he’s a tall, classical Striker, with very good body, shielding balls, heading, etc. Now, it looks like that situation has changed. If Torres or Villa are not fit or, Del Bosque considers that the rivals will do this or that, then Fábregas becomes the first option, even if that means to send Torres to the bench. It happened in EURO12; I’ll bet it will happen again in WC in Brazil next 2014. No doubt about it.

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6. THE DEFENDERS There are many theories about defending; the vast majority say that to win you must have a solid defensive system. Sun Tzu (“The art of War”) said that “Invincibility lies in the defense, the possibility of victory in the attack”. There were other managers that said that the best attack was a good defense. Johan Cruyff always said that he wouldn’t mind at any moment that his team concedes 5 goals... if they were able to score 6 or more (“We would win and it would be also very entertaining for the spectators to watch 11 goals!”). The LOTG say that the winner of the match will be the team that scores more goals when the match finishes but, sometimes, it looks like that the winner will be the team with less goals against. In any case, no matter which philosophy is applied, defenders have, more and more of a very important role. The first that you’ll notice with the Spanish Defenders is that only Piqué (1,92), is a tall player. Puyol is just 1,78 and Alba is 1,70. But they are very, very fast. In fact, Alba and Puyol started as Forwards; Alba was a Winger (he just moved to FB after Unai Emery arrived to Valencia CF, so, not too long ago), while Puyol was Striker at his hometown club of La Pobla de Segur. When he arrived at Barcelona, he was sent to Midfield and, later, as RFB. Frank Rijkaard was the Manager who put him is the position of CB. Defenders always needed to be fast but, in the particular case of Spain, it’s more than ever. Playing so far from the box when the team is attacking means that, when the ball is lost and there is a fast counter, players have to be very well positioned, first, and of course, be very fast running backwards. Too much space behind them means that, if they aren’t fast, the opportunity of scoring for the opponents will be higher and higher. And, as we have seen, Spain has a lot of clean sheets. So, it’s very probable that having quick Defenders help. When defending, they are in a Flat Four position. If the ball is closer to one of them, he will pressure the ball carrier and the other three will align. The player behind will be the one that normally will cover this first defender. Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) Normally, also, in 2v2 situations (FB+DM/WNG v WNG+AM), the FB will follow the player that goes to the outside and the DM/WNG will follow the ball if it goes to the inside. This can sound common knowledge, but if you remember the Netherlands in the WC2010, the FB never followed the outside player, nor the inside player; the aim for the “orange” was to keep the Back Four shape. Spain was different: if the ball goes to the outside, the second player will keep this position until the end of the play. Really, it’s the classic concept of the Zonal Marking system: Follow your player until he leaves your zone. Someone will keep the area while this is happening!

If the Winger is beaten, the FB will cover for him, while the DM takes the place of the FB and the WNG goes to keep the position of the DM. It can be, and it depends on the situation on the pitch, that the WNG goes to FB position and the DM remains. The next two pictures show how are the Spanish Defenders on the pitch according to the position of the ball and the carrier. The first is when the attack is coming from one of the sides and, the second one is when the player is central. In both cases, the other players in the Defensive line keep the shape and continue with the flat line. The players are flat, meaning that Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) all they are on the same line, to keep a clear offside line. This line is given by the defender that provides cover and the others will have to adapt to it. Why this player? Well, his function is to be ready to provide cover (he will be the first one to act), so, he wouldn’t be in a position to monitor where the offside line is; the other players are not “immediate intervention”, so, they can see where the ball and the other players are and, move according to that. In the picture below, the CB offering cover can’t see his teammates; but they can see him; so, it’s normal that the other two players (Second CB and LFB), are positioning according to it.

The next picture is quite similar; CB is marking the player, he can go right or left; Defenders know what the most normal thing that can happen is. If the Attacker is left-footed, normally he will go to the left; so, the cover must be given by the FB; if the Attacker is a right-footed, normally he’ll go to the right. In this case, the other CB will provide cover. So, the other players will keep the offside line according to this.

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When the team is attacking, the two CB stay at the halfway line, keeping the defensive shape. One of the DM’s will also stay closer to them. Normally, this player will be Busquets, playing a very similar role to the one he plays for FC Barcelona; but this in not strict, meaning that, if for any reason Busquets has moved forward, Alonso will keep the balance of the team. The next picture shows what happens in that case; CBs are quite open and one of the DM comes to cover the space created.

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The FB will go up a lot of times; as explained in previous chapters, when the Wingers move from outside to inside (when playing wrong-footed wingers), the space on the flanks will be used by the FB, especially the left side. Arbeloa (when he plays as RFB), is more of a defender than “staying” in a Winger position, while Alba (LFB), is a defender that “arrives” from the back. This has no relation with the fact that Alba was a Winger and Arbeloa wasn’t. Its only how each one of them play; when Alba was playing for Gimnàstic or Valencia as a Winger, he played exactly the same; mainly, he needs space to exploit and run; Arbeloa is more of a player that receives the ball and crosses. Also, Alba is really much faster than Arbeloa, and you’ll notice that when the team is attacking; Arbeloa will go up, but not as quick “breaking” into space. If he is opposite to the ball position, he’ll drop a little bit; it won’t be a Flat Three, together with the CB; he will be more aligned with the DM (it doesn’t matter if one is on the centre of the pitch and the other is on the flank); as he’s not as fast as the others and has to keep his position better, in order to come back when the ball is lost. With Alba it is different; he’s so fast that he can go up, the ball is lost and he’ll be able to recover to his position again; and also, if the ball is on his side, you can see him tackling, after running 50 or 60 meters. He’s one of Coaching Spanish Soccer 32 ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

the fastest FB I’ve seen in my life and, as a former Winger, he crosses the ball very well, no matter who is there for a header, a volley or similar. In fact, when Spain won the WC2010, Ramos and Capdevila were the FB; Alba is very similar to the last one; so, if Puyol continues playing in the National Team (at least, until the WC2014; then, he will retire from NT; he wanted to do it after WC2010, and Del Bosque asked him to continue), it’s going to be very possible to see a Defense with Ramos, Piqué, Puyol and Alba; that means two very fast FB, and also the kind of FB that break with long runs coming from behind. More danger for the opponents, but also a more concentrated attack for Spain, which may give more chances to the opponents to score with these attack minded offensive FB’s.

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7. THE GOALKEEPER When talking about modern football, it is said that the Goalkeeper is the last defender, and the first attacker. All the teams that have dominated the game for a certain period of time (Club level or National Team level), have had an excellent goalie. Sometimes, these Goalkeepers were considered the best in the World at that time. Banks for England, Maier for Bayern Munich and Germany, Clemence for Liverpool, Schmeichel for Manchester United and Denmark or Valdés for Barcelona are examples of this. Spain has in the squad three of the best Goalkeepers in the World (Casillas, Valdés and Reina), with a fourth one coming from behind (De Gea), and with a lot of people considering Iker Casillas the best in the World in his position. More than the saves he does, it’s his personality on and off the pitch which makes him one of the greatest; EURO08 and EURO12 saw a penalty shootout; in both cases, Spain won, because the GK was Casillas (8 penalties together, only 4 were goal). Right now he has been capped more than 140 times. Still young for a GK (He’s just 31 years old), which means that he could get to 200 matches with Spain if there’s no injuries and the National Manager (whoever he is), continue to select him. Probably the best in goalie, although he misses a little bit when trying to catch aerial balls. The other big issue is when playing with the feet. While Reina or Valdés are graduates from “La Masia” (both born in 1982), with Franz Hoek being the GK Coach for several years, Casillas is a product of Real Madrid. Coming from Barcelona, in this case, means that the Goalies are not afraid of playing with the ball at their feet, so, even under pressure; the ball will continue to be in possession of the team when there’s a back pass. Whereas Casillas is different; he doesn’t have this habit, so he doesn’t feel as comfortable as others are with the ball; if there’s a back pass and theres not much time on the ball he’ll clear the ball without any problem (the same as he does when playing for Madrid). Also, because the way the Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) team plays, he has to be positioned for long periods out of the goal, as the Spaniards have the possession of the ball, and it goes from right to left or left to right. So, the concentration needed here is higher, as he is saving less than when he plays for Madrid. As a principle, Spain will start playing from the back, so it means that Casillas will be the first. Again as he doesn’t have the accuracy of Valdés or Reina, in the case of closer opponents the kick service will be long. When I say closer, it doesn’t mean to be marking, just not so far. When catching the ball (from a cross or from a shot), most of the time the first option is to look for a long punt to Torres/Villa; if not, and there isn’t any other option, he’ll wait until his teammates are well positioned and will start with the build-up from the back once again.

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8. THE “BOSS” When talking about the success of any team (no matter which sport), it is obvious to refer to the Manager. In the Spanish case it’s not only one. There are two. The first, who got the EURO08, was Luis Aragonés; the second one, who conquered the WC2010 and the EURO12, is Vicente del Bosque. Both have more in common with each other that you would think.

Aragonés played the vast majority of his career for Atlético de Madrid, while Del Bosque played for the other team in the Capital of Spain, Real Madrid. Both were Midfielders, and both were quality players. Aragonés Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) was also very good with free kicks (a lot of people still remember him scoring for Atlético in the CL final against Bayern Munich (1974). Unfortunately for his side, the Germans equalized the match and, when replayed two days later, Bayern clashed (4-0) Atlético). So, being creative players, with good skills and ball movement, is not strange that the National Team play that way. To be honest, for several years, all the Grassroots Teams of Spain have played this style, based on ball possession, so when a new Manager is appointed, the idea is that he is not adverse to this type of football. Aragonés was in charge from 2004 (after the defeat in the EURO04, where Spain failed during the qualification pool). He was the manager in WC06 (Germany), where Spain was beaten by France in the round of 8. Since 1984, Spain has never passed this round. And yet he qualified the team for EURO08; some months before the Final Tournament he announced that he would retire after the competition, regardless of the results. Del Bosque was appointed a few days later (End of 2007), to be the next Manager for Spain. It wasn’t an easy job for either of them. Being as popular as football is in Spain, you can imagine that there is a lot of media involved in it. So, every decision taken by the managers is more than analyzed, with a lot of  journalists in favour of it, and others against it. Remember that “Spain is different”, Still. The decision that made Aragonés quite (if not a lot), unpopular (especially in the areas close to Real Madrid), was not calling up Raul for the EURO08. He was, at that time, the most capped player (102), the top scorer (44), the Captain and, also considered a symbol for the team and for all the country. Some considered this a good decision, as his performance was decreasing; other people considered it a “disaster”. Spain won the EURO and critics had to stop. What could happen if Raul was there? We’ll never know. Del Bosque wasn’t questioned over the squad (of course, always you call up players, there will always be some people saying yes to this, no to that). He was questioned about their style of playing! As mentioned before, Spain Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) started to play more with the brain and less with the heart when Aragonés arrived. The success of FC Barcelona (won the CL 2006, 2009 and 2011), has made the squad plentiful of players from the Catalan side: Valdés, Piqué, Puyol, Busquets, Xavi, Iniesta, Fàbregas, Pedro and Villa are regularly there (and the “new” Alba, who spent some of his grassroots years at Barça), with mostly of them starters usually. This means that the way of playing for Barça and Spain are very, very, similar. And, as it happens with the “Blaugranas”, it happened with “La Roja”. Spain lost. And not a regular match. It was the first match in the pool of the WC2010 in South Africa, against Switzerland (1-0). Immediately, the voices of those that didn’t like this way of playing could be heard: “This is for Clubs, not for National Teams”; “Spain is the fury, not the tiki-taka”; “because there are so many Barcelona’s players, it doesn’t mean we have to play like them”. But Del Bosque stayed firm and calm: “We have arrived here doing that so, we won’t change”, he said. Well, the rest of the story is well known. Spain won the WC and the EURO12 last summer, without changing their style. For those that like a little bit of history, Del Bosque was the last Manager which won the CL (2002), for Real Madrid. With players like Casillas, Zidane, Beckham, Raul, and Roberto Carlos, (The team known as “Galácticos”). He was fired (in fact, his contract wasn’t renewed), after wining La Liga in 2003. According to some reports from Madrid, “he wasn’t too “galáctico” enough for this team”. He is just 62 (born December, 1950) and, as it’s typical in the RFEF (Spanish FA), the contract is renewed from competition to competition. So, he has the job until the WC2014 in Brazil. For some players, it will be the end of their career with the National team (Xavi will be 34, and he said he wants to finish with the MNT after it; Puyol wanted to retire after WC2010, but Del Bosque convinced him to continue until EURO12 and now, later, as he couldn’t play because of injury, to Brazil; Alonso and Villa will be 33 at the end of 2014). Del Bosque will be 64. Is it time to retire for an amazing group of players and manager? Of course, Piqué, Ramos, Alba, Iniesta, Busquets, Fàbregas, Javi Martínez, Cazorla, or the youngers like Isco, Thiago Thiago Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) or De Gea will have a lot to say, but life won’t be the same without the others.

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9. THE KEY PLAYERS A very typical starting team for Spain would be: Casillas (GK); Ramos (RFB), Piqué (CB), Puyol (CB), Alba (LFB); Alonso (DM), Busquets (DM); Silva (RWNG/RAM), (RWNG/RAM), Xavi (CAM), Iniesta (LWNG/LAM); Torres (ST).

This could be the Starting lineup mentioned before, with the typical 1-4-23-1 formation of Spain In a football team everybody is important; there are 11 players on the pitch and 5,7 or 12 more on the bench, and all of them play an important role. We’ll take a look about them. Starting from the back, Casillas is the first one. He is the captain, the most capped, and one of the most influential on the team (inside and outside the pitch). He’s a warranty in goal (I don’t remember a match where Spain lost because of the mistakes of Casillas, at least, any important match), and his saves, some of them in crucial moments, like the 1v1 against Robben in the Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) Final of the WC2010, helped to keep the team in the match. And, of course, the penalties he saved, as mentioned, that allowed Spain to go to the next stage of the competition. Among the Defenders, Puyol is “The Marsall”. His winning character, his effort (such as times when he’s injured, and he returns several weeks before the doctors recommendations), his headed goals in special moments (the SF against Germany is an example), and also the fact that he’s considered a very “clean” defender (very difficult to remember a dirty tackle), not getting too many faults against him, nor yellow or red cards, making him the perfect example for a lot of fans. In the middle of the pitch, Xavi is the pace, the rhythm, the “tempo”. He’s “Il metronomo”, the one who dictates when to accelerate the game, when to slow it down, always looking for a space where to pass the ball. Here, there, pass, go, pass, pass, an amazing player. Together with him, Andrés Iniesta (“The Wizard of Oz), has become the unpredictable player. His runs, dribbling past 3 or 4 opponents in a rush of 10-15 meters is normal; also, the way he goes past 5 or 6 opponents in a tight space, with the ball as it if it was part of his feet, which has made him one of the most loved players, everywhere in the World. Finally, we have Torres, who is a very good footballer, creates lots of chances. but, if you haven’t a good finisher then, it’s all for nothing. And Torres is a finisher. All his life, since he was 11-12 years old, he has been scoring goals. More or less, sometimes depending which coach he has more (Rafa Benitez, before in Liverpool, now at Chelsea), or less (Di Matteo, at Stamford Bridge). And it doesn’t mean the coach is guilty; simply, as everybody, some players have a better relationship or feeling for some coaches and, of course, it helps. These are in my opinion, the most important but, the squad has other players, with secondary roles but, not for that, these players have to be forgotten. On goal, we have Reina and Valdés. Both are born in 1982 and spent some years together at FC Barcelona. Their quality was so good and they were Coaching Spanish Soccer

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something never seen before: when they were playing for the second team of Barça, they played two matches each one (home and away). Think about that the second team plays in the 2 nd  Spanish Division, which means professional level. At these stages, one GK is starter and, the other waits for his turn on the bench. Reina is also the showman of the team. His speeches and presentations of the other players have become popular after every Title conquered by the Spaniards. The kind of colleague most would like to have.

The Spanish squad for EURO-12

Ramos, Piqué, Alba, Juafran, Arbeloa and Albiol are at the Defence. There were doubts about Ramos and Piqué playing together as CB in the last WC, as it’s said that their personal relationship is not very good. On the pitch, their performance was excellent. Being as young as they are (26 for Ramos, 25 for Piqué), means they can enjoy a lot more years in which they can play together. If Reina is the “showman”, Piqué is the “Joker”. It’s strange, during a week, not to hear something funny happening and Gerard Piqué is close to 100% to be involved in. Alba plays as LFB after Capdevila who is no longer in the squad, we have explained about him. Arbeloa and Juanfran are used when one of the others are not fit, being the first one used as first option as FB. Albiol played in the past but, as he’s not playing for his Club, it looks like he’s going to be called up less and less. In Midfield, we have Alonso, Busquets, Fàbregas, Cazorla, and Javi Martínez, together with Mata, Pedro or Navas. Cazorla looks like he could Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) be the new Xavi when he retires. His campaign with the Gunners in the Premier League is really impressive. Martínez can play in the position of Alonso or Busquets; as Busquets, he can be used as CB if needed (in fact, he did it with his former Club, Athletic Bilbao, before moving to Bayern). Mata, Pedro and Navas are the men used in the flanks when Spain needs to move to another way of playing, with real right footed wingers. Fàbregas, as explained, can do a lot of roles. He can be a DM, an AM (as he was at Arsenal) or, also, the “false” nine, giving all these options for the team. Finally, we have the strikers: Villa and Llorente. Llorente is a classic Striker, Very tall, strong, good finisher. Used a lot as plan “B”, when the situation gets complicated and it’s needed to put balls inside or closer to the box. He can win a lot of these balls, and serve them to the Midfielders to play with the Wingers. Llorente’s role is more important when Pedro and Navas are on the pitch, they will cross and look for headers. Villa can play as a real Striker (as he was most of his life), but also as a LWNG. He’s doing mainly that role for FC Barcelona; with the National Team, he can play both: he can be started as Striker, or move to the left as WNG; in this case, Iniesta goes to the right side. So, there are many, many options for this group of players. Depending who is on the pitch these options will change and will be different, but having the “passing style” as the “idea” for them. Finishing will be different, but sure they find ways to do it.

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10. THE CLUBS It’s obvious that producing such good players it’s not a casualty. It’s also true that some players are “born” and developed in the streets but this is less and less common. In South America or Africa you can find a lot of kids playing football in the streets. This was also a normal thing in Spain until the end of the 70s. Today, only in small villages where everybody knows everybody can you find kids playing, but not in large cities. Not anymore. The main place where kids play football is in the Clubs. We will talk in another chapter about the Structure of the Competitions in Spain and its influence on the development of the players. The first thing that we have to notice is that Clubs are professional, because the first team is a professional one. There are no large Clubs like in US run professionally (Full time coaches and directors), dedicated to grassroots. You’ll find also, with the exception of some very old Clubs run by Schools or by a factory (and we are talking about a few number), that all them have a first team, that can play in Spanish “La Liga” or, in 3 rd Division or lower. The second thing is that coaches aren’t professional. Only a few Clubs (and it’s something that had started just 10 years ago), have professional (fulltime) coaches for their grassroots teams. And we are talking about the Top Clubs. Clubs in 2nd “B” or 3rd Division don’t have that. Maybe they can have a Technical Director (or the name you want to give), full-time employed if there are too many teams within the Club, but that’s all. And coaches only work for one Club. There aren’t coaches running one team in one Club and another team in another Club. Another thing is that the majority of Clubs in 1 st and 2nd Division have their own facilities for Grassroots teams. Maybe the Stadium, where the 1st team plays, is owned by the city, but the training facilities are owned by the Club. Of course, when we move to lower Divisions, in smaller cities and quarters, the facilities are owned by the city. Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) Big Clubs will have a 1 st Team, a 2nd, sometimes a 3 rd, and then from U-19 to U-9, 1 Team per age group; sometimes, they can have 2 in the same age group. The smaller Clubs will have 1 st Team, U-19 (“Juveniles, from 17 to 19 y.o.), U-16 (“Cadetes”, 15-16), U-14 (“Infantiles”, 13-14), U-12 (“Alevines”, 11-12), U-10 (“Benjamines”, 9-10) and U-8 (“Benjamines”, 7-8); this can vary from city to city, as some small cities don’t have enough kids for one category; then, some cities very close to each other (10-15 km.), make a Club all together, so all kids can play football. It’s very normal to see players always in the same Club all their life, starting at 8 or 9 years old and finishing when they are older than 30. More and more Clubs have also girls teams, as the sport is becoming quite popular (for playing, because for watching games has been quite interesting always; a Club like FC Barcelona has around 30% of ladies as members (“socios”) of the Club). In the Top Clubs, all their Coaches have a badge. Mainly, UEFA “Pro”, but also with UEFA “A” and “B” (B not very often). In the small Clubs, as they are also in the lowest divisions (grassroots), Licenses aren’t needed, and also is quite difficult to go to courses, because of time and distances. Most of these grassroots coaches are the players of the first team. You won’t see parents coaching (unless he was coaching before his kid was in the team), but there aren’t “volunteer parents” as you can see, for example, in US. In the small Clubs, kids have 2 sessions per week and 1 match on the weekend; for older ages, maybe 3 sessions per week At the big Clubs, until U-10, they have 2 sessions per week; at U-14 they can have 3-4; U-16 can be 4-5 and older than this 5 or more per week. The following table can help to understand a little bit more what it’s being said. TEAMS/AGE “A” TEAM “B” TEAM U-19 (Juvenil) U-18 (Juvenil) U-17 (Juvenil) U-16 (Cadete) Coaching Spanish Soccer

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1 1 (2) 1 (2) 1 (2-3) 1 (2-3) 1 (2-3) 1 (2-3)

0 1 0 1 0 1 0

The numbers show how many teams in each category. In the case of small clubs, it’s not always possible to have a team in each category, according to how big the city is, etc. What is shown here is that the big Clubs have, at least, 1 team per age group; when they are very young, they can have more than 1, especially when playing 7v7 (U-12 and youngers). Also, there are differences between staff members for one kind of Club and another. For a normal U-14 team, in a big club you have: 1 Coach 1 Assistant Coach 1 Physiotherapist 1 Kit Manager 1 Administrator (Team Delegate) Also, you have to add 1 Technical Director 2-3 Goalkeepers Coaches 2-3 Fitness Coaches 1-2 Doctors A normal U-14 team in a small Club will have 1 Coach 1 Administrator The rest of the staff will vary according to budget and similar. Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) More than this, mainly given by the budget of the Clubs, the big difference comes about the style of training and playing. You’ll find that the vast majority of Clubs have a defined style of play for all their grassroots teams, but not for the 1st Team; this one plays according to the Manager that they have, but the youngsters mainly play the same way. Clubs have a philosophy, and coaches are hired according to what they know or understand. The planning is done according to the age and, in general, the coaches of every team run the sessions according to that. Most of the Clubs, at this level, if not all, have a Database of drills and exercises so, the coaches, when preparing the sessions choose the drills according to the theme of the day. When kids get older, they go the gym following strict and individualized plans, according to their needs. Sessions, obviously, vary with the age; at younger ages, there’s a lot of technique, but tactics are very soon introduced; kids at 9-10 y.o. know the most important things about tactics and how to move around the pitch all together as a team. As they get older, more tactics are introduced. In small Clubs, the big difference is that, normally, every team in the Club plays in the way the coach likes to do, and also the same with the training sessions. But this is changing; now, the vast majority of Clubs have a Technical Director (that, normally, is one of the coaches), to organize practices, philosophy, ways of training, etc. In this aspect, Clubs have improved a lot. The impact of the success of FC Barcelona (at Club level), and the National Team, is so big, that actually everybody believes in the idea of having a common way for all the teams within the same Club. And of course, this is very good. Another big difference is about fees. Big Clubs don’t charge anything to the parents; also, most of them, provide education, a place for living, etc. for those young players coming from outside the area (“La Masia” of FC Barcelona is, probably, the best known example). But there aren’t “Academies” as they are in England. Every Club runs free grassroots system. There are no levels or Categories for being an “Academy”. And, as it works, and also the typical latin mentality of doing everyone by his own,

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makes that nobody never asked about that; they can imagine that the answer would be “NO”. In small Clubs, fees go from 15€ to 35€ (10 months); which means that the access to the game is quite easy for everybody; Clubs are not seen as business, and are not organized in that way. Clubs don’t have an owner (small Clubs in lower categories); they have members (“socios”), that elect the President and the Board every 4-5 years (according to regulations, etc.); the good thing of this system is that, if the Board is doing bad, you can put another person there later. The bad thing is that its quite difficult, for the same reason, that someone is investing a lot of money. What is also quite normal in Spain is that small Clubs have an agreement with the big ones; that means, the small Club receives some money and some technical support; in return, the big Club has the first option if there’s a very good player and some Clubs are interested in him. This has been for many years, the way of working of the Basque Teams (Athletic Bilbao and Real Sociedad); a big number (not 100%, but very close), of Clubs there have an agreement with one or the other Club. The other Clubs in Spain are quite similar; mainly, the agreements are with Clubs in the area/region, but it can happen that they have agreements with Clubs in other regions and, also, outside of Spain. This is giving a lot of control over players and, also, a simple mouth to ear strategy: A team with agreement with big Club plays against another team (without agreement); there’s a very good player in the second team, so a telephone call (or whatever), informing about the player; someone from the big Club will appear to scout the player, sooner or later. After that, the “trials” process goes on. But these trials are different. First thing is that players go to the trials invited by the Club. The parents don’t pay any fees and, also, if the player has to stay for a couple of days in the city, the Club will provide a place for a couple of days. Small Clubs don’t organize trials. When the season starts, there are always players that go to the session with a friend that wants to play or similar. The player who is in the Club has always preference to stay. The philosophy, for everybody, is very clear: You were here before so, the Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) newcomer has to show that he’s better than the others; and this applies for all kind of Clubs (Top and lower; larger and smaller). I wrote before that there a lot of players with only one Club in all his career; one of the reasons it this. And everybody is proud to be part of a Club, no matter a very big one or a very small one. And that’s also very important. The Club is where football is played in Spain. There is a said here: You can change your wife, your job, you car or your house, but you’ll never change your feelings. And Clubs are about feelings.

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11. THE COMPETITION Latin people, and specially Spanish, are very competitive, by nature. Sometimes, too much. We don’t like losing, and that’s a fact. The first thing to notice is that there’s only one Governing Body: The Spanish FA (Real Federación Española de Fútbol, or RFEF); every region has its own FA, but they under the RFEF. Of course, anyone could organize a League, but this wouldn’t be official and the Clubs and players wouldn’t be protected by the Laws of RFEF, UEFA and FIFA. The structure is quite simple: 1 st  Division (La Liga), 2nd, 2nd  “B” (4 groups) and 3rd  (17 groups), and it works with a promotion/relegation system. These are considered “National Categories”; from there on, every Territorial FA organizes the competition according to the number of Clubs, but always with the same idea: a 1 st, 2nd, etc. Division with a promotion/relegation system; the winners in the First Territorial Division (whatever name is given), are promoted to 3 rd  National Division (and, of course, the last in the Standings there go to the Territorial competition). They aren’t closed leagues. Here is the structure, at National Level First Division (“La Liga) Second Division

(20 teams) (22 teams)

Second “B” Division

(4 groups of 20 teams)

Third Division

(17 groups of 20 teams)

For the Second “B” and the Third Division, there’s a “Play-off” system, where the winners are promoted to the upper category. At Amateur levels (meaning the Territorials FA), it is not very different; as an example, here is the Catalan FA: 1st Catalan Division

(2 groups of 18 teams)

2nd Catalan Division

(6 groups of 18 teams)

3rd Catalan Division

(17 groups of 18 teams)

4th Catalan Division

(30 groups from 14 to 18 teams)

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) As mentioned, every Territorial FA organizes the competition as its convenience, but the structures are very similar. For grassroots, the structure changes a little bit, but not too much. There are only National League for “Juveniles” (U-19), with 7 groups all around Spain, called “División de Honor” and a second tier called “Liga Nacional” (17 groups, one for each Territorial FA), again with a promotion/relegation system; from there on, every FA organizes the competition, but, again with the same structure of 1st, 2nd, Divisions and promotion/relegation. For the rest of Categories (Cadetes, Infantiles, etc.), the competition is only in the Area of the FA, with Spanish Finals for Cadetes and Infantiles. This is how the competitions are structured. As before, the example is the Catalan FA: “JUVENILES” (U17-U18-U19) División de Honor (7 groups of 16 teams; all Spain) Liga Nacional Juvenil (17 groups of 16-18 teams; all Spain) This is the only category played as a League in all the country. For what it refers to Catalan FA, we have Preferente

(4 groups of 16 teams)

1st Division

(13 groups of 16 teams)

2nd Division

(30 groups of 14-16 teams)

“CADETES” (U15-U16) Divisió d’Honor Preferente

(1 group of 16 teams) (4 groups of 16 teams)

1st Division

(16 groups of 16 teams)

2nd Division

(32 groups of 14-16 teams)

“INFANTILES” (U13-U14) Preferente (5 groups of 16 teams) 1st Division

(16 groups of 16 teams)

2nd Division

(46 groups of 14-16 teams)

“ALEVINES” (U11-U12) 1st Division (7 groups of 16 teams) Coaching Spanish Soccer

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(15 groups of 16 teams)

3rd Division

(40 groups of 14-16 teams)

4th Division

(48 groups of 14-16 teams)

“BENJAMINES” (U9-U10) 1st Division

(8 groups of 16 teams)

2nd Division

(27 groups of 14-16 teams)

3rd Division

(50 groups of 14-16 teams)

“PRE-BENJAMINES” (U7-U8) 1st Division

(51 groups of 12-16 teams)

So, only the little ones don’t have a promotion/relegation system; there are standings, but if you are the first or the last is not decisive for the next season. The distribution is made according to geographical reasons, meaning that, teams in the same Division are put together according to city/area; this allow, in general, very short travel times. With this system, any Club can be at the Top Division for the Category concerned; everybody has the same options; of course, the Top Clubs (ProClubs) of any area are always at the 1 st Division, but this allows to a lot of Clubs, with good working to be also there. And you can imagine, for young kids, to play against Barça, Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla or Athletic. Someone will be watching the match and, if you are good enough... you never know. In general, groups have 16 teams, playing a regular league, with home and away matches. That means 30 matches per season, running from end of September until beginning/half May. Matches are played on weekends (Saturday all day and some on Sunday morning). Some things about the main rules for these competitions, I will talk, again, about the Catalan FA, as it is the one that I know. For the others FAs, some rules can change but, in general, they are quite similar. The first thing is that for U-12 and younger (Alevines), they play 7-a-side football. Older players play full pitch (11-a-side); there are some voices in Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) the Spanish FA asking to play 8v8 and not 7v7, as it is considered a better transition to 11v11; but, many of the people in the Territorial’s FA are not convinced yet, so, at this point is in a mute question. For 7v7 matches are divided in quarters and every player must, at least, play a complete quarter (unless injury, of course). Players can re-entry after being substituted. For 11v11 matches, players can also re-entry after substitution, but it is not compulsory that all players listed in the match sheet participate in the match. The next table shows the playing time, together with number of players and pitch dimensions for each category AGE U7/U8 U9/U10 U11/12 U13/U14 U15/U16 U17/U18/U19

TIME 4x10 4x12 4x15 2x35 2x40 2x45

PLAYERS 7v7 7v7 7v7 11V11 11v11 11v11

PITCH 60x35 60x35 60x35 Full Pitch Full Pitch Full Pitch

A very important point is what is referring to players going up and down. As the categories are for two years (players have an “Infantil” or “Cadete” license, not U-13 or U-14), you could put all your older team in the lowest tier if needed; to avoid that, only 3 players can go down and also, there’s a minimum of 20 hours between two consecutive matches for the same player. Another key point is that Clubs are only allowed to have one team in the same tier and group (Unless it’s the last tier). As Teams in the same category are into pools of groups according to Geographical areas, it means that if you want to have 4 teams in 4 different groups it’s very, very expensive. The most normal thing (as noted previously), is to have 1 or 2 teams in the Category (i.e. “Cadetes”). And the teams are formed according to ages; so, all the U-13 players are together in the same team Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) (“Infantiles”), and the U-14 are also “Infantiles”, but always going together; unless a player is quite good for his age, he won’t be playing for the upper team. And, of course, this is a technical decision. Managers, coaches, etc. will decide if a player can be promoted or not. As you can see, there are no “recreational” or “travel” teams or similar. Simply, every Club decides which kind of competition they can play. More players, facilities, budget; hoping you can try to be at the top. Less of all this, you’ll probably will be at the lowest levels. But you never know. It’s a question a good working. There are many Clubs working quite well with not too much things, and they are at the Top Division or, maybe, a Second Tier. During season there are no Tournaments. Only when the competition stops (Christmas Holidays and Easter Holidays), it’s possible to organize them. There are two reasons; the first one, as explained, is that all teams and Clubs are in competition, so you can’t organize a tournament because nobody will go: all they have matches. The second is that pitches are full of teams. Matches start at 9:00AM and they run all day, until 9:00PM; so, no place for it. These are the system of Club competition, but there is another one: the Selection’s competition. The Spanish FA organizes every year U-16 and U18

National

Championship.

Why

these

ages?

Easy.

International

competitions (UEFA) are for U-17 and U-19, so the kids are scouted the year before and, it’s supposed that the majority of them will go next year for the U-18 and U-20 FIFA Tournament. Regional Selections meet twice per year (yes, you guessed: Christmas and Easter!), in pools or 8 Teams (4 are U-16, 4 are U-18, but they are the same Territorial FA, so, costs are cheaper); the second tournament is played with the same formula, but different teams; this means that every Territorial FA will play against other 6; with the total of points won, the better 4 will play the Final pool of the Spanish Championship in May. Having all this teams together, the Spanish FA send the Managers and Staff of the U-17 and U-19 NT to these Tournaments and it’s quite easy to identify the best players. Also, the idea is that every Manager/Coach/Scout goes to a different place every time, so

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the Technical Committee can have different views about the same player, and, of course, this helps a lot. Also, think about having 6-8 teams together: it’s having more than 100 players together; so, a large database can be created and used. So, for the Managers and Coaches is easier to find a player, and to send someone to check how this player is improving.

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12. THE SCOUTING SYSTEM I didn’t mention before another competition. I did it deliberately. It’s the Spanish Championship U-12. There are two of them. One is organized by the LFP (Spanish League), with all the teams of 1 st  Division. The other is organized by the Spanish FA, with all the Territorials FAs participating. The set-up is similar: pools, quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals. All teams together in a place for 3 days. The important thing is that Coaches of the National Staff are attending the matches; this means, again, that the players, since they are very young, are followed by Regional and National Coaches. And this is one of the advantages of being everybody in the same place. Being everybody together, you can know where the best players are. Also, the sites of the different FAs provide (in general), complete information about matches, scores, standings and players. So, you just need to check and will see what are the most attractive matches, with the most attractive players, at what time the match is played and, city/stadium where the match is. Let’s go, more detailed, with the Club’s system for scouting. You have to notice that this is a general idea, and it can vary from Club to Club, according to population, budget, etc. The first thing is that the Club says to the scout the kind of player they’re looking for. And the kind of player they want is according to Club philosophy. So, it won’t be any surprise if I say that Barcelona looks for very talented, gifted players, no matter if they are bigger or smaller. Ath. Bilbao (that has a policy of only having Basque players or players that were raised in the Basque Country), wants more “physical” players. Madrid looks for a mix between the “physical” and the “gifted”, with a higher tendency to the skilful player. But, in general, the Spanish Clubs has turned the head to the intelligent player, with an easy way to play, able to understand clearly the tactical details and with a high degree of versatility. In today’s football is the capacity of players to adapt to different positions. I want to remember just one thing: A few weeks ago (October, 2012), Barcelona played against Madrid at Camp Nou. Central Defenders (Piqué and Puyol were injured); Abidal, that can play the position if needed, was also out because of his liver transplant. So, what did Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) Vilanova do? He put Adriano there. He never played in that position before; he’s quite “short” (1,73), so, one can think: What is he doing? The answer was very easy. He’s very, very fast and the big problem was the long balls behind defenders: Adriano will arrive. And it worked! Maybe you can be surprised, but early specialization is normal in Spain, In all aspects. They only play football (or whatever sport they play), as the seasons are all running September-May. And, at 12-13, they are CB or RFB or DM. Goalkeepers go further. Spain has been always a country with a lot of good GK, so, it’s quite normal to find an U-9 with two “full time” Goalkeepers. Kids want to be in goal. They love Casillas, Valdés or Reina, as they loved Zubizarreta, Arkonada or Iribar. No option. For this, as one of the mains reasons, when scouts go the different pitches to watch matches it’s not only what a player is doing; it’s also to be able to discern what other kind of things can do this player on the pitch. You can have 3 Strikers in your team, and you see another Striker, who is not better than the ones you have; but he could adapt (for whatever reason seen on the pitch), to be CB or a WNG; then, this player becomes very interesting. But, in general, the first think that scouts check for a player is speed, physical speed. Fast players are the best considered. If a player is not fast running, then the scouts check for other kind of speed: the “mental” (thinking, decision making speed), and the “execution” speed. In general, Clubs have a very strong network of scouts in the area/region where they are (and that includes the agreements made with other Clubs that I mentioned in a previous chapter). Then, they have 1-2 scouts for every region (depending on population and distances, the scout can cover 1 or 2 regions), and also, the Clubs linked. Then, they have international scouts, of course according to budget and possibilities. In general they are non full-time people. As mentioned several times, matches are on weekend so, people are not working and they can attend matches. It’s quite usual that you can see one of them watching 1 match on Saturday at 10:00AM, another one at Noon (in another place), etc. And, the same on Sunday. It’s a lot of matches that can be watched in a weekend. Sometimes, is the same Club that sends the scout to an specific match. They received news Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) about a player so, as fast as they are more possibilities if the player is good enough. Of course, the system is not perfect, but it works quite well. A lot of players are scanned every year; sometimes, a player is not considered good enough this season, but, next season he is; that’s why a lot of people check and check and check. Another key point is (in general, also), the discretion of the scouts. Everybody knows everybody in this world, but nobody says anything about which player they are following or, what kind of player they are looking for. There are several reasons for that. One is that, if nobody (other Club) knows about your interest for a certain player, you can negotiate easily. Another one is about players. In general, players that know that a big Club is following them tend to be more nervous and the performance is not so good. We are talking about young kids (12-15 y.o.), not an easy age. Back to National Teams, I explained about National Competitions for Regional Teams; every FA has the own Scouting system, according to population and area (Madrid, Cantabria or Asturias are Regions with just 1 province; Andalucía are 8 provinces and a big area). But, even at those younger ages, you’ll find that the Clubs in the 1 st Division (“La Liga” Clubs), are always represented. There are also some small Clubs (or less big, if you prefer), also some of these Clubs that only work with Grassroots. Of course, there are always missed players. There’s no place for everybody and, there are very good players that never went to a Regional Selection, and they played for the “A” National Team. Not so much. Not a normal thing, but it happens. But, in general, the players are mostly “under control”; from one side or another, there’s someone who has seen playing a Keeper, Defender or Striker. And there’s a rapport about the player. Scouts must send rapports to Clubs. Even the player is not considered potentially to join the Club, there must be a rapport if the player is good enough. Because, suddenly, it happens: someone from a big Club (Technical Staff), is watching a match and “I like this player”; if things are well done, there will be a rapport anywhere about the player. And you never know what can happen later. Coaching Spanish Soccer

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13. TRAINING IN SPAIN (I) I’ve decided to split training in two parts for a very simple reason: In this first one I’ll talk about the organization and, in the second one, I’ll talk, more properly, about training as itself. The first thing to notice is the schedules. As I wrote before, only Top Clubs (and not all them), have full-time coaches. Also, kids finish school around 4:30PM or 5:00PM; living in big cities mean, that you’ll need close to 1 hour to arrive to the training pitch, so, it’s quite difficult to start training before 6:00PM (whatever age). Top Clubs have a lot of pitches and facilities, so, every team has its own pitch for training; normally the material is stored all together, so, the coaches only have to go and take what they need. Small Clubs in small villages are quite similar, in the aspect that there’s only one Club with 5 or 6 teams. Training 2-3 times per week, if the schedule is well prepared means that everybody (or almost), can use the full pitch for training. The material is also kept all together, so the same as before applies. But the situation is different when we talk about medium/small Clubs in medium or large cities; in these cases, you’ll find, normally, 2 teams training in the same pitch, one in each half; and when they finish, immediately another two teams go inside for training. In general, also the material is kept in the stadium. The Top Clubs are the owners of the facilities; for the rest, the vast majority are public facilities (Local Government in general, but also Regional sometimes), but, there are also some medium/small Clubs that have their own facilities for different circumstances and also, some other Clubs are the managers of the facility they use, but, as said, not too much. The amount of training it’s also according to this distribution of pitches and time. For the Top Clubs you’ll find 2 sessions/week for U-10; 3 for U-12, 4 Coaching Spanish Soccer 59 ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) for U-14 and 5 for U-16, with 6 or more for U-19. Of course, with a match at the weekend as it has been explained. Because of we explained about non full-time coaches is quite difficult, for small Clubs, that they have more than 3 sessions per week: 2 for U-14 and younger and 3 for the rest. That’s the most normal thing you can find. The next table will show a little bit better about it (sessions per week) AGE/GROUP 1st TEAM U17-U18-U19 U15-U16 U13-14 U11-12 U9-U10 U7-U8

BIG CLUB 6-7 5-6 4-5 3-4 3 2-3 2

SMALL CLUB 3-4 (2) 2-3 (4) 2 (3) 2 2 1-2 1-2

These numbers are not absolutes; they are, mainly, what happens in general. You can have a medium size club with the U-19 in the “División de Honor” or “Liga Nacional” and the Club puts all efforts into keeping them there, because it means playing against much better teams, with all the benefits of it. That’s why there is (4) in this case or (3) when talking about U15/U16. For the same reason, some amateur Clubs only have all the players for the weekend, as they are students and they don’t live in the city. The Club will have a session in mid week and another on Friday, when all the players are at home after a week away. Facilities are built with dressing rooms (everywhere); it’s supposed than the athletes are coming from home, school or working, so, they change the clothes there and, after the practices or matches they can take a shower, put “normal” clothes again and go. For the vast majority of Clubs, taking a shower after practice or match is compulsory. Only in small villages, where distances are very short, you will see players going home directly, because they’ll take the shower there. Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) When training 2 days per week, these days are, normally, Tuesday and Thursday and, for 3 days are Tuesday, Thursday and Friday. In grassroots football, the majority of matches are played on Saturday, while adults play on Sunday. Also, the stadiums have a bar where parents, friends, etc. can eat or drink something while waiting or watching matches, practices, etc. Think about football as a social element in Spain, and when you go to small villages or popular quarters in bigger cities is quite usual to find the old people of the village watching U-little matches while drinking a coffee and explaining histories about players, referees, parents, controversial matches and so on. Another common thing with the majority of Clubs is when travelling for away matches. In general, teams travel by bus. Grassroots and adults, unless both teams are from the same city or, very close cities (10-15 minutes by car, with players that can be in both cities), for long distances (more than 50km.), this travel is done by bus. There are differences in how it’s organized. For some Clubs, it doesn’t matter if you’re a young or adult team, everybody (players, parents, etc.) travel in the same bus. For other Clubs, the bus is only for players and staff. Parents, friends, etc. will travel by car if they want to attend the match. Pro-Clubs do it with all their teams, but a lot of Amateur Clubs also. There is nothing worse than parents complaining after a defeat inside a bus, together with the players and coach. So, the best way to avoid it is that it can’t happen.

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14. TRAINING IN SPAIN (II) The first that you’ll notice, when you’re watching a training session in Spain is that, in general, the ball is always present. Laps, “physical” circuits, etc. are less and less present every day, especially at grassroots level. As more the coaches are educated and, new people are having new ways of training and new methodologies are used. Also, the use of technologies is very important. You can find coaches recording the sessions and the matches, having video sessions with young kids (12-13), where the coach shows the mistakes that happen. And this is not only at the highest level. At lowest level there are more and more Clubs doing it. For the kids, it’s a very interesting experience: if you tell anyone that his position was wrong in a certain moment is one thing but, if you show him on a screen, the player realizes very soon about that. Kids learn very fast. They are able to absorb a lot of information, especially if this information is given to them in the right way and, with the correct dosage. As the kids have also a PC or similar, some information is given to them as Power Point presentations or Word documents. The use of Social networks (Twitter, Facebook), is also increasing day by day. Updates about training schedules or matches are sent via these tools to the players, and answers are back to coaches. What are the things done in a training session? Let’s break it down. At grassroots level, and, for the U-littles, there’s a lot of technique: games with ball, technical circuits, skills, etc. Programs like “Coerver” are used quite often at the top level to develop and increase the technical quality of the players. Tactics are introduced at 7-8 years old. Don’t forget that all teams are in competition every weekend so, the players must have a certain knowledge of tactics before entering the pitch for their first match. But, as said, the main part is technique. More and more, the technique is worked together with the tactics, but there are a lot of coaches who prefer, at these ages (and for older players), to separate both things. Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) There’s a big difference when teaching technique in Spain, compared to other countries. Moves (Cruyff’s, Maradona’s, Zidane’s, etc.), are not, in general, part of the teaching technique, as themselves. As said some technical programs are used, but as a helping tool, not as “the tool”. The coaching courses of the Spanish FA, when talking about “Technique”, explain about the correct use of the different parts of the feet, body and head: how to touch properly the ball, with the different parts of the feet (inside, instep, laces, etc.), or the body (chest), or the head (side, front). The idea is that the player has to master the ball. Once he can do that, he can try to do other things. Foundations are first. To teach a 7 y.o. kid to do Ronaldo’s scissors (btw, in Spain this move is called bicycle), when the player can’t just kick the ball 10 meters away is a waste of time. So, the technique is focused in passing, shooting, control of the ball, dribbling, running with ball, heading, or technique without ball (defensive technique), like interception or tackling. Of course, all this don’t mean that there’s no room for creativity. Yes, there is. But creativity is a very different concept in Spain. Here, the concept means something like “do the unexpected or do what the others don’t do”. With that, any of the “moves” written before is considered creative, if they are done at the right time, at the right moment. With this, it’s meant that, being the last defender and having the ball, you shouldn’t use (even better, you don’t have to), to beat the attacker dribbling or with any move. Doing these kinds of things is considered more “stupidity” and not “creativity”. Think about that cultures and approaches are different from country to country so, something that can be considered right in one place can be wrong in another, and vice versa. When talking about tactics, the concept of “team shape” is one of the first to be introduced, together with marking concepts, cover, etc. The same as technique, the Spanish books explain tactics in a different way; it’s all about principles and, the principles vary from country to country, also. These principles can be offensive, like counterattack, free space, support or delay or defensive, like marking, surveillance, delay, interception or pressing. Another important thing is that the concepts are out of any “formation”, meaning that players are taught about the concept of pressing; then every coach will apply the concept according to the way the team is playing. If the concept are properly taught, for a player is not a problem to move to one Coaching Spanish Soccer 63 ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) formation/system to another one, as the concepts remain always the same; the only thing that will change will be the set-up. When practising, the main tool will be the Small Sided Games (SSG), that is, drills in tight spaces (from 5x5 to 2/3 of pitch), depending on number of players, aim of the drill, age, etc. From 3v1 to 10v10+GKs, with Goals, without Goals, with Neutral players, without them, etc. the options are unlimited. Whatever kind of activity can be approached with the appropriate SSG: offensive, defensive, transitions, possession, finishing, countering, etc. Think also, because all that has been said before, the Spanish sessions are not the same as sessions in other country. The sessions are always about the “concept” (i.e. width), and then different drills are applied to look for this width. The session won’t be “Width in the final third (i.e.)”, if not, “Width”, and then we decide how to apply this width. Another different point in the Spanish training is that “progressions” have a different meaning. In Spain, when talking about progression in practices mean from the easiest to the most difficult; it doesn’t refer to number of players, as a general rule. Also, when “physical” or “fitness” training is introduced around 13-14 years old, there’s a rule: every day has a different “physical” aspect to work and, for example, technique must be worked with speed and tactics with aerobic work. With that any practice starting with 1v1 or 2v2 is an anaerobic work, while and scrimmage or similar is an aerobic work (mainly); so, different energetic systems are used and this is not according to the general rule. All this can be applied both for young and old players. In this aspect there are no differences. For older players, things are different, but not so much. Of course, there’s more fitness work (whatever kind of), but mostly of it, again, is done with the ball. Still, there are coaches working with laps, etc. but more and more the “Integrated Work” is the main for the majority of coaches, without forgetting the “Structured Microcycle” (FC Barcelona with Paco Seirul·lo) or Tactical Periodization, which every day gets more adept coaches. But the ball is the king. It is fair to say that, in general, the latin player is “lazy”, where lazy means that he doesn’t like to run; of you have a group player Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) and tell them that they have to run for 15 minutes, they’ll do it, but they don’t like it; if you give them a ball, probably they’ll be running for 3 hours without stopping. So, the introduction of the SSG and training with ball, in the middle of the 80s, has helped a lot in this aspect, also because the Spanish kids/players love the ball. As expected, there are a lot of “rondos” (keep-away games) and possession drills (3v1, 4v2, 6v2, etc.), with different purposes, more than simply keep the ball. They can be more technical or more tactical (introducing different aims into the activity); this will depend on the coach, the planning, etc. Also, there a lot of SSG with GKs and goals (4v4+2GK, 5v5+2GK), as mostly of the situations given on the pitch and close to the goal involve this number of players. This is just a general overview about training. Some drills, activities and exercises will be found in next chapters.

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15. THE SPANISH FA As it has been mentioned, the Spanish FA (Real Federación Española de Fútbol or R.F.E.F.), is the Governing Body for football in Spain. It was founded in 1913, but there was a Club’s Association since 1909. The RFEF is affiliated to UEFA and FIFA. The actual President (since 1988), is Mr. Angel María Villar. Villar played for Ath. Bilbao in the 70s as a Midfielder and was capped several times. There are 19 Territorials FA (for the different Regions or “Comunidades Autónomas”), and some are older than the same FA (as the Catalan FA, founded in 1907, but existing as Club’s Association since 1900). Historically, the FA Office was in Madrid, until 2003, when the “Ciudad del Fútbol” (City of Football) was built in Las Rozas (outside of Madrid) and all the Administration, Technical Staff, etc. moved there.

This facility has 5 football pitches (1 of them with Athletic track), and 1 hall for indoor sports (Futsal, Basketball, etc.); also, a Hotel/Residence, together with Medical Services, Gym, Restaurant, Conference Rooms, etc. Since its opening, it has been the place where all the National teams meet before a competition/match. Also, it has been used for UEFA MiniCoaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) Tournaments in different categories and also, it’s the Office of the Coaches School and where the Pro-Level is done. According to the internal regulations of the FA, all coaches of the different National teams must hold a Pro-License (or equivalent). Coaches of the Regional teams (they are appointed by the Territorial FA), must hold, at least, the UEFA “A” License or equivalent. As a curiosity, the former Technical Director of the FA, Fernando Hierro, didn’t have the Pro-License (but he wasn’t in charge of any team). It’s obvious that it isn’t possible to forget the role of the Spanish FA (As Governing Body), in the success of the different National Teams during the last years. Some numbers (all teams, also Clubs included), from the last 10 years will show it: 2 World Cups - 14 European Cups - 3 World Cup Clubs - 5 Champions League - 5 Europa League 7 European Supercup And, the majority of these have been won in the last 5 years; so, it doesn’t have to be a big surprise the Spanish domination, especially when a large number of the Trophies were at Grassroots level. It has explained before: the Technical Committee of the Spanish FA chose a path several years ago, for all their teams, based on the formation 1-4-2-31 and, with a clear and defined style of playing. More than this or that formation or style, what has lead to the success, further than the excellent group of players and the good management, has been consistency. Consistency applied the path, without changing it when results were as good as expected. You have to take also in consideration the difference when preparing the “A” squad or the U-17 squad. In the first case, you can have players from 18 or 19 y.o to 33 or 34; there are no limits; on the other side, the U-17 is limited by age, which means that older players can’t take part in it. They go the option before and, not all the groups are the same. We can see it in or daily work with our clubs, especially those who work at grassroots level: maybe, the 97s is a very good group, but it doesn’t mean Coaching Spanish Soccer

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that 98’s will be the same. So, sometimes you are not so successful. But, it doesn’t mean to change all your system. Also, as mentioned the Scouting system inside the FA is quite good, with regular meetings of the coaches, and also, with the coaches of the different Territorial FA and Club Coaches. Think that a lot of these coaches were professional players, sometimes in the same team, so, there’re quite good relations among them. Other times, these coaches have been involved for many years in the grassroots system, so, “everybody knows me, and I know everybody”. All this means that, in general, communication in both directions has a high degree of fluidity so coaches can know, just with one phone call, about the players and their circumstances. Also, one important thing is to know as much as possible about the environment of the players (parents, brothers and sisters, relatives, friends, school, etc.). Knowing all this helps a lot the coaches to understand some behaviour. In the case of U-17 or U-19, we are talking about young players, earning earlier important money so, it’s good to know what happens with that. Just a couple of shorts stories about that. Some years ago, one of the coaches of the National Staff explained to me about a young player who signed his first contract as Pro-player with a team; after that, he went and bought a house for his parents. A second player in another team, after signing the contract, went and bought a very expensive car. My colleague thought about the first player that he would be successful; about the second, he wouldn’t. In both cases, he was right: but, like these, there are many cases and the coaches want to know what’s going on around them. I wrote in another chapter about the fees that parents pay, and I said that in big Clubs, they pay nothing. Also, the Clubs provide education for the kids (they pay the studies, until the age of 18); and one common thread with all the Top Clubs is that if player doesn’t pass the exams, he’s out of the Club, no matter how good he is. A player that arrives at 18 y.o. in a big Club, at least has to complete the equivalent to High School. In National teams, things are quite similar; when players go to International Tournaments (UEFA, FIFA), that sometimes can be 3-4 times per year, being Coaching Spanish Soccer

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away 10-12 days, a teacher is travelling with the staff, and every day, after o before training, after o before match, there’s 1 or 2 of study together with the teacher, so, the parents know that their kids, even not attending classes during this period, will continue studying. And, of course, it’s not only Spain in this aspect; the majority of European FAs do the same: “If you are not good enough for football, you have studies and can do something in life” is the idea. The football player of the seventies with no studies, short minded, etc. has changed a lot. Today you can find more and more players with a University Degree and speaking several languages. I would like to remember a player that wanted to be a Doctor. He played for many years in the Spanish First Division and he only moved to cities with Medicine Faculty so, he could play football and study at the same time.

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16. COACHING COURSES In different chapters we have talk about some aspects about coaching; now, we’ll take a look to the Coaching Structure and Courses. Since the Coaching Convention of UEFA came into force, there are, in Europe, 3 kinds of Licenses: UEFA “B”, UEFA “A” and UEFA “Pro”. Not all the countries in Europe offer all the licenses (Andorra, San Marino or Lichtenstein are among them), and not all countries ask for the same license to be a Manager in the 1 st  Division. Also, every country has own licenses (UEFA “C”, “D”, Youth, GK, etc. according to their needs) In Spain, to be a Coach in the 1 st, 2nd or 2nd “B” Division, you need the “Pro” license (or equivalent); for 3 rd  Division, “A” license is needed and every Territorial FA will ask for a certain badge (“A” or “B”), to coach the teams inside the area. This includes also grassroots teams; every FA is free to organize the badges needed for U-16 or U-14. CATEGORY 1st DIVISION 2nd DIVISION 2nd B DIVISION 3rd DIVISION

COACH UEFA “PRO” UEFA “PRO” UEFA “PRO” UEFA “A”

ASS. COACH UEFA “A” UEFA “A” UEFA “A” UEFA “B”

You can notice that the Assistant Coach doesn’t need to have the same badge; also, in the contract is written is someone is the Coach or the Assistant, so, they know what kind of license you need, but in general, all Assistant Coaches in these Categories have a “PRO” Licence. The main topics are “Technique”, “Tactics”, “Fitness”, “Methodology”, “LOTG”, “Managing” or “Technologies”, among other. What changes from level to level is the complexity; Technique in 1 st Level (“B”), is lower than in the 2nd  (“A”) or, in the 3rd  (“Pro”). For those interested in the complete Curriculum, you can check the website of the Spanish FA (www.rfef.es), where all the information is available. Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) As mentioned also, Coaching Courses are about “Concepts” (Technical, Tactical, Defensive or Offensive). It’s a not about the movements of a certain player (i.e. the DM), in a certain formation (i.e. 1-4-3-3), because the roles and responsibilities are given by the coach, not by the formation/system used. Because of this, and also, probably because the early introduction of tactics in training, the Spanish players are considered among the ones with more tactical knowledge in the World. At this point, one explanation must be given, just to ensure that we all in the same page of the vocabulary. Spanish FA defines “Tactic” as “all the actions of attacking and defending that can be done to surprise or counter the opponents during a match WHEN THE BALL IS IN PLAY”; so, whatever movement done with a non stopped ball is “Tactics” “Strategy” is defined as “all the actions that can be done when the ball is stopped”, meaning set-pieces, throw-in, corner kick, kick off, etc. I write this because it can create confusion, as the words are used in different way according to the country, area or coach. In our case, these are the meanings. The amount of hours is around 200 hours (plus 80 in practices), for the “B”, course, 275+200 for the “A” and 300+300 for the “Pro”. Compared to other countries, it’s really much more, but you have to take in consideration that the Youth Module offered as another Course by different FAs is included. This number of hours (in-class hours), also include practical classes on the pitch, especially for “Technique”, “Tactics” and “Fitness”. The hours of practice must be within a Club, with a contract as Manager or Assistant Manager according to the level desired, etc. Think about that Coaches are linked, in general, to a Club. That means, and it happens very often, that players start their studies as Coach when they are playing. So, it’s normal that the player is the Coach for a U-10 or U-12 team. The 200 and 300 hours are considered the amount of hours that a junior and semi-pro team spent in training and matches.

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So, when a coach take the final exams to get the badge, the questions and activities/exercises will be about these “concepts”; about Marking or Support or whatever but not (i.e.) “Penetration on the final third trough the right winger”. I don’t mean this is good or bad, simply is a different way to focus in the courses. In the next Table, you can see the Topics in the different courses of the Spanish FA. As mentioned, mostly are similar and the difference is in the level of difficulty, but the topic is the same. Level 1 (“B”) Anatomy (1) Psicopedagogics (1) Sociology (1) Organization/Laws (1) Fitness (1) Technique (1) Tactics (1) LOTG (1) Methodology (1) Team Management (1)

Level 2 (“A”) Anatomy (2) Psicopedagogics (2) Sociology (2) Organization/Laws (2) Fitness (2) Technique (2) Tactics (2) LOTG (2) Methodology (2) Team Management (2)

Level 3 (“PRO”) Physiology Biomechanics

Psychology Sociology Management Training Technique (3) Tactics (3) LOTG (3) Methodology (3) Team Management (3) Professional Develop New Technologies Foreign Language

We have to say that the Topics in the 3 rd Level (UEFA “PRO”) are all them referred to High Sportive Performance. It’s considered that, when someone is going to this course it’s to become a Pro-Coach, working at high level, From there, the Topics.

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) As it has been also mentioned, the concept of “Academy” doesn’t exist in Spain as in UK, Germany, France or US. For this reason, there aren’t qualifications needed to be an “Academy Director” or member of the Staff; only those that are Managers in any of the teams will need a badge according to the level of the team. No badge or degree for that. The same applies for the “Technical Director” of a Club. In fact, Spanish regulations don’t say a word about “Directors” of any kind. Every Club is free to organize its own technical staff at its convenience. There are courses also for Technical Directors organized by the Spanish FA, but it is not compulsory to have the badge. Something I’ve found quite different is when we talk about “Principles of the Game”. In Spain, these principles are very well defined; there are Offensive Principles (when the team has the ball), like “Attack”, “Counterattack”, “Free Spaces”, “Support”, “Delay”, etc, and Defensive Principles (when the team doesn’t have the ball), like “Marking”, “Retreat”, “Cover”, “Delay”, “Tackling”, etc. In some countries there are no Principles defined or, they are not clear and you can find interesting conversations about what can be considered principles and the problems that sometimes they have when they move to another team/coach, as the set-up is not the same.

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17. EXERCISES We talked before about how are the sessions organized in Spain and what is mainly the methodology. In this chapter, we’ll see some of the most typical exercises used in Spain. The first thing to notice is that these activities can be used (and they are used), at all levels and ages. “Rondos” and possession games are introduced at early stages of development. It won’t be estrange to find kids of 9-10 doing it. It’s just a question about how to adapt the size of the grid or the number of players and coaches.

The first one is one of the most typical in warm-up, being used, first, by FC Barcelona (as far as I know, it was used in the 90s, when Cruyff was the manager; probably, it’s one of the exercises he took from Ajax) and, actually for a lot of teams, included the National Team; it’s a 8v2 in a grid of 10x10 meters. At this level it’s played with just one touch and, and the worst that can happen is that the defenders are nutmeg or split by the ball. Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) The key point in this, and all the “positional” exercises is this: they are “positional”; this means that the players with the ball must stay just on the line; these are not games where players go dribbling inside or whatever; the idea is always look for the best pass; this implies a lot of awareness and decision making. The player is waiting for the ball, looking for the options to pass and knowing that there’s no time to control the ball and pass it; when the ball arrives to the player, immediately is kicked to another player; if you are bad positioned, not ready, etc. you fail (passing or receiving, depending where you are) and, you must go to the middle to chase the ball. The next activity is another “rondo”, but this, more than a warm-up, is a real “positional SSG” with implications in the way the team plays. This one is 4v1 in a 5x5 grid. Again, at high level is played with just 1 touch, so, the same we told before can be applied here, about awareness and/or decision making; of course, technique is also very important: you can be ready but, if your technique is not good, you won’t be successful when passing. This is used a lot to improve the quality of the first touch (no matter if it’s a pass or a control of the ball). As we said, this game has real implications on the way of playing. Why? Easy: Imagine that the player at the bottom is one of the CB; the players on the side are the other CB and one of the FB and, the player at the TOP is one of your DM. This first diagram just show the drill, and nothing else; just how to an activity.

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This is the game as itself (4v1); now, we’ll show a new picture, with names written on it; probably, it’s easier to understand the idea of this exercise and how it can be used. I think that all of us have seen several times this disposition on the pitch, and also this kind of movements with the ball.

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Here is the result: the four players (3 Defenders and 1 Midfielder) can play the ball in this “keep away” game but, as written, it’s a real part of the time. You have seen the players several times positioned in that way and the ball moving from one to another: also, if the man at the bottom was Casillas and the two men wide were Piqué and Puyol, with Alonso at the top, we would find that this is a normal build up from the back for Spain. The next situation is closer to opponent’s goal, but with the same set-up: one player at the bottom, two on the sides, and one at the top. Exactly the same as before, but with names and situation of the pitch changed. But, the important thing is that this drill (as many others), can be used no matter your formation or where you are on the pitch. Change players, go right, left, up or down, but you’ll also find this disposition several times on a pitch during a match. And that’s the important thing.

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We are now going to a drill than that can be considered a progression from the last one; in this case, it’s a 4v2; quite similar, but players are working in pairs; this means that the chasing players, no matter who of them can get the ball, will go to be players and, for the same, if a player loses the ball is he a his mated the ones that goes in. It’s a easy drill to introduce the concept of “team”; it’s not my self alone: it’s me and my partner. If the pressure over the carrier/kicker is good and the second (cover), is well positioned, it’s possible to recover the ball easily or, force the team with ball to a mistake. And, at the same time, as you can see, the concept of pressure/cover is easily introduced.

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In this case, the grid will be no larger than 10x10. If it’s bigger, too much space for the “chasers” and it will be quite difficult to get the ball; for very advanced and experienced players, a smaller grid can be possible. As written, 1 or 2 touches (maximum) for the players, unless they are young and beginners and we want to show them about these concepts. As before, this drill is still a “positional” one, so, the players must stay on the line and can’t go in dribbling or whatever. Again, the accuracy of the pass is a key for the success of the drill. The next drill offered is a different category. It’s still among the “possession drills”, but now we have 3 different teams. 2 of them have the ball and the third one has to recover. This is not a positional drill, meaning that the players will everywhere on the grid. The size of the grid is around 40x40 and normally is played with 2 touches maximum. Again, it depends of the quality of the players and how familiar they are with this kind of drill.

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The idea is that 3 teams with the same number of players (if possible), in each team, so it can be played from 12 players (4+4v4) to 24 or 27 (9+9v). The drill have several variations, and it can be played by time (which team will recover more balls in a certain period), or, simply, just the team that loses the ball has to recover it. Also, drills like that, in the “Integrated methodology” are used as fitness exercises, just making the grid bigger (i.e. half pitch), but whit the same rules. Another possibility, with the same general idea, is the next one: 10v10+N, where 2 teams, with the Neutral player giving support to the team in possession, try to keep the ball as much as possible. As usual, as a coach, one can decide if the game is played with 1 touch or 2 or free number or touches if you want the players dribbling inside the grid. This grid will around 40x40 meters.

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All the drills we have seen have a common topic: to keep the possession of the ball. And all of them have a large number of variations: more players, less players, bigger or smaller area, number of touches, etc. but it’s always the idea of keeping the ball. Also neutral players are used very often in these games, to give more options to the team with ball and, at the same time, to make that the team without ball has to work harder to recover it. All these drills have another common topic: they are non-directional drills; there are no goals where to shot or to score; the winner will be according number of passes or time with ball possession. The following exercises are directional, meaning, with goals. The first one is a drill that can be used for a lot of different things. It’s a 4v4 (+2GKs), that can be also 5v5, depending on number of players, etc. The grid is around 40x30 and, as said, there are many options.

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Options that can be used in this drill: limited number of touches, minimum number of passes before scoring, compactness of team (all team in opponents half to score a goal), whatever technical element that you can add (goal only heading, one touch finishing, add points for tackling, etc.). Other option can be, for example, having a large number of players to organize a “Brazilian” tournament (the team that wins stay on the pitch, and the losers go out; another team comes in), and also with all the technical elements that you want to add. The second one is another directional, with a “multi-goal” system. There’s a big goal with Goalkeeper and 2 small goals. The idea for this SSG is that players and teams learn to move from one side to another, especially when then play is quick switched: as there’s a goal on each side, is not enough to avoid the cross. Players also have move in order that a goal can’t be scored into the small goals.

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Another typical activity in Spanish training is a match in small spaces. We are talking about a normal match, but in a place that can be, for example, half pitch. One of the teams (the “starters” for Spain), will play the normal formation of Spain (1-4-2-3-1), while the other team will play as the next opponent (in this case, it’s a 1-4-3-3)

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You can see the situation described before. Another option, in this case of matches with all the players, but in smaller areas, is to use “channels”. The channels are used to facilitate the action of the wingers; can be used by own wingers or, in case Spain will face a team with good wingers and crosses, to make the “opponents” play in this way. What will happen then is that “Spain” will play the “normal” way and the other team will use the free channels for crossing.

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This is what we explained, using the cones to have the channels clearly limited. A classic activity used by all teams is “Crossing and Finishing”; there are two possible options; the first one, is a player that runs with the ball and crosses; the second option is a player running, receiving a pass (that can be vertically or diagonally), and crossing. In both cases, 2-3 go for finishing; remember that, when we were explaining the way of playing of Spain, we talked about this crosses and finishes. This is a very simple way to practice it.

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Another kind of activities used is those referred to ball possession and passing. We are not talking about “rondos” or similar, if not about simple passing games among some players. The two following diagrams show it in two different ways. The first one is a simple passing game with 4 players and following a pattern. Normally, these kinds of activities are done clockwise and anticlockwise, so the players can practice both side. All the activities like that (without opposition), requires a high level of concentration to make a pass with real accuracy. The second activity related to creating passing patterns is a game with 3v3+2GK+4N. The 4 Neutral players, locate 2 of them at each end, give a lot of passing options and allow for creation of patterns.

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The first drill is the passing pattern and the second shows the exercise related to the creation of a passing pattern.

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) As we have mentioned, a lot of drills are possession based. The next exercise is a clear example for that. In the picture you can see three teams (Red, Yellow and Black), two at each end and one in the middle; the teams at the ends have the ball and they can decide to pass the ball to a teammate of the same team or, at the other end; a player from the third team, can enter into the area to chase the ball, while the other two player will try to intercept the ball if it is passed from end to end.

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) Here is the drill mentioned. The use of Neutral players is very common in Spain. The following drill is one of them, with the same number of Neutral players than Non-neutral players. It’s a 2v2+4N, where the Neutral players are outside. They provide width and support, both at the same time.

When preparing the movement of the players, an exercise that has all the players of the team working at the same time is the next, 6v4+GK; 6 are the attacking players, 2 DM, 2WNG, 1AM and 1 ST; the “4” are the defenders of the team, also located in their natural position; this means, RFB, RCB, LCB and LFB. This exercise is highly recommended for the defenders, as they work a lot on keeping their shape, also pressure and cover and. Also, it’s god to practice which player will “jump” when the Striker is moving from side to side. A second option is to use the 6 Attackers as classical 2MF, 2 WNGS, 2ST. Both are possible.

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A similar set-up, but with less players, is the following one: 2v2+GK; can be used for stopping/finishing counter attacks (depending if you are the attacker or the defender, of course) and, also, can be used for the coordination of the 2 CB together with the GK.

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Similar to the 2v2+4 put a few pages ago, is the next one; it’s a 6v6+4N; again, the idea of using Neutral players for giving width on the pitch. A variation will be the last exercise on the list; it`s another 6v6+4N, but, in this case, there are 2 Neutrals outside and 2 Neutral players inside. With this, we have width and, at the same time, we have 2 players helping to create superiority. Drills like this are used several times, just changing the number of players involved

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All these are just examples of activities commonly used in Spain. Mostly of them are used at all levels: Grassroots and Adults. As said, there are no limits about ages or level of players; with adjusting the number of touches Coaching Spanish Soccer

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18. FOOTBALL IN SPAIN It is not a surprise if a say that football is the most popular sport in Spain, at all levels. But this isn’t something new. The popularity of the game has been high in Spain, even in all these years with no trophies at National level. Some of the Stadiums are among those with high capacity in Europe, like “Santiago Bernabéu” (Real Madrid), “Mestalla” (Valencia, CF), or Benito Villamarín (Real Betis), but the largest, also in Europe, is the “Camp Nou” (FC Barcelona), with a capacity of 99,354 spectators. Watching BarçaMadrid or Madrid-Barça, a match known as “El Clásico” everywhere and only by the journalists in Spain, is one of the activities that I would highly recommend to any football.

In fact the name of “EL Clásico” was originally only for the League Matches, and not for Cup or European Competitions. It is more a marketing question to call it in that way than anything else. The picture in the previous page is from the last FC Barcelona v R. Madrid, played at “Camp Nou” on October, 7 th, 2012 that finished 2-2. No other match in the World can be compared with this one, because it is more than a match. It’s a clash of two cultures, two ways of living, two ways of understanding a lot of things in a different manner. Probably, the funniest thing about these Clubs is that Barça was founded by a Swiss living in Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) Catalunya (Hans Gamper) and, Real Madrid was founded by two Catalan brothers living in Madrid (Carlos and Juan Padrós). There are two sportive newspapers in each city and that is plenty!, days before and days later, with pictures, declarations of players, managers, fans, etc. Also, according to the score, the referee, the performance of the players, etc. more and more pages and hours of TV and radio will be filled. Think about the programs on TV and radio dedicated only to talk about football matters. Of course, not all is about Barcelona and Madrid in Spanish football, but we are talking about 2 of the Clubs with the biggest stadiums and attendance in Europe; also two of the Clubs with the biggest budget in the World and also, two of the Clubs with the biggest number of fans around the World so probably they deserve a litle bit in the book. Another common thread about these two Clubs is that they don’t have an owner (person or society); both Clubs are governed by a President and a Board, elected by all the members (“socios”). One particularity in Spanish is that several Clubs are owners of the Stadiums where they play, as it was mentioned. About the half of the teams in the First Division and, some in the Second, own the Stadium. But more and more, this is changing; Clubs need modern Stadiums and, in some cases, they don’t have enough money to build a new one. Only Espanyol, some years ago and now Ath. Bilbao (next season) have new stadiums. Valencia or At. Madrid has postponed several times a new Stadium. Some other Clubs have Honours in the Spanish competitions, but not too much. Barça, Madrid, Valencia, Sevilla, At. Madrid, Ath. Bilbao or Espanyol are among the Clubs who have won the League (that started in the season 1928-29), the Cup or both. But there aren’t too many. In fact only 9 teams have won “La Liga” at least 1 time and, these 9 teams have also won the Cup. There are other 6 teams that won the Cup at least once, but they never got the League. That means, with more than 100 years of History in Spain only 15 different teams has won any of the competitions, with Madrid (32) and Barcelona (21) the Clubs with more titles. Only three Coaching Spanish Soccer

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teams (Barcelona, Madrid and Ath. Bilbao), have played only in the First Division. In the Cup the situation is a little bit different; Barça has 26 titles and Madrid, 18, but, between them you have Ath. Bilbao, with 23 Championships. There are some particularities about Spanish Clubs. We have explained who founded Barcelona and Madrid, but, Madrid was as subsidiary of RCD Espanyol, as the founders were supporters of this team; something similar with At. Madrid, which was founded by some Basque students in Madrid and, it was a subsidiary of Ath. Bilbao. In some cases, also, the rivalities between Clubs in the same city are given by the origin of the Clubs. In the majority of cases, it’s because one of the Clubs was considered the “Club of the rich people” and, the other one was the “Popular Club”; in the first group, we have Real Madrid, RCD Espanyol, Valencia CF or Sevilla FC; in the second, FC Barcelona, At. Madrid, Levante UD (from Valencia) or Real Betis (from Sevilla). This was more in the origin, as, today, Clubs have supporters form all conditions and areas. Also, familiar traditions are typical in Spain, with a lot of members in a same family supporting a Club. The tradition, as usual, is from parents to sons and daughters, grandsons, etc. It’s quite normal to see different members of the family going together to the stadiums to attend matches. As it has become more and more normal around the World, the League (First and Second Division), is organized by the Professional League (LFP), even it is the FA the one that have the decisions about referees, sanctions, etc. A big difference, between Spain (and the majority of European countries), if you compare with US and the forms of competition there, is that the “League” exist because the Clubs have created to improve their interests. It’s not a group of people creating a League and, later, giving franchises to cities and clubs. So, no minimum salaries, or similar, as any Club decides, by its own, what will be the best to accomplish their aims.

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19. FACTS AND FIGURES Before ending, I would like to put some numbers that show about the reality of Spanish football. The number of people living in Spain is around 47M. The number of football licenses are around 740,000, with 700,000 players and 40,000 coaches, staff and team administrators; they come from around 12,000 Clubs and 49,000 teams in all categories. This gives an average of less than 5 teams per club and it’s according to the idea of small cities with 1 club and 1 or 2 teams only. Less than 2,000 are professional players. Around 130,000 amateur players and the rest (around 570,000) are grassroots players, from 8 to 19 years old or, ladies/girls (around 40,000). So, the pyramid has a very big foundation and it gives you more about the idea that football is more social than business. If we look at these numbers more detailed, we’ll found that U-19, U-16, U14 and U-12 have, each one, 100,000 players; U-10 are 80,000 and U-8, 50,000. The distribution also shows, that, in general, there’s uniformity in it, meaning that, for every Territorial FA, the ratio is similar (1,000 U-19 means around 1,000 U-16 for each one). What is very different from one Territorial FA is the number of registered coaches, as not all the FAs has the same rules for what is regarding the registration of them; also, some FAs don’t ask for a UEFA “B” (or equivalent) in many of the grassroots competitions; some of them only demand an equivalent to UEFA “C” and they are not officially considered as “Coaches”, as this only starts when holding the UEFA “B”. We said that there are “professional players”, but there aren’t “professional” coaches; only when a coach signs a contract it is written if Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) the coach has an “Amateur” or “Professional” status and, as it was said before there aren’t a big number of “Full-time” coaches. With all this number of players and teams, you can imagine the amount of matches played every week-end. And these matches need a referee. Number of referees is increasing in Spain (some people consider that, because of the crisis, is a good way for some people to get extra money), but the referee has been seen as the “bad side” of the game. The fact that the game is so popular in Spain makes that everybody can have opinions about this or that call. The situation has changed a lot in the last years, but still today is possible to find news about referees kicked by players or spectators, especially at the lower levels. But this is changing, for the good of the game. But there aren’t enough referees yet, so, it’s quite easy to find that some (a lot of, to be right), have to referee 3 or 4 matches in a weekend. Just as information, a Top referee can earn 180,000€ per year (all included), while you’ll receive 40€ for a U-12 match (it depends of every Territorial, as each one has different fees). The fees for the referees are payed by the Home Club normally, but, at grassroots level, the fees are shared. For every official match, a referee will be appointed. Depending on the age and category, there will be also Assistant Referees, but never for U12 and younger. Some other interesting figures are the number of spectators and the revenue for TV rights. The average of spectators was a little bit more than 26,000 for the season 2011/12; as mentioned, a lot of stadiums have big capacities (9 Stadiums have a capacity of 40,000 or more), but they are not full. If you compare with England (average of 36,000) or Germany (44,000), you will see that there’s a big gap. As indicated, crisis, prices of tickets and schedules are the biggest issues to improve the numbers, especially when you can see that the stadiums are half empty (or half full, if you prefer). TV rights are actually in Spain being a problem; the total amount of money is 600M€; Barcelona and Madrid get, each one, 140M€; which means that for the rest of teams (18), they receive 320M€; some Clubs get just 12M€; on the other side, England Clubs receive 1,000M€ and the difference between the best paid and the worst paid is quite different compared to Coaching Spanish Soccer

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20. SOME CONSIDERATIONS The first thing to say is that we are talking about a “Golden Era” in Spanish football. Never, in all history, the National Team, the Clubs, the players and the coaches were so well considerate. Every time an award was given several players and coaches are among the nominated. Yes, it’s Messi and Ronaldo’s time, and they are always (or close to always), the winners of the trophies. But we can’t forget that Iniesta got the award as Best European Player for UEFA in 2012, for example. Xavi Hernández was the third in 2009, 2010 and 2011; Iniesta was also the second in 2010 and he is one of the three finalists for the 2012 edition. So, we can talk that this is not a casualty. In fact, Xavi and Iniesta have been considered for a lot of fans, coaches, players and media as the players that “make the engine move” so, it’s not strange that they are among the players nominates and the finalists. If you take a look also, at the FIFA/FIFPro WorldXI, Casillas has been in for the last 5 times; Puyol 2 times; Piqué and Ramos, 3; Xavi in 5, Iniesta in 4 and Alonso in 3; finally, Torres have been in 2 occasions and Villa, 1. For the UEFA awards, the situation is very similar; Casillas, 5 times; Puyol 6 times (4 in the last years, the same as Xavi); Iniesta in 3; Piqué in 2, and Ramos, Villa, Torres and Fàbregas, 1 time. Really impressive So, there are a lot of questions when people wonder about the success of Spanish football. Is it all a casualty? Is it all a fantastic planning prepared to arrive at the Top? Is it the players? Or the coaches? Or the Officials? Well, it’s a little bit of all this and, a little bit of nothing about that. The first thing to consider, of course, is the fantastic group of players, working consistently, for several years with the same aims and ideas. As written before, having an idea and believe in it, helps a lot. They have quality enough by themselves. Obviously, having this as a starting point is very good. After this, of course, another point is coaching. Spanish coaches (and Spanish people, in general), were for several years like isolated, without learning languages or exchanging experiences, etc. This has changed a lot and now you can see that the coaches are able to speak in different Coaching Spanish Soccer 100 ©WORLD CLASS COACHING

This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) languages, with a lot of study and background about the game. The same that happens with the players, it’s happening with coaches. A lot of Spanish coaches are going abroad, to explain their experiences but, also, to see and learn what’s happening in other countries. And we are not talking also about Top Coaches and Teams. At a grassroots level, there are a big number of coaches working in different countries, so, the experiences that can go from here to there or, from there to here are great. There’s something that has changed a lot in Spain during the last years; Clubs are more and more professional, in all aspects; we talked before as how very day there are more and more professional (Full-time) coaches at all levels in Spain. With the Officials (Boards, Administration, Marketing, etc), it’s happening the same. More and more, you’ll find that these people are graduated in Harvard, Paris or Oxford, with all the background and knowledge implied by it. Just to have an idea, a Club at the Top or, the National Team, can have the same amount of players and Staff. Coaches, Administrators, Kit Manager, Scout, Doctors, Physiotherapist, etc. make life easier for players and, of course, the player know how important is all this people for them; they only have to worry about football!! Another point is about facilities; in the sixties, seventies or eighties, the majority of pitches (out of 1st, 2nd  and 2nd “B” Division) and, of course, at grassroots level, were with sand and clay; no grass. This has changed and a lot of teams have now artificial turf. This allows that a lot of people are training/working at the same time; also, when it’s raining, pitches aren’t muddy and matches can be played without problems. And of course, it helps for the technical development of the player; it’s not the same to train and play on an irregular surface that on a very regular one, with all the advantages that the players and the coaches can find. So, when you put all this together, the chances for improving are higher and higher. Of course, not everything is fantastic; the first point is about the financial problems that have the majority of clubs, not only because the general Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) crisis, that in Spain is being really hard, but also for the “laissez faire” idea in Spanish economy (buy today, pay maybe tomorrow... or not). This has affected a lot of Clubs and, some of them are under Judge’s intervention (remember that some teams couldn’t play European competitions because this bad Administration). Also, there are still a large amount of coaches living in the “stone age”. It’s true that every day they are less and less, but, in some small Clubs, coaches are still with old fashioned methodologies. It’s also true, but, that the Clubs at the Top, and a large number of medium size Clubs (Amateur Clubs), are run in a very close professional way (even the Board and the Staff are not professional), but working very well and doing a lot of good things. It’s not strange to find that a lot of players in the best teams didn’t started their career there and they arrived at 14 or 15 years old (older in some cases), coming from other places which mean that the work done in this medium/small Clubs were good, as they were able to develop good players. But coaching, in some aspects, is still something that needs to be improved more and more, especially at those lower levels. With all that, is not meant that Spanish football side is in danger; at least, from the sportive point of view, the health is quite good with the National Team and the Clubs getting trophies and championships around the World and with a lot of players nominated every year for all kind of awards (UEFA, FIFA, Newspapers, etc.), as mentioned earlier in the chapter. The problem can come, as explained, from the economical side. With the problems explained, together with the high price of the tickets (a CL match can cost 180€) and, the incredible schedules for the matches (at the beginning of the season, some matches started at 11:00PM!!, with supporters attending the match dressed in a pyjama, as a way to protest about it; the official explanation was that in Spain it is very hot at the end of August; of course, the coaches didn’t agree with it, and, they said that playing so late meant to go to sleep very late and training session the next day had to be postponed for later). In any case, we have to wait and see for what’s going to happen in the following years. Will we see Spanish clubs in bankruptcy? Will the find, with Coaching Spanish Soccer

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21. THE FUTURE It’s obvious that the actual situation is not going to last forever. There are cycles, and some players will be retired or not fit and other players will arrive to the team. What is important, but, is that Spain is right now at the top. For several years it has been “we want, but we can’t”; now, Spain wants and can. The generation of players like Xavi, Puyol, Alonso, Villa, etc. will go, but there a lot of players with a lot of years to give yet. Casillas is 31 (for a GK this is still young); Valdés and Reina are 30, but De Gea is just 22; Iniesta and Cazorla (28), Ramos and Silva (26), Piqué and Fàbregas (25), Busquets, Mata and Javi Martínez (24), Alba (23), etc. So, a lot of players with many years still. If we consider that a player can be in a very good form (this, of course, is not a general rule), until he arrives to 33 or 34 years old, we’ll see that some of them can have 7, 8 or more years before they retire. On goal, it looks like that De Gea will have to wait for some years to become the starter GK of the Spanish Team. Something similar to Reina and Valdés, that play only friendly matches or Qualification matches where all is decided. Considering that a GK can last until he’s 37 or 38, it looks like De Gea will be starter around 29 or 30. Not the best, but when three of the best GK in the World are before you, is quite difficult. In fact, this is something normal in Spain. Iríbar was the GK in the sixties and seventies, Arkonada, in the seventies and eighties; Zubizarreta in the eighties and nineties and now Casillas. With only 4 GK we are covering more than 40 years of National Team in Spain. Montoya, Bartra or Muniesa (if the last one can finish with all the injuries he had the last years), could be the ones that will arrive earlier as starters (Montoya has made his debut for the “A”); all them have played with the U-17 and U-19 teams; Montoya and Bartra are also usually called for the U21 squad. Thiago or Isco are among the midfielders that are called to have an important role within the next years. They play quite usually for their Clubs (Barcelona and Málaga) and also, in Isco’s case he is an usual starter for his Club. Thiago is also a player that arrived to the U-21 earlier than his Coaching Spanish Soccer

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correspondent age. This is also a very common thread in Spanish National Team: if a player is good enough, he’s promoted to the “A” team, no matter how young he is. As forwards, Muniaín, Jesé, or Deulofeu are the ones called to be the next stars. Or, at least, they should. Deulofeu is just 18 (born 1994) and made his debut for the 1st team of Barça last season; he’s been twice UEFA U-19 Champion, as a starter in the team (think about this season is the one the, per age, is the correspondent for him to be in the U-19 squad), and also had several calls and matches for the U-21 team. Muniaín and Jesé are different; the first one is starter at Ath. Bilbao, with just 20 years old (he made his debut for the Basque side with 16 y.o., being the youngest player in all Athletic history to play for the first team). Jesé plays for Real Madrid “B” and is a striker with a lot of options to be part of the first squad very soon. Both, Muniaín and Jesé, have followed all the path from U-17 National Team. Muniaín has made his debut for the “A” National Team and Jesé has played for the U-21. We are just talking about those that have to be the first relay. Players that are in the U-21 team or have made appearances for the “A” squad in the last months. We can’t talk about all the players that are in the U-19 squad or U-17 squad, as the list would be really longer. How well will they perform? You never know; this is impossible to say; sometimes, players that looks like they’ get everything (just like Bojan Krkic), and now they are really far away of the National Team. But, it is obvious that, with so many titles clinched in the lower categories, it looks like that it should work. You also have players that never were called, to any team, before they arrive to the first team (Busquets or Pedro are examples of that), or players that have to be retired before they want to, but that’s another question. What’s important now for Spain is that they finally reached the Top, meaning that, from now on, Spain is always a favourite team to get any title; of course, Germany, Netherlands, Italy or France are there, in general, and when we talk about WC, we must add Brazil and Argentina.

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) This also has changed the Spanish mentality in many aspects. Today, the players feel confident with themselves and now they can achieve more. But also among the fans; it’s quite common now, when big Tournaments (EURO, FIFA WC), to find a lot of Spanish supporters in the stands. It wasn’t normal before. Only in big Club Finals you could find a lot of supporters travelling around Europe to attend matches; now, it’s becoming more and more popular; the same as wearing the “Red shirt” of Spain. Another thing that has changed. And, of course, the fact of being really proud of the team and the players, something that wasn’t so usual several years ago. And, what about the next manager? That’s another 1M$ question. When Del Bosque decides to leave (normally, after WC in Brazil, as he will be 64), the lotteries and bets will start to work; at the moment, until that time (or later, if the result is good and both, him and the FA decide to make a new deal), everything is closed and there’s no room for speculations. August 2014 is too far away. The last question about this process could be: Will Spain change the way of playing? It can sound a little strange but, in football, victories and defeats go by cycles. Now, is the winning time, with a defined style and way of playing. I bet that, for a short term, this is not going to change, at least if victories continue. If defeats in top competitions come or, the team doesn’t reach the semi-finals in major tournaments, there will be voices, of course, that will claim for another way of playing (as it was explained what happened in the WC2010 in South Africa); for the younger teams, if they continue in the way they are, meaning that not every year there is a victory, but there’s no more than two years without any trophy and also, given that the pressure of the media is nothing compare to the first team, they will continue for a long time playing that way. In fact, it won’t be the first time that the U-19 or U-17 were playing one way and the “A” team in another, but that was long time ago. Actually, the consistency in the way of playing is very high and it has been also noted, the players don’t realize too much when they move from one team to the next one. Yes, the players won’t be the same, even they have similar qualities, but will they be able to deal with the pressure of winning (or the need of Coaching Spanish Soccer

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This ebook has been licensed to: Tomasz Oleksy ([email protected]) winning) all trophies? Not all the players are the same (remember the case of Navas, from Sevilla FC; he was several months out of football because of anxiety problems; finally, he recovered and could play in the WC2010). The same can be applied to the next manager, in this aspect: How will deal with the pressure of winning “yes or yes”? With all the journalists and the fans claiming for more and more (That’s Spain: we have 1, we want 2; when we have 2, we want 3 and, if the third is not got, then, it is considered a bad performance), it’s not going to be an easy job for the next manager. We’ll see.

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 APENDEX 01. THE END OF THE BOOK This is the first time I write a book. I’m not a writer, just a football coach so, I hope readers can understand some mistakes made when writing. I have to say that I enjoyed a lot writing the book; it has been a fantastic experience. Sometimes, I thought about it, but never found how to do it or how to publish it; when, some weeks ago I received a message from Mike Saif and the WCC team I was very surprised. And I said to myself “Why not?” At least, I can say that I tried. So, thanks Mike, for the opportunity. I hope this works! The book is about the success of the Spanish football in the last years; it doesn’t want to be any kind of encyclopaedia or similar. As I said, I’m just a football coach and these are my points of view as coach and, as someone interested in football. And this is written as a football coach so, my point of view doesn’t have to be the same as the readers, but I hope they appreciate the effort. I have put also some chapters with explanations about the Spanish football; for those who don’t have a background in it, I hope all this can help for a better understanding and if it doesn’t happen, sure is my fault and not yours. I want also to say “THANK YOU!” to my friend Chuck Bales. He helped me a lot ideas about explanations and diagrams. Sure the book would be worst without his help. As I said, I really enjoyed writing the book. I hope everybody enjoys it when reading.

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 APENDEX 02. THE AUTHOR Jordi Pascual was born in Vic (Barcelona, Catalonia), in 1962. As a player, he finished very young, at the age of 18. He played as Goalkeeper. He started coaching in 1990, when the “Dream Team” of Johan Cruyff was one of the best teams in the World. Being always a Barça supporter, is not strange that he always liked this “possession style” of football. He has worked for the Catalan FA with U-11 and U-14; also he has been Manager in some different Amateur and Semi-Pro squads. Since 2000 he’s living in Andorra, where he has been Assistant Coach of the U-19 and U-17 National teams. He also worked with U-12 and U-14 for several years. Actually, he’s the Manager of FS La Massana, a Club in the Andorran 2 nd Division. As a Manager, he holds UEFA “B” and UEFA “A” license, together with a “Monitor Course” (similar level to UEFA “C”) by the Catalan FA, some years ago. He has also a Degree and a Master in Management of Clubs from a private school in Barcelona.

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