Game #1 of pre-season - nerves, concentration and 'just get it up there!'

So the time had come for me to play (or rather feature) in the club’s first pre-season friendly. It seemed an oddly late date to have your first pre-season friendly only 9 days before the start of the season (2 more after this had been scheduled) but arranging fixtures at this level can be a difficult task. The club has a big squad this season and we had a squad of about 18-19 players for the first friendly, with about 5 or 6 first-team regulars missing through holidays or injuries! Our opponents were 2 steps higher than us in the pyramid, which did fill me with a fair amount of pre-match nerves as it would be my first game at this sort of level for almost 3 years. I did, however, take comfort from remembering that the last time I played a first-team friendly for my last team at the equivalent level, also against a team 2 steps higher, I came on at half-time with the scores level, had an absolute stormer despite being physically roughed up a bit and we romped home to a crushing victory (I like to tell people that one with my tongue firmly in the cheek when they take the piss out of my ability). If I'm out of practice, I get very nervous before games – I can remember every single game I’ve played where my nerves have been very intense and it really isn’t pleasant, especially as I was a sub for most of them. Strange as it seems, in most of these games, if not all of them, I’ve gone on to put in good performances. At this point I would like to mention nerves. In my experience a number of managers are very dismissive towards nervous or nervous-looking players and don’t know how to deal with them. Being nervous before a game is not necessarily a bad thing – a common cliché is that “if you go out there with nerves you’ll make silly mistakes”, so instead you’re told to “stop being so nervous”, “be confident”, or even worse, “man up”. It isn’t so simple that a player will suddenly gain confidence if his manager tells him to. Nerves come for various reasons – lack of match practice, inexperience in a certain situation, lack of morale following poor performances or a myriad of other factors, and so on. It’s not necessarily ostensible either when a manager deals with player nerves. He won’t necessarily have a go at the player, instead maybe ignore him or exchange uncertain glances, which in turn would be more likely to increase the player’s unease. Subconscious rather than conscious. As I said, though, it’s OK to be nervous as firstly footballers are human beings with changeable emotions and secondly nerves can be harnessed to increase performance. When I get nervous, it usually increases my concentration and keeps me switched on during a game, meaning some mistakes (e.g. losing my marker, failing to cover a team-mate or spot danger) are less likely. 

Of course, with different players nerves can have the opposite effect. What they may do also is affect a player’s ability to physically do something like control a ball or accurately place a pass, but as these things aren’t the hardest tasks to execute on a football pitch, they can be and are usually overcome. Once I had my first couple of touches my nerves would usually disappear and turn into confidence, so I feel treating nerves with disdain rather than encouragement is unnecessary, and in fact shows a fear of nerves themselves. When I was about 15, my old Sunday League manager who ranted at me during training and told me I hadn’t improved in 3 years had a go at me before a game. I was selected to start the game and he was giving his pre-match ‘team-talk’ before he gave me a few instructions. I can’t remember what they were, but I nodded silently in acknowledgement of what he said (I was a very quiet one, and very different to most people my age). His reaction to this was to direct at me a volley of criticism for “acting frightened” in front of the squad, before ordering me to “brave myself up.” He then gave me a load of rhetorical questions – I just stood there blankly, shrugging. My lack of response triggered further wild epileptic gesticulations and facial expressions from him before I quietly said “I dunno what you want me to say”, to which he flapped his arms a bit more and turned away in disgust. I guess I gave off quite a sheepish look when I was younger, the manager of my very first club asked me why I looked so sheepish before I played my first ever game for them. Anyway, I duly had a shocker and was subbed at half-time, with the manager telling the lads in the team talk that I would be coming off because “I can’t play football”, but that’s another story. There will be plenty on that prick in later entries. Being nervous is such a horrible over-simplification, and I've found that not enough people manage to deal with this effectively - a slap on the back is a nice little gesture but that's all it is, a little gesture. The words it tells equates to little more than a motivational soundbite. 

Back to this pre-season friendly, and we left the changing room to warm up on the pitch 45 minutes or so before kick-off. We did a few drills of various body movements to get the blood flowing and then some passing stuff. At one point the manager told us we “looked like a Sunday morning side” and to be switched on. Then, during a passing drill where the ball was continuously played square along the start line before players made diagonal runs to an opposite cone, I managed to misplace a pass (I’ll say it was the bobbly surface) which sent the manager into a stern monologue of “if you can’t make a basic 5-yard pass without the ball bobbling you shouldn’t be here.” Credit where it’s due, this guy does make sure you stay switched on. Obviously criticisms like that (especially those which infer your ability is lower than the level you’re playing at) aren’t nice to hear but I guess (speaking from my experience here) when you’ve heard enough of them you learn the importance of not taking these at face value. It doesn’t actually mean that the manager doesn’t rate you – it’s just his way of telling you that you’re better than that and trying to keep you at the standard he believes you to be. I suppose, depending on the type of player you are, it can drive you on not to make a mistake or make you more nervous, but mistakes can happen for various reasons, so we shouldn’t be making too much of off-the-cuff remarks. Perhaps I should have learned all this earlier. And some people won't, and that is a problem. 

In the changing room again, the pre-match team talk consisted of the manager telling us that this team, despite being two levels higher, wouldn’t be any better than us technically or as individual players, but we would have to stand up to their physicality and not be overpowered. I actually managed to record some of the talk on my mobile phone – it mainly consists of him emphasising the value of effort, ‘giving 100%’ and teamwork. He mentioned how the club would be operating with a large first-team squad and that competition for places was very high and no positions were safe. Therefore, the players had to be (seen to be) giving 100%. He made a point that about 6 first-team regulars from the previous season were missing that night through injury, holidays or other commitments so every player would be assessed starting from this game. After the stern words of warning, we were told to enjoy the game before the customary rousing applause and shouting in a farrago of masculinity as we prepared to leave the changing rooms. This is something I’ve never understood nor been able to immerse myself in. I realise the aim is to get the players pumped up so they feel ready for the start of the game, but I don’t need aggression and shouting for a release of adrenaline in my body. I just find it weird, and I’m not sure how it’s meant to intimidate the opposition either. It’s happened at pretty much every club I’ve played for, including playing for a mate’s team in a non-competitive league. For me, there are plenty of other ways to motivate yourself for a game, and it seems to be a symptom of the attitude we adopt to football based on power, aggression and so on.

On to the game itself, and the manager was proven right for the most part. The opposition weren’t anything special and watching from the sidelines from the first half, our players were more than capable of matching them. I was both heartened and unnerved by how comfortable our players looked in possession for most of the game – on the one hand, it seemed our players often had plenty of time and space on the ball to find their passes accurately, on the other hand, the cynic in me noticed that I had a high standard to match and couldn’t let the side down by getting the basics wrong. This is just general nerves, really, and you work out how to use them to your advantage – it can be comforting for you if a team-mate misplaces a simple pass, for example. It isn’t a case of Schadenfreude, it doesn’t mean you want them to make a mistake, it merely reminds you that they are humans themselves, and prone to mishaps. Again, I suppose it’s my way of dealing with jitters – I don’t think I can pretend not to feel nerves. That will apply to many people, and many other people need to start understanding that. I’d like to make a point about observing the game as a substitute too. I feel it’s useful to pay attention as much as possible when watching from the sidelines, when from my experience most people at a lower level of football prefer just to have a chat. They’ll still be watching the game of course and making observations, but not really taking it in, not in the true sense of the word. That’s what I’ve tended to find anyway. For me, it’s important to balance your interpretation of how the game is unfolding and therefore what you might be expected of you when you come on with keeping the body warmed up. From concentrating on the game I might work out particular runs that an opposition player makes and figure out how to stop him, or even runs that my own player is making and figure out how I can play the ball onto one of his runs. From this game I noticed that the opposition central midfielders rarely went with their opposite number if they went towards the defence to collect the ball, and even if they did it wasn’t high-intensity pressing, meaning I could have space to pick out passes in my own half and perhaps build from the back if I came on in my preferred position. Of course, you can’t do this too much at the expense of losing your blood flow, so concentrating on yourself from time to time and performing a routine of warm-up exercises and stretches is also advised so you put yourself at the minimum possible physical disadvantage when coming on.

We took the lead in this game with a well-worked goal but they equalised with a penalty after half time (the lead-up to which I missed although our players were adamant no offence was committed). At times they did play percentages to press us back towards our own goal but they were capable of playing neat stuff once they’d got up the pitch. Our manager didn’t always agree with our style, mind. At one point in the first half, we had a free-kick near our own penalty area and our manager wanted us to force an attack from it. One of our defenders played it five yards square to his team-mate which gave rise to a flurry of cursing from the manager. It was exacerbated when we lost the ball in our own half a couple of passes later, prompting questions of “why didn’t you just get it up there?” Obviously it’s frustrating to lose the ball like that when starting in possession under pretty much no pressure, but it’s equally frustrating to hear shouts to get it forward. What’s more, the risk of misplacing a short pass in a dangerous area shouldn’t deter players from trying to play there, but shouting at players for trying to build a move from deep rather than getting it forward quickly discourages them from it, even though next time they may successfully work the ball up the pitch. At the very base of grassroots football we shouldn’t be surprised if this happens and it obviously needs to be addressed, but to still hear stuff like this halfway down the non-league pyramid annoys me. The thing is, this could happen as managers may be using a tactic of aiming for a big striker up front to win a flick-on and an indirect free-kick presents us with a perfect opportunity to do that. Not only that, but he (from a club-centric point of view, rightly so) sees winning and success for the club as more important than playing possession football. Even in a pre-season friendly where no points are at stake it is still important these games are for trialling systems and getting the players used to playing in them. It’s a very tough dilemma when you bring our footballing culture into the picture. I suppose again it would have to start at youth level, but I think it would be a fallacy to say that academies of pro clubs don't encourage their players to keep the ball in defence - the very grass roots that feed these academies will need to learn more broadly the significance of playing it short in defence, even when the temptation is there to launch it forward.  

I eventually came on for the last 15 minutes of the game when our manager decided to make his last batch of substitutions, and got to play in my best position. I was surprised at how well I did considering the last time I played at this sort of standard, and didn’t suffer any confidence crisis when I went onto the pitch. I saw plenty of the ball as we built from the back lots and got into good positions to receive it from them and then pick out subsequent passes. I would say I was disappointed that the game didn’t last longer but that would be a lie, as despite the encouraging cameo, I was already blowing out of my arse by the end – a combination I think of a lack of serious match practice, my body feeling the effects of the constant pre-season training and other aerobic exercise I’d been doing other days, and probably not warming up quite well enough as a sub (I started to relax around the hour mark as I didn’t think I’d get on – a fatal and naïve error I know). It was a promising start for me and a nice confidence boost before I left for a week’s holiday the next day. 

Lazy...or just playing a different way?

Apologies for the lack of activity, it's been an incredibly busy week and my girlfriend was over to visit last weekend, so this has been inadvertently relegated to secondary status. 

After some despondence following confrontation about effort, there wasn't much to grumble about in the following session, I don't think! I was introduced to two new drills involving both running and a football. The first involves three players and three cones, with one player doing the work, one dictating and one feeding. The set-up is a ‘T’ shape with the working player starting at the tip – the cones are stationed at each point of the T. The dictator (for want of a better word) then calls out either 1 (sprint to the left cone), 2 (sprint to the right cone) or 3 (run backwards to the rear cone) – obviously not in order, and the player has to get to the correct cone and back to the middle before being fed the ball and setting off again – players work for I think 45 seconds to one minute. Methods of feeding included ground passing, volley passing, chest and volley, sit-ups with headers and press-ups with headers. The second was a lot more complicated for the brain. It involved groups of six, sometimes eight (with two players working) – the feeders would stand in a sort of square and the workers would be at the bottom on each side, facing one of the feeders. Players run round the square doing ground passes, volley passes, (sit-ups and press-ups) headers etc.; on the first go they must cross over and go to the other feeder at the bottom of the square before running up to the top to be fed by one, and crossing over again at the top before arriving back at the opposite feeder at the bottom. If in a group of eight, the players would cross over again in what would become the middle before running to the top and crossing over again before arriving back at the bottom. Players bumping into each other and veering off in completely the wrong direction was not an uncommon occurrence.

So, onto Saturday morning’s session and numbers were vastly reduced as a number of players had gone on the club's tour. The first drill was not quite as intense as others have been as it involved working primarily on the spot for about a minute but it did still require being switched on. In groups of either three or four, with one player working, the player working will be fed the ball in turns by the other players through means of volley passes, chest and volleys, headers, sit-ups plus headers etc. – in a group of three, the player working returns the ball to the player who has fed it him, whereas in a four he gives it to the feeder without a ball (the exercise always involves two balls, so with three feeders one is always without a ball). I enjoyed this exercise as it really does seem to refine your technique if practised enough, making a simple firm side-footed volley or header come naturally. After that was the 12 laps in 12 minutes again, though the manager did challenge us to do 13 if we could manage it – I did. There was also the sprinting and passing etc. for 45 seconds sandwiched in between a 6-a-side game.

In the second part of this six-a-side game, something started to bug me and I left feeling puzzled at it. I hadn’t played my best and had been sloppy with the ball way too often for my liking, but it wasn’t that. Several on my team, myself included, were feeling pretty tired (once again) after all the running we had done. Clearly to recover some energy, we tried playing a slow, patient build-up when in possession, and without the ball, allowing the other team possession in their own half whilst carefully altering our positions accordingly in order to shut out channels for ‘damaging’ passes. If they did manage to breach a line, we would quicken our pace and attempt to shut them out. The manager instructed the team which didn’t have the ball to adopt a high-tempo pressing approach with lots of closing down, stating that “anyone just marking space isn’t helping their team.” I realised about a couple of hours after I’d got home from training that it was the manager’s words which had annoyed me. Ordering us to switch from a containment defensive style to high-tempo pressing is fine in itself, and it’s very beneficial for teams to learn and master various styles of defence in order to gain flexibility and adaptability (although perhaps this should be practised more with better organised training at this level – admittedly may be difficult to implement). His motive for demanding a change in our approach, however, seemed to be because he thought we were being lazy and not working hard enough – indeed he said we were “lazy” if we weren’t closing down, and of course football isn’t quite so simple, and even when trying to organise something quickly it upsets me to see the game spoken of in a way that reduces tactics and systems to a very simplistic form. Having expended a great deal of energy running earlier, high-energy pressing to regain possession is even more energy-sapping. If not done properly, which is likely when energy levels are low, it is a very risky strategy – if you press high up the pitch and commit yourself, once the ball has passed you, you are pretty much taken out of the game, giving the team in possession a massive advantage. I get that pre-season is also about fitness and the manager would want to push us so we can compete in matches, but you don’t just have to keep running at full pelt for the sake of it, not to mention that a containment game requires high levels of sustained concentration, and the knowledge of subtle positional nuances. The ‘lazy’ excuse is just pretty poor, in all honesty. Pre-season is about fitness and several other things too.  

Effort, 100%, Passion, Desire, "Going In" etc.

So, continuing from yesterday, the structure of the training sessions in these two sessions brings me to my next point. A rule was implemented in the games whereby if a team concedes a goal they must run a lap of the pitch they’re playing on. Even though a team can only score with a one-touch finish within the penalty area, I feel teams adopt a fearful attitude towards defending. There isn’t a lot of hoofing but play is very rushed – it’s back to front very quickly with not a great deal of slowing things down, ‘recycling’ or changing direction. The main flaw is that if a player wanting to build a move from within his own third rather than rush it forward loses possession near his own goal, giving the other team a clear opportunity, he is punished for trying to keep possession, even if there's nothing on in front of him. Admittedly, sometimes there are some lovely bits of interplay in quick transitions from defence to attack, but the move quite often breaks down after a few passes. The best option might be to check back towards your own goal into a bit of space and then calmly play a square pass across the pitch. If this goes wrong, however, there's a high risk of conceding as the ball is lost in such a dangerous area. But players who are discouraged from trying this won't try it, and therefore will never improve in executing it. Most footballers at my level can pass, but there is a difference between looking to pass and not just passing for the sake of it/making the earliest available pass seen – as my mate put it, "actually realising the ball is a football and not a fucking grenade." Even in a training match, players resort to a panicky attitude in defence as they are playing with added pressure – obviously neither team wants to run a lap of the pitch for conceding a goal, and even more so given that they have 30 seconds to get round before the ball is thrown back into play. And believe me you don't want to be the one that fucks up and makes your team run round the pitch. The safety first mentality that develops brings players to think “well at least we didn’t concede and don’t have to run”, which is a dangerous attitude to bring into future competitive games. 

Even though a number of players are technically skilled, the need to play the ball forward quickly and go from there rather than pass around the back and the middle, giving everyone a touch, probing patiently and seeking openings, causes more turnovers of possession, as it requires a lot of work from the midfield players and even the fullbacks to get up into the correct positions to support the attack. This, I feel, is where many grassroots clubs across the country go wrong – our problem isn't as simple as not being technically proficient. Whilst it can be, and often is an issue, many players at all levels of the pyramid are technically skilled, but the problem extends itself to mentality also, how we view possession football. Obviously it's not just players either, fans and paid journalists are guilty too. At this point I'd like to say it's a lazy assumption that supporters would just prefer substance over style, so to speak. Whilst yes, most would give 3 points for their team greater importance than how they play, I feel many would prefer to see their team play attractive football. However, more often than not it would have to be fast-paced play rather than patient passing - I've been to enough games where a side is probing in midfield and looking for an opening where people around me begin to shuffle about uncomfortably in their seats and the odd shouts of "forwards!" and "you won't score playing with it there!" are heard, but 'aimless' (I put this in inverted commas because they often seem aimless but there probably will be an idea behind them) balls forward which sail harmfully to the opposition are met with similar groans of disdain. So quick, more direct passing football gives the best entertainment - this is perfectly captured by the reaction you'll almost certainly see if a player has the ball out wide in a decent position to cross but chooses to pass back inside to a team-mate - and you only have to look at how supporters and journalists for top sports sites view Spain and Barcelona's style of play as 'boring'. Honestly, during Euro 2012 I saw a tweet from a top BBC Sports journalist written in a rather patronising way which went something like "so would anyone like to tell me what subtle intricacies of brilliance [from Spain] I've missed during this match so far?" Seriously? And furthermore, although not a very good indicator of opinion I accept, the BBC ran a vote during the Confederations Cup this summer on Spain's style being boring or brilliant, and you can guess which of them won. I feel true understanding of the value of patient play, rather than being rushed most of the time, is sadly lacking for the most part, and that's shown in mentality.

The question of mentality brings me nicely to my next point about how it affects our perception of what is happening on the pitch. How we interpret certain instances or passages of play. First of all, it is undeniably frustrating to see one of your team-mates not trying, but what constitutes 'not trying' is very subjective. Probably my biggest hate in football is the saying that a player ‘isn’t showing enough passion’ or ‘looks disinterested’ (what a terrible word that is) if he doesn’t run around a lot or have a full-blooded style – this doesn’t confine itself to moronic supporters either; players and managers not just at a lower level still hold this view, and TV and radio pundits (i.e. retired ex-pros) come out with it on quite a regular basis. Of course, it can be the case that a player who isn’t running much or very hard does lack interest, and no player plays at 100% effort all of the time (we’re human, after all), but it isn’t anywhere near that simple. During the training match that Tuesday, feeling shattered from all the running, pressing and squeezing I’d had to do as a wing-back, there were a couple of loose balls which I couldn’t get to quickly enough to win – this would make me look lazy to those with the mentality just alluded to. One player in our team (not the organiser of positions) was very vocal; constantly talking to others and telling the team what they needed to be doing and where they needed to be – not in an aggressive way, indeed it was helpful and beneficial to listen to him. However, he didn’t particularly like the fact that I hadn’t managed to get to a couple of balls that he felt I should have won, and told me “mate, you need to make more effort when you go in for those” and “you just have to go in mate! Just GO IN!” I snapped back at him and told him it was fatigue that hadn’t enabled me to move any faster in these instances rather than a lack of effort, and he repeated “you just go IN!” A player on the other team, whom I think I’d in fact been involved with in one of these supposed 50-50s, patted me on the back and told me not to worry, that I was doing well and that he agreed with me. I don't like generalising on the basis of one small incident, but the player who told me not to worry was French. From my experience in football, it said something to me. What’s more, the team-mate with whom I had the altercation is certainly no lumbering clogger – on the contrary, he’s a very, very talented player, who’s very comfortable on the ball in tight situations and seems to be able to relax in possession and maintain it with ease. In fact he was one of those encouraging what I mentioned earlier; to rest in possession rather than attempting to play forwards as quickly as possible. Yet he still had this odd perception of effort. It was at this point that I realised that such an attitude towards this area of football does not confine itself to players trying to compensate for a lack of ability. Dispositions to playing with the ball can differ from those to playing without the ball – the two certainly don’t have to be synonymous.

All that aside, the fitness work was tough as ever, and the benefits I’m sure will be splendid. The main running was working in groups of 3 taking it in turns to do 10 sprints to a pole placed about halfway up the pitch and back, and whilst recovering doing sit-ups, press-ups, squats, volley passes or headers. The 10 laps in 10 minutes whilst having to get to each corner in 15 seconds was also done again. As well as this was working in groups of three, with one player working very hard for 45 seconds and in some cases one minute. This involved sprinting from cone to cone to receive a two-yard pass, then stuff like volley passes, headers, sit-ups with headers, press-ups with headers and dribbling the ball to the end cone before passing to the end player whom you would loop around before he laid it off back to you. Good stuff. 

'Right lads, positions!' You've just gotta push yourself.

The next two sessions (Saturday and Tuesday) threw up some food for thought. Both very tough physical sessions, Saturday with some very challenging intense sprint work in particular. A slight variation of the Thursday exercise involving shuttle runs and press-ups, this time it was working in a group of three, with one player in the middle who would work for 45 seconds sprinting from one cone to another where his teammates have a ball. The physical stuff was either 3 sit-ups while at the cone combined with headers or press-ups combined with headers. The ball was eventually introduced to the player in the middle, dribbling from cone to cone before exchanging passes with the end player but by this time we’d been so worn out that even running with the ball was a real challenge. I managed to excel myself in the following exercise – 12 laps of the pitch must be completed in 12 minutes. It actually turned out not to be too difficult, but I pushed myself a fair bit and finished first out of everyone, in under 11 minutes too. The shouty coach/assistant manager was at his shouting again: “this is not good enough, if you wanna play for this club, you’ve gotta push yourself!” during the 45-second sprinting. Lines like these do have an element of truth - every player must push himself if he wants to improve, although I think most players already know that. Does being aggressively told you need to push yourself make you want to push yourself? Or make you want to push yourself even harder? Well, it's hard to generalise. I suppose I'm trying to say, transplanted further down grassroots football, do youngsters enjoy being spoken to like this? Talented youths dropping out of football is pretty commonplace - of course they have to know that a desire to improve yourself is required, but simultaneously the balance between that and driving them away from the game because it seems too much of an uphill struggle is a delicate one, not easy to get right, and I think we often get it wrong. (I will definitely talk about this particular area in more depth later on.) Anyway, after some games we did something which seemed very similar to the 12-lap exercise but proved to be a bit harder. We had to complete 10 laps in 10 minutes, but each stretch of the pitch (i.e. byline or touchline) had to be completed in 15 seconds before we would rest at the corner and wait until the next whistle. Naturally it was easier to run across the byline in the time allowed than the touchline, so the recovery period was greater when waiting to run down the touchline, which was definitely needed. Pleasingly, during the 6 or 7-a-side games I found some good form and put in my best footballing performance yet, which was hopefully a sign of me reaping the benefits of hard work and shaking off the ring rust. However, repeated in the next session, I began to question some things.

When we’d gone into games during training, I had been waiting for ages for some idiot in my team to pipe up and start delegating positions. I was surprised when three sessions passed without a hint of this, but reality unfortunately struck on Tuesday evening. A first-team regular who had been at all the training sessions but not yet in a team with me was deciding positions before we kicked off and it was clear that he would do all the talking and organising. Calling him an idiot above was just a throwaway remark for what it's worth - he's a really nice lad - but I don't like this approach for several reasons. At a lower level especially (where you can't guarantee 100% turnout or have an unbalanced squad), in small/medium-sized games you will usually have an overload of midfielders, strikers or defenders in one team, meaning that if you give people fixed positions you have midfielders stuck in defence the whole game, players who prefer the wings playing through the middle and so on. Obviously players playing away from their favoured position is going to occur anyway, but assigning players positions at the start gives the player a sense of duty to that position, and it becomes an effort to have to ask a player if he wants to swap over (and a player playing in his best position then being asked to move away from it for the rest of the game will be reluctant to do so to say the least). Not setting players to specific roles, on the other hand, allows players to be fluid and take turns to move around and interchange positions. It encourages versatility and adaptability to a range of areas on the pitch and instils a sense of independence into a player rather than needing to be told what to do or where to be by a captain or manager. Moving around the pitch during a small-sided training game makes a player more comfortable in a variety of areas and less likely to be lost in a role which would otherwise be considered ‘playing out of position’. Because of this rigidity, when players do have to move around a few times during a game because of injuries or whatnot, it tends to confuse them and impact on their level of performance, because they aren’t used to that flexibility – this even happens in professional football too, and stems all the way from 11-a-side grassroots level. And there's the rub - players will want to play in their positions in training and managers will want them to because it's in line with the team's tactics for the upcoming game or indeed the season. It would be seen as a waste to for a team's star midfielder to play left-back in a training match, for example. Most players joining senior football at this level won't really be used to playing more than one or two positions, and it's very rare that a manager or coach will have the time or resources to retrain them to a different role. So why would a player proven to be decent in his position want to go somewhere else? And why would his manager want that? This is why assigning players positions as soon as they join a football team at the age of 8 or so is one of the worst ideas for their futures. It doesn't mean it'll stop a kid developing into a very good player, but it will reduce his flexibility across a system. It’ll be of little surprise to you that on this occasion I was one of these players who was shunted out wide when preferring it in the middle, playing a right-wing back role in a back three, so having to get up the pitch to support the attack, press high up the pitch when they built from the back and also tuck in centrally when they played through the middle or the opposite flank – basically, lots of running! It wasn’t particularly enjoyable but it was a good test of fitness and tactical discipline and taught a lesson on how to conserve and channel energy by deciding when and how fast to run, and also getting your angles correct when play is switched, something I’m still having trouble with. This stuff you just have to get on with, and it was a decent if difficult experience. I admit, I hate playing out of position to fill a gap somewhere - I'm willing to give my best and learn what it takes to play there but I basically know I'm not going to be anywhere near as effective. That might sound like I have a list of excuses for playing poorly in an unfamiliar role, and to an extent that's true, but isn't that the problem? Why are numerous players uncomfortable with the prospect of not playing in their best position? Probably because they haven't learned enough about or don't have enough experience of playing there in the first place. 

Next part on this session will follow tomorrow...