Event Report
Sourse: "The Technician" UEFA NEWSLETTER.
Message from the technical department
THE TEAM PHOTO BEARS WITNESS TO THE STRENGTH IN DEPTH OF THE 9TH ELITE CLUB COACHES FORUM WHICH WAS STAGED AT UEFA'S HEADQUARTERS EARLY IN SEPTEMBER. EVEN THOUGH THERE WERE ILLUSTRIOUS ABSENTEES SUCH AS SIR ALEX FERGUSON (SADLY OBLIGED TO ATTEND A FUNERAL), CARLO ANCELOTTI (LEADING AC IN A MATCH IN KIEV TO COMMEMORATE FC DYNAMO'S 80TH ANNIVERSARY) AND FRANK RIJKAARD (FAMILY REASONS), THE LINE-UP WAS IMPRESSIVE AS IT GAVE UNPRECEDENTED GEOGRAPHICAL COVERAGE OF THE CONTINENT.
In any case, the participants would be the first to insist that the important thing was not the star-studded line-up but rather the views they expressed. Since the forum was launched in 1999, many of the coaches' proposals have been converted into reality and many of their current concerns will also be the object of high-level debate in forthcoming months - as will the proposed reforms to the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Cup which were outlined to the participants by UEFA's president, Michel Platini.
But, like technicians the world over, the favourite pastime at the forum was simply to 'talk football'. The result was a mixture of suggestions and observations which, due to lack of space to do full justice to them,will have to be summarised in more or less telegraphic form.
Among the main concerns was a topic which had also emerged as a talking point during the compilation of the technical report on the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League, namely...
The State of the Pitch
The coaches commented that, in a UEFA Champions League which is universally accepted as the benchmark for other club competitions, the importance of the playing surface is underrated. A fast and true surface can contribute to the match as a spectacle which is what the public expects when they watch UEFA Champions League football. There is a risk that the stars may be eclipsed if the playing surface is not conducive to one-touch combinations and passes take an extra fraction of a second - or even a second touch - to control. In a competition where space is at a premium, the speed of combination play can be a critical factor and, as Arsène Wenger stated in the technical report and in Nyon, "if the pitch is not perfect, the athletes are rewarded, not the artists".
The Last Word
One of the trends to emerge strongly from the 2006/07 campaign was for technicians to play their cards in the closing stages of games where there are results to chase or to preserve. In the semi-finals and finals of last season's UEFA Champions League, 23 of the possible 30 substitutions were made (Sir Alex Ferguson didn't make any during the home leg against AC Milan). And the striking fact is that 18 of those changes were rung in the last 15 minutes. "This is when fatigue kicks in," 'Gica' Hagi commented, "and there are greater opportunities to cash in on lapses of concentration and individual errors." Ottmar Hitzfeld added "patience is a virtue and, in the crucial closing stages, factors like mental strength and will to win can be decisive." Arsène Wenger reflected "the speed of transition is one of the key factors and this can fade in the last ten minutes or so. In this respect it's understandable that coaches keep some cards up their sleeves and go for the result in the phase when fatigue is an important element."
Transition
Arsène's views on the speed and efficiency of transition from attack to defence and vice versa were endorsed by his colleagues, many of whom now employ the noun as a training ground command. José Mourinho's players, for instance, know that the shout 'transition' is a galvanising cue to change instantaneously from one mode to the other. Shouting, of course, is not enough. A good deal of training-ground work needs to focus on rehearsing positional reactions to ensure that transitions are made as efficiently and as rapidly as possible - and in accordance with attack-to-defence policies which may vary from aggressive forechecking to a retreat-and-counter philosophy. Set-Play Specialists
Set plays accounted for just over a quarter of the 309 goals scored during the 2006/07 UEFA Champions League, with just over 10% stemming from free kicks. However, the figures aren't an entirely accurate reflection of the full picture, as a higher percentage of the crucial goals in knockout ties came from free kicks, including Liverpool FC's 'equaliser' in the semi-final against Chelsea FC and AC Milan's opener in the final. Modern-day standards of 'espionage' work against the repeated use of rehearsed set plays with the result that, as 'Gica' Hagi remarked at the forum, each team needs to have at least one dead-ball specialist in the line-up - or, to put it another way, the lack of one creates an empty space in the side's attacking armoury.
Holding Patterns
At the forum, the technicians turned sympathetic ears towards Hugh Dallas when, representing UEFA's Referees Committee, he announced a tougher stance against the off-the-ball pushing and holding in the penalty box which has become almost 'standard practice' at set plays. As Roberto Mancini remarked, "it's not usually violent - it's just a bad habit". Unfortunately, the bad habits are often the ones that are most difficult to kick (in the figurative sense, of course) and Hugh Dallas admitted that it could be a painful and controversial process. Indeed, there may have been controversy by the time these lines reach the printed page. Why?
Coaches are well aware that blocking techniques at set plays are as old as the hills. But there is a tendency for them to escalate into all-in wrestling. Roberto Mancini hit the nail on the head when he commented that, in Italy, at least seven out ten cases of wrestling result in a free kick for the defending team. Hugh Dallas added that it was time for referees to take a look in the mirror and ask themselves if they were 'taking the easy option' - in other words, awarding an innocuous free kick instead of anocuous penalty.
The technicians welcomed the tougher stance - but with two provisos. Firstly, that it should be consistently adopted.
In other words, punishment on a uniform 'always or never' basis is more acceptable than 'sometimes'. Secondly,that the referees should persevere with the tougher criteria and not allow them to become diluted as the season wears on. "The guidelines are clear and have been publicised," Hugh Dallas commented. "What we can't predict is exactly how long it will take the players to get the message." What role should the technicians play in the campaign to break holding patterns? League and Cup The coaches in Nyon acknowledged that there are significant variations between domestic league games and UEFA Champions League fixtures. Takis Lemonis highlighted the differences in transition speeds between the Greek championship and UEFA competitions, while the technicians operating in England's Premier League commented that the use of professional fouls to abort counter-attacks is more consistently punished in Europe than in a domestic league where the emphasis tends to be on allowing the play to flow.
In the UEFA Champions League, they remarked, it is easier to build from the back but, on the other hand, the challenge is then to break down physically well-prepared, tactically well-organised, well-coached opponents who set up a low defensive block.
As Ottmar Hitzfeld remarked, this means that technicians have to be prepared to change team structures in midstream and implement tactical variations. Gérard Houllier followed up by stressing the need for players who are strong enough in dribbling skills to emerge successfully from 1v1 situations and distort opposition structures. "At the same time," he added, "you must be prepared to distort your own structure from time to time, so as to add an element of unpredictability to your play. In a competition of such uniformly high standards, you have to be prepared to momentarily take risks." Gérard was one of many participants who underlined the differences in parameters during a single campaign in the UEFA Champions League - a competition which, like the UEFA Cup in more recent times, features a fascinating combination of league and knockout formats. "In the group phase," he said, "it's a question of accumulating points, sometimes against teams who, rightly or wrongly, consider themselves inferior and set up a solid defensive block. The knockout rounds, especially when you get to the last eight, tend to be more open games in which strength, power and resilience have greater relevance. A prime example of this was AC Milan's performance in Munich, where they were able to defend under enormous pressure and still come away and score." Arsène Wenger summed things up very nicely by adding, "the best sides in the UEFA Champions League are, quite simply, the ones who are good at everything."
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