Tag Archive for 'Antonio Conte'

How soccer’s elite coaches cope with the precariousness of their job

How coaches of elite soccer experience being fired, victories, new benches is a little known topic and not at all investigated given the difficulty and confidentiality of this issue.

Although the media talk about it all the time, there is no in-depth analysis, often not going beyond the analysis of the most trivial aspects (he failed, he lacked the support of management, he did not have the experience, the club did not have a project to improve the team).

Athletes are studied from a psychological point of view but not elite coaches. We do not have answers that go beyond the anecdotal evidence of how Max Allegri has lived these two years without a job, how Sarri has interpreted his departure due to misunderstandings about his way of conceiving soccer, how Antonio Conte gives up to lead Inter after winning the championship driven by the desire to have a more competitive team to lead, how De Zerbi is preparing to be the leader of Shachtar, how Andrea Pirlo will prepare to train a new team after being rejected by Juventus.

They certainly don’t have economic problems and, therefore, the question is about the perception they have of themselves and how this awareness interacts with and is influenced by the situations and environment in which they live.

I have described several times the characteristics of winning coaches but how do they vary over time in relation to their professional experiences? How do they manage the stress resulting from these changes, often not chosen by them but decided by others?

The only answer that seems important to me is to emphasize the importance of their psychological training, and therefore the idea of continuous personal and professional improvement that is usually the basis of the results of the most successful coaches.

Antonio Conte winning mind

Inter won the Scudetto, many say that its manager, Antonio Conte alone is worth 10 points in the standings. Let’s try to describe the characteristics of his winning mentality.

When Antonio Conte states that “only in Italy we are fixed on the play schema. Football evolves, it depends on how you attack, on what kind of pressure you apply”; he talks of the need to have determination.

The successful person, whatever is his/her field of action, shows a fierce determination in two ways:

  • extraordinary flexibility and ability to work
  • deep awareness of what he/she really wants

On the contrary, today we tend to emphasize more the value of talent, thus reducing the relevance of every other aspect.

Talent + Effort = Skill
Talent emphasizes how quickly you learn when you work hard.

Skill + Effort = Success
Success is what happens when the skills are used with effort.

So, to be successful you need skills and commitment at the highest level and the play schema must support this approach.

Antonio Conte: + grit – play schema

When Antonio Conte, Inter coach,  states that “Only in Italy we are fixed on the play schema. Football evolves, it depends on how you attack, on what kind of pressure you apply”; he talks of the need to have determination.

The successful person, whatever is his/her field of action, shows a fierce determination in two ways:

  • extraordinary flexibility and ability to work
  • deep awareness of what he/she really wants

On the contrary, today we tend to emphasize more the value of talent, thus reducing the relevance of every other aspect.

Talent + Effort = Skill
Talent is how quickly you learn when you work hard.

Skill + Effort = Success
Success is what happens when the skills are used with effort.

So, to be successful you need skills and commitment at the highest level and the play schema must support this approach.

Juventus must learn from Aristotle

Aristotle said that “We are what we do consistently. Excellence then is not an act but a habit.” By transferring this statement in the football world means, for example, that Roma is building in these first eight matches a positive habit that it’s the basis of excellence. Juventus, on the contrary, having taken 10 goals and lost the fighting spirit that distinguished it from other teams has to change at all costs, because what it does is creating a habit to react insufficiently. Basically habits guide our practices and Antonio Conte’s job must be to eradicate them, because the team is learning not to react collectively and there is nothing more negative.

The Juventus characteristics

Gianni Mura wrote today that work, humility, sacrifice and sweat were the Juventus’ characteristics, to win the championship for the second consecutive season. He’s right, in fact, there are no special secrets to know what to do to win. As a psychologist I know that concentration, fighting spirit, toughness and sense of group are the psychological dimensions that it needs to develop and maintain. And this happens only when the issues highlighted by Mura are a daily part of the commitment of the players as individuals and as a group. This approach explains why for a coach is not enough to be a good technician but he must also be the commander in chief, who teaches the team to compete to win; to enter in the field with a willingness to fight imposing its mentality to the opponents.

Lo stress di Roma e Inter

Lo stress colpisce quando sei in crisi e Roma e Inter ne hanno appena dato una dimostrazione. La Roma ha infatti concluso in 8, quindi 3 espulsioni, la partita con la Fiorentina e nell’Inter per la prima volta il capitano Zanetti è stato espulso e Pazzini è caduto mentre stava per il tirare il calcio di rigore. Ciò è la prova provata che quando si vive una fase difficile come squadra,i singoli calciatori subiscono questa condizione e commettono errori grossolani perchè la loro condizione emotiva è così alterata da impedirgli di giocare in modo efficace. Mi sfugge come le squadre, nonostante i loro problemi tecnici, non riescano comunque a mettere da parte l’egocentrismo dei singoli giocatori e in campo almeno si mostrino unite, magari povere di gioco, ma perchè non unite? E l’allenatore come agisce per raggiungere questo risultato? Non lo sapremo mai ovviamente. E’ certo che questo problema è prima umano e poi tecnico … come ha ben capito Antonio Conte.