Tag Archive for 'liverpool'

How does the coach plan a decisive match?

It is not difficult to give an explanation to the defeat suffered by Inter against Bologna. The performance anxiety generated by having to win at all costs has triggered nervousness that has increased with the passing of time, leading to a negative performance and an unexpected result. The same could have happened to Liverpool against Villareal, but the team behaved exactly the opposite of Inter. It constantly kept the Spanish team under pressure, it was not in a hurry to finish actions and in this way two goals arrived and above all it did not suffer any.

It would be interesting to know how these two matches were prepared from the psychological point of view. Beyond the differences between Inter and Liverpool, what did the two coaches, Inzaghi and Klopp, do and say to ensure that their teams would play as they had decided? How did they stimulate the combativeness of their players along with a thought of the game to be led from start to finish? Pugnacity should certainly not be interpreted in terms of acting without thinking, otherwise it turns into an impulsive game devoid of logic.

I don’t know what Inzaghi may have said and done, but in any case it didn’t work.

Instead, we know some of Klopp’s principles and I believe that even with Villareal he was inspired by these three ideas in preparing the match:

Building memorable experiences - “Playing unforgettable games, being curious and impatient to play the next game to see what will happen, and this is what soccer should be. If you make that attitude your own, you will be 100 percent successful.”

Be Disciplined - “Never give up on your goals, always stay focused. Certainly teaching this to young soccer players is difficult. It’s much more than believing in it, because you can believe in something but also easily lose that belief, that’s why it’s more important to feel strong in difficult moments.”

Being passionate - “You have to use the tactics with your heart. The match must be lived intensely, otherwise it’s boring”.

I believe that in order to win these decisive matches, these three ideas are decisive and can be summarized in these words: clear goals, tactics, heart, curiosity.

Jurgen Klopp’s 10 rules for success

Jurgen Klopp’s 10 rules of success.

  1. Improve your environment - We only have one life and we must do everything we can to make it the best possible. Make people enjoy meeting you for what you are doing to improve their environment.
  2. Build memorable experiences - Play unforgettable games, be curious and eager to play the next game to see what will happen, and that’s what football should be. If you take this attitude, you will be 100% successful.
  3. Live in the moment - if you live in the future, forget that you can change it significantly. If you live in the past, however, it can be good to relive your best moments. But we are in the middle of our lives and if we want to do something for our family and for others we have to be 100% in the present.
  4. Building a family - we are not alone in the world, we must be a group. To succeed, we have to be together with the team and the fans.
  5. Be confident - you have to learn how to deal with hard times and defeats. The most important thing about football is that you are responsible for everyone, so you have to be confident to arrive at the moment when you are ready. It’s always difficult from day one and you take it one step at a time.
  6. Keep trying - when you win it’s great and when you lose it doesn’t mean you’re incapable, you have to be convinced that what matters is to keep trying even if you don’t know how long it will take you to succeed.
  7. Learn from your experience - you don’t have to live in the past but life is so fast that you have to learn to use your own experience or that of other people to avoid the same mistakes.
  8. Be disciplined - Never abandon your goals, always stay focused. Certainly teaching this to young footballers is difficult. It’s much more than believing in it, because you can believe in something but also easily lose that belief, that’s why it’s more important to feel strong in difficult times.
  9. Being passionate - You have to use tactics with your heart. You have to live the game intensely, otherwise it’s boring.
  10. Express energy - Most of the time I’m not an emotional person, but during the game something strange happens and if I saw myself from the outside I’d say: “Are you crazy?”

Today is the Heysel tragedy anniversary

Today is the Heysel tragedy anniversary to  remind that violence still affects football. 30 years ago before the Champions final between Juventus and Liverpool 39 persons died and 600 injured. The Heysel tragedy was one of the darkest moments of modern football, where violence took over sport values, and changed a game into a nightmare.