Tag Archive for 'Max Allegri'

Juventus: a match of adrenaline and ambition

Massimiliano Allegri says Juventus need adrenaline, fun and ambition to win tonight against Villareal.

Said in other words, he affirms the need for motivation, pleasure of the challenge and emotional intensity and play.

In fact, the control and quality of actions on the pitch is based on this emotional mix driven by reason.

Playing a game with this mental approach is not easy and requires that the ambition (motivation) continues to be high regardless of the result. The team must be able to give itself instructions if, finding itself in advantage, will tend to reduce the adrenaline, to defend the result, thus playing not to lose and not to win. The adrenaline and therefore the emotions must be managed to avoid that it leads to play without thinking. A problem the latter that Juventus has shown less while more frequently fell into the former. The one in which slowing down the game passes from an attitude oriented to win to one centered on the defense of the positive result.

We will see what will happen.

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.

Max Allegri winning mind

Player-coach - ”He was good at reading the game, he knew to assess where being able to hit the opponents, to identify their weaknesses. He also understood when and where the team was suffering: if he saw the defender in trouble, he was able to settle down in order to limit the game opponent without need for a call from outside. At this regard, he had some innate abilities in this regard. ” (Galeone, football coach)

Management of the unexpected situations – “Imagination and the ability to manage the unexpected. The matches are preparing, but they are never completely planned. I get to decide a formation on Friday afternoon and changing it  Sunday on a hunch. The best time it’s seven thirty in the morning. The time usually contradict myself.”

Confidence in himself - “I am very confident. I say things straight to straight, I don’t expect gratitude, compassion, empathy. Feelings that in football no longer exist. I am good at pretending and take refuge in lie at the right time.”

The technique is crucial – “The pitches were shortened to sharpen the game in the narrow space. The matches are won in two ways, with the military occupation of the space and with the quality of the performers. The time to think with the ball at the feet has been reduced, at the end the ball goes to the better players”.

Authoritative leadership – “The dialogue is complicated. Going into the lockroom you find almost of the players with headphones in their ears, loud music. Nobody talks to anybody. Need authority, respect and patience. It is not my custom stress every day saying I’m the one in charge, explaining  they are forced to listen not because I am the best, but simply because I am the older. There are talents that are like the waves, I think, for example, at Morata and Coman. You have to measure them, wait for the right time. Some are taken by the hand and behaved like children, from others I find collaboration, experience, personality”.

Task coach - ”Not discounting the importance of the coach, but its main task is to ease the players”.

Go beyond the tactic - “Football is played on a lawn of 106/68 metres running and playing with  the feet, the ball often takes strange turns and people would like that under these conditions the solution is in the schematic situations? If the schemas would be so relevant to win, because Real Madrid have spent 100 million for Bale, who quite simply dribble, shoot and smash the door?”. The schemas are just a trace “.

The important thing is wanting to better themselves - “I have a group of guys that have called into question, I still want to win. And I told them I inc *** very if not improve, because they have technical and physical potential is truly remarkable. I say this even though the Champions. “