10 Days in Spain: What Could Be Football's Next Revolution?

Football is currently in the midst of its data and analytics revolution which has and is changing the game both on and off the field. But after analytics what could be football’s next big trend? An almost 2 weeks long trip in Valencia and Madrid meeting with individuals in the industry gave me a good idea of what that might be. Meeting with the following individuals was able to give me tremendous and further insight into the current and future state of football, not only in Spain and Europe, but also worldwide. A massive thank you goes out to them for their time and insight:

· Antony Blackburn – IDA Head Coach & Valencia CF Academy Coach

· Juan Miguel Bernat – High Performance Psychology Manager at Levante CF

· Jose Gomez – UEFA Pro La Liga Select Coach, Coaching Solutions Manager at ATM Media

· Francisco Javier Molina Caballero – Performance Analyst at Atletico Madrid

Meeting 1: Antony Blackburn – IDA Valencia

I was able to spend the day at the IDA Academy at the Mas Camarena Resort in Valencia which is a residential academy for international student-athletes. Not only was I able to have a chat with the Head Coach Antony Blackburn, but I was able to take in the training session and speak with the whole coaching staff. Between my conversations with Antony and the rest of the IDA staff, many topics came up as it relates to coaching and specifically youth development in football, especially in an academy setting.

The reality is that every kid in an academy dreams of going professional but most of them, and their parents, don’t realize how difficult it is, not only to get a professional contract, but to have a professional career at the highest level that sustains 15+ years. Given that, not only is it important to push the players to be the best players they can be to fulfill their potential and give them the best shot at going professional, but it is also important to prepare the players for life after the game. Whether they go professional or not, it is important to provide them a valuable education (that the players understand the importance of) and life principles that will allow the players to have a good quality of life after their playing career or if they are unable to build a sustainable professional career. Some of these principles and values are: a good level of discipline, and approaching life on and off the field with the right attitude and approach. These values and principles were clear at IDA with an impressive level of discipline displayed from both players and staff who have a positive and admirable approach.

What also surfaced in the conversation which is very applicable to the US youth soccer system is the importance of deliberate play in addition to deliberate practice. Both are very important and coincide with the 10,000-hour practice rule of gaining mastery (this rule and its limitations are another discussion on its own). However, in many countries globally where football is the primary sport, deliberate play occurs on the streets and playgrounds almost 24/7 where that is not the case in the USA. Both deliberate play and practice are important in youth development in football. Especially due to the creative and fluid nature of football, deliberate play is very important as it removes certain structures and regimens allowing children to play the game and enjoy it more with more freedom and creativity to try new things and further develop and spending more time practicing and playing outside of the deliberate practice setting.

Antony also spoke with me about the importance of psychology in coaching. The reality is that as a player you will never not be exposed to psychological challenges, the tremendous amount of pressure to succeed and the abuse from fans will always be there. For example, if you play well, opposition fans will be verbally abusing you but if you don’t play well your own fans would do the same and in today’s world with social media, it is very pronounced. The frank reality is that most individuals, even those who work in the game don’t have it first in mind that these players at any level are humans first and players second, which is important to note. Given that lack of conscious realization by many, it is important and becoming more important not only for coaches to help their players manage these psychological pressures but also for players to learn how to manage and reframe their thoughts on these as well.

In other conversations with the staff at IDA, we also spoke about the importance of developing a relationship with players to get buy in, trust and credibility from players. Different approaches must be taken to successfully do this, and coaches must be flexible. For example, some players prefer instruction and tactics to be kept simple and not complicated but others may want more detail and education on these areas of the game. Keeping it simple, specifically the communication and delivery of instruction is important to not overwhelm or confuse players. Developing a strong relationship with players is particularly important at adolescence when players have many other distractions and pressures off the field, and it is important for coaches to help players navigate these to help them focus and perform better not only on the field but also to develop effective strategies, principles and values to navigate a successful life.

Meeting 2: Juan Miguel Bernat – Levante

I was fortunate to also meet with Juan Miguel Bernat who is the High-Performance Psychology Manager at Levante UD. We spoke about the up-and-coming emergence of psychology in football. That just may be the next massive trend for a competitive edge in football. Psychology. Especially when combining that suggestion with the insights from IDA, it is reasonable to see that’s where football may look next for a competitive edge after analytics. Juan mentioned that this could happen in the next 5 to 10 years and we could even reach a point where the technological and big data era in football combines with psychology. Similar to how now GPS vests are used by sport scientists to monitor player performance data from a physiological perspective, this could also emerge in football from a psychological perspective. Specifically this would occur in trainings mostly, where technical staff members and a psychologist will monitor brain activity and trends during trainings and playing activies to develop strategies to enhance performance from a mental aspect. What is likely to also be a part of this psychological revolution in football is a psychologist/”mental coach” being a key part of any head coach’s coaching staff. Similarly to how certain assistants and analysts travel with some coaches to different clubs and jobs, it will be the same with a mental coach. Clubs could essentially have three or more psychology related stakeholders/staff which will be: a head club psychologist who is there regardless of head coach, a mental coach as part of the technical staff in addition to having to work with outside psychologists if players work with and prefer to work with outside psychologists, collaborating with them will also be very important, but while respecting confidentiality as well.

Juan also mentioned a similar point that came up at IDA which is the importance of keeping instruction simple and to the point, even from a performance analysts point of view. Explaining in too much detail or more than necessary can overwhelm players so it is important to keep the message concise and clear, for example, instead of explaining a specific opposition principle/pattern of play in detail, keep that brief and the point while focusing the message on delivering the solution to beating/stopping that principle/pattern of play in a comprehensive and understandable manner. From a coaching and analysis perspective it is also very important to have an identity and culture. Why? This is important to have a framework in terms of the principles of play and tactics that surround the club. Chopping and changing tactics too much and too often especially based on opposition analysis with no identity and framework can be ineffective as from a psychological perspective, there is no subconscious train of thought that is repeatedly trained and enforced in a base tactical framework and identity. Additionally, changing too much and too often can lead to players being overwhelmed and confused. That is why, it is important to have a core framework with a set of principles and a core identity and culture, that is the basis of certain tweaks and adjustments each gameday based on opposition analysis.

Meeting 3: Jose Gomez – La Liga Select

In a similar capacity following from the conversation that Juan Miguel and I had in regards to identity and culture, the same discussion occurred when I met with UEFA Pro licensed coach, Jose Gomez. For the same reasons written earlier, it is important to have a core identity, culture and framework to always be the foundation of the team and club overall which also provides a foundation to fall back on when things do not go to plan and in moments of crisis. It is better to have a brief plan and understanding than none at all, especially in moments of pressure and crisis. An example we discussed was Barcelona’s recent difficulties given poor financial and squad management. However due to the identity and culture that runs through FC Barcelona at all levels, it has provided a foundation to fall back on to help the rebuild as the club knows what it wants and stands for. One of the keys to a successful club is always harmony. Harmony and a common strategy and understanding amongst owners, directors and coaches is always an important part of the recipe for success for any club, as there can be a shared plan, shared values and a culture that is agreed upon, understood and then trickles down the organization. As it trickles down, it then leads to the harmony, similarities and understanding of shared values and ideas between coaches players. We spoke about examples such as Joao Felix who found it difficult to perform at his best at Atletico Madrid due to being at his best when he is allowed freedom and creativity on the ball in attack, but Atletico Madrid play with a primarily structure and defensive identity which limited Felix's performances in Madrid. That is: players performances are a function of their team while the team is a function of the players in the team. Something that Jose said which stood out to me is that coaches such as Conte and Simeone are authors while coaches such as Pep and Arteta are artists. A book for the most part traditionally has a structure and specific aspects, while an artist has a blank canvas with much more potential for creativity. That is to translate that attacking football can provide for much more variations, patterns, and ideas with more creativity allowed, whereas defensive football restricts that creativity as it has a more solid structure and less can be done as there is less time with the ball (the paintbrush) to develop patterns and be creative. Yes, coaches should and most do have a core idea, but teams need to be able to adapt. A primarily defensive structure for example comes with risk, as does a primarily possession based structure. Jose gave the example of Atletico Madrid in the 2014 Champions League final. When Atletico went ahead early and were seeking to primarily defend their lead, it was always going to be dangerous with a one goal lead. Eventually their defensive structure broke and they ended up losing the final. Goals change games and defending without the ball when up a goal or two can always be very difficult. Further issues arise when then chasing the game, a team that primarily defends without the ball when chasing a game and has more of the ball than their opponent can (not necessarily will) struggle given the lack of trained patterns of play, rotations, combinations and general ideas and creativity with the ball as they are not used to and subconsciously trained to play with the ball. This is also why sometimes the best way to beat a team with a primarily defensive structure is to force them to play with the ball. However, at the same time, theoretically speaking, possession is the best form of defense as without the ball the opposition can’t score (however the game occurs in practice and not theory). Given this, teams must be able to effectively play with and without the ball and adapt based on the game as there is no set or ideal way to play football.

Meeting 4: Francisco Javier Molina Caballero – Atletico Madrid

On a matchday itself, I was lucky enough for Francisco to spare a few minutes of his time for us to grab a quick coffee in the morning where we had a conversation primarily on video and performance analysis in football. We discussed how different performance analysis softwares vary and how important it is for analysts to be able to adapt and learn different softwares as each club, academy or organization utilizes different softwares. Not only on that note, but analysts must be very flexible and adaptable in their approaches and day to day work due to the ever-changing nature of technical staffs at clubs. Analysts will report to coaches and some analysts may work under multiple different coaches and it is important to adapt to how that specific coach works and to satisfy his requests for what he would like to see from an analysis perspective as those requests and demands vary by coach, principles, ideas, training methods and playing styles. For example, some coaches will focus more on opposition, others may focus more on in or out of possession while some are also in general more analytics focused than others. It is also important outside of the coach’s requests to pass across to the coach’s attention anything that may be of concern or help based on what findings may emerge from an analysis. Not only is it important to present findings to the coach in addition to what they request but we also spoke about solutions. An analyst can be a good analyst by satisfying the coach’s requests and making good observations but what a great analyst does is provide solutions. Solutions may be examples of how to limit certain opposition patterns, players or principles or even how to take advantage of opposition weaknesses and all of these can be presented to the coach when developing a match plan.

Lastly, we discussed the state of football analytics such as how it has grown and where it may go. Francisco mentioned the importance of taking advantage of new cameras that are automated such as the Veo or Hudl Focus which eliminates/reduces the need for human capital to be wasted to film games where these individuals can be used for more effective and efficient processes and workflows in the analysis process, such as one extra analyst to code and tag games. That leads to the next point we spoke about which is the extent to which certain countries and clubs place on video and/or data analytics, based on factors such as culture, education, access to skilled individuals in that area, infrastructure and budget. For example, Manchester United have 8+ analysts in one game while clubs in Spain have about 3. England has been considered the leading country in terms of video analysis while in the United States there is a bigger emphasis on numbers and data science and analytics. For example, where many MLS clubs now have one or two Data Scientists, Francisco said that in Spain many teams don’t have any data scientists (Barcelona, the tech hub in Spain, unsurprisingly do). As can be seen, the state of video and/or data analytics varies by club and by country based on culture and budget. Some countries and clubs have no access to or appreciation for data scientists and heavy data analytics, while others do. Similarly, some countries and clubs have a wider talent pool of video analysts and a higher budget to higher many.

Lastly on a side note, I was able to catch up with Lucy who was my boss during my amazing internship experience with La Liga North America and visit the La Liga HQ. The trip to Spain was an amazing and insightful experience to continue learning and networking in the industry. I got a good idea of where the industry could be heading and as can be seen, psychology seems like it could be the next booming trend in football. Thank you to everyone who made time and accommodated meeting with me to share their insights and knowledge!