haters gonna hate.......YNWA Liverpool FC

In the words of the great post modern philosopher, Taylor Swift, "haters gonna hate hate hate".

Well stop it.

Liverpool FC sucks. We all know it. And picking on us is like a pack of hyenas going after a wounded three legged rhino. It's just mean.

Every club, team or squad (other than those with infinite bank accounts accumulated through oil wealth and political influence, or banking, real estate and television stations). The Boston Red Sox and pork belly futures can only take you so far.

So how does a coach or manager  get a team back on track. Or even near a track they should be on?

Amateur coaches like me are faced with this challenge every season. Every team is new and needs to be examined and evaluated as to what its potential is at the start of a season, to see what has to be done to make them a good team and better players.


Here is the "Barefoot Scousers" approach to the start of the season:


1. Get the players together for their first training session. Do a FIFA 11+ style warm up. make the course about 30 to 40 metres in length. This will allow you to assess player focus to instructions, fitness, attention to detail and attitude. Detail and attitude are important. Are they maximizing the benefits from the warm up, are they "cutting corners", do they care? A very good initial fitness assessment can be done at this time and used a yardstick for the balance of the season. If they are huffing and puffing at the end of the warm up, they are out of shape. make note of it and work it into your future practice sessions.

The link to FIFA11+ is as follows:  http://f-marc.com/11plus/manual/


2. Run a couple of game based training drills. Use passing and movement, or possession as the objectives. This allows you to focus on the single most important aspect of technique. Touch. You can see how a player receives a ball, how they pass a ball, and how they move in relation to the ball when they aren't in possession. Fitness comes into play here  as well.

3. Lastly, run a larger game, using keepers if you have two, or multiple small target goals ( such as PUGG or Kwik Goal), and assess tactical ability, competitiveness, physicality and desire.


Take from this session all the information that you can, and develop a short and medium term training plan to address short comings and enhance strengths.


Next post will be about a short and medium term plan to develop passing and fitness.

And Liverpool FC transfer goals that don't include Chelsea FC loanees.

YNWA

Hal White

The Barefoot Scouser