A: We basically develop these player profiles, and within these profiles we define their goals. This is done on a very personal, individual level. Say if it’s technical defending, or positioning, or whatever work it is that we want you to do additionally, or your role within the team personality-wise, so that’s where we stand with them on a personal base. On a team base, our goal was basically to reach the top teams in Europe again, and to follow a path that is kind of being demonstrated over years by the standard of play in the Champions League. So in order to reach that level, we told them this is why we have to do certain work. Champions League games are games that are constantly on the edge of a rope . That means you have to be physically on top of things, on top of things technically, you have to be focused at both ends. The development of soccer over the last years has shown that there’s far less risk taken now by teams than there was before. So the Champions League sets the tone for the national teams actually. In the Champions League, let’s say 8 out of 10 teams play a 4-5-1. You will see the next big European Championship or World Cup with 8 out of 10 teams playing a 4-5-1. So the Champions League affects the game globally. We came in and said, okay guys, in order to be competitive in the Champions League, this is what we need to have done. Now Bayern Munich is a team that we can’t really play a 4-5-1, I believe in a proactive style of football. I would like to set the tone on the football field, to be the team that hopefully is able to control the game. We are forced often into this role in the Bundesliga because all the teams against us play defensively. So we basically have no choice, so we have a squad of players where we are forced to play with at least two strikers. Which is good, it’s totally fine with me because I’d rather go in with two strikers if it’s possible. But you still have to watch what’s going on with the other top teams in Europe, in order to not run into counterattacks. Counterattacks if you play Barcelona or if you play Manchester United, you have to be smart. Those games now, hopefully after doing our homework tonight and getting into the quarterfinal, those will be games that will be decided maybe by free kicks or corner kicks, and by just constantly fighting in every area of the field and by being as compact as possible. So it has become a kind of dilemma in football, because you see our teams moving in different directions. You have more opportunities if you have players on the outside that can play those diagonal balls forty, fifty yards, which we have. We have Franck Ribéry, or Massimo Oddo, some players who won’t play tonight because we give our other flank players a chance to play, but we have players switching sides right away to open up the game. But this I the direction we’ve gone for the last five, six, seven years. You’ll see it in the next World Cup, when the next European Championship comes along, this is what coaches are playing. The Champions League sets the tone for all that.
Q: It used to be the World Cup that set the tone for the whole world.
A: Exactly, and it shifted, by this huge presence media-wise of the Champions League. I think that UEFA did an amazing job pushing that Champions League into a format that is incredible, I mean tonight our game will be seen in over one hundred countries. They can choose, those countries, whether they watch our game, or Manchester United, or Arsenal, or whatever it is, but the players know that. The players are greedy for the Champions League, and that is shown in Brazil, it’s shown in Argentina, so that’s where things start really developing for them because of the higher tension level. National team coaches look at what’s going on. What is Alex Ferguson doing, what all of these very experienced coaches are doing, and they see also that we’ve shifted as a game towards a 4-5-1, you know Arsene Wenger plays a 4-5-1, and Mourinho plays a 4-5-1, and even for the Dutch people with Hiddink plays a 4-5-1 from a 4-3-3. So the two outside wingers become defenders, everybody behind the ball, and then depend on their qualities going forward. Spain is the major example, they were by far the best team in the European Championships by demonstrating how you execute a 4-5-1 with midfielders going forward, slicing into the defense. It’s just incredible. It is also important for player development. What is the role of the striker? What is the role of the midfielder? The new system kind of melts players more and more together. There are midfielders who now have the ability to become strikers, and then morph right back into defenders again. You have fullbacks that are playmakers, and obviously still the role of the #6 (holding or defensive midfielder) is still as important as ever. He’s the brain behind the system. Mark van Bommel is that for us, we tell him that he’s our quarterback. He must make sure that defensively we’re always compact. He must make sure that we switch the ball when needed. But then at the same time the one against one with players going into the box, the Messi’s and the Ribery’s, and the Cristiano Ronaldo’s of this world.
Q: The playmakers now on a lot of teams are moving to the outside instead of being in the middle. I think that’s a big change as well.
A: This is coming to the wings, because many teams now play with a double 6 going through the middle. You will see a team tonight, Sporting Lisbon, their key is coming from the outside with good players. In the first game, in Lisbon, they had ten crosses in the first half, they were all sharp, they were just flying in, they were looking to get a goal in the first half, and we were under pressure, and then we got one right before the half and it just kind of broke their neck. They are a team that deserves to be in the top 16 in Europe, three days later they tied Porto, 0-0, so it is interesting from just a technical perspective.
Q: Speaking of that, from a coaching perspective, which is more important: game preparation, or adjustments that take place in a game?
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A: In-game adjustments are obviously important, but they are limited. To be honest, you can do adjustments at halftime, adjustments with three subs, and maybe you shift one thing or another during the game, but I think it’s more important the days before a game to have them really realize what the challenge is. We as coaches are limited once the game starts, we are absolutely limited. We have to be honest also, now 80, 90, even 95% of it at that point is up to the guys on the field. If they haven’t really, if it hasn’t sunk in by that point, then I think it’s almost impossible that they get it in the game, because during a game, the emotional level in their brains is so high that you can’t count on them to have rational technical discussions on anything. They only have vision through emotions, it’s game day, it’s game day, which that is a big part, the emotional side of it.
Q: What’s important to you when you select your staff? Your assistant coaches specifically.
A: Obviously it’s important their qualities, no doubt about that, their qualifications are very important. But it’s also important that they have a big inner drive to become better. An assistant coach for me, the first thing he has to say is that he wants to become a head coach. If he would say I’m a loyal assistant coach, I wouldn’t go with that. So I’ve said to my team, what’s your goal, and if they say their goal is to become a head coach, then okay, that’s what I want. Nick (Theslof) is an assistant, Nick is a young, talented coach, his goal is to become a head coach one day of a good team. So I need to know from a physical therapist, from a doctor, from a fitness coach that their goal is to become a better doctor, to become a great fitness coach, and I introduced myself at the beginning of the season and said that whenever you have classes for additional education, I want you to use those. I give you always free weekends, time is never a problem. So I observe if they do that, and if somebody would just think that, I’m there, I made it at Bayern Munich (as an assistant), and they are satisfied with just that, then there might be a change at the end of the season.
Q: You’ve already said that you empower your staff, you empower your players, what do you demand from your assistant coaches on a daily basis?
A: I demand from my team that they obviously are very thorough in their preparation for the upcoming games, for our opponents, that they watch the videos about the other teams, that they talk through that, that they define what we’re going to see when we show the players. I expect them to prepare for training sessions in different options, giving me two, three, four options every day. So when I come in it’s okay, what do you want to achieve with the training session? But how does it feet into the week, how does it fit with the long-term plan? Does it fit with something we need to maybe solve from the last game? And does it fit into what we have now with the upcoming opponents. So it’s a nonstop thing for our assistants with preparation. Then I come in and we define it together, what will be the content of the training session, what will be the goals. I’m always the one to communicate it to the team, but they’ve done the majority of that work already beforehand. My role then becomes more of a managerial role. I deal with the board of the club on a daily basis. The media department, I deal with the environment of people that want something from this team, I deal with the team administrators and tell them organizational issues, what I want to see, what we might change. As you know, I think my team is doing a tremendous job, and I think that they really both work extremely hard and accomplish a lot. Obviously, for somebody coming from a U.S. environment, which is also a very demanding and tough environment, but coming here where this game is lived through every person on the street, it’s a different feel that you can’t escape from anything. And I think that’s what they live and breath right now, and I think Landon (Donovan) has been here with us for a few weeks, and I wish it would have been longer. We have three high profile strikers for next season, and it wouldn’t make sense in this moment to have a fourth striker, and the financial crisis has hit here too. So we had to tell Landon, yes you can play here, yes you have all the qualities, yes you can break through here, but it’s just too much of a financial burden to take on at this time. But in this team for ten weeks, he learned a lot. It will help him this year, and hopefully it helps him make that big jump, because quality-wise he can play in any team. He just has to get really nasty, he has to get nasty every day in training. Not training like yesterday, because we played before, that’s not a hard training session, but all of the other sessions is a war, I don’t want to use that word, but that’s what it is. It’s a difficult environment where they define their own hierarchy within the group every day. They do passes purposely to make you look bad, they make comments in order to make you mentally shaky, it’s all part of it. It’s all part of dealing with the stress
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