enjoyed that mate, thanks.
It was interesting (for once) to hear Dean Saunders talk during the 1860 friendly about the messages drummed into players' heads in his time at the club.
He said something like "we were always told to pass pass pass pass pass - keep moving the ball - and eventually they'll run out of defenders and we're in".
For me that's a good description of circulation football, and we had a squad full of players who could function that way; but they could also adapt when needed and grind results out, or keep things tight and hit on the break.
Saunders came in from Derby after starting out at Oxford United. He doesn't immediately strike you as a massively intelligent man, but he did have the kind of football 'smarts' that fitted the bill at Liverpool.
I guess you could liken it to learning to drive - you can learn the highway code and the Hayes manual for the car, but if you sat your driving test with that preparation alone, you'd fail miserably. It's only with practical experience and coaching to the level where good habits become unconscious/subconscious that you truly master the skill.
I think the same applies to football. Everyone has the same basic 'wiring' inside their brains (although granted some are freaks who are just way beyond what others are capable of), so if people are coached well (and by God our players were coached as well as anyone from Shanks to Kenny), they'll learn what they need to learn in mind, heart, and gut. They don't need to be grade A students or be academically intelligent as such - possibly that overcomplicates things (Michels makes interesting points on this in his book, saying 'players have a right to know the reasons they perform each training routine', and 'spanish players are more accepting of what their coach tells them to do, whereas dutch footballers come from a culture where everyone questions the reasons' - he acknowledges the strife that's brought their national squads over the years as players opinions come to the fore).
Anyway, I don't think the players need to understand the nuts and bolts of the tactical theory; they just need to understand form and function, and gradually embody their role in the collective unit, the basic principles of the club's football (traditionally 'The Liverpool Way'), and what they're expected to do in different situations. It's complex, but it's also got to be intuitive, which is where bravery, responsibility, and mentality come in I guess.
It'd be interesting to know how much 'book learning' goes on at the Academy - wonder if Gedo could provide some insight on that front actually... might pm and ask!
anyway, great post and some really thought-provoking points.
Thanks for responding, and giving some positive feedback on these points I raised...
A lot of my Liverpool knowledge is hand-me-down stuff from my Dad, a Liverpool die-hard and an intellectual to boot.
The reason I mention academics, and book learning, is that I believe there is something fundamentally enlightening about education that teaches anyone, whether a serious footballer or someone who truly is an academic, things about life, sports, philosophy, the big 3 for footballers really, that can expand their world-view beyond the ups and downs of season to season performance.
One of the things that pleases me, perhaps beyond all other aspects of Rafa's approach to management, is the fact that he is continually looking for the 'next big breakthrough player'.. It's that attitude that I think is responsible for our #1 finish in the reserve league last season, and what will eventually, if Rafa stays on this course, separate us from the pack. I think I harped on a very specific point about academy level football, a point that may or may not be apparent to the casual fan, but ultimately holds the key to success when looking at any team as a 'team' and not just a group of players who play for a club. I in no way think Rafa is on the wrong track.. we can already see the promise of the young players he has selected, pushed, and moulded into the kind of player needed to take Liverpool to the next level in Prem football.
I guess what I'm driving at is that, we see players come and go, develop and grow, show promise that has everyone waiting with baited breath for their 'breakthrough', but what we can't break away from is that old standby that, unless a player shows phenomenal, exceptional promise in the reserves, we can't wait for them to develop into something.. we take action on players, young players, as early as 16, 17.. and they get loaned out and watched from afar.. will they or won't they take their game to the next level?
When you talk about the "next level" abstractly, you find yourself trying to define what cutting edge players are and aren't, very distinctly and in terms that I believe should not apply to them. We saw Nemeth and Pacheco both show signs of brilliance vs Villareal, but neither of them did anything exceptional. They both did things that were _almost_ exceptional, almost produced match winners.. and that is what I think should be focussed on. A lot of fans of the oldschool mentality re reserve players would say, well, look, they didn't come up with the goods then, why should we expect them to suddenly turn around and do something different the next time they are given a chance. And that is precisely what I think is the wrong attitude to take toward a young player, a reserve player especially.. The commentators of the Villareal game said it a few times, the flick-ons and chips they tried to beat Villareal with weren't good enough in that game to produce a moment of brilliance against a quality side.. maybe a reserve-level side... but who is to say that given another chance they wouldn't adapt and suddenly produce game winning passes, flick-ons, touches.. the stuff that you expect at the top level?
Both Pachecho and Nemeth took good solid chances, and narrowly missed producing a moment of worldbeater class. Spearing's volley at the end of regulation was a great example of what these young players are thinking when they play.. "give me a chance, and I'll take on the world"... yet so many of them fail to produce when it comes to top level competition. Sure we can dismiss their failures to give us match winning moments in these pre-season friendlies as an indication of their inability to perform in the prem.. or, conversely, and far less likely.. view those efforts that narrowly fail as signs that given time to adjust to better defense, better teams in general, they could raise their game to a a level that fits in with our needs. I'm of the view that players, especially young players in the reserves, should be given more chances, more games, and more encouragement to raise their level of play.
Why not give Nemeth, Pacheco, Spearing, et al, games against weaker opposition in the prem. Surely it wouldn't hurt us to start these young debutantes against the likes of Hull, Derby, Sunderland.. the newly promoted, etc, in an effort to see what they are capable of given the onus of perform or be forgotten. While we rely on getting results against these weaker sides to cement our position in the top 4, surely our veteran players can bail us out of embarrassing draws, or should be able to. Lets cement our position as a dominant team through trial and error before we get scared of not claiming points against vastly inferior opposition.. That way, we can know 100% that we have the right players on the pitch and not second-guess ourselves when it comes to taking risks.
This is all speculation of course, but I think until we are established as a squad that provides consistent results game in and game out, we shouldn't be afraid to see who is capable of what.