Do Football Coaches Really Know What They Are Doing?

Do Football Coaches Really Know What They Are Doing?

It is striking how the same teams seem to struggle with injuries. Newcastle United and Birmingham City being two that spring instantly to mind. This begs the question is it really a question of bad luck or is it bad coaching?

Sometimes a club gets injury crises which are bad luck, and those injuries normally consist of things such as fractures and other knocks, No one is going to say Xabi Alonso’s broken ankle was caused by bad football coaching. But when anyone looks at Newcastle United’s injuries and they mostly consist of strains and pulls. The powers at Newcastle United should question Graeme Souness and his coaches and be taking a close look at their training methods. Excuses such as a rock hard training pitch will explain turning an ankle but how do they explain hamstring pulls?

That isn’t to say football coaches haven’t a clue because most do know what they are doing but sometimes it should be remembered that a good player doesn’t necessarily make a good coach. In fact the two skills are completely unconnected – as can seen by looking at the likes of Wenger and Mourinho.

Maybe what the FA needs to do is stop trying to rush ex-players through and look at getting more career coaches involved? For starters, most players these days do not exactly need the work but there are thousands of people that do need the work and are probably just as capable of being a top coach as any player. We all know football players are not exactly the most cerebral of people and yet coaching should be a well thought out plan to bring players to a peak of fitness and ability.

Some people might say, ‘but how could someone who has never played the game understand it fully’. This is a fair point, but how is this relevant to getting a player to his peak? A nutritionist will almost certainly have never competed in professional sport of any kind but they will still know what food a professional requires. These days a coach should be a specialist, then maybe we would stop getting whinging managers saying something along the lines of 'just wait till everyone is fit then you will see we shouldn’t be 25 points adrift at the bottom of the league'.

Article written by Tris Burke