Listen to Pim, make A-League training tougher

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By Con Stamocostas, 24 Feb 2009 Con Stamocostas is a Roar Pro

Tagged:: football, Pim Verbeek, Socceroos

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While some see Pim Verbeek’s comments about the A-League as damaging, I like them and want more of them. Australian football seems to have taken the comments personally. But this reflects Australia’s insecurity about their place in the football world.

Verbeek is playing the character of the hard and uncompromising boss who uses the management technique of criticism and never showing approval.

These are what Pim’s messages are:

Australian training standards compared globally are so low that …
a) Training in Europe is actually better than playing a full A-league game
b) Any player, whether they are a returning or potential Socceroo, will not be able to maintain a fitness level that is required for International football.

The first comment is what a lot football people got upset about, and if you dig a little, those same people disagreed with Pim Verbeek’s initial appointment as national coach.

The second statement has caught the wrath of some A-league coaches.

The clubs in question, Perth Glory and North Queensland Fury, are trying to lure current Socceroos Mile Sterjovski, Chris Coyne and Scott Chipperfield to come home. And in their eyes, comments made at the FFA annual Coach’s Conference, like that by Pim Verbeek, are turning players off coming home:

Verbeek said: “If you play as open as some games I’ve seen here, you do it against a European or South American team, you would get slaughtered.”

So the 64 thousand dollar question is, why can’t you just make the training like Europe, then?

The reasons why it isn’t at the moment:

1. The A-League can never match the intensity of a European League. The scrutiny by fans and media does not place the pressure on player’s shoulders the same way it does overseas. We are still infants in world football terms.
2. At this moment in time players have to go to Europe to learn the tactical side of the game as well as learning how to be a true professional.

So, how we can make training more like Europe:

1. Lifting the intensity is the most obvious. The A-league is getting there. Eventually we should see fourteen teams, with a regular home and away season of 39 games
2. Your team will play thirteen teams three times in the regular season. Add cup games and Asian Champion Leagues games and you may have some teams playing 40-50 games a year, just like most of the top Leagues around the world.
3. After the TV deal is up, fotball could get 100 million a year. That means a higher salary cap, and clubs, if they are smart, will invest in better coaches more physios and more support staff.

Perhaps we have to find out ourselves and teach ourselves these training methods that adapt to our culture and climate. Over time, with the help of the best coaches at the beginning, Australian football can then use that knowledge to better our football education.

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The Crowd Says (18) | Page 1 of Comments

dasilva said | February 24th 2009 @ 3:05am | Report comment

I agree. Let’s focus on solutions.

I think people tend to forget that Pim Verbeek was at a FFA conference lecturing on the topic “The differences between Australian and European Football”. Where he talk in detail tactical and training methods that he used in his career trying to educate Australian coaches. He also regularly advise A-league clubs and coaches on how to train and tactics (we do see an increase in 4-2-3-1 in the A-league ever since PIm arrived) as well as give advice to ACL participants on foreign teams.

He’s not a critic that offers no solution. It’s just his critical comments make big headlines while his assistance to the A-league is brushed over.

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Pippinu said | February 24th 2009 @ 10:54am | Report comment

Regarding the number of games, 21 can never, ever be as good as 39, everyone agrees there – but is that a training issue? Isn’t that a different issue? (albeit, a related one)

Going back to the training question – even if you are playing fewer than 38 games, can you lift the intensity of your training sessions?

Clearly, you can.

But does that mean the quality of the training will be as good as the top European comps – and the answer is: it can never be – doesn’t matter how intense you make it – your intra-team small sided games will feature the players that you have, and you can only be as good as the players around you (if you are still developing).

If you’re a keeper, or an aging defender like Moore – it won’t matter.

If your a 28 year old gun midfielder, who finds these training sessions as easy as pie – well, it might just matter (but I wouldn’t necessarily say it’s a certainty).

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David V. said | February 24th 2009 @ 11:38am | Report comment

The game has only recently made the transition to full professionalism at its highest level in Australia. Many footballing nations had and still have part-time football leagues but that’s never stopped them from producing top-class talent. The Scandinavian nations are a case in point- Denmark was one of the last European countries to embrace full professionalism, and Scandinavia has arguably been one of the biggest exporters of players for DECADES!

Of course in the Eastern Bloc, football was theoretically amateur- but we all know the story there.

In both Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, football leagues were very much part-time affairs, interest in which declined after increased coverage of English and Scottish football on the box. However, clubs in those countries could still hold their own in European competition despite the gap in fitness and professionalism, and this was the case up to the 80s.

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Rob said | February 24th 2009 @ 12:46pm | Report comment

I don’t know what the training regimes are like here in the A-League, but I doubt they are anywhere near as intense as they are elsewhere. I trained at a number of clubs in Brazil some 12 years ago now, and the intensity was nuts. Sure, I am a goalkeeper, so the training is different (but insanely hard!), but I saw enough of what was going on with the outfield players to know how full on it was.

We trained twice a day, 5 days a week, 3 hours per training session, except when we had games the next day, when the training was scaled back considerably – a light technique session before a tactical session using the formation and players the coach wanted starting the game. Everything was done flat out, and the skills sessions were punishingly demanding on both physical and technical levels.

I think that this kind of training, starting with the youth team, would seriously lift the standard of the league, with a focus on skills more than fitness, or rather, skills training at high intensity, which raises fitness levels. Training twice a day takes some time to get used to – your body kind of freaks out initially – but it is well worth it. you do around 6 hours of intense training a day, which is bound to improve your skill levels.

Of course, the balance needs to be struck, and the tactical sessions need to be detailed and carefully planned. Therefore, I support Verbeek offering tactical advice to A-League clubs. More coaches should be going overseas to get their coaching licenses, or at the very least to learn coaching techniques from their european/Sth American/Asian (esp. J-League) peers. Or appointing Directors of Football from overseas, another good option, to teach the club head coach more on the tactical front.

Then, with a more intense training regime and a bolstered tactical knowledge, you would start to see a less naive style of play from the A-League teams. Adelaide is probably the only example of a team that plays that more compact tactical style at the moment.

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Con Stamocostas said | February 24th 2009 @ 1:54pm | Report comment

All good points.

now go and 10 laps and 100 push ups.

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Towser said | February 24th 2009 @ 2:34pm | Report comment

Whilst all the points so far are valid & Pippinus point about being surrounded by better players bears weight surely regardless of this lack of player quality what Rob says about the intensity,duration & quality of training also bears weight.
Does anybody know at their own club what hours they train? Has Pim attended many A-League sessions to compare them with European training sessions.
We cant do anything about the technical ability of present senior players that should have happened in Junior football but we can apply the intensity of the training sessions mentioned by Pim & Rob on here.
I ask the question why are we not applying this intensity currently?. Pim shouldnt have to tell us to do this.
I certainly dont buy your reasons Con for this not happening:-

1 This point has nothing to do with having the will to up the ante on training intensity. Poor excuse for a lazy coach. Will be interesting to see the intensity of SFC’s training sessions this year.
2 Already disagreed with the 39 game format.
3 Agree more money is needed & big dollars whatever the source. Particularly to get us the things you say but also to compete with the bigger & more flush with money Asian Clubs for players.

Also Con I for one dont want to see a 39 match season.
My vision of having 14 teams was so we could have a proper home & away season of 26 matches not carrying on the same unbalanced format we have at present because of lack of teams.

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Con Stamocostas said | February 24th 2009 @ 3:20pm | Report comment

Towser, I expect you are right about the 39 match season, there most probably will be a normal home and away sstem once expansion roles in.

I also reckon without the investment from clubs and even the FFA(the duch mafia has been a good start) in our training methods then how do we expect to improve.

When Urawa red diamonds where out here to play Sydney FC they where traing at the plush Sydney Uni grounds where as Sydney FcCwhere training on fileds smaller than a normal football pitch and with makeshift posts.

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jimbo said | February 24th 2009 @ 9:59pm | Report comment

Stop pissing in Pimbo’s pocket you guys.
You are creating another urban myth and a stereotype of an Australian footballer who is lazier and not as fit as a European footballer.

Since when has the fitness or commitment of an Australian footballer going from the A-League to the European or Asian leagues ever been questioned?

When Guus took over the Socceroos and complained about how unfit they were, where were they all playing?
The A-League?
The NSL?

No – they were all playing in the top leagues of Europe and they still weren’t fit enough.

Stop playing with yourselves.
Pimbo and Wags the Dog are just using it as another excuse not to pick people.
They are making a fortune on the side from commissions for talent scouting good young Aussie players for big Turkish and Dutch clubs.

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Sam said | February 24th 2009 @ 10:14pm | Report comment

Jimbo

I think I’m over Pimbo’s comments…just get us to the World cup and that’ll do me.

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Spanner said | February 24th 2009 @ 10:20pm | Report comment

Pim clearly follows this training intensity philosophy from Guus. Before and after the World Cup we would always hear that the training Hiddink was putting the Socceroos through was nothing any of the players had ever seen before. (and these guys all training in Europe) I remember Hiddink saying that these guys were not fit enough and he would make them the fittest team in the WC. This he did.

Con´s last comment of suitable training grounds have a lot do with the training in Australia as the teams dont have access to their grounds or first class facilities on a regular basis. This is what causes injuries and the risk is high to continually train on unsuitable surfaces which do more harm than good. We have a dry country not like Europe.

Wanting to train at a high intensity will never be a problem for Australian players they have proven time and time again to willing to do the hard yards.

I am hoping that over the coming years as the games profile continues to lift, Australia will have its own football grounds and facilities that wont need to shared with other codes.

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