Day 10 – Managers, Coaches, and general structure

Topic Point: The coaching staff for a soccer club or national soccer team issimilar to our other sports in the U.S., though the traditional terminologyresembles baseball. The head coach of the soccer team is referred to as the“manager”. There are assistant coaches and/or position coaches, trainers, and equipmentmanagers (kit man).

A more interesting component of coachingsoccer is the limited amount of coaching that can occur during a game. Soccercoaches give direct instruction, with full attention of the team, before thegame and at half-time. While coaches may bark instructions during the game or speakto players individually when opportunity presents itself during the match,there is minimal coach influence during the game. The only in-game coachinginfluence comes in the form of substitutions. Since there are limitedsubstitutions (tomorrow’s topic!), the manager and coaches make strategicdecisions during the game about which players will enter and who will besubstituted out.

Ted Lasso: InS1E10, Henry comments to his father that when watching a game, it looks likeTed isn’t doing anything. Ted admits that to some extent, he isn’t; thatcoaching soccer isn’t like American football, and once the game starts he hasvery little control. We also can appreciate the impact that in-game andhalftime decisions can have:

·     Substitution Jaime Tartt andhalftime speech (S1E5)

·     Substituting Roy in at halftime(S1E10)

·     Halftime instructions (S2E12)

·     Halftime instructions (S3E12)

·     Playing with 10 men whiletrainers tended to Jaime (S3E11)

We also see two moments where Ted buildshis coaching staff. In S1E10, Nate is promoted to assistant coach. In S2, E5, wesee Ted bring Roy on as another member of his coaching staff. The strengths ofeach coach come through in the series, as does ego at times (Nate throughseason 2).

Soccer-related note: In all sports, coaching evolves with the time. Soccer alwaysimplemented a head coach/manager along with assistant coaches. Position coachesbecame more common in the 1990s, most notably the “goalkeeping coach”. Morerecently, there are specialty coaches that mimic special teams coaches infootball. While soccer does not have special teams like American Football orice hockey, there are situations where play is stopped, and the ball must beput back into play. To capitalize on the pause and game restart, there are “SetPiece Coaches” including “Throw-in coaches”. Goals scored off these organizedsituations have become much more common (Day 15).

American Sports comparison: Coaching is a tremendous component of American sports. Americanfootball, basketball, and baseball depend heavily on coach instruction andintervention during the game. The normal flow of the game permits it, withmultiple pauses in action, time-outs, and flexible substitution rules (to bereviewed tomorrow!).[1]Beyond the pauses, there is an equity in possession opportunity (number ofpossessions, not time of possession) between the two teams playing in each ofthe big three American sports. Aside from a kick-off after a goal, neithersoccer nor ice hockey implement an exchange of possession protocol through thegame.

American football – Every play call onoffense and defense is planned. Plays can break down thus requiringimprovisation, however even in those situations there is a back-up plan (seeCaleb Williams game-tying touchdown pass in the 2026 NFC Divisional Playoffgame vs the LA Rams). Trick-plays (to be discussed Day 14), are even moreelaborately orchestrated. Audibles are considered improvisation, but are alsocarefully planned. While time-outs are more commonly used for clock management,they can be used for coaching instruction. The number of innate time-outs workedinto the structure of the game (media and other), unrestricted substitutions,and helmet audio for the quarterback or the defensive captain, all make for acoach’s instructions to always be only a play away.

Basketball – Each possession is anopportunity for a calculated symphony of movement. While more free-flowing thanAmerican football, possessions are more strongly held compared to soccer andice hockey. While change of possession during the run of play can occur(turnovers and rebounds), the team that gains possession holds it morereliably. This gives the team an opportunity to run plays, like in Americanfootball. Inbounds plays are also highly coached opportunities whether on theoffensive end or the defensive end of the court (particularly when the opponentdecides to engage in a full-court press). Finally, there are a significantnumber of time-outs available to each team (to be discussed Day 12) plus mediatime-outs. Despite the presence and influence of star players on a basketballteam, it ultimately is a coach’s game.

Arguably some of the greatest NBA coachesused time outs sparingly. Their preference was to not disrupt the flow of thegame, allowing their team to work their way out of problem situations. Thesecoaches include Phil Jackson, Grego Popvich, and Steve Kerr.

[1] Sometime in the 1990s (date/source unknown), I heard a theory froma sports commentator that the reason for the reduced popularity of soccer (andice hockey) among Americans is the reduced natural stoppages in play. Americanfootball, basketball, and baseball have numerous pauses in play built in to thegame structure. This allows Americans to be arm-chair coaches, discussing amongeach other what they would do (and how they can do it better!).

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Interactive: This is a link to a nice soccer coaching website,  The Coaching Manual. On this particular page, the author has provided realistic game scenarios and options for adjusting.

These are game management decisions that have to be made on the spot and somehow translated onto the field to the players in a game that does not stop, with a field that is larger than a football field so players are a long distance from the coaching staff!

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https://content.thecoachingmanual.com/blog/game-management-scenarios

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