Monthly Newsletter - November 2024
Hello ballers,
Hope you’re all enjoying the change in weather and survived storm Darragh!
Coaching over the festive period
I’ll be working pretty flat out over the Christmas break bar a few days here and there, so if you are looking for one to one coaching - get in contact asap. Reminder that we have a New Year’s Football Camp (click here) and Group Session Clinics (click here) coming very soon - I’m really excited for both and hopefully see loads of you there.
What’s been happening?
The football season has been heating up with quite a few surprises… Liverpool find themselves top of the Prem - somewhat of a surprise considering they struggled a little bit last year and with Arne Slot replacing Klopp. Probably more surprising is that Chelsea are in Second, ahead of both Man City and Arsenal. Arsenal still look good and I think will still be up there at the end of the season… but Man City are really struggling. They lost again in the champions League to Juventus and are on a really torrid run of form. I know they are missing some important players such as Rodri but you would still expect them to be doing better than they are!
Talking of Super Teams - Real Madrid have struggled a bit of late. I spoke about this before: having a super team isn’t always easy! Football is such a team sport and people seem to forget that when a superstar does well at a club, but Mbappe joining Madrid this past summer has really highlighted how important balance is in a team. You look at them on paper and you would struggle to find better players in each position in the rest of the world. I hope Anchelotti can sort it out, but I don’t envy him!
Ask me a question:
Eddie asks:
“Why are some players so erratic? Darwin Nunez is a great example - in particular, his finishing. Sometimes (but rarely) it's great. Mostly, it's awful. He obviously has the technique but he doesn't always manage to use it.”
Great question! One of the many reasons I love football and especially coaching is because there is an endless amount of things to learn about playing. We mostly talk about good players and their physical (speed, agility, strength…) and technical (shooting, passing, dribbling…) attributes but rarely about their tactical and psychological attributes. Each manager will want players to play slightly differently which falls under the tactical knowledge section. Psychological attributes are super important - think about when really good technical players have a poor run of form - take Rashford for example: you can almost see when he is low on confidence. I wold guess that Nunez struggles in two areas - self-confidence/self-belief that he can actually execute what he is trying to do and decision making: when to use a certain technique or where to shoot. The best players (Messi, Ronaldo) in their prime seemed to always make the right decision and then execute it.
This is why football is the hardest sport in the world - not only do you have to have incredible physical, technical and tactical attributes - you also need to be mentally strong with great self-belief and incredible decision making!
Worth a watch:
Anyone who is interested in Hashtag United, here is Spencer talking about the 3pm blackout:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TZf2T9ZhHpw
I love behind teh scenes videos… Here’s a day in the life of Anthony Gordon:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Enyf7p59sZQ
Hopefully see you guys soon,
Jesse