How do players react to Mourinho’s approach? One: they appreciate it; two: they don’t switch off between the exercises; and three: you’re asking them to concentrate all the time and that’s what football is, it’s a period of play then it breaks, and then it’s another period of play and then it breaks. If you can get them to concentrate and focus then that’s the way to go forward.
Reflecting on the approaches and philosophies of the other coaches and managers you have worked with, how do the individual approaches vary? Obviously they’ve all got their own individual characters and they’re all different people. But basically you’ve got to find some common ground.
Ruud Gullit: When I worked with Gullit, and he was the first one I worked with, we’d both just stopped playing, so in terms of coaching and managing we were probably quite inexperienced. For me it was just a learning curve. Ruud’s ideas were Dutch based – pass and move – it’s the Dutch philosophy. For me it was a great introduction to coaching. I did it away from the Chelsea environment which I was comfortable in and to get out and do something different at a different club was important for me going forward as a coach. I could have stayed at Chelsea but I felt having played with a lot of the players I was going to have to coach i didn’t think it was the right thing to do.
Avram Grant: I went from working with Jose to Avram [Grant] who took over at a difficult time. Whoever was going to follow Jose was always going to find it difficult. Working under Avram I had a lot more to do than working under Jose, as Avram was more of a manager than a coach, so my input and involvement was multiplied. So that was good for me as a coach, to get that amount of time with such a quality group of players.
“The way I work is not to say ‘do this, do this, do this’ there has to be a flexibility when you work with players at this level, you have to allow them to have their own slant and their own take on an exercise, and let them develop their own way of doing it.”
Luis Felipe Scolari: He came in with his own people and ideas and I just didn’t feel I was getting asked or allowed to do enough coaching or work with the group. I felt if i’d stayed there as a coach I would have stagnated. It would have been easy for me to sit there and pick up my money and say this is an ‘easy life’ but that’s not what I wanted so when I got the opportunity to go to West Ham with Gianfranco I thought it was another challenge to take myself out of the comfort zone.
Kenny Dalglish: I didn’t know him before and it’s the first time we’ve worked together so we’ve got to learn how to work together. It’s going to be a period of change for Liverpool FC, hopefully we can put in good foundations that can take the club back to a level where everybody expects them to be. Whether it takes a short period, or a long period it’s still to be determined. In football you can never work that out.
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