A discussion with @Roygista and @MigTocMatt (While you give me a follow on Twitter @TotaalVoetbal97, you might want to follow them as well, but don’t forget my follow 🙂 ).

As Xavi admits he is not ready to take over at Barcelona, we discuss what is it beyond tactics, strategies and numbers that forms a coach.

By the time Pep Guardiola got into coaching, he was already a well travelled man. After playing at Barcelona where his ideas were first solidified under Johan, brief stints with Brescia and Roma in Italy and one with Al Ahli followed. The crowning moment though, was when he and Juan Manuel Lillo came together at Dorados de Sinaloa.

Even though Pep was an intelligent player himself, these stints outside Barcelona were crucial. It’s not just that he started off immediately after playing for one single team. He explored. Apart from Johan, he learnt from men like Lavolpe, Lillo, Bielsa, Capello, Menotti, incorporated their ideas and even took them through further refinement.

A coach is not merely a man just “managing stuff and men”. What separates coaches are the ideas. It’s hard to first form your own ideas, to implement them and even more to stand by them. Beyond a point, there is no textbook to teach this. Academia can provide us with all the information and definitions. What is important is how it is processed.

Which is why it is crucial to figure out what is your ideology in the first place. It’s not as simple as “I like Barcelona, possession football it is”.

The more time you take to think about it, the more you realize you need to look at the bigger picture.

Also, the players you have also has an effect on the system you implement. It’s not that you have one, single ideal system to be forced on the players, it is equally important to know the skillsets of players and incorporate them in the system. It’s synergistic. Not striking the right balance is suicidal. So you understand the players, form a system and tweak it as and when required.

For example, take Setién’s Betis in 2017-18. After getting the right pieces together, they changed from 4-1-4-1 to a 3-5-2. The basic ideas remained sacred but a slight tweak and the performances took off like anything.

And then it is also important to change. Evolving is indeed crucial, look at Mourinho and Benitez and how the game left them behind.

But you only evolve after having a core of ideas, that core must never be touched as it is who you are, sacred matter. You only give it extra layers of protection. You have to know where you come from. Those who don’t have their own ideas just sway around in winds.

To understand this, look at Pep again. Bayern didn’t play like an exact copy of Barcelona, City don’t play like a copy of Bayern or Barça. Philosophy is still the same, but the evolution in the system is evident, especially when you look at his use of wingers and full backs. From a marauding full back, acting like a false midfielder in Alves allowing Villa to tuck in, to wide wingers and inverted full backs providing numerical superiority in the middle…

The Bielsismo, idea of attacking with 5 and protecting the space with 5 is still the same, but look at all the ways to achieve it, varying from league to league, players to players.

And then look at managers that stagnated. Mourinho, Benitez, Spalletti… When you stop evolving, the growth of the team stops too. Stagnation is fatal.

And that’s why Xavi has a long way to go before taking over at one of the most coveted places in world football. He has to solidify his ideas, learn from others, refine and keep evolving.

Intelligence is reactive, wisdom is proactive. The balance is what matters, what is really crucial.