Coaching Crisis
Coaching Crisis
How to tackle the difficulties of team selection for coaches - by Daniel Ferguson
As much as spectators can comment on a coach's team selection, have you ever pictured yourself being the coach? With so many factors influencing your decisions and lots of weight on your shoulders to pick the right team, how do you make the right choice? As Gareth Southgate (England Manager 2016-2024) said himself, "you pick certain personnel in place of others and it goes wrong, you're dead."
From a player's perspective they want to be selected. They desire to play week in, week out. Being consistently selected has associations with improving player's emotional well-being, life satisfaction and enjoyment, plus reduced stress. From a coach's perspective they're required to cater for many needs. They must consider the career impacts on the players and make decisions whilst surrounded by the influences of parents, agents, players, staff and clubs. To add to this, further external pressures from the general public, the media and sponsors. A coach must also make decisions under time pressure, especially in the modern day, as we see in football, teams can play up to 3 times a week.
Achieving consistency
Team selection all depends on the club a coach is selecting for. However, in some cases, having a consistent team selected can boost performances. A great example of this is Leicester City during the 2015/16 season when they famously beat the odds to win the Premier League title. Claudio Ranieri was known as the, 'tinker man' but during this season his decisions remained very consistent. With his 4-4-2 approach, his preferred starting 11 played 87% of all matches in that season they won the league. Constant change to a team can result in athletes feeling like they don't know where they stand or don't have that sense of belonging. This is where it depends on the club: what are their shared values, what do they stand for?
From a more psychological standpoint, this leads into two ways a coach can handle the difficulties of team selection.
How can a coach handle the difficulties of team selection?
Shared values
Ben Bartlett, who spent 12 years with the FA as a coach educator and has worked with teams such as Houston Dynamo, Fulham FC and Chelsea ladies dived into the idea of shared values on soccer coach. As discussed, a coach has many things to think about when choosing their team. A way to relieve these pressures is to create agreed team values that are shared across the entire team network. Some clubs values may be about winning every game (outcome based) and some may desire to perform at their best every game, without being focused on the end result (process based). A team will benefit from having common languages and ideas that everyone can understand; that everyone has an input in. Psychologically, this creates a sense of community further improving players well-being while playing the game they love. So before a coach even thinks about selecting a squad, has the club decided on it's values? Has the club created a common language?: "we will play for each other no matter what", "we strive to be our best selves on the pitch."
To ease the pressure of team selection for a coach, if everyone in the team knows where they stand, a collective environment oozing positive emotion can be created. Further easing the pressure on the coaches shoulders as there'll be less toxicity when certain players aren't selected.
Empathy & Authenticity
Coaches must focus their attitudes and behaviours towards having empathy and authenticity. But what does this mean?
Empathy is sharing and understanding the feelings of another person. Let's use Gareth Southgate as an example. Southgate uses a person over player approach, seeing the individuals in his team as people before football players. He demonstrated this empathy during the 2018 world cup when he wrote personal messages for all his staff members. Why does this demonstrate empathy? Because he understands the pressures his staff members will be going through in a major tournament, especially working for a heavily scrutinised team such as England. He understands that writing a message to each member will not remove this pressure, but remind them he's got them, he's with them no matter what happens in the tournament: he understands their emotions.
Authenticity is about being your whole self. Displaying actions that resonate with who you want to be in this world; not shying away from showing your honest, complete self. Another example taken from Southgate is when he made that statement, "you pick certain personnel in place of others and it goes wrong, you're dead." He's not afraid of what the media will say about how he truly feels.
What does this mean for players?
As Kevin George said (a clinical consultant who played professionally for West Ham and Charlton), empathy and authenticity, "sets a foundation for a player to be themselves." Jeremy Snape (ex-England cricketer, now Sports Psychologist) said it allows players to, "think creatively in a psychologically safe environment." If a coach is honest with his players, they know why they have or haven't been selected, preventing second guessing and creating a positive culture where everyone feels involved.
What can a coach can take from this?
It's easy to fall into the trap of the stresses of selecting your team. Wanting to please everybody, but knowing the harsh reality is, this isn't an option. However, to make everyone feel involved and to ease the pressures of not selecting certain individuals: create those shared values within your team. Let your players be involved in this creation and have their say. As a person be your full self and show understanding towards your player's emotions: the sporting world can be cruel. Alex Ferguson is a fantastic example of understanding every player on his team at a deeper level than football. An example being allowing Ronaldo to leave the country and go see his father who was in hospital, even when Manchester United had some tough upcoming games. Ferguson was also his full self: he didn't hide his emotion on the field. So when it comes to the difficulties of squad selection, have you set your foundations first to create a secure and safe psychological environment for your team, to prevent a coaching crisis: by everyone in the team knowing where they stand.
Find Daniel Ferguson on:
LinkedIn: Daniel Ferguson
Instagram: @danferguson_sp
Twitter: @DanFergusonSP
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