Training Ground Guru Podcast

Pep Lijnders: Liverpool’s intensity identity (Part 2)

Episode #54 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Hudl, is with Liverpool assistant Pep Lijnders.
The Dutchman sat down with Simon Austin at the AXA Training Centre for an exclusive interview. In Part 2, he looked back on his career, gave insights into his time with Liverpool and reflected on his special relationship with Jurgen Klopp.
This has been an interview we've wanted to do for a long time, so we hope you enjoy it!
SHOW NOTES=>
01:37: Starting in football and coaching in Holland.
09:11: Working with Vitor Frade at Porto.
10:15: Importance of youth at Porto. Transferring idea of the talent group to Liverpool. Academy must match standard of scouting and recruitment. Need for a unified approach and for first-team manager to be aware of club's young players. Need for an 'inside pathway'.
15:24: Move to Liverpool in 2014. Doing Pro Licence in Wales.
20:00: Progression of coaches/ analysts as well as players at Liverpool.
21:39: Moving from Academy to first team at Liverpool. Why #6 and #10 are the most 'stressed' positions.
26:17: Strong relationship with Mike Gordon/ how he offered to pay for his father's hospital treatment.
27:52: First meeting with Jurgen Klopp. Returning after season as manager of Nijmegen in Holland. Told "I feel we can conquer the world together."
33:50: Why he and Klopp work so well together.
35:08: Highlights of his time at Liverpool. So proud of Trent Alexander-Arnold. What makes Klopp so special.
 

Pep Lijnders: Liverpool’s intensity identity (Part 1)

Episode #53 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Hudl, is with Liverpool assistant Pep Lijnders.
The Dutchman sat down with Simon Austin at the AXA Training Centre for an exclusive interview. In Part 1, he reflected on pre-season, looked ahead to the 2023/24 campaign and gave insights into his coaching methods.
This has been an interview we've wanted to do for a long time, so we hope you enjoy it!
SHOW NOTES=>
02:03: Pre-season preparations and reflections. Camp in Germany. 
05:37: Training exercises with different colour bibs.
10:10: Counter pressing and why it’s so important for Liverpool. Makes the difference between winning and losing. "As Jurgen says, counter pressing isn't a proposal, it's a law. That's what makes us us."
12:41: Background to Trent Alexander-Arnold moving inside to midfield last season. “The big big change last year was the moment when we found balance, when we put Trent to the inside and Cody (Gakpo) went to the 9, to become the extra player. The team became compact again, together again.”
16:08: Roberto Firmino “was the one who connected everything, who made us us, who was like the soul of the team. He was the one who made even not a good build-up a good one. That’s how Sadio and Mo could be Sadio and Mo.”
19:13: “The difference between a good and top team is the quality of your top three, your piano players.”
20:30: Did team lack intensity last season? 
22:53: New season without James Milner and Jordan Henderson. By the boot room there is a clock that Milner used to police. Now Linjnders has put up a sign: “Standards are made by the ones who need to live them.”
27:12: Use of rondos. Competition and street football. Identity game. “You need to earn the right to attack more, by defending top. That principle is present in each exercise. The 30% we don’t have the ball, that’s where we should be different from all other teams in the league.”
30:32: Building street pitch at the training ground to train offensive aggression. ‘Melwood Arena.’ “You need to create exercises where they feel that the better you attack the less you have to defend and when you defend really well you can attack much more.”
35:17: Creating a set piece pitch. 
37:03: Football is about honour. You want to be the best you can be. How identity game builds on this. “I try to play with the honour of the players a lot… they train with a knife between their teeth.”

Ian Evatt & Chris Markham: Bringing Bolton back

Episode #52 of the Training Ground Guru Podcast, in association with Hudl, features two guests: Bolton manager Ian Evatt and his Sporting Director Chris Markham.
Simon Austin sat down with the duo at the club’s Toughsheet Community Stadium ahead of the new season.
It’s rare to get a manager and Sporting Director speaking together like this, so we hope you enjoy it…  
SHOW NOTES =>
01:53: Having a blank canvas when they arrived at the club.
05:35: Setting a game identity, which then helps with recruitment.
09:58: Establishing this identity at Barrow, where it became known as futbol club de Barrow!
13:45: Pressing strategy and splitting the pitch into five zones.
16:00: Scouting process. Allying data and video. Chris being a data translator.
21:50: Ian seeing a big part of his role as a manager being to develop players. 'Re-recruiting players every day.' Looking for hungry players.
24:02: Scouting for character/ psychology. Young players having a problem dealing with adversity/ not being resilient. Mental health and wellbeing.
26:35: Treating people as individuals/ realising they are motivated by different things. How to give feedback. Young players want detail. B team. 
33:36: Progression of the game. Playing in Premier League with Blackpool and not doing opposition analysis/ having any out-of-possession strategy.
37:16: How a manager should behave on the touchline. 
40:16: Loans. Why big clubs want to send their players to Bolton. Difficult for big clubs to develop young centre backs. James Trafford.
48:11: Academy/ developing their own players. Having a genuine B team. 
53:09: Using Hudl and Wyscout for the B team and first team. Having an analysis culture.
54:43: Chris's work on penalties at the Football Association.
56:28: Chris: ambitions for Bolton in next few seasons.
57:17: Ian: personal ambitions. Wanting to become the first manager to take one club from League Two to the Premier League. 

Conor Nestor: Using analysis to get ahead in Asian football

Our guest on Episode #51 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Hudl, is Conor Nestor. 
Conor is the new coach of Hyderabad in the Indian Super League. He arrives from Svay Rieng in Cambodia, who he led to the 2019 league title.
The Irishman told us about his fascinating career journey and about how he has used analysis to gain an advantage. 

Des Ryan: Athletic development of Academy players

Our guest on Episode #50 of the Training Ground Guru Podcast, in association with Hudl, is Des Ryan. 
Des is Director of Coaching and Performance at Setanta College and was Head of Sports Medicine and Athletic Development at Arsenal Academy from 2013 to 2021.
During his time with the Gunners he helped to develop 'Strong Young Gunners' like Bukayo Saka. 
SHOW NOTES =>
02:01: Darcy Norman praise. Always being an outsider. How move to Arsenal came about. 
07:24: Differences between athletic development in football and rugby union. 
09:41: Strong doesn't mean big. Lots of misconceptions about strength and conditioning work in football. 
13:02: Skepticism/ hesitancy about gym work when he arrived at Arsenal. In vast majority of cases the training age was low.
18:30: What athletic development looks like through the different ages in the Academy.
21:15: No truth in 'old wive's tale' that weights can hamper growth.
24:15: Strong Young Gunners philosophy at Arsenal. Four pillars. Creating the most challenging and caring environment for development in the world. 
28:06: Arriving in England and finding that players went home at 2pm. That changed so they were working full days.
29:37: Letter from Hector Bellerin to himself, now on the wall at the Academy. 
31:31: Publishing 'The Arsenal Way of Physically Developing Players.' Arrow. Speed training. Different to straight line track sprinting. Arsenal have a tradition of producing athletic players.
38:17: Bukayo Saka. 'He was a very good example of Arsenal development'
42:57: Work with Setanta College.
45:40: Looking ahead to presenting at TGG's Youth Development Webinar on June 6th.
 

Pedro Marques: Inside Benfica’s talent factory

Our guest on Episode #49 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Hudl, is Pedro Marques, the Technical Director of Benfica's Academy.
There's a strong case for saying that Benfica have the top Academy in Europe. They are the reigning UEFA Youth League champions (having beaten RB Salzburg 6-0 in the 2022 final), have the most profitable Academy in Europe (according to the CIES) and have recent graduates including Ruben Dias, Joao Felix and Bernardo Silva.
SHOW NOTES =>
02:30: Is there one thing that sets Benfica's Academy apart?
06:07: The importance of the Benfica Campus. Previously it was like "travelling with a house on your back" for players, parents and coaches.
08:56: Balance between being a development club and one that also wins trophies.
11:24: PILLAR ONE of the Benfica Academy = Scouting.
17:04: Admiring the work of Right 2 Dream, especially their character development and commitment to all children.
21:01: Overall there are 520 players in the system - 200 in the regional talent centres, 100 living in Lisbon and 220 living at the Benfica Campus.
26:45: Despite the success with South American players, the focus of the Academy is Portugal.
29:18: PILLAR TWO of the Benfica Academy = Methodology.
30:04: Broad base and diversity of activities at younger ages (futsal, dance, gymnastics, cage football) with more specialism at the older ages.
32:04: Playing model throughout the club. "It's not so much about the system, but principles & ideas - about intensity, taking the initiative, pressing high,regaining quickly & scoring lots of goals."
36:34: PILLAR THREE of the Benfica Academy = Competition.
41:02: PILLAR FOUR of the Benfica Academy = Opportunities.
43:17: Benfica Lab.
45:25: Instead of selling your stars, could you hold onto your best players in future and win the Champions League?

Stuart Webber: Six years and beyond at Norwich City

Our guest on Episode #48 of the Training Ground Guru Podcast, in association with Hudl, is Norwich City Sporting Director Stuart Webber. 
SHOW NOTES =>
02:04: Rebuilding Norwich's training ground. Appeal of Sporting Director job was producing something sustainable at a club.
08:03: Premier League is the hardest league in the world. Even Brentford and Brighton, in Norwich's peer group, have significant owner investment.
09:56: Arriving at the club in 2017. They were lacking direction/ didn't have a lot to show for seasons in the Premier League. Simplified the plan: style of play/ invest in youth/ develop global scouting. 
13:10: Evolving as a person. Change manager v status quo manager.
17:48: Is he the purest form of a Sporting Director? 
23:17: Should the Sporting Director be visible and communicate with media/ fanbase?
25:41: Inspired to do the Sporting Director role by Damien Comolli.
35:35: Huddersfield Town. Focusing on foreign players and foreign coaches.
39:02: Would you appoint an English Under-21 coach as a manager? Have done it with German coaches in David Wagner and Daniel Farke.
42:30: Summit Foundation.
45:05: Criticism for mountain climbs/ Summit Foundation. Breakdown of relationship with local newspaper. 
56:00: Ambitions for Norwich City. Personal ambitions. Could see a future outside football. 

Tom Vernon: Giving everyone a Right to Dream

Our guest on Episode #47 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Hudl, is Tom Vernon, the founder and Group CEO of Right to Dream Group. 
=> SHOW NOTES:
02:12: What is Right to Dream and its philosophy?
04:46: Start of Right to Dream in 1999. Changing the 'extractive mindset'. Setting up the only residential girls' Academy in Ghana.
12:23: Moving into the USA and plan to buy an MLS club.
16:12: Trying to have a straight pipe rather than a pyramid with youth development.
17:39: Right to Dream recruitment days in Africa. 100,000 kids attend trials every year.
19:33: Appointing Ian Yates as Head of Global Recruitment. "We wanted someone who had been thinking in multiple sports in multiple ways. We want to go to places which are overlooked, where people might believe excellence does not exist."
21:35: Why "entrepreneurship in Africa is as tough as it gets." How he benefitted from white privilege.
23:42: Expelled from school. His own dyslexia. Why football needs to follow lead of other industries and recognise/ promote neurodiversity.
29:30: How the world - and football - are "rigged systems", with a high level of unfairness towards Africa.
34:13: Good book - 'Why I am no longer talking to white people about race.' Ghana's 'year of the return.' African diaspora returning and driving a different narrative.
37:21: Praise for Gareth Southgate "realities of the past and reconstructing the future." "One of the most inspirational stories in the sport in the last 20 years."
38:43: Is Right to Dream 'ultimate socialism'? Is it sometimes difficult to balance this with capitalism of raising finance/ selling players and corporate packages etc?
46:09: Buying FC Nordsjaelland. Reasons why. Developing youth - 14 of the first-team squad have come through the Academies in Ghana and Denmark.
51:50: Other leagues and clubs are taking lessons from what FCN and Right to Dream do, but not so much England. 
54:38: Right to Dream's KPIs - social impact, brand equity and football performance.

David Sumpter: A curiosity-based approach to data

Our guest on Episode #46 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Hudl, is Professor David Sumpter, who has worked with top teams including Ajax, Barcelona and England. 
=> SHOW NOTES:
02:06: How he got started in computer programming/ mathematics and then football.
05:45: Studying behaviour of birds and fish and how this relates to football. Need to look at at least six matches of data to remove randomness.
08:13: Matthew Benham's work on gambling/ modelling of odds was first alliance of football and data.
09:54: Teams including Manchester City come to visit him in Uppsala following publication of Soccermatics. First formal involvement with a club is with Swedish side Hammarby, spending 50% of his working time there.
21:00: How he packages up the approach to football developed at Hammarby to use at other clubs. Can apply to every area of the club, including fan experience, performance and scouting.
23:05: Worked on research projects with Barcelona, Ajax and England. With Ajax he's looking at the rules of motion of players. With the Football Association (England) he is working with a research student and they are looking at scanning behaviour and expected threat models.
29:45: Ajax are doing things 'from a  more fundamental level, trying to understand the game from its basics', which is rare.
36:50: Liverpool are 'definitely leading the way in analytics', but doing it in a very different way to Ajax, focusing mainly on recruitment. 
39:35: Importance of quantifying your style of play and how this 'identity' informs everything.
44:18: 'The stuff we did at Hammarby is still a lot more advanced than what's being done at some of the big clubs. There is still so much they can use this tracking data for.'
50:45: Analytics will never replace people or expertise. 'The inputs of experts are so important.'
56:45: Use of streamline, a 'second revolution' after Python.
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TGG Extra: Justin Cochrane's Coaching Tips

In the first instalment of a new series called TGG Extra, Justin Cochrane gives his tips for current and aspiring coaches.