Deak’s Football Blog

The Sun has published excerpts from an interview with Rafael Benitez’s former number two, Paco Herrera. He describes some of the enormous changes Rafa made to what he describes as an “antiquated” Liverpool when he took charge.

You hear a lot about how wonderful Arsenal’s training ground and scouting network are, but it sounds like Liverpool can easily rival them. The Liverpool “Rafalution” includes:

• A 70-strong scouting network, with information on over 14,000 individuals (I bet he just uses Football Manager)
• Transformation of the training ground, even building a hotel at Melwood for the players to stay at before a European match
• Revolution of the players’ diets
• Building a film room and hiring staff who can source any game from the world’s top 12 leagues

Acccording to Herrera:

“Everything started when we arrived there. I signed on as assistant manager but three months later my role changed because we all realised that there were serious problems in the technical department. Liverpool was very antiquated in that sense. So Rafa asked me to change my role and occupy myself with this issue. He wanted me to become the chief scout and start organising, along with himself, the technical department.”

Fascinating stuff.

It was interesting to read in Gavin Strachan’s blog about the use of psychologists in football; in particular some of the motivational tools that are used.

Something that surprised me — in a very good way — was Gavin’s mention of the speech given by Al Pacino in the Oliver Stone film, Any Given Sunday. I absolutely love this film and Pacino’s speech is electric. Trouble is, I can’t imagine wanting to anything other than tear someone’s head off after hearing it.

Mark Hughes’ ever woeful Man City scraped past Aalborg on penalties last night. All that money spent — mostly on the wrong players for the kind of donkey football Hughes favours — and they struggled all over the pitch against significantly weaker opposition.

Shaun Wright-Phillips continuously wasted possession; at times running into Aalborg’s players without looking where he was going, or simply passing the ball directly to their feet. Despite this — as I’d already predicted — people reckoned he was the best player on the pitch. I’ve previously explained why I think Shaun Wright-Phillips is shit, but last night was just taking the piss.

The following from the BBC’s player rater is madness:

Running pointlessly all over the pitch is playground football, not something we should be seeing from a professional player.

My first season with Brazilian third division outfit Criciúma is off to an impressive start (click here if you missed the first installment). In the Santa Catarina State Championship we have played nine and won nine, with only our neighbours Avaí looking anywhere near our pace. Life is good for the Tigre fans and their new English manager, even though I only know two words of Portugese so far (nenhum comentário, in case you wondered).

On top of the nine straight league wins, we’ve only conceeded two goals. One of these goals was particularly annoying, though. It came against a ten man Figueirense (great website, available in English) who were already comprehensively beaten. The goal was a comical defensive cock up between our keeper Zé Carlos and new star signing Alceu. Admittedly, I was playing Alceu as a centre back due to an injury to Felipe Figueiró, but it was woeful stuff. Both Zé Carlos and Alceu got an ear-full after the match, but I was more pissed off about losing Felipe Figueiró to injury. It leaves us with just two first team centre backs.

In other news, I think there’s unlikely to be a repeat of Big Phill’s famous victory with Criciúma in the Copa do Brasil. We drew the mighty Flamengo in the first round. Ugh. Next week we take a one goal deficit to the Maracanã and I’m not hopeful of turning things around. Even if Felipe Figueiró comes through a reserve game in one piece, we’re hopelessly outclassed against the Mengão.

I’m loving managing Criciúma so far and have been doing a little background research on them. Although their website is all in Portugese, I’ve discovered they have a rather good club song — Anthem of Criciúma. You can download an MP3 of it from here. Sing-a-long-tastic, although maybe not as catchy as the Sky Blues Song of my own Coventry City. Here, courtesy of Google, is a translation of the lyrics:

Remembering the heroes of the past
They wrote their names in history
Oh! Tricolor preordained
A present and future glories of

Save the Criciúma
In the National Sports
Save the Criciúma
Equity immortal
At the time of decision
A voice shouted happy
My povão

Criciúma, Criciúma
Our Club of love
Soul, heart and claw.

Will vibrate with
Your flag unfurled
Where is the most dear
The champions – our champion

Great stuff, although I’m curious about the world “povão” which Google failed to translate.

In my latest game of Football Manager 2009, I have started out in the Brazilian third division managing Criciúma E.C. — a team from the southern state of Santa Catarina.

Criciúma, Santa Catarina, Brazil

I didn’t know anything about Criciúma until yesterday; I picked them as they were one of the more promising teams in the third division, with a decent squad and above average training facilities. Essentially, given the lack of money in the lower divisions of Brazilian football, Criciúma have a youth academy. The club actually have some rather prestigious history too, having beaten Grêmio in the 1991 Copa do Brasil final. At the time they were coached by the then largely unknown Luiz Felipe Scolari.

As well as having the Brazilian leagues active, I also have England, Spain, and Italy available. My plan — should I not get bored of the game — is to make my name in South America, build up a knowledge of the leagues and players, and then move to Europe to try to build a team in the Brazilian mould. Even if I don’t manage this, I hope to learn more about Brazilian football.

Getting Started

My first order of business when taking charge of a new club in Football Manager is to focus on the coaching staff, in particular the fitness coaches. I’ve been burned by scrimping on this area before, with players never able to reach peak condition for match days. After firing a number — okay, most — of my coaching staff, the Criciúma board would only allow me six coaches in total (despite having had many more than this). This was kind of annoying, but having made them payout a £100,000+ in contract terminations, I wasn’t going to kick up too much of a stink.

After hiring a number of new coaches, my training ratings slightly improved. With one or two more coaches, allowing staff to concentrate on their areas of expertise, things should be much better.

The Players

Next up, Criciúma’s weak midfield desperately needed some new faces. With just three centre backs in the first team, I was after some defensive cover too. The board made no cash available for transfers, so it was time to hunt for players without clubs.

One of the players that I signed on a free was Alceu; a twenty-four year old defensive midfielder who started out at Palmeiras, where he won six youth caps for Brazil. I’m not sure what happened with Alceu’s career, but, after five seasons with the Verdão, he moved to Japan where he played for Kashiwa Reysol and Consadole Sapporo. Quite a step down, even if Palmeiras were not hugely successful during his tenure (2002-2007).

After two seasons in Japan, Alceu returned to Brazil for spells with Clube Náutico Capibaribe and São Carlos. Strangely, as of 2009, Wikipedia has him back at Kashiwa — had they loaned him out? Whatever Alceu’s history, my assistant manager rated him as an excellent signing and the Tigre fans were ecstatic when I got him. I’m hopeful he can prove himself at the Estádio Heriberto Hülse, in particular if he can take free kicks like this one he scored against Paraná.

In addition to Alceu, I signed two other midfielders on a free: Fausto (29), an influential defensive midfielder; and Fábio Baiano (33), a journeyman central midfielder with good creative and attacking qualities who has won bags of trophies with Flamengo and Grêmio.

Next was the small matter of attending a Trial Day arranged by the Brazilian Players’ Association. Here forty-six players without clubs form two teams and play a match in front of managers and scouts. From this rabble I spotted two centre backs who I am now actively pursuing: Leandro Falcão (19) and man-of-the-match Jaílson (22). Jaílson in particular looks a good prospect, having spent time with big boys like Atlético Mineiro and Bahia and never quite making their first teams. If I manage to lower my wage bill, I’ll definitely try to sign him.

The Tactic

I knew before I started the game that I didn’t want Criciúma to play in an English style, even though a direct 4-4-2 probably would have been quite effective in the lower Brazilian leagues. Instead, I wanted to play a typical Brazilian 4-2-2-2: balanced attacking/defending, a slow build up, and a short passing game that keeps the ball on the deck. Criciúma’s lack of traditional wide players made the decision to go with 4-2-2-2 a simple one.

I’m now tweaking this tactic for my squad ready for our first game, a Santa Catarina State Championship group stage match against Concórdia for which we’re massive 1-33 favourites. I’ll let you know how it goes.

Really, there’s a lot to like about SWP. He’s an honest, hard-working, winger; not afraid to tackle back, even if his enthusiasm usually outweighs his defensive talents. More than that, his overall work-rate, if measured in terms of yards covered per game, endears him to me. The Premiership is full of lazy wingers who frankly can’t be arsed; SWP shows them all up for the lackadaisical bastards they are. He’s also English and managing to hold down a first team place in our top flight.

So why do I hate him?

He reminds me of the kids I used to play football with at school, who would kick the ball into the farthest corner of the playground where no-one else could be bothered to chase it; winning the ball from everyone else by sheer, mindless, attrition. The trouble is — just like those kids I played with — once SWP has the ball, the odds are he’ll do something absolutely pointless with it.

If SWP is not running head first into a centre half twice his size, then he’s playing the ball into utterly unproductive positions. Yes Shaun, if you run the ball into a tight corner — thirty yards and an impossible angle from goal — you achieve precisely nothing. Like the kids in the playground, kicking the ball miles from where the game was actually taking place, you also have the ball all to yourself. Well done lad. Unfortunately, although it is a simple game, football ain’t that simple.

Which brings me onto my next, and strongest, complaint about SWP.

What is the point of a winger who can’t cross the ball? We can forgive poor old right-footed Joe Cole, stuck out there on England and Chelsea’s left wing, having to cut inside every time he gets the ball in an advanced position. But SWP is a right-footer, cannot even cross from the right wing! His endless squandering of possession for England drives me mad, but if I was a Man City fan I would be unable to attend matches without a generous valium prescription.

The weird thing is though, people love SWP. Next time Man City are playing, check out the BBC’s player rater; I can practically guarantee that he’ll be man of the match.

To some degree, I can understand this. Even though SWP lacks footballing intelligence and technique, compared to the other twenty-one players on the pitch, at least he appears to be doing something. However, what these fans fail to realise is just what SWP is doing: Continuously wasting their team’s posession and disrupting any hope of a proper build up of attacking football.