When your Philosophy clashes with your players development...

Most coaches have it, although they do not always realise it - a philosophy. I have not so much written my philosophy as a coach (as I am not sure if I'm ready), but I know I like my players to play attractive football and most importantly, behave as a team on and off the pitch. 

My team are a TEAM. The picture above is of a final they lost to Manchester City. Can you tell? I certainly can't. They narrowly lost 2-1 and was very unfortunate to not bring it back 2-2 in the last 5 minutes, but in my eyes - the girls look more like they have won.

The attractive football comes with the territory. I ask them to play football, to link up and be creative and 9 times out of 10, they do exactly that. Some of the passages of play are nothing short of outstanding when we play and for 11 year olds, they are fantastic. Nevertheless, my players bring their own attributes individually to the team, but as a whole, they compliment each other.

I hate individual play; I hate players who are only out for themselves. Who can score the most goals? I'm not interested. I always paint the picture to my players... If your team are drawing 1-1 and in the final minute one of your team mates score the winner, are you bothered who it is? Of course you aren't. However, this week I was looking at 1 v 1's in training; something I have only ever touched on a couple of times in the two and a half years I have coached these girls. Wrong of me? Quite possibly.

I'm very open minded as a coach and a colleague/friend of mine taught me the importance of 1 v 1's. The importance of making your players feel comfortable in a 1 v 1 situation and I realised how important that was to my own philosophy, despite however much I thought it contradicted it. In a 1 v 1 situation, you either have to make sure you stay on the ball, or beat your player, its a simple as that. It's OBVIOUSLY about the individual and as a coach, I always ignored this. Now, I've realised that if I can teach my players to be comfortable in a 1 v 1 situation, it will allow my players to be much more confident to receive and play our attractive football even when under pressure, so it is something I looked at this past week. It was simple 1 v 1 variations, recovering defenders etc.

So as always...I took what we had done into training to our weekend game. I asked the players first half to play their normal game - attractive football. Make sure everyone touches the ball. The 2nd half, I wanted them to beat their man and pass it off. What I didn't consider was that we was playing bottom of the league (my team are sitting a very comfortable 2nd place). As a result, my players went 5-0 up very quickly. On the sidelines, I was BORED. Why? Because my players were beating player after player after player in 1 v 1 situations and I hated watching it, so I made them aware that I wanted them to play their passing game. 

However, surely my philosophy has just overrode player development? Surely I should have let them continue or challenged them further, but I just could not stand watching goal hungry players demolish what was a considerably weaker side without (in my eyes) playing good football.

Bad or Good coach? I'll let you be the judge.