[ad_1]
The story of how Malmö’s Henrik Rydström became Europe’s most innovative coach begins in 2006. He was playing for Swedish team Kalmar against Dutch club FC Twente in the third round of the now-defunct Intertoto Cup. They won the first leg 1-0.
Their return trip to the Netherlands ended in defeat. As Rydstrom remembers, it was a humiliating defeat. “We didn’t have the ball at all,” he says. sky sports. “We have been taught that football is all about defense, counter attacks and set pieces.”
he stopped. “And he felt there was another way to play.”
Lidstrom was 30 years old and a hard-working defensive midfielder who was starting to think about looking at the game differently. “I felt as a player he always put too much emphasis on being safe, safe, safe. It was important to him not to make mistakes,” he says.
It was an epiphany of sorts, but nothing major changed. “I continued playing for another 10 years, but it was still always about defending the second ball or winning,” he added. “But it was the first step for me. I think it started developing something in me.”
So far it’s normal. Rydstrom wouldn’t be the first manager to tell his players to adopt a different brand of soccer than the one they’ve been playing. The difference in this case is that he is effectively no one Others played.
Initially, he adopted the positional game popularized by Josep Guardiola. The idea is that through set positions the team maintains space and thus creates an advantage. “I was really positioning myself. Stand there. Occupy five hallways. Maximum width. All.”
What did Pep Guardiola learn? Revealing everything in the same interview for the first time in 8 years
But then a second epiphany occurred. Twente outpaced Kalmar out of the park, but what Rydström was really envious of was not their positional discipline, but the fun they had with the ball. He envisioned games as acts of self-expression.
“That was also my feeling when we played, that we could do more than we were allowed to do.When I was younger and playing with my friends, I was playing They were playing in a completely different way than when they played professional football. ”
It was studying Fernando Diniz that set him on a new path.
The Brazilian coach, who won the Copa Libertadores with Fluminense last year, had begun to develop a cult following for his commitment to alternative ideas in football that would be largely unrecognizable to European audiences.
“Some clips started circulating on Twitter,” Rydstrom recalled. “The position was messed up. What is this?”
Dinis has been compared to Guardiola because of his preference for playing from the back, but insists he considers his football to be the exact opposite. It was almost anti-positional, with his penchant for extreme overload where players are drawn to the ball.
Rydstrom devoured information about Dinis and read the work of Jamie Hamilton, who coined the term relationalism to describe it.
“Defensively, we wanted to be close to each other. Everybody wants that,” Rydstrom said. “But I started thinking, what if we could be closer to each other?” and Ball too? That way you can start making connections, find solutions, and move forward from there. ”
This style of play is characterized by one-twos, exchanges of possession and positioning to move up the pitch. Tavera (table) and escadinhas In Dinis nomenclature (ladder). Patterns can appear unusual, such as soccer seen from the street rather than the stadium.
“It defies all logic,” Rydstrom says.
“Logically, we should open up the pitch to create more space. Even I sometimes think we should change our play, but stay where there is pressure. It feels good to play away from pressure. But most of the time you end up losing later anyway.” You’re spreading yourself too thin. ”
Jesse Marsh explains Red Bull’s football philosophy
His Malmö side prefers to retreat in tight spaces, causing confusion for opponents who don’t seem to quite understand what’s going on and are not used to the situation at hand. “We have the image of pickpockets when we overload,” he says.
“Probably more like a close-up magician than a pickpocket. You think you can see everything, but there’s so much going on – one player falls, another… Players walk away – and suddenly, boom, we steal what everyone thought we had. Their eyes are on.
“It’s like hiding a ball in one of three cups and then moving the ball. You can see everything right in front of you, and yet we deceive you.”
Malmö fooled many teams in 2023 and regained the Swedish title in Rydström’s first season as coach. However, he still experiences resistance to his ideas. “The biggest challenge was the supporters and the media,” he says. “Especially when you can’t win.”
Lidstrom hasn’t tested his theory on academy football or computer games. “It’s important to win, otherwise you’ll lose your job.” Malmö are the giants of Swedish football and are a club desperate to return to the top when he takes over in December 2022. Ta.
Therefore, change tends to scare people. “The big difference is that sometimes we play very slowly and do overload tilts. It goes against the instincts of the average football fan who wants his team to move forward and always play at high speed. .”
“Not everyone understands this. Swedish football is a lot like England before they had great coaches.
“I try to explain that to the fans, but sometimes when I’m in the TV studio after a game, I just go along with them saying we should play faster, get the ball in behind, change the play. Just know that I just agree with it and it’s not worth getting into that discussion with them.
“I don’t care if they don’t understand.
I don’t want the other person to understand me either.
Some players don’t even know the details. “Some people know everything about how we play. Others just say, ‘Yeah, when we have the ball, we press high and we win a lot of games.'” Lots of instructions. Others prefer to be told exactly what to do. ”
In fact, Rydstrom found that it was better to be “fairly positioned” in the build-up, as the defender was more comfortable. And central midfielders need to be more fixed because “you need structure when you lose the ball.” Changes will continue.
That’s probably the biggest criticism of positional play. Although its proponents will no doubt disagree, it can be seen as limiting creativity. If a coach had peak Pele, Diego Maradona and Lionel Messi in the same side, would anyone stay in the side?
“Sometimes coaches want to feel like gods. I think that’s why positional play is so popular. Of course it’s a really good way to play. As a coach, you don’t have to have all the answers. Here, I say, “I don’t have the answer in every situation.”
“The players find solutions. That was the biggest challenge for me and for the players, but you can see how it unleashed something great. “The limits are very high in this kind of football. I certainly believe that because I don’t limit myself.” So much. “
When the flow of Malmö is full, it is very beautiful. “You can flick someone over the head with the outside of your boot. There’s more than one way to do it.” The synergy that comes from players trying things out and trial and error creates new possibilities. It will be opened.
“Can we unlock the players’ potential? It develops from there. I didn’t have a big picture in my head of what it would end up being. Biology has evolved like this. Previously. I never thought about it,” he admits.
“We did that and then we realized this worked and started doing it. During training, one player did the move and we were able to add it to the game. This way will help the players even more in the long run. They have more answers now.”
As Lidström prepares for his second season at Malmö, there is hope that the team will continue to evolve. That’s a challenge. “We went through this situation last summer when we lost players and other players came in. We didn’t have the same connections.”
But whatever happens next, this is a manager who captivated the imagination by encouraging a way of playing that no one else in Europe was pursuing. why? “Maybe you can find a psychological reason in my childhood,” he laughs.
“But if there’s one thing that’s really satisfying, it’s that the players are enjoying their football. We’ve been able to get out of the mindset of just having to win.”
“Of course we have to win, but let’s play the soccer we can and have fun.” feel. ”
Get Sky Sports on WhatsApp!
You can now start receiving messages and alerts for the latest sports news, analysis, in-depth features and videos from our dedicated WhatsApp channel.
Click here for details…
[ad_2]
Source link
