Rizal Hashim has left a new comment on your post "Michael Owen, once upon a time we love him so much...":
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despite his brilliance in slaloming past a few Argentine sissies en route to scoring the goal in the 1998 World Cup, Owen is an overrated player. imagine it took a frenchman (gerard houllier) to make him realise using his left foot was also key to his overall performance...here I shall share with you an article I wrote a few years back for the Sunday Mail...
Publication : SUM Edition :
Date : 20/03/2005
Page Number : 74
Headline : Houllier: Vital to spot talent early
Words : 1611
Byline : By Rizal Hashim
Text :
THE last time Sunday Mailsport's RIZAL HASHIM met Gerard Houllier in the flesh was almost eight years ago, when the Frenchman was in Shah Alam charting the fortunes of the French Under-20 team in the Youth World Cup. At that time, Houllier was linked to a job in the English FA and his only answer to Sunday Mailsport's question about the speculation was "who told you?" The former Liverpool, Paris St Germain, Lens and France national teamboss, however, revealed interesting insights into his career in addressingAsia's elite coaches during the Asian Football Confederation (AFC)Football Conference in Kuala Lumpur.
YOUTH DEVELOPMENT
There are five elements to success in youth development. They are selecting talent through the right criteria, reserved training facilities, adapted training programmes, qualified experienced coaches and the successful step-up to professional level. Spotting talent, the earlier the better, with a scouting system that works for clubs on a national level. Selecting the best means judging a player by his first touch and quickness of feet. Pace is not really crucial at a young age. Zinedine Zidane is not the quickest of players but he blossomed due to his quick thinking and quickness of feet. The emphasis is on intelligence. Then we look for the competitive edge in a player, the winning mentality that is embodied by Steven Gerrard. Reserved facilities mean proper training pitches for players. Sharing with other teams is not good. In England, they have the academies. In France, we have the centre de formation. Adapted training methods involve a progressive programme because what you do with kids between 13 and 15 is not the same as you do from 15 to17. Kids need coaching, they need to be shown how to do things, which is why we must have specialised coaches to produce good lemons.When a player makes the step-up into professional level usually at the age of 20 or even earlier, then the manager of the team has the right to squeeze the lemon dry. But it is the job of the youth coaches to produce a good lemon.
HOW AND HOW LONG
France's victories in the 1998 World Cup and the Euro 2000 were the logical culmination of a process that began with the foundation of an Institut National du Football (INF) in 1972. France lost to Norway in 1968, if I am not mistaken, and that defeat cost us a place in the 1970 World Cup in Mexico. There was a crisis. Crises provide a fantastic opportunity to impose an overhaul, so the youth academies were made compulsory. After the (Michel) Platini generation, we struggled to produce results. France did not qualify for Euro 88. We realised we were lagging behind and there was a need to reduce the gap. When I became the French Football Federation (FFF) technical director just before 1990, our academies were not producing enough top class players.We had good, strong players but they lacked technical expertise and creativity, someone predictable like Franck Sauzee (former Sochaux, Marseille and France midfielder). The emphasis was pass and move and one touch football. Every club had a centre de formation for young players from the age of 16. What I did at Claire fontaine was set up a centre de preformation and took on 12- and 13-year-old kids. There was training every day, they went to school together, went home to their families on a Friday and played for a small team over the weekend so that were not uprooted. For three years they worked on three things - skills, skills and skills. Within three years, success was apparent - Thierry Henry, Nicolas Anelka,William Gallas and Jerome Rothen were the first generation to graduate. The future will involve working with players before they reach the age of 12. Between the ages of 12 and 15, the emphasis ought to be on skills, 15-17 is about technical and physical training before teaching the player stactical variations and working on their attitude.
BREAKING THE PATTERN
There were objections to the ideas. One particular famous French player told me to let the clubs have their own way. Later he was honest enough to tell me that it was a good job that I did not listen to him. We had to break the mental barrier in order to break the pattern. We were producing players but not enough top-class players. We realised when a player reaches the age of 15, his technical shortcomings will be difficult to compensate as he grows older. At the most he can improve is a maximum 20 per cent, which is certainly not good enough. So we had to change and take on kids at an earlier age. I was fed up on hearing pass and move or one-touch football. The truth was we needed to improve their skills, which is to teach them ball control. By controlling the ball better, there is less risk of injurybecause you don't have to fight for a loose ball because of your poor touch. Nantes were almost bankrupt but they won the league in 1995 by using homegrown products from their academy which included Patrice Loko, Nicolas Ouedec and Christian Karembeu. We had a difficult time in convincing the club the need to broaden their horizons and expose the players to international matches at an earlier age. Five players from the Euro 96 squad came through the programme at Clairefontaine. And talking about experience, I brought the French Under-20 team for theWorld Cup here in Malaysia. Among my players were Henry, David Trezeguet, Gallas, Mickael Silvestre and Willy Sagnol. Exactly a year later, Henry and Trezeguet converted their penalties in the quarter-final shoot-out against Italy in the World Cup. They could cope with the pressure having played against so many international teams in different environments at various age levels.
ASIAN PLAYERS
I have never coached an Asian player but when I made inquiries about them from five top coaches, they seemed to agree on a few facts. Their assets are their collective culture which means they are inclined to put the team's interest before theirs, very focused, possess the desire to do repetitive training to perfect their skills, good skills, quickfeet, enthusiastic, eager to learn and good work ethics. Some of the drawbacks are lack of football culture in the continent, tactical naivety, lack of power and strength and more of a player than a competitor which means they are content on playing than winning. Asian players in general work hard. They resort to repetition work to improve themselves. Some say Michael Owen is a gifted player. That may be true but he also worked hard to perfect his skills. In one particular match in 1999, Owen found himself in a one-to-one situation with Arsenal keeper David Seaman. The angle forced him to take the ball on his left but instead of shooting, Owen brought the ball back to his favoured foot. I told him with his pace, he will always find himself in such situations but he must learn to shoot with his left leg. From then onwards, he kept on kicking the ball with his left leg during training, and sure enough he scored crucial goals using his left foot, notably in the 2001 FA Cup final against Arsenal and the Super Cup against Bayern Munich. My advice to Asian coaches is to play to the highest level with the assets and strengths, avoid copying the Germans, the French or the Brazilians in totality. Don't copy, succeed with your own quality through vivacity, skills and movement and develop your own style, encourage individual initiatives, become more aggressive and send some early to European clubs.
MANAGING AT THE TOP
Football has evolved so much since I became a coach at Lens in 1982. It has become more complex. You cannot simply motivate with words. It takes talent to coach talent.There are four aspects of management at top level - profile of the coach, vision, mission and conclusion. Young players today are well-versed in the game as opposed to kids their age 20 years ago. As such you need to constantly update yourself. A coach must be a leader who is brave to confront rather than run from conflicts, and above all, care about his players. When we asked former players such as (Jean) Tigana and (Luis) Fernandez to name one coach they respected the most, to our surprise their answer was a 65-year-old coach who died last year in France. We were expecting names such as Aime Jacquet (1998 World Cup winning coach), Guy Roux (Auxerre) or Jean-Claude Suaudeau (former Nantes boss). And why the veteran coach? Because the coach cared. He would show concern on the players' welfare and family life. Alex Ferguson also made it a point to have a cup of tea with Eric Cantona every day during his eight-month suspension following the infamous kung-fu kick in 1995. A modern manager in Europe must possess the ability to manage and communicate with multi-cultural millionaires. He too must be a strategist who handles three teams. The team are divided into two, those who play and those who don't, plus the third team comprising the supporting staff. (Houllier, 58 on Sept 3, is bound for a job with Football FederationAustralia on a consultancy basis. He will spend a few weeks Down Under and then travel to Australia regularly to work with CEO, John O'Neill, John Boultbee, Ron Smith (former Sabah and Johor FC coach) and Frank Farina on looking at their systems).
Posted by rizal hashim to You'll Never Walk Alone in Malaysia at 24 September, 2008 14:19
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* I know you like Volvo C30... that's why I find it fit to accompany your text. hihihi
