Pep Confidential

The following are extracts from the book Pep Confidential by Martí Perarnau: “One of Pep’s basic axioms is that every player should be thinking ahead to his next move as he passes the ball.” “He shows him that it is not enough to pass the ball. It must be done anticipating the next move, so…

Pep Guardiola – 3 patterns to play out from the back in 4-3-3

This video shows 3 patterns Pep used with his team while at Bayern for playing out from the back. https://twitter.com/coachdanwright/status/885082408231600129

Scanning play the 1 second rule

Listen to Gary Neville on how players should always be scanning their surroundings and should try not to focus on any one thing longer than a second. https://twitter.com/coachdanwright/status/944669076412133382

Pep Guardiola’s first Barcelona team talk

I only ask this of you. I won’t tell you off if you misplace a pass, or miss a header that costs us a goal, as long as I know you are giving 100 per cent. I could forgive you any mistake, but I won’t forgive you if you don’t give your heart and soul…

Pep Guardiola on marking

Don’t mark a player; cover the space between two players. The opponent thinks he’s unmarked, making pressing easier.

Pep Guardiola on looking up

If you want to find somebody short, look long, because then you will see short. If you just look short you won’t see the long pass.

4v1 Rondo to train body position when receiving the ball

This is the first rondo trained by Barcelona from the u7 to teach body position when receiving a pass. https://youtu.be/_k7toQuVCdc Rules: Player must move only on his axis Player must move towards the player with the ball Player must receive the ball with foot furthest from the passer (this rule is what forces correct body…

5v3 rondo to train horizontal and vertical positioning

The general rules of never having more than 3 players on a horizontal line at the same times and never more than 2 on the same vertical line at the same time is being obeyed and thought about constantly by the players. http://konzeptfussballberlin.de/puertita-18/

Mourinho’s Seven Point Plan for Winning Big Games

From this excellent article by the Guardian’s Jonathan Wilson. It should be noted that this should be taken with a pinch of salt because Diego Torres is a renowned Mourinho hater and has no direct access to Mourinho only Madrid players. According to Torres, Mourinho laid out a simple seven-point plan for winning big games:…

The Maradona of Water Polo

From the book Pep Confidential. Estiarte was an exceptional athlete. Known as the Maradona of water polo, he was a prolific goal-scorer who possessed a killer instinct. He won every honour and trophy available, earned 578 caps, scored 1,561 goals for Spain and played in six Olympic Games. For seven consecutive years, from 1986 to…

Getting Players to Look Up

I recently read a very interesting article where a 4th division Brazilian side recorded a higher pass completion rate when they played against top-flight Fluminense. And the secret? Shower caps! Using the caps [instead of bibs in training] improves peripheral vision. It stops players from getting unnecessarily fancy – it makes them look up to…

Exercise to Enforce Positional Discipline in the Attacking Phase

When attacking it is common for teams to lose discipline as players become excited by the idea of scoring and make forward runs that can potentially leave the team vulnerable if the attack were to break down.  This is very easy to spot in amateur 5-a-side teams. Usually the team attacking is held up by…