Wanted - Someone To Rock The Boat by Peter Reeves: 2015

Wanted: Someone To Rock The Boat
by Peter Reeves
18th December, 2015

So, what does the footballing future hold for Thailand in this football mad country?

In writing a recent article for ‘Thai-fussball’, it started me thinking about football in this part of the world. I have to say at this point I am not impressed with the Thai national team for one reason. Whilst they look attractive and creative going forward, they, like most teams ‘down this way’ cannot defend. The match against Chinese Taipei was a very good example. Two goals conceded with frighteningly inept defending. Whilst at club level that is accepted here and is in some cases quite amusing, at international level that is not acceptable. All the best, not even great, teams in the world often play with different formations and styles but they all have one thing in common. They can defend and are hard to score against. Keep the goals against column to a minimum and you have half a chance.

That is not say you necessarily play a defensive formation and philosophy, it just means discipline and organization. Barcelona can hardly be described as defensive but when they lose possession they all know what to do and where to go to stop you.  Discipline. Organisation.

This fact seems to have become lost, even if it was recognized at all, in watching both club and national teams in South East Asia, and especially watching Thai club and international matches for the article brought it home to me. I decided to have a look at some others. Vietnam, Laos etc. It seems there is a lack of ‘playing discipline’ that allows this to occur. This is not necessarily the fault of the coaches working with those teams, though in some cases it clearly is, it is more to do with how the players are taught at a young age. The ‘base product’ is not good enough. Basically they are not taught and coached correctly and are allowed to develop an ethos about the game that does seem to exclude ‘team responsibility’. And with any other situation where discipline is essential, when bad habits have developed they are very hard to eradicate. Players avoiding their ‘personal team responsibilities’ for the attempt at a bit of personal glory. I’m afraid successful teams, national and international, do not work like that. They have great individual players who can turn a match with a flash of brilliance but they also have organization and discipline.

I am being critical, in some people’s eyes, probably unfairly. I don’t blame the players necessarily. This part of the world has only had organized ‘professional’ football for a few years and in comparison to Europe, are still in nappies. I am sure they watch the ‘big’ European teams on TV and think “oh yes we can do that”, without having the remotest comprehension of how it is achieved, the hours of work involved, the structure and organization behind what they are looking at, let alone the quality of the ‘base product’ ( forget the money for the moment). But you would think that someone, somewhere, would recognize something is wrong and attempt to do something about it. Why don’t they?

So, what can be done? As someone once said to me “don’t give me the problems, give me the bloody solutions!”

So here, in my humble opinion, is a start on the solution.

Those that are responsible, be they club owners or national federation managers, change your mindset first and open your eyes. Cast off all your pre-conceived ideas, most of which are way off the mark and make a start. There are many issues but let’s address just two.

Let’s use Thailand as an example. Kiatisuk needs a quality defensive coach to get his defence organized and make his team difficult to beat. I doubt it will be a Thai because you need an attitude and a philosophy about good defending that doesn’t manifest itself here. Except maybe in the coach at Saraburi. I do like the way he sets his teams up but he is hampered by the quality he’s working with. Kriatisuk needs a goalkeeper that commands his area and a dominant character as the ‘boss’ of the back four to keep the defence playing as a unit to protect the keeper. Someone who isn’t afraid to read the riot act if they fall out of position. He also needs an intelligent midfield, firstly to assess potential threats and secondly to create when in possession. He has a decent strike force. What else?

He needs an assessor. Not a coach, a performance assessor. Someone who sits up in the stands at matches, analyzing, looking at potential threats, observing the formation, watching to see if players are fulfilling their responsibilities in the team structure. He is in communication with the ‘bench’ during the match, at half time, and prepares reports for the head coach to discuss after, to allow the coach to plan future training sessions. He needs to be aware and understand of course, the tactics the coach wants implemented and are his eyes from above. The coach sitting on the bench cannot see these things. He has a restricted view and is usually, quite naturally, following the ball. The assessor rarely follows the ball but follows players and the formation and shape of the team. He is not a coach, has no team authority, but has potentially game changing and match winning input. Looking at videos after the match is too late. You’ve lost by then and the coach probably looks at the video and thinks, “if only we’d done this or that at that moment”. That is the assessor’s job. This scenario could also be applied to the clubs. Why not?

Ok, point 2.

This doesn’t only apply to Thailand but all the nations, even the clubs, but let’s stick to national teams. Imagine a head coach having his 22 selected players turning up for training and preparation before an important international. ( Actually, they are all important). 22 players, fit, quick, tactically aware, technically excellent with the ball, putting in the effort off the ball, disciplined. How do you think he would feel about that? Now he’s really got something to work with. His job as national coach will be determined remember, by the results of his team. If the players turn up, unfit, tactically naïve, technically below standard and ill-disciplined what chance does has he have of success? Very little. So he is being judged on issues that are not his fault. If the basics are not in place by the time the players reach him there is nothing he can do. So how does this occur? By luck? Not in a million years.

What seems to evade the understanding of federations and the ‘powers that be’ at club level, the owners, is that to have a talented team in the future you need to develop talented young players from a young age. Players who come through a system designed with one ideal-To produce not good players but great ones. The Germans, the French, the Spanish and especially the Dutch can all do it.

Let’s look at Holland. A population of 17 million. A string of world class players playing at all the best clubs in the world. A conveyor belt of talent development and production. How can they do this?  Thailand, population 70 million. When was the last world class Thai player? There hasn’t been one. You can argue, rightly I suppose, that football is new here comparatively speaking, but have they put the programs in place to achieve what the Dutch achieve. No they haven’t. I spoke to one Thai GM and when asked if they had a junior program said oh yes we have an under-15 and under-18 team. So there you are, in other words ….no they haven’t.

The future for Thai football, and indeed the football at all newly developing nations, doesn’t rely on foreign imports, it relies on home-grown talent.  Players who have been nurtured through effective systems not junior programs thrown together so that clubs can pretend they have one. And pretense is what it is, and what compounds the problem is that if the junior programs that do exist are being overseen by the very people that produce such chaos with the first team, what chance then do the kids have, being coached in the same way? No chance.

The clubs of course have a major impact. A quick look at England will show you that, where money rules, clubs that are billionaires playthings to gain ‘good image’ (or notoriety), where success has become a neurotic obsession, the playing field far from level and English talent, and there is some occasionally, generally, left by the wayside and can’t get a game. The national team suffers, hence the poor showing unless they are playing San Marino.

The future therefore lies in doing what so many clubs do, in developing talented juniors. They do not come along by accident and Thailand must embrace this ideology if they are to progress. But while the current atmosphere pervades there will be no improvements, no first world class Thai player. Of course if one was developed he wouldn’t stay in Thailand once his reputation is created but I can’t think of many clubs that would turn away Manchester United’s thirty million English pounds in a transfer fee do you?

Please let there be one, just one, person in Thailand who is strong enough to challenge the status quo and instigate change. Someone who says “this is not bloody good enough” and rocks the boat a little bit. Perhaps then the ‘suits’ will sit up and take notice.