Dean Smith - "I always name the team on a Friday, the day before the game. I feel the players need to know they’re starting."

Elite Soccer

Download the full transcript, PDF session plans and view the video webinar at https://elitesoccercoaching.net/masterclass/dean-smith/
We sat Dean Smith down for an hour to learn more about his approach to coaching. Here are 3 key insights into Dean’s way…

1. Dean on culture: hearing, seeing and feeling
“Culture’s the biggest thing for me. Culture’s a never-ending goal, it’s evolving all the time.
“I always say if somebody’s coming in to watch your training session or walking into your training ground, they should hear it, see it, and feel it. When they leave [they’re saying, “Yeah, we can hear it, we can feel that it’s a really good environment to learn, to get better, to improve. The standards are there. We can see it. We can hear the people coaching each other and talking.
“It’s the biggest thing for me, because if you get that right, then you get a group that’s all moving in the same direction. One of the biggest words I think you can have in any sporting club is togetherness.
“If you’ve got a togetherness where you’re all pushing in the same direction, it’s very hard to stop that.”

2. Dean’s ‘non-negotiables’
“One of the first things that I go [into a club] with is my non-negotiables. The non-negotiables are my go-tos.
“When we’re defending the box, this is what I want. I want us to try and stop crosses. I want the first defender to stop the ball underneath us, the second and third defender looking to go and contact any cutbacks or any crosses that come into the box.
“On the ball – two touch in our half, in the opposition half, go play free.
“The Match specific defending session is about non-negotiables. Me and John Terry [my assistant at Villa], are both defenders by trade. One in the lower leagues, one in the elite.
“We always used to talk about what ifs. I had that drummed into me as a League One, League Two defender, and I know JT had that drummed into him at elite football as well.
“It’s those non-negotiables. If one defender is going and challenging for the ball, then the others have to cover. We start the session and there’s no ball involved. It can be monotonous for the players, but they know if it’s an non-negotiable, they’ve got to do it. It becomes second nature.”

3. Dean’s style of play: build, create, finish
“I break [my style of play] down quite easily. With the ball, build is in our half of the pitch, create is up to the penalty box, and then finish. So with the ball, I talk a lot with the players about build, create, finish.
“Those three things give them a picture of where we are on the pitch, what we’re looking to do and how we’re looking to do it.
“Without the ball we work on mid-block, low-block, defend the box. It’s quite easy to have those categories. Then you’ve got the transitions for and against as well.”
https://elitesoccercoaching.net/masterclass/dean-smith/