Old and demented
Was it Ernst Happel who once declared that one has to be old and senile to become a national coach?
Psychology and Red Devils: a difficult combination.
How do we understand the psychology of a successful national trainer? A fun thought exercise that may come too late for the psychology of our Red Devils. Impossible to avoid defeat against the Azzuri and Ibra with this defence.
Player selection:
Putting together a national football team is a primal task. Scouting the players in their clubs is therefore a fun but unnecessary pastime. A trip abroad to see the celebrities at work is unnecessary. There is no need to hire a limousine with a private driver to take oneself from the railway station/airport to the stadium.
Analysis
A pile newspapers and magazines, a sports subscription to a few TV channels and a radio will suffice. Yet it happens. National coaches like to flourish among the greats of football, on WE trip to London or Madrid. Paid football is called that in the Netherlands.
Origi
As a national football coach, attracting new talents or having them discovered, genre Origi, is nice for the image of the national football coach and is risk-free. At best, they make a good substitution. But not necessarily. A national coach selects established players from expensive clubs, in the best leagues, and has them play at the Red Devils in the same position as in their own squad.
These top players are supplemented with lesser gods from the national league or water carriers the coach still knows from previous clubs. These can then be discussed endlessly in talk shows, or fill sports pages the day after.
The national coach as expert
A national team coach is almost always a former player. He knows football, he knows that a few top players are enough to run a national team and to determine its tactics, without having to do much himself. Technique, fitness and tactics get every player in his club.
Automatisms
Only the automatisms need to be honed. By choosing the same players for his team every time in every (practice) match. Furthermore, the coach should limit himself to finding excuses when things go wrong, such as ‘we had 17 chances, but sometimes the ball just wouldn't go in’, ‘what exactly happened with that goal I still have to study, I was too far away’, or ‘the players were tired because of the tough training sessions’.
Psychology
The all-important psychological trait of a national coach is that he is calm, confident and impassive. The very worst trait is that he tries to exude calmness, self-confidence and impassiveness. That often makes top players either pay off or not in a national team.
Six weeks on a lump in France
Without a doubt, a tournament is the litmus test for a national coach. How will Wilmots keep calm in his squad for six long weeks with 23 young men with high testosterone levels, whose main pastime is gaming?
Guarantee of success
Guy Thys did it for him: make the type of team even before the final selection for France is known. And make sure these players play every match unless gravity waves devastate the earth or IS detonates a dirty bomb in Bordeaux. If a troublemaker does turn up during the tournament, send them home immediately. One position for a backbencher (in this case left back or right back) is left open by the clever national coach, as a fat but harmless morsel for discussion by press, team and fans.
A final question are the players' wives. Not even Guy Thijs could come up with an appropriate answer to that.