🍳Enzo Maresca: WHAT IS HE COOKING?

The #1st Omelette of the Season

🍳A few caveats

🟡Clubs aren't meant to show their core practices on social media, this is about discerning the tip of the iceberg. Some Football League teams posted their back 3 session 9v9, WBA with Corberan in a 12' video.

🟡You can second guess elements of the methology: Tuchel, no warm up (straight to it - modern). Pochettino; long dog parkour warm up (traditional).

🟡 Coaching is a vehicle of PR, but relatable to blockbuster trailers. If it looks too good, then that's only the best bits. Be wary of that too.

🟡Not gonna write a thesis: but the rule of thumb of coaching practices (the drills / exercices) is a robust 60-70% of drills that are familiar and easy to get going. And 30% of galaxy brain, or opposition specific drills that are either bespoke, or creative.

Ultimately;

Does it get players fit?

Does it help identifying synergies?

are the key aspects

You can have success / fail, with the same weekly cycle of practices; or do new stuff every day.

There's no correlation to success.

Buy-in, honest scorekeeping and fair selection choices fuel a positive cycle.

And player quality acts as the catalyst.

I've coached at every level from U11 grassroots to U19 National to professional / international players for "Elite U21" squads, I've (I suppose) got better, but not as fast as my trajectory in 12 years.

Same practice, different players yeld different output.

Top players make the game easy to watch, it's a privilege. They're still people, just good at football.

Joshua Acheampong, Kiano Dyer and Tyrique George from the U21s joining up.

There was 27 players + 3 goalkeepers, which is a lot already.

First teams always have 4 goalkeepers at the ready (easier for rotations in their GK training, than an odd number leaving either the GK coach to pair up, or a guy to stand idle)

It’s always important to make the distinction, especially when briefs sent to journalists mention “an unworkable situation for Graham Potter” who had 30+ players in training.

No, he had 25+5 which isn’t even true because there was always 2 or 3 players sitting out games at last minutes for niggles (meaning they missed parts of the week).

20+2 is two teams to play. It’s standard to have 3 U21s being out and about sitting out part of sessions (later in the season when it’s more about tactical 8v8 11v11 games)

That being said, 27 outfielders without all the Euro and Copa guys is going to be unworkable, and will require to send players training with U21s (or sent on loan - in the remaining spots not taken by “Wiley” “Guiu” and people like that).

Which will start to be interesting considering every player (and agent) was sold the idea they’d train “on the fringe of the first team” by people that aren’t Enzo Maresca.

The fringes of the first team

🍳Force Plates

Reece and Nku² do the CMJ (Counter Movement Jump) which is meant to measure the lower body's power (= strength x speed).

You compute from the time in the air, other variables (like speed)

This is correlated to 0-30m speed performance, it's a reliable test.

These grey plates are "force plates" that also give you Newton values.

Wesley Fofana’s first attempt puts him at 42.2 centimeters, which puts him 70-90th percentile, and also suggests Fofana didn’t lose his strength / power / speed.

I’ve been reliably told that the English international who smashes it at St George’s Park, is Dominic Calvert-Lewin

Players might use their arms (or not) but can't bend their knees to extend their "air time", and must land in the same spot. Do it both feet, right and left.

Football, you kick the ball, so there's always an inbalance. However, too big an inbalance is source of injuries (sometimes not even identified for that extremely dumb reason).

After injury, there can be up to 30% inbalance between two legs.

Re-athletisation is equally about re-building the injured leg to a state of balance, but also and couner-intuitively be wary to not strenghen too much the injured leg compared to the non injured one

That is due to that one injured leg being put through a very precise protocol of exercises (that the non-injured isn’t always in normal time). That’s a frequent situation for most lower body muscle injury rehab

🍳Measuring rod

🍳This is what's called a "measuring rod", which is meant to compute a players' height with advanced equipment, which is positively correlated to me tweeting giraffes on social media (the taller the player is)

It's important to not put both soles on the football, otherwise that's a Cirque du Soleil sea lion 🦭

🍳 CMJ Rebound: Goodbye, my planet needs me 🦒🛸🪐

This is still the CMJ (Counter Movement Jump) but called "CMJ rebound" which is primarily used in late stage rehabilitation (before coming back onto the pitch).

You jump 2 or 3 times in a row (Tosin is asked to do twelve here)

Players - healthy at that point - provide S&C (Strength & Conditioning) staff their benchmark values in order to assess when they come back from an eventual injury.

Tosin would've won the ball ahead of VVD imo.

🍳Information load

This content is eminently PR, it's not the digital content creator’s prerogative to create the narrative.

Probably Maresca's content, which is what it is.

We had penalty box overload with Poch

We have intormation . . . . load with Maresca

Players can take different kind of feedback / information, it's fundamental to tailor it to individuals and never sort out players on their ability to grasp *your* feedback.

The Sylvinho first two months at OL were full of 'wow information load not like before' and he was sacked after 6 defeats in 7.

Players locked on screens in pre-season, taste and colors. That's not for everyone.

🍳This is Will Tullett, First Team Fitness Coach.

*

Promoted by Frank Lampard in 2019-20 (from the Academy).

Thomas Tuchel joined Chelsea without his Fitness and Conditioning coach (I wonder why) so relied on Cobham/Lampard/Chelsea's Will Tullett and Matt Birnie on route to the CL.

Both stayed on with every coach since.

Just like Chris Jones (now with England, between Steve Holland and Gareth Southgate) worked with everyone between 2007 and 2018 at Chelsea, sometimes as Fitness Coach, sometimes as legacy corporate staff (Conte and Sarri both had an army of S&C), or First Team Coach (Lampard I and II).

You never have enough (highly competent and qualified) staff around a first team.

It's also fundamental to maintain records of data, as players contract outlast managers (and staff).

Some fancy certain tests/data, some don't. Gotta keep on club database some continuous track records

🍳BEEP test

(not an acronym, just the fucking sound of it)

The idea is to push players to their limit, in a series of back and forth 20 meters to measure their VO² max.

Which is the maximum intake of oxygen consumed by the body at peak exertion.

You start at 8km/k (5 mph) and the beep frequency increase every minute, and when you fail to put foot on the line twice, you're out.

It seems players have been starting at 10 km/h

No doubt it was a gruelling experience for players like Noni Madueke, unused to track back.

🍳Maximum Effort Test.

Christ on a Bike. This test is also aimed to push players to their limit, in order to calculate their maximum HR (Heart Rate).

HR is a reliable-ish proxy (for each individual) for effort, that you can measure with a finger straight during or after effort.

You get the 100%, from which you compute 80% 70% etc... which will be useful for late stage injury rehabilitation.

During the season, players train 100%. It's up to staff to design the size (area per player), duration of drills so that the load makes sense.

For players in late stage injury rehabilitation protocol, where you're building from 60% to 90% and joining collective training, this is useful to navigate gradually the last 2 or 3 weeks.

No doubt Bobby Sanchez had some vietnam dog helicopter meme memories .

🍳↔️Beep test / Luc Léger test (continuation)

Ben Chilwell is a phenomenal athlete, who shines by the timing of his football runs. Not only he can repeat them, but his movement is supreme to always receive with space in front.

Malo Gusto is a phenomenal athlete because not only he can repeat separation short sprints at an absurd rate, the man is a dragonfly.

But seemingly can also smash the endurance tests, he played rugby and did track field as a kid. And played midfielder before being pushed at RB at 16-17.

They appear to be the two winners.

🍳Afternoon: TAG ⛳️

yes, they're litteraly playing tag as part of the warm up.

school / playground games always have a surprising degree of success with professional players, you're free to draw the conclusions that you want.

That's part of the balance, as they'll have done a million of dog parkour warm up with hurdles, or face-face passes.

Fundamental to release the mind, to have a clearer focus during subsequent drills (rather than do "tactics" 7/7)

🍳Wesley Tidjan Fofana ;

That’s also a classic, players having to pair up by 2s, 3s or 4s and the odd one out gets a forfeit

The Wesley Fofana forfeit is very much what you’d expect, definitely not all there.

These pre-season games are fairly insightful, not for the tactical value of it, but for how players self organise.

Another one is having a dozen hoops in line, and have two teams of players having to move the ball through it (holding the ball)

• no more than two feet in one hoop

• always occupying two or three consecutive hoops

This is very insighful to see the attitude to problem solving, who offers solutions, who gets on with it, who doesn’t have any situational clue, who’s clumsy.

These are individual character traits, that overlap with the majority of problem solving situations in the game or in life. Are you a quitter, moaner, or driven to succeed whatsoever.

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No need to hold forth on the "players grapes”, but players usually mess about close to their social friends.

What now when you need to do “3” and there’s two about to join the pair, your friend and say… someone socially important like Sterling, Tosin (or Enzo). Who gets left out, who gets thrown out to not lose.

🍳Big Screen for Masterchef

That big screen is present since the Potter tenure.

Can or can't be used, ultimately training intensity rules, less stoppage (and cool down whilst they all put their hands on the warmest part of their body) means less injuries.

Not quite certain, but that looks Winstewart on the bench, with their usual dresscode (PW in grey, LozStew in blue). But I'm not sure here

Also, Kiano Dyer the excellent PL2 midfielder.

🍳Scrambled Eggs Trail

Isolated passing circuits (= no opponent) are “analytical” practice and are usually done early in the week, due to the low mental load attached and lack of realism (there’s opponents in games, and you need to play where they’re not).

Ideal periodised (where you put it in the week between two games) for organisms who haven’t fully recovered from the game both mentally and physicaly - or are unable to process more complex situations (2v2 to 4v4) let alone 8v8-11v11.

Isolated pattern isn’t football training. Sorry for the grim analogy but it’s like military training without opponents. Looks easy, and you lose all the substance (and decision making).

Ball mastery, possibly. Fitness, possibly. But you don’t throw ingredients in a pan and they cook themselves.

“Associated” practice has been dispelled by the science of learning, things don’t “add up” magically at the end when done in isolation.

If you learn the theory of “contactless payment” but aren’t put in a problem solving situation, your decision making will be trial / error / feedback until you find a way.

So, cut short the PhD lecture, send them to the corner shop with people pacing behind in the queue, peeking and muttering already. Solutions will be found “ecologically” (inside the environment).

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There’s two types of analytical practices

• Blocked : players stay in position for a given time and play the same pass

• Semi blocked : player have multi choice at one fork in the road, basically

Players can stand still at their station, or move to the next one

Early in pre seas;on it’s usually something involving following one’s pass to keep players running

Is it position specific? Doesn’t look like it, especially as players are spread around in “workshops” (we see other groups in the background).

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My best educated guess would be a shrunk, pattern-ish simplified version of what Maresca’s already asking on week ends

considering that players finish on mini goals after a cutback from a diagonal run

Pivot the camera, and the small goals seems in the background.

The practices might be symmetrical, considering we see another goal when Chalobah squares to Andrey

This looks a shrunk version of Marescaball, “repeat passes” to bait the press then “disappear” to decoy and vacate the space where to play a line breaker centrally

“from dere you decide” being the identified (in coaching sign language) receiver at the bottom of a triangle, meant to play up back with one tip, to launch the other runner.

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The “repeat pass” to Tosin, who’s got no opponent in sight.

Well, let’s say it doesn’t look good brev.

Up back for a midfielder back to goal gets picked up by oppositions and becomes a pressing trap after three matchdays, especially in England that - unlike Italy, don’t see football like a tactical book chapter on 433 vs 541 where combinations are broken down in big details.

Premier League means teams will match up and man mark in midfield. Putting more emphasis on carrying, flicks and shit, and improvisation in separation movement and first touch.

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That’s the balance to strike, as position specific and players “locked” in game positions means they don’t run. Having everyone run after his own ball means (as we’ve all done it) the CB is gonna cross the ball for the right back

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Can always count on footballers to remind you what’s the warmest part of the human body directly at reach. Nothing unusual on that pic, simply footballers waiting for the coach to stop speaking so that they can get sight of the ball.

🍳4v4+4 Positional Omelette

🟢Basil + 🟠Orange vs 🔵Stilton

fwiw, kind of positional game format Lampard did a lot at Chelsea and Everton. Drills don't make coaches, and coaching is intellectual looting.

🟢🟠Two teams vs 🔵One

It's a 8v4.

Two ways to run it: either it's reversible on turnover = the team who lost it late chases in the middle, and the other ones set up accordingly: one has 4 outside, one has 2 outside 2 inside.

Or when there's a stronger fitness emphasis (to guarantee a similar load), teams are "locked" for 45'' in their positions.

🍳Still the 4v4+4 Positional Omelette

It's either an evolution, an instruction, or a wonderful accident (probably a bit of all).

Blue Orange Orange Blue 🔵🟠🟠🔵 with James/Casadei exchanging in the middle (under pressure)

Might be explicit, or might be incentivised by double scoring so that players are invited to screen / spin.

Fwiw, Maresca is a modern italian coach.

They love their dummy + layoff + find the 3rd man.

Most would teach this through isolated drills

Doing it that way (opposed) is interesting and creates more realism for players.

That's not atom splitting

🍳The dish is quite rich, this is a good first day.

The aim is to get players running about in the first week of the pre season, to get organisms back in activity with “aerobic” activities.

RIP to the Poch Box, as we were served unfiltered entertainement (77) goals, but mostly 2v2 5v5 and running on the club’s social media channels.

-- some basic triangle isolated play (they don't learn anything, it's about regulating intensity of concentration, and occurence of chaotic turns - injury hazard).

in other words: football is a complex game, you can take off complexity if there’s team mates but no opponents.

-- a bigger possession directionless game, medium sized, possibly square sized:

Narrower creates depth therefore speed which you don't want at this stage. Same for direction.

In order to keep players jogging the pitch is a medium square, as opposed to squatting / closing down (strength) in a smaller space which you don't want in excess either

🍳A word on Sterling

Every player speaks highly of Sterling for the way he helped them gel in.

Also; Sterling is the ultimate professional for pre-training, post-training protocols. He's cooling down there, but also stretching a bit.

it's 2:07am, nobody's gonna read that.

Sterling has an "anterior pelvic tilt" (some people do) which means his hamstrings (muscles behind the leg) are naturally stretched more than other people's. (the hip tilts forward)

Unless he's extremely rigorous with stretching protocols to mitigate the injury risk, he'd spend his career injured.

He actually had 3 or 4 absences of 3 weeks, which is low grade muscular issues. Which is remarkable and a testament to his work ethic.

Lots of players must have been taking example of him at Chelsea. Madueke springs to mind.

🍳End of thread. Hopefully that was interesting.

- Enzo Maresca's shining bald head, telling players to "go dere". We will be dere.

- Can't wait until that club is transfer banned, so that they can use Kiano Dyer, Josh Acheampong and Tyrique George.