After the last defeat to Luxol, I wrote a post about the defeat, but the positives to come from it and now I want to write down and share some of my personal lessons from yesterday’s 5-4 defeat.
- If you need 1 goal with 1 minute and 8 seconds left against 4 players. Don’t hesitate to put on the fly goalkeeper. Yesterday, I first trusted my players to create an opportunity with 4v3, but looking back, I should have put the 5th player on right away, not 20 seconds later. It could have made all the difference.
- Try to save your time out in a game that tight. I needed it with 1 minute left when Luxol went down to 4 men. I used it early to introduce fly goalkeeper, but I reckon I could have done that without a time out, looking back.
- Be strong in your decisions. Sometimes it’s hard to see players on the bench and not put them on, but don’t put them on just for them being there and working hard. It’s about managing expectations and I had 2 players who didn’t play. Their reactions were totally opposite but you need to back your decisions. As a result, I’ve promised them they’ll play on Thursday. I have confidence in them both, but I haven’t given them a chance to show me properly yet.
- Similarly, if you’ve decided on who’s taking 10m penalties, don’t change your mind. I had my captain ask me to take it, but I stuck with my pre-game decision and Leo scored a cracking penalty.
- Play a long ball every now and again! Our first goal came after a minute when our goalkeeper played long and it went it over their keeper. It’s an option I always promote and I told the boys that it is worth a couple of goals a season!! At least now they believe me!
- Try not to take your best player off when defending a free kick… I did it because it looked like the referee was going to give him a second yellow… Not sure it would have helped, but we conceded from the free kick and can’t help but feel Maxi would have organised the defence better.
Some things, both that I did and didn’t do, from yesterday’s match. It’s important to note these things down sometimes so you can commit it to memory and grow. I’ll try to do this after each game. Let me know what you think!