I often use metaphors to illustrate ideas that help my footballers understand them more easily. One I frequently use regarding the game in general, the match plan, and our style is that of a blank canvas.
Let’s imagine a painter commissioned to create a painting by a client. Or better yet, let’s imagine that we are our own clients and want to decorate the walls of our home. From a few broad strokes that I (the coach) make on the white canvas, the artist (painter) — or rather, the artists (footballers) — must be able to complete a painting worthy of hanging in the main living room, visible to everyone. In other words, as a team, we have to be capable of delivering a work that meets these expectations.
The broad strokes I give my footballers are part of the initial plan. They are a guide through which our game must flow. Two, three, four ideas that the team needs to know how to interpret, complete, and develop with their respective brushes (talent).
If I draw an oval circle, it’s very likely that the player—or players—will interpret that shape as the sketch of a face and see in it the opportunity to keep shaping it (fine brush = talent) until it is completed according to their taste and in our way. Continuing with this example, one might draw the eyes, another would add the hair, another the mouth, and another artist (player) would refine the lips, and so on, until the painting is finished with more or less detail.
Naturally, we can stick to minimalism, which is also a style in itself and has its own beauty. In fact, there are countless practical teams whose simple yet effective play results in works that are well known and appreciated by everyone. Similarly, we all know teams whose artists lean toward the baroque, and they too earn recognition and create high-level works. Ultimately, it all depends on the artists we have and their ability to handle the brush. This circumstance, and no other, will define our pictorial style.
In any case, whatever we paint, as coaches we must encourage our artists to express themselves from a few broad strokes, so that together we can create something that improves an empty wall, pleases, excites, fits with the rest of the décor, inspires, and adds value—economic, sentimental, or otherwise—something that makes us proud to see it preside over the wall of our main living room.
So, come on! Paint, brush, and fine brush!
