Why did Rafa replace the soul of the club with his own people?

[RedReet]

Since when has Steve Heighway became ‘the soul’ of Liverpool Football Club?

[BrianF80]

Easy question - a lot of people on here know more than I do about this.

From what ive heard he fired Heighway and took down all references of him in the academy - including the removal of all references to him by taking down a plaque that praised SHs achievements

Yes - he wants his own guys in but theyre all foreign with no idea about our heritage. Does that make him Houllier mark 2?

There is a fundamental divide in football coaching, in england anyway, about the best approach. One is based on old school Charles Hughes direct football, POMO, over-emphasis on pace and strength and repetition of the "moves" required for your role. English football has laboured with this for years. The continental approach favours rounded development, small sided games vs. kids playing on full size pitches, 1000's of touches of the ball to develop technique vs. 15 sprints down the touchline to cross, blurring the distinction between defence and attack viewing it as a holistic endeavour, players being used in multiple roles to gain a complete understanding of the game etc.

The coaches we had at the academy either did not want to or were not able to make the transition. There was an interview with one of the academy players on the offal and he described the difference between the two regimes and it was pretty clear this is what is happening. There is also a lad on Rawk whose son is a goalkeeper at the academy and he started a new training scheme this year designed by Xavi Valero and he now has to spend 70% of his time playing outfield because if he's going to be a liverpool keeper he needs to play sweeper keeper and to be a sweeper keeper you need to be able to read the game as well as a defender or midfielder. That's an example of the kind of quantum leap required and the old staff couldn't make up that conceptual gap.

Anyone else also notice that Dave Usher hasn't got any **** to spread on the academy anymore! Wonder why, eh?

[-V-]

There is a fundamental divide in football coaching, in england anyway, about the best approach. One is based on old school Charles Hughes direct football, POMO, over-emphasis on pace and strength and repetition of the "moves" required for your role. English football has laboured with this for years. The continental approach favours rounded development, small sided games vs. kids playing on full size pitches, 1000's of touches of the ball to develop technique vs. 15 sprints down the touchline to cross, blurring the distinction between defence and attack viewing it as a holistic endeavour, players being used in multiple roles to gain a complete understanding of the game etc.

The coaches we had at the academy either did not want to or were not able to make the transition. There was an interview with one of the academy players on the offal and he described the difference between the two regimes and it was pretty clear this is what is happening. There is also a lad on Rawk whose son is a goalkeeper at the academy and he started a new training scheme this year designed by Xavi Valero and he now has to spend 70% of his time playing outfield because if he's going to be a liverpool keeper he needs to play sweeper keeper and to be a sweeper keeper you need to be able to read the game as well as a defender or midfielder. That's an example of the kind of quantum leap required and the old staff couldn't make up that conceptual gap.

Anyone else also notice that Dave Usher hasn't got any **** to spread on the academy anymore! Wonder why, eh?

Thats a good insight, alot people overly simplistic with regards to coaching. Unless you have real experience you can't possibly understand development

[Rich]

There is a fundamental divide in football coaching, in england anyway, about the best approach. One is based on old school Charles Hughes direct football, POMO, over-emphasis on pace and strength and repetition of the "moves" required for your role. English football has laboured with this for years. The continental approach favours rounded development, small sided games vs. kids playing on full size pitches, 1000's of touches of the ball to develop technique vs. 15 sprints down the touchline to cross, blurring the distinction between defence and attack viewing it as a holistic endeavour, players being used in multiple roles to gain a complete understanding of the game etc.

The coaches we had at the academy either did not want to or were not able to make the transition. There was an interview with one of the academy players on the offal and he described the difference between the two regimes and it was pretty clear this is what is happening. There is also a lad on Rawk whose son is a goalkeeper at the academy and he started a new training scheme this year designed by Xavi Valero and he now has to spend 70% of his time playing outfield because if he's going to be a liverpool keeper he needs to play sweeper keeper and to be a sweeper keeper you need to be able to read the game as well as a defender or midfielder. That's an example of the kind of quantum leap required and the old staff couldn't make up that conceptual gap.

Anyone else also notice that Dave Usher hasn't got any **** to spread on the academy anymore! Wonder why, eh?

Top post.

[lfc]

lets face it - the academy wasnt set up correctly in terms of structure and leadership.

Rafa was 100% right to make the changes that he has because ultimately he wants players coming through that can play in the first team, not players that have won 3 reserve league titles and 5 youth cups.

h: ouch

[Exiled_red]

I think this ripping the soul out of the club is very tabloidy

Every manager has his own ways of working and need people he can trust who all work in the same way, which is why nearly all managers bring staff with them from their old clubs. For a while we didn't need to do this as we appointed internally (Paisley, Fagan, Dalglish and Evans) all these people had been working with the same backroom staff for years and knew one another very well.

Could you not argue that the 'soul of the club' was replaced (If you want to put it that way) at the end of the Roy Evans era when the last of the bootroom staff left (Roy Evans, Ronnie Moran and Doug Livermore etc). Houllier brought in alot of his own staff, the academy was overhauled c1998 when the new academy facilities at Kirkby were opened so I'm not sure how manay of the staff had been at the club that long anyway. The role of the academy, is to produce players for the first team, and while youth team level success is a bonus, it counts for nothing if none of the players make the first team, by this standard our academy was not performing.

[dww]

Easy question - a lot of people on here know more than I do about this.

From what ive heard he fired Heighway and took down all references of him in the academy - including the removal of all references to him by taking down a plaque that praised SHs achievements

Yes - he wants his own guys in but theyre all foreign with no idea about our heritage. Does that make him Houllier mark 2?

I think all the points I would have made except this one have been made very well already:

The plaque seems a very odd thing to do on the face of it. Assuming it to be true though you can come to any number of conclusions about it. I think though that a key one has to be that while youth tournaments won etc are nice the real aim of the facility is to get first team players. We haven't done that really in the last few years. Heighway was undoubtedly a true red, a great player and a committed youth coach (which I think is something too little praised in general) but he appeared during the Houllier era to have developed an antagonistic relationship with Melwood and that didn't change seemingly when Rafa arrived. The two parts of the club need to be symbiotic and perhaps a complete reboot without reference to the past with all it's problems was needed to get things running as they should.

[Exiled_red]

There could be a number of reasons I could speculate why the plague was taken down (if it was):

1) Maybe it was given to Heighway as a momento.
2) Maybe not to put pressure on the new man to have Heighway's shadow and methods cast over him.
3) Maybe the club want to take focus away from winning youth level tournaments and focus on bring players through to the first team.

Obviously I'm speculating, but these stories tend to paint the club (or Rafa) as the villain without putting across the full story.

[dww]

There could be a number of reasons I could speculate why the plague was taken down (if it was):

1) Maybe it was given to Heighway as a momento.
2) Maybe not to put pressure on the new man to have Heighway's shadow and methods cast over him.
3) Maybe the club want to take focus away from winning youth level tournaments and focus on bring players through to the first team.

Obviously I'm speculating, but these stories tend to paint the club (or Rafa) as the villain without putting across the full story.

[shanks69]

or maybe the so called plaque that was supposedly taken down was simply,his name plate on his office door

[BrianF80]

There's an article in the Mail today that alludes to the issues with English coaching. Brooking has been moaning about this for 10 years and has achieved the square root of **** all.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-1244576/FA-ban-long-ball-game-Oxbridge-Burton.html

FA ban long ball game at their 'Oxbridge' in Burton

By Matt Lawton

The FA declared their intention to deliver home-grown England managers and to end the traditional long ball game when they unveiled final plans for the much-delayed National Football Centre at Burton-upon-Trent.

And this on a day when their head of football development, Sir Trevor Brooking, expressed concerns about whether England have the quality to win this summer’s World Cup.

Now called St George’s Park and built on a 330-acre site, the NFC will be the ‘Oxford and Cambridge of football,’ according to its godfather, Howard Wilkinson.
Sir Trevor Brooking, Stuart Pearce and David Sheepshanks

New plans: Sir Trevor Brooking, Stuart Pearce and David Sheepshanks help to unveil plans for the much-delayed National Football Centre

The FAFA believe it will allow them to change the culture of English football, developing coaches who will one day be good enough to follow Fabio Capello as well as change the way the game is taught.

Due for completion in April 2012, the £100million centre will be what NFC board chairman David Sheepshanks called a ‘world-class facility’ that will see ‘more home-grown managers leading England and Premier League sides’.

As well as a hotel that will accommodate the England senior team - and every other national side - ahead of matches, it will have 12 state-of-the-art pitches and sports science facilities.

Tuesday marked the launch of the consultation process and, by the end of this year, they hope to have started the building having received planning permission.
Stuart Pearce

Pearce: 'no excuses'

Brooking says the centre will provide full-time, dedicated coaches for youngsters aged five to 11 and 11 to 16 for the first time. ‘The long ball game has got to become a thing of the past,’ he said. ‘We have to get them playing the way Brazil and Spain play, with more intricate passing. For the FA not to prepare our youngsters would be stupid.

‘We’ve not got the depth of talent for a country of 60million plus people if you look beyond the golden generation of Lampard and Gerrard. Can they do it at the World Cup this summer? We’ll see. But after them there isn’t the depth.

‘Look at other countries’ back-fours, they are all comfortable on the ball. We struggle
to produce full backs who are good defensively and can contribute attacking-wise. Look at Lucio’s display against us for Brazil in Qatar. He showed how defenders can step out with the ball.’

England Under 21 manager Stuart Pearce added: ‘There are other countries that are technically better than us and we have to change things before we get left behind. We need to get in a situation where we have no more excuses.’

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...#ixzz0d9T0PbDc

[Guest]

It's a bit ironic that its 'godfather' is Howard Wilkinson, one of the advocates of the 'long ball' game. Remember his Leeds team which won the league? Long ball merchants, minus Gary McCallister.

[dww]

It's a bit ironic that its 'godfather' is Howard Wilkinson, one of the advocates of the 'long ball' game. Remember his Leeds team which won the league? Long ball merchants, minus Gary McCallister.

To be fair there is a big difference between knowing what to do with the resources at your disposal in order to do well in a mediocre league and thinking that is good enough to beat the best in the world. I also think you do a disservice to a team that knew how to mix it's game up pretty well even if they did always have a long option.

Wilkinson has always had a decent reputation as a forward looking coach even if as a manager that has never really shone through at the higher levels. He has always talked a good game with development as has Brooking. I think the problem has been getting clubs to be willing to accept a centralised organisation and finding good teachers to improve coaches.

I'm not sure how well this centre will do but hopefully at least it will go some way to altering the ethos of player development nationally.

[BrianF80]

It's a bit ironic that its 'godfather' is Howard Wilkinson, one of the advocates of the 'long ball' game. Remember his Leeds team which won the league? Long ball merchants, minus Gary McCallister.

It is weird, but Wilkinson has been one of the more important people in eradicating the hold of POMO over our national game.

[Catrin]

Personally, love the fact that the reserves are now a team of youngsters trying to prove themselves worthy of a place in the first team and not a dumping-ground for first-teamers who aren't good enough to get a game.