DubaiSpur
Ian Walker
Interesting to me was the inference of Spurs training lacking tactical focus, the idea he is learning more out in Spain and with England.
https://www.theguardian.com/footbal...etico-madrid-tottenham-rooney-darts-interview
“The most important thing is I’m enjoying my football. I’ve come to a different league, different surroundings, different culture, everything. And maybe the new challenge has woken me up. It was there to see last season that sometimes my concentration was lacking. Sometimes it led to goals, I know that. And I’ve said many times over the last 16 months my defending needs to improve. People questioned the move but it was the perfect team. If I play for Cholo [Diego Simeone], I know defensively I can improve.” [Couldnt under Poch?]
In what? “Positioning. If [left-back Renan] Lodi’s bombing forward I can’t be up here as well like in England, because you get a turnover of play and there’s so much space. I need to be thinking defensively always.” Yet, pushed high and wide, it is in attack where he has most impressed with the quality of his passing and timing, liberated by Koke’s covering. “Koke’s brilliant to play with: he’s so honest, his work ethic’s incredible. Everybody’s is, but Koke does so much running, I don’t know how he does it,” Trippier says. “There’s a lot of tactical work. Every day I’m learning. Training’s totally different. For me, that’s perfect. I’m getting help off one of the best coaches in the world.”
It’s notable how rarely Trippier loses possession. He says he doesn’t know the amount – 78% pass completion – but does know part of the answer. “You see sometimes last season or before I was maybe putting the ball in the box for the sake of it. Look at the goal [Álvaro] Morata scored from [Ángel] Correa’s pass [against Athletic]. At Tottenham I would have just crossed that, but there’s three v one so I came back out, played it to Koke, Koke to Ángel, Ángel to Morata, goal. It’s practice. In this league if you give the ball away you can be chasing it a long time. It’s about being patient: if the cross isn’t on, come back out. Koke, Ángel, goal.
“We do that with England too, with Gareth,” Trippier adds swiftly. “If it’s not on, turn out, play to Hendo [Jordan Henderson]. You see the one at the World Cup with Jesse Lingard. It’s not just throwing the ball in the box, hoping they get on the end of it.”
It's a common enough comment from footballers that have played here and in Italy/Spain. They have a lot of time and space to train intensively in the tactical side of the game, and are more rounded players because of it.
Here, the pace is so intense that tactical training, for all intents and purposes, can only be done within a small window at the start of the season, and another one closer to the end if your club has no other competitions to deal with.
Otherwise, the vast majority of training mid-season is just keeping your conditioning and fitness up for the next game, with a few opponent-specific training sessions when needed. If you try anything else, you are going to fall behind in terms of fitness, and the pace of the Premier League will swat you aside.
It's a similar situation in Germany - Bundesliga sides are similarly constrained given the pace of their league, but they have a couple of mid-season breaks in play to get a bit more tactical training in.