Co-incidentally I came across this podcast / interview on Training Ground Guru and Vitor Matos
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The following is just half of the text from the podcast.
Starting in coaching
Vitor Matos: I was a player at a really low level. Around 2003/4, when José Mourinho started at Porto, it was a big boom in Portugal. He was someone with a different background, with a different idea in terms of training, in terms of the game for that time.
It really opened my mind and passion for being in football and I started to love coaching. From that moment on, all my development was in that way.
At 18, I started taking the UEFA courses in Portugal and at the same time started University. Then I got the opportunity to go to Porto’s youth teams. I was brought there by Professor Vítor Frade and Luís Castro, who was the Technical Director.
That’s where I met Pep Lijnders, who was already at Porto. He was the head of developing the technical part of the players and was working with every team at the club.
He was someone with a lot of passion, like he is still; someone full of energy in terms of developing, with a love for the players and for the talent of the players. That’s why I believe we connected so well.
We started sharing ideas, sharing opinions, connecting, and it became a really good and close friendship. Pep is someone who really passionate about coaching. He always tries to improve the team and the players, he tries to be better every day.
I would say he has a lot of creativity in terms of finding solutions for different problems that come from the game. That was something that always brought us together. Pep is always a big reference for me.
Influence of Vitor Frade
Vítor Frade was my teacher at University. I knew him before, from the influence he had on Rui (Faria) and José Mourinho as well. When I started researching about football and training, I found this idea, tactical periodisation, that came from Vitor Frade.
That’s how I decided to go to the University of Porto, where I met him. It was completely overwhelming, blowing your mind for a different way of viewing football and viewing training.
Until that moment, the physical part of the game was what conducted the (training) process and was the main idea. From that moment on, when I met Professor Vítor Frade, it showed me a completely different way; a way related with complexity, a systemic approach.
More than developing by only one dimension, the physical part, it’s about playing and developing under an idea — the game idea of the coach.
That information, of the brain, is what influences the fitness part of the player. That was a completely different view that I fell in love with, because it’s intuitive for the coach, it helps you to organise your game idea and to develop your game idea with your team. That is the main idea, to develop the tactical culture of your team.
Why are there so many good Portuguese coaches?
Football is a big thing in Portugal in terms of the passion people have about it – similar to in England.
If you ask me why there are so many Portuguese coaches having success in different countries, in different contexts, there was a big influence from different names. That helped a lot to open doors for others.
Carlos Queiroz was a big influence in terms of coach developing and then José Mourinho, in terms of developing culture. With the way he stepped up and won so much, it created a big boom and opened doors for everyone.
And in the background you have Vítor Frade, in terms of ideas and process and how he opened the mind and the view of the game and training.
Why aren't there more top English managers?
I don’t have an answer to that. I believe there are good English managers. For example, Porto had Bobby Robson, one of the best managers we had in the club, and he influenced so much the culture of the club and the country as well.
Mourinho worked with him, Vítor Frade as well. So you see already the influence that an English coach has here in Portugal.
You have good coaches, you have Eddie Howe, who just won the Carabao Cup, you have Brendan Rodgers, you have Russell Martin, a new upcoming coach with a completely different approach than the traditional English way of seeing the game.
I think there are a lot of good managers, and I believe that it will happen the same (as in Portugal). Football is like a cycle – if there is someone with success in a country or league or competition, it opens the door for a different one, that’s always the case.
Using these managers as a reference in terms of developing coaches in England, I think that is a big thing. That was one of the things that, for me, was really important – how it was so much work around José Mourinho in Portugal, how it was so much work around different coaches who were in a high level, that allowed a new generation of coaches to learn and reflect and improve.
