Ricardo Cobalchini – Under 23 Coach S.C. International
Ricardo Cobalchini is a professional football coach with over 15 years of experience. Currently, Ricardo is the coach of the Under 23 team at Sport Club Internacional.
Script
How do you spot potential in young players?
“In order for a footballer to achieve high level he must be as complete as possible in all aspects, be it technical or tactical where the player has the ability to make a qualified decision to understand the space and to occupy the spaces of the game effectively to understand and solve the problems of the game.
Nowadays professional football requires a high level of physical ability such as valences of strength and speed that need to be remarkable because the game today is very competitive especially in terms of mental capabilities to be able to meet the demands for the real professional level”.
How do you manage the collective development of the team, whilst also developing players individually?
“We always look for the evolution of the team so that it can reach the needs of the championships, but we never fail to attend to the players individually because we cannot put an entire team in the senior squad, just a few players so we want is to develop the footballer so that he gets there as soon as possible. We want him to be able to be a decision-maker and think accordingly with the team, but we also spend some time in our week tackling deficiencies that the footballer has, to make corrections, to make him evolve in several aspects technically and physically according to his needs.
They should not lose the courage they as may have aggressiveness and even a certain arrogance, but they need to see the world in a collective way. This is the direction football is going in and the footballer has to understand that he is fundamental to the team that he has a great capacity to help the team and even having his own characteristics without changing them he cannot diverge too much from what the team needs if not he may find himself disconnected.
He should use all of this talent in addition to the collective quality of the team so he can develop himself because if the team is good collectively his talent will shine much more and he will be able to rise to his full potential and achieve his personal goals as well”.
How is the connection between u23 and senior coaches in terms of football philosophy?
“Both should have similar concepts although the way of playing sometimes varies. Nowadays, youth teams have a well-defined game model based on the senior team model but theirs changes more to meet the needs and demands of the championships and there is very good interaction with the technical staff of the senior team where we gather and debate the evolution of some players, and they are constantly watching our matches”.
Considering the last WC2018, what are the trends of the game?
“We saw teams that were capable of being balanced at each moment of the game sometimes doing high defensive pressing also knowing how to do lower block to avoid the opponent’s depth. Teams that know how to propose the game but also had efficient counter-attacks with qualified offensive transitions with speed. Teams such as France showed this remarkable profile. Many teams showed this remarkable profile so I think that all this balance especially at this very high level in the main teams, is remarkable as teams that can produce high pressure and also being prepared during the game to change to a low block understanding the needs of the game.
Players have less and less time and space to think in the game, so players have to improve problem-solving collectively faster. Players with the ability to dribble to break the defensive system end up being fundamental because today’s defensive coverage is so close that players need to learn to dribble or create 2v1 situations next to the box to achieve a finishing situation at the goal having less space.
Nowadays, collective football has evolved to such a high level that teams that don’t have a very good tactical and physical level to withstand the game even with phenomenal players won’t get anywhere.
Nowadays, football is more about the collective. Despite this, the individual technical capability of players is still very important when the group unity is strong, and we have individual talents and the team evolves and hopefully wins as happened with France, a very strong team collectively and individually remarkable”.
What qualities does a player need to have in order to fit in with the club’s methodology?
“Today in S.C Internacional we have a very integrated methodology for the u10 to u23 teams, so we work with very similar concepts and ideas such as proposing the game and developing players with good ball techniques developing intelligent players capable of making good decisions. Players who can as react quickly as possible after losing position of the ball with aggressiveness in offensive and defensive phases of the game with a very high technical level being competitive at the same time physically strong, but also much more mentally strong fulfilling the demands of modern football”.
How is the weekly cycle of training organised?
“As a standard, we have some physical contents which are led daily by the fitness coach. We always have meetings on Fridays where we discussed the physical contents that will be developing during the week and technical-tactical contents are planned as well. Usually, we have daily drills of ball possession at the beginning of the training session where we are looking for specific objectives that can be maintaining ball possession creating lines of passing recovering possessions of the ball, transitions, etc.… so the goals may vary. But, we always have ball possession drills to properly develop the players in this context.
In the second part, we divide the football field, and we train technical aspects that we think are important but still in small games of 6v5 or 7v6 a little bit more fractioned. Also, two or three days a week we do complementary work in the final part of the session opening the field and giving a general idea of what they will experience in the game with more width and depth to have more real space in game situations.
Also at the end of the activity, we do some technical complexity drills or sometimes even in the afternoon shift because normally we have morning training, and sometimes we bring some players in the afternoon to complementary improvement either when the player has some difficulty in heading or needs to improve passing with the non-dominant foot if we seek to develop the player more individually”.
What is your understanding of training young players to win vs developing them for the future?
“I believe that we have up to u15 clubs that don’t need to emphasise on winning. Of course, as a coach, you work to win, and no one works not to win but to emphasise to be on development working well for the players, working for them to develop them in the best way possible. In u17, we should start to insert a bit more competitive responsibility, and the final categories already have it because they are close to the senior team with a very competitive situation. Of course, even in u23 the most important thing is to keep developing, to prepare them for the senior team but they need to be ready by this time, the mental demands that the game requires and they should also be able to relate with their teammates, to be a winner.
Because in the senior squad, the most important demands to win. So in this final part of the process completion is very important, yes, but even more so when playing for a club such as S.C. Internactional, which is a big club, one of the main clubs in the country. When a player is under a lot of pressure and he arrives at the senior tea,m he will have just a few minutes to demonstrate his ability so it is crucial that he can handle the pressure and be prepared to perform his best”.
In your opinion, what way are Brazilian players different to other players around the world?
“I think that the technical part and the part of dribbling and confrontation I think Brazilians stand out a lot and I think Brazilians are evolving to becoming increasingly more collective players. For a long time our football was focused on the individual part and I believe that since 10 to 12 years ago the country has been evolving a lot in seeking an increasingly collective game and if you can get the players to evolve collectively but without losing collectively but without losing the essence of aggression, courage to attack to try the 1v1 at the right time.
I believe that keeping this is fundamental for the development of young players”.
In what ways does a coach’s personality affect the team’s characteristics?
“The characteristics of the players are very important in determining the traits of the team and the coach plays a great part in this process because he influences the group his role is to manage the group well and to pass on his ideas leading the group to have a soul and identify in line with what he thinks and in accordance with his personality.
So if the coach is someone who stimulates competitiveness in the group and can pass on the fighting spirit the group will no doubt inherit these characteristics, but of course, respecting the individuality of each player.
It’s no use for the coach to work on a game model that is not in line with the ideas that the group already has but he can develop a group with similar thinking to his and no doubt the team replicate the character of the coach”.
