Roberto Martinez: "The former player never completely dies"

Contested and criticized after the semi-failure of the Portuguese selection during the European Nations Championship (defeat against France, 0-0, 3-5 on penalties, in the quarter-finals), Roberto Martinez is back in favour with Portuguese-speaking fans seduced by the game plan implemented by the Spanish coach during the Nations League. With 3 wins and 1 draw, Cristiano Ronaldo and his teammates have implemented their coach's instructions with a determination and consistency in effort which, more than words, speak of the appropriation of the coach's ideas by the group. However, before coaching some of the best players in the world, the coach honed his skills from 1995 to 2007 playing in the 4th division of Wales at Swansea City, then at Wigan in England, at a time when the British kick and rush competed with the subtleties of positional play. A reluctant job? "Lucky," the coach told us during a lengthy interview when he was still Belgium's coach. He went on to clarify: "When I arrived at Wigan, I had to deal with a game plan where ball possession was most often shared 50-50 and where territorial occupation was more important than collective control. And yet, it was football! Another way of thinking about it, of playing it, but it was the same game. This gave me the opportunity to understand that football was not uniform, that everyone could have their own way of understanding it and that, as such, there could not be a formal and identical style for everyone!" This bias then led to two successive promotions for a coach who had to deal with his technical aspirations without distorting them: "From the beginning of my career, I had a very clear idea of ​​the game I wanted my teams to play. I wanted us to have possession of the ball and to gain a tactical advantage from the position of my players on the field. Except that my intentions did not really correspond with the reality of a game where the ball spent more time in the air than on the ground. And that, I did not have the power to change! The only question that remained was how I could adapt my beliefs so that they would lead us to victory, taking into account the context. It was a tremendously formative experience and today, I can say that my philosophy of the game is a combination of all these influences and experiences."

"Since football isn't uniform, we can't claim to have a definitive style that's the same for everyone."

Among the ingredients of Martinez's recipe, special consideration must be given to the background of this midfielder, trained as a number 6. A characteristic common to most of the current great coaches (Guardiola, Ancelotti, Xavi, X. Alonso): "It is true that it is a position where you have to process 360° information around you. This probably explains why so many number "6" professionals branch out into coaching. It is not very surprising in itself. The way in which all coaches perceive and conceive the game is always a reflection of their own experience as players. The analysis that we draw from the game, however objective it may be, always contains a part of this feeling. In fact, the former player never completely dies when the coach takes his place. This is why my vision of football is inevitably impacted by my original position. Even if other parameters come into play, of course..." We then questioned him on this criteria: "There are also the circumstances in which you took your first steps, the country where you learned to play and the coaches with whom you have enriched your knowledge of the game. I, for example, am Spanish, and my philosophy of football, the way I like to see it played by my teams, is very much based on the concepts of "positional play". This is why I am so attached to the notions of controlling the tempo of the action, to mastering the ball and the position of the players, ensuring its progression on the field. I am the fruit of my experiences. Would I be the same coach today, would I have held the same speech, if I had been born in Sweden or in South America, I don't think so."

"We don't adapt to our opponents, but to what the game demands!"

Do Roberto Martinez's teams adapt their game plan without worrying about their opponents'? "It's not as simple as that. Overall, we try to impose our style of football, but we also have to take into account how our opponents play (note: this interview was conducted when R. Martinez was in charge of the Belgian national team). Recently, I've noticed, for example, that our opponents sometimes change their systems when they have to play against us. I'm thinking in particular of teams that switch to five-man defences when they usually play with four. The truth is, we need to be flexible to be able to respond effectively to the various tactical problems we'll inevitably encounter during a match. This means we don't adapt to our opponents, but rather to what the game demands!"

*Statements taken from the interview given by Roberto Martinez to the magazine "Zone Technique"

"There's always a moment when the coach comes face to face with himself and has to answer a fundamental question: how does he really want to play?"

How does a coach evolve throughout his career? The Spanish coach discusses the personal maturation process of top-level coaches: "I certainly can't answer for all my colleagues. But what I do know, especially at the beginning of his career, is that there's always a moment when the coach comes face to face with himself and has to answer a few simple yet fundamental questions: how does he really want to play? What will his playing priorities be? What type of football does he intend to promote? Because everything starts there! From those three or four initial thoughts that will determine his future development. In fact, it's all a matter of perspective. The coach's perspective on his team, but even more broadly, on the sensitive perception he has of the men and his sport."