José Tavares: Currently is the Head Coach in Charlotte FC NP, USA. He worked also in FC Porto, Boavista FC, FC Paços de Ferreira.
PT: Over these last years, we saw Coaches that had the ability to also change the way people perceive football. Is this evolution in football culture something we can draw parallels to our own club?
José Tavares: Absolutely, the connection between football culture and success is profound. Every person watching the game, whether in the stadium or elsewhere, becomes part of the experience. Success means different things to different people, shaped by our unique backgrounds and perspectives. However, when it comes to the game itself, there’s a collective synergy that transcends individual differences.
Whether we’re celebrating a thrilling victory or enduring a tough match, the shared experience brings us together. As coaches, our role goes beyond motivation; it’s about creating something meaningful on the field that resonates with everyone. Success isn’t just about results; it’s about the emotions, connections, and sense of identity that the team represents.
We must ensure that the team reflects the values and aspirations of our supporters, whether they’re cheering from the stands or watching at home. It’s about giving them something to believe in, something that represents them on the field. This unity between the team, the coach, and the fans is what truly matters in football.
TP: How do you, with this team and these players, approach and overcome specific types of problems?
José Tavares: At the beginning of the season, we establish our model, but then it becomes a teaching-learning process involving both the team and the players. We constantly assess how to best adapt the model to suit the players and guide them towards their optimal performance. This growth occurs daily, with every match contributing to our understanding. By staying true to our vision, we consistently progress towards our goals. After three months, for instance, although we may not know the exact outcome, we recognize that the vision propels us forward, with the players already demonstrating elements we can learn from. Again, it’s about cooperation between the idea and the players, ensuring they are comfortable and understanding. Adaptation is crucial from both sides, coaches and players alike. When we are too rigid, we risk losing players who are valuable to our team. So, how do we maximize the potential of each player? While maintaining a strong, cohesive team identity, we also aim to adapt to the evolving dynamics of the team and players. It’s about ensuring that, at each moment, we are doing our best to achieve success. As we progress through the season, we need to ensure that the core principles remain consistent, even as we evolve our approach based on the team’s growth. Ultimately, it’s the vision we hold for the team that guides us forward, driving us towards our future goals.
TP:Professor Vítor Frade used to say that the game model is everything. How do you approach the small changes that could occur during a season, being an injury of an important player, being the way you try to evolve your game model?
José Tavares: One good example is, everybody likes to see Manchester City play in the last years. And they have a clear identity to have the ball. But every single year they are showing different ways of doing it, but for sure we remember so many moments that the goalkeeper is looking for the striker, and actually they can score with just one pass.
So, one of their principles is like how we find the space? And the space was already there. So if we are looking, we have space to play. The space was actually there. So they don’t need to have 30 passes to create space because the space already there. They understood that. It happens like that.
But then the next few games, everybody was aware, they can do this, the spaces they would have are different because the opponent adapt to that. So looking for where we have space, how we create space differently? Can we work our identity in different ways? So it’s about the idea that the coach has that will be happening on the field in a different way. But is always a clear identity if we see that the growing and the structure of a team, can be different game to game.
The big teams can do it. Because with some players they can change. Changing the structure doesn’t mean that they are changing the big principles. We can see the same identity over there. Sometimes they play with 3 or 4, the full backs, the wingers or number 10 plays as left back. Sometimes they build with 2 inside, sometimes build with 3. But always with the same identity, with different players, with the same coach.
The growing process is related with the ideas for the team. And for the players that we have. At the first moment or the first season, they didn’t have too many creativity on this different structures. After six years, in this case Guardiola is doing differently, it’s happening in the different way. But with the same identity. So we need to respect that time is important here. But how we build the team?
Is going to be with a clear identity since the first day, since the first week. So that’s why the game model is driving us forward. This is always our top priority for the game and the learning process of the players. And that’s why after some time we reflect: how are we going to change by not changing?
What I mean by this? We want to change a few things because the opponents are studing us, and you want to do it differently but without losing identity. So sometimes we change, like, one dinamic that can be played differently and now we are making ourselves grow because we found something that can be different. But at the same time our identity is still there.
So sometimes just one player is enough to change that. And it happens with us, sometimes a player after three games can help us find all the solutions, if we are looking to them. But at the same time you have to have a clear vision on how we want to play with the ball and without the ball. So, for me it’s about being always balanced and the defensive moment needs to have the same quality of the moment with the ball.
This is all about the choice that the coach has. It’s not about one thing being more important than other one. So, when we see great teams, you understand the games are open. It´s not about always the big team against the small one, no. The games are really open. If you go to see for example the Liverpool and City on the last year’s, It’s always a problema to both teams. It’s always a great game. City has difficults and they have their identity. Why? Because Liverpool, create many problems and they change every game. And I have seen all of them, they always change something.
So, great teams, great coaches, great identities and always changing something. That’s why the game is always different as well. So, who you want to be? That’s my main question. How we make our team grow? How we adapt our vision to the process and to what the players are showing us? Because sometimes we start with this ones and after 3 months that guys can be on the bench and other ones are already much better. Maybe this don’t happen so often in great teams, but in the majority of teams this happens. So the players are telling us, which ways to drive our model foward. If we have the our vision on top of that.
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KEYWORDS: PRE-SEASON; TACTICAL PERIODIZATION; TRAINING; FOOTBALL; SOCCER; GAME MODEL.
