Opinions

My cooperation with Marcin Gabor began over 12 years ago, when I was still a young player. For a short period of time, I was able to work directly as a player with Coach Gabor, in the Skra Częstochowa team he led. From our first contact I was very interested in his insights on football, the game, its logic and tactical approach. Regularly maintained contact, held meetings and numerous conversations steered me more and more strongly towards taking up coaching work. That’s what happened and in 2013 I began my coaching path. Since then I have worked with youth and senior teams.

Our collaboration has occurred and continues to occur on various levels. In addition to regular discussions about tactical issues, the team development process or fatal trends in football, I was always willing to help Marcin Gabor with any projects I was invited to participate in, which were aimed at Coaches and Clubs. Thanks to my participation in projects such as TrainerPRO, I gained a lot of educational value, expanded my awareness in the context of the Coach’s role and developed the necessary coaching and training competencies. I was also able, in contrast, to repeatedly convince myself of the misconception of other coaches, educators, coaching coordinators or club managers on the most relevant topics concerning football, and referring to the development of teams and players.

Marcin Gabor is a man who is highly competent as a Coach, Sports Director and Analyst alike. He is the person thanks to whom I consciously chose to work in coaching and thanks to whom I can continuously develop myself. What I owe most to Coach is his influence on my way of thinking about the game. The substrate for all conversations and analysis was the combination play, which always strongly attracted my attention and interest. While still performing as a player, I was one of those who felt comfortable with combination football style and very much enjoyed playing in a tight space. Coach Gabor’s demonstration of the precise rules, the tactical nuances of just such a way of playing, allowed me to more and more fully understand the construction of the whole and read the regularities. As time passed, I began to perceive the game more and more contextually – in terms of constantly occurring on-field relationships, which always come from the efforts of the whole team. The whole structure of the game was becoming clearer and more logical to me. Thanks to Marcin Gabor, I learned to isolate categories of on-field situations, create solution structures and develop an increasingly functional and complex organization of play, which I use with great satisfaction in my work with the teams I lead. At the same time, my training methodology also expanded in this way, which I managed to fill with various types of drills and training games. Cooperation with Marcin Gabor allowed me to properly understand the role of the player and the issue of “individual development”. I treat this area as something that is inseparable from team development and pertains to the team’s tactics.

Coach Gabor also helped me develop a very important skill, which is planning my work in tactical perspective: in the short and long term. Careful separation of individual tactical-technical areas, their purposeful combination into broader contexts, repetitive impact in training work or progression of aspects. These are all components that allow better control of ongoing training work.

I also learned a lot from Marcin Gabor in the area of analytics. From the ability to use analytical tools, to creating a tailored analytical structure and drawing accurate conclusions, to implementation in training work that directly affects the team and players.

Marcin Gabor’s influence on me as a Coach is invaluable. I am very happy that I had the opportunity to meet someone like that in the football environment. I am also happy to have worked with the Coach for many years, which brings me constantly a lot of value.

Following the completion of a great week spent on the scouting internship with FC Utrecht organised by Football Development Institute, I would like to express my appreciation to FDI for putting together this amazing educational trip. Also, I am extending my appreciation to the entire staff at FC Utrecht for their hospitality and welcoming spirit.

The trip started with a great presentation about the overview of FC Utrecht academy scouting structure delivered by the Head of Youth Academy. This gave an outline as to what was to be covered for the week long period. We talked about the different stages for player development (U11-U18) and I was made to understand how the age groups are grouped into phases. This gave a good overview of what to look for in different phases when scouting for players. During the week, we talked about player profiles. This is a good tool for analysing players, helping to understand a player’s characteristics and how they differ from other players that play in the same position. It was interesting to see how organised the scouting network with the Club worked and how it has aided the Club in carefully selecting players into the academy.

The internship supervisor  spoke about the playing style as it applied to the U17 PF team and it was interesting to see how the same style was also implemented across almost all age groups in the academy. We got to watch one of the recruitment teams and were given the opportunity to give our opinions on players we thought should be considered. At the end of the week, we got to enjoy a series of matches from different age groups in the academy.

From the first presentation by Academy Director, he mentioned that “Everything is Connected”,  and at the end of the week I could see how true the statement is from scouting to coaching and recruitment of players to a Club.

After this Internship, I know that I want to take part in another one organised by the FDI soon.