One of the most important things for a coach is to analyze film. There is probably no better way to improve your team than from breaking down film. But how many coaches are spending the time to analyze film? And if they are, how many coaches are doing it the correct way? Is there even a correct way to break down your game film? Or to break down the game film of your opponents? To answer that question, here are the six most important parts to analyzing film. 

1. Watch Every Game:

The first thing that is required from every great coach is to put the time in to analyze every game your team plays in. It doesn’t matter if it is a Champions League final or a friendly scrimmage. Every great coach from Pep Guardiola to Bill Belichick has realized the importance of watching film. This is the rule of thumb, and the bare minimum of effort that you can give. There is really no other way to say it, but every coach needs to watch every single minute of every game. And when they are watching every game, they need to be focused for small details. It is too easy to become distracted while watching film, or just watch the game from an entertainment standpoint. You have to be actively engaged. Just like Pep Guardiola who said “I sit down with a pen and paper and watch two or three videos. I take lots of notes”. 

Another example is the outspoken Leeds United manager Marcelo Bielsa who famously said “The analysis of each game takes 4 hours of work”. That is what each coach should be spending per game. 

Now that you are going to make a time commitment to study film, you need to buy a good notebook that you can consistently use throughout your season. I recommend Amazon’s basic notebook which you can get for under ten dollars. 

2. Analyze Your Opponent

When you sit down to analyze your opponent you need to have a game plan. It will be no good to just sit there and watch the game. And even if you have a notebook and you are taking notes, do you have a system in place? Because in order to be a great, you need a system in place to break down your opponent. The best system I have seen before is from Marcelo Bielsa who said “You want to know the starting XI, the tactical system they will use and the strategic decisions on set pieces” When you are watching your opponent you need to look for those three things. So let’s walk through what you need to do for each one. 

Starting XI- The easiest way to find their formation is watch how they are lined up to start each game. That way right off the bat you can outline the formation they play, who is starting in what position. And from there you can start to build an idea of their tactical ideas, strengths and weaknesses, and set pieces.

Tactical System- What are the ways they play? Do they run a 4-3-3 that is a high pressing Klopp gegenpressing system, or is it more of a low block 4-3-3 where the line of confrontation is at midfield. These are all things that you need to start to note in your journal. 

Set Pieces- The coach should also be journaling how the opposition run their set pieces. You need to understand what they run, how they run it, and who their best players are in the air. As teams become more tactically advanced the role of set pieces is increasing. That is why it is so important to prevent set piece goals. This will also give you a chance to plot your set piece defending strategy. Will you use man marking, zonal, or a combination of both. This easily could change per game depending on what the opponents are running. 

Strengths- Coaches also need to note who their best players are, and what their attacking principles are. David Halberstam had a good theory on Bill Belichick “Belichick’s general philosophy was simple: Find out what the other guys do best- which is what they always want to do, especially under pressure in a big game- take it away from them, and make them do things they are not comfortable with”. It is a good theory, teams are not comfortable changing on the fly. So coaches are wise to make them get out of their comfort zone, and try new ideas during the run of play.

Weaknesses- The next thing that coaches need to have an eye for is what weaknesses teams have. Are there any spots that they appear to be below average? Are there any players who are technically weak, or slow? Players that you know your team can take advantage of during a game. To quote  Du Mu “when opponents have vulnerable formations, then it is time to go attack them”. It is your job as a coach to spot a weakness and press on it until it becomes an advantage for your team.

3. Break Down the Film Into Short Clips

We now live in the social media age where players have shorter attention spans than ever before. These are the days of Instagram, YouTube, TicToc, and a million other things that take the attention away from soccer. If you have ever tried to show a team an entire half of game film it doesn’t work. They are already asleep by the time the 10th minute hits and you are trying to show them a key breakdown on a set piece. It is now the responsibility of the coach to make sure that the film is broken down into a session that the players can handle. According to Marcelo Biesla “the goal of this analysis is to allow our players to have an idea of the opponent in 15 minutes”. Anything over that will prevent the team from fully understanding the goals for the next game. In the end the coach needs to follow the KISS method. Keep it simple, stupid!

4. Change Your Tactics to Your Opponent

 In The Art of War they have some of the best strategy maxims you can find. One of my favorites is from Sun Tzu who said “those skilled in military operations are able to change their formations in such a way as to ensure victory based on the actions of opponents”  You need to be adaptable as a coach. You need to be willing to change your formations of your team in order to present a favorable matchup against the team that you are playing. Playing with the same formation against all teams will make you predictable and easier to beat. You need to be like Pep Guardiola who said “all I do is look at footage of our opponents and then work out how to demolish them”

5. Have Rules in Film Study

The next two suggestions are both tied into each other. Once you have figured out the information that you want to present you need to be able to get this information across to the players. So it might be wise to have a few rules with your team about how a film session will run. Bill Belichick has a good example for both of these topics. “You’ve got three choices. Talk about yourself, either say something constructive or be supportive. Otherwise, shut the fuck up. Okay? Shut the fuck up. We don’t need anything other than one of those three options. Either you get better, you support someone else trying to get better, or you have a constructive suggestion that will help this football team. If it will help, we’d all love to hear it. Otherwise shut the fuck up, all right? And let’s look in a positive direction”. Now this might be harsh to say with your team, but it gets the idea across. The film session has a purpose and all of the players are going to be on the same page with that purpose. I know with my teams I have three things that the players are allowed to say.

• Yes, sir
• I made a mistake and next time I will do better…
• It won’t happen again…

Other than those three things I don’t need the guys saying anything. As Bill Belichick said above “say something constructive or shut the fuck up”.

6. Control The Film Room

There is a famous story from when Bill Belichick was an assistant coach on the Giants coaching staff and he was in one of his first meetings a coach. There was a special teams player who would just not stop talking during the beginning of the meeting. And you knew this was a vetern player testing a young coach. So Bill looked over at the veteran player and said “hey Jeter, one of the reasons you fucking guys were 5-11 last year was because your special teams stunk, and so if you want to laugh about it, and you think it’s a joke, you can get the hell out of here, so shut the hell up or get the hell out of the room, right now!” As a coach you need to be prepared for when one of your players is distracted, talking when you are talking, or just not on task. You want all of your players to be bought into the film study and taking notes. Just be prepared for when that is not happening.