April 14 – How many times have you seen elite players emerge from the team bus with headphones clasped to their ears, oblivious to the outside world, or twiddling with the latest software on their mobile phones?
Well now one English Premier League manager has bemoaned the trend, saying it can lead to communication breakdown on the pitch.
Southampton’s Ronald Koeman has revealed he sends his players to weekly bonding sessions to get them to talk to each other. “The whole lifestyle has changed,” Koeman told the Return To Play football medical conference in London.
“One of the problems you see now in football is there is not enough communication on the pitch. That’s all about social media. Everybody goes on it straight away on their phones.”
The 53-year-old Dutchman, who played under the late Johan Cruyff at Barcelona, says it was different in his day. “When I was playing, we played cards on the coach when we went to matches, we talked and we had communication,” he added.
“Now everyone just puts on his headphones and is in his own world. For young players it is all about themselves and less about communication with the rest of the players.
“That is maybe one of the reasons they don’t talk any more on the pitch. Communication on the pitch is so important even if it is just to help your team mates and say ‘time’ or ‘turn’!
“That’s so difficult now. To deal with this we do sessions in training, different exercises every week which are all about focus, communication and concentration.”
Contact the writer of this story at moc.l1714708842labto1714708842ofdlr1714708842owedi1714708842sni@w1714708842ahsra1714708842w.wer1714708842dna1714708842