Saddam Alvaro

Manchester United was in need of a head coach after the Dutch gaffer, Erik Ten Hag, was sacked. The new management, INEOS, has been considering several coaches before finally choosing former Sporting’s Coach, Ruben Amorim. A lot of Manchester United fans were happy after Eric was sacked—losing four games in the first 11 matches and ranked 14 for the first time in Manchester United history. In contrast, Ruben Amorim achieved three league titles since his arrival in Sporting. Of course, it will be good news for Manchester United fans, who feel dissatisfied with Erik Ten Hag’s coaching.  Ruben Amorim's arrival might give Manchester United a fresh approach since he has 3 center back combinations and 2 offensive wingbacks. It is quite new for Manchester United which previously used 4-2-3-1 formation including double pivot combination. However, will Ruben Amorim imply his philosophy? Can the players follow his tactic since there will be a huge change of gameplay? Since the departure of ...

La Masia is the football academy of a club from Catalan, Barcelona. La Masia has produced a lot of talented players, including Lionel Messi, who nowadays is considered the best player in the world. La Masia is genuinely successful in shaping players. Every player who has been joining La Masia will have something different that differs them from the player from other professional football club academies. It is proven that there are a lot of La Masia’s graduates—although it is not in big teams—that always have value which makes them be the first choice of coaches.  La Masia is the producer of prime Barcelona players. Lionel Messi, Andrés Iniesta, Xavi, Sergio Busquets, Carles Puyol, and Pique are the examples. These players were able to achieve sextuples for Barcelona back in 2009. Even their coach at that time, Pep Guardiola, is one of the La Masia products. La Masia is genuinely special in that it can make its player have special characteristics which "spices" them.  In the p...

A 9-year-old kid, who really loves football, was watching football news in the morning before he went to school. Almost every day, the news is mostly about the team using red-white kits, from one of the cities in England, Manchester. The team led by the legendary coach, Sir Alex Ferguson, reached its peak of performance by going on to win 2 incredible Champions League titles, 13 Premier League titles, 5 FA Cups, 4 League Cups and 1 European Cup Winners’ Cup. Those achievements made Sir Alex Ferguson become the greatest Manchester United manager ever. Yet, the team is now adrift in the middle of the sea, hit by waves of victory and defeat. The inconsistency is sourced from complex problems, which the team hasn't found the way to fix. Several managers have taken the challenge of managing the red devil, nevertheless they have been knocked out by the devil itself. David Moyes, who was predicted to be Ferguson's successor, instead became Manchester United's worst coach. Louis va...

Indonesia, with more than 277 million population, is one of the countries that has a lot of people who love football. The expectation is that with more and more people liking football, there will be many potential young talents available. Surprisingly, Indonesia only has a few players who can play in leagues outside Indonesia, either in Asia or Europe. It is very strange considering that Indonesia actually has a lot of talented people, but they cannot develop for several reasons which I will mention below. The Lack of Facilities The first reason is of course the facilities, which will support the development of the players. Some stadiums do not even fulfill the good standards. Even before the stadium, football fields were still rare to be found in a village. In fact, the more often these talents touch the ball, the more familiar they become with the basic techniques of football. One way to make football games more frequent is to increase the number of facilities such as football fields...

Nowadays, football has evolved from the simple tactic to the more complex one. From “just give it to the striker” to “you should do passes and moves.” Modern football demands the player to start the progress of their tactic from goalkeepers, then gradually start passing the ball to the front. It made major changes in football which requires a player that is able to pass and move. It needs players to adapt to a new environment, which usually the duty for the player has been fixed. For example, center backs only protect the backline from the opposing attacker, midfielder only provides passes for the striker, and strikers only have to score goals. However, center backs now should be able to pass as midfielders. Midfielders are demanded to help center back and forwards which provides them passing options. Forwards should be able to go back and help midfielders. Furthermore, players should follow the rigid rules that their coach has given, even though it doesn't fit their particular pla...

Indonesia has made massive progress under the South Korean Coach, Shin Tae Yong. Since his arrival, The Garuda made the biggest climb up of FIFA ranks from 174 to 129. Indonesian football supporters put their trust in him because of what he has done for around 4 years. But, are those impacts made instantly? Of course, no. There is a long process behind it and it started from fixing particular things inside the Indonesian National Team.  Rule number one: Discipline Coach Shin always emphasizes the word “discipline” and those who do not obey will be getting rid of the team. Several players were being kicked out from the team because they were undisciplined, even though they were showing good performance in their club. It doesn't matter how good you are. The Uses Young Player The Korean Manager uses the young player that had played for the Indonesian National Team with previous managers. He chooses several player aged around 20 years to be the project of the team and sticks with them....