There are three tables with six players on each, then there is one table for the coaching staff – which seems to get bigger every season! Everybody goes back to his room after lunch and we will leave the hotel at 1pm. For some players this can be a difficult time psychologically. Everybody knows whether he is starting the game or not. We have had the team meeting so by now everybody knows what he has to do. We then have lunch at 11 o’clock – so that’s four hours before kick-off. As I said, if you don’t know on Friday night, you will not know on Saturday morning so you have to decide in your head early, and go for it. That can create uncertainties, because you think about it every day. You never go to bed without thinking about what the next lineup will be. When you dwell on it, you can dwell and dwell and not focus on the game.Īnyway, you always have your team in your head, for the whole week. So I like to decide as early as possible and at least I can then focus on what else is important to compete in the game. Then I make my decision.īut if you don’t know what team to pick on Friday night then most of the time you won’t know on Saturday morning either. I always have a final chat with the medical people to make my mind up and make sure that everybody is alright.
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That’s happened to me when I’ve noticed a player has a little tiredness or tightness in the muscle on the morning of the game so I have a hesitation. Has one player got a bit of a cold maybe? When two players are together in your mind, competing for one position, every single detail can go for one of them – experience, confidence under pressure – everything can make a difference. You try to make it as scientific as much as you can, but it’s intuitive as well because you have to think if the balance of the team is right or if one player was a bit better in the last training session. So those that looked at him in the meeting he said “OK you will play” and he told those that didn’t look at him that they wouldn’t play! He was a very successful manager and he said that sometimes he went into team meetings and didn’t know who to play. Recently a fantastic German manager, Udo Lattek, died. I always have eight or nine players of my team in my head the day before the game, but there’s always a doubt on one or two. Most of the time to be honest, the players know the team during the last training session the day before the game. Sometimes I’ll tell the players on the day of the game, sometimes the night before. So if I have decided my team, I mix it up a bit. I think it’s better if they can just focus on what they have to do. But for the players that are starting the game, I’ve always thought it’s important for them not to waste energy thinking if they will play or not. So all the managers said to me they have a blackout and don’t name the team early.
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Many managers don’t do that nowadays, because they’re scared of the team lineup getting in the media, people telling their agent or friends who then tell the media, or that it comes out via social networks. Usually I announce it in the morning, but when I am sure of my team, I announce it to the players the day before the game. And those 95 per cent said they give the team out as late as possible. And recently I asked all the managers, I did a survey, I asked them ‘when do you give the team out?’ Ninety-five per cent of the managers told me they give the team out on the day of the game. I don’t always give the team out at this stage and it’s quite interesting actually because we have European managers’ meetings in Geneva, and I’ve been going there for a long, long time now so I know everybody there. There’s usually a short motivational talk at this time too. We remind them what we want to do offensively and defensively. That’s the final preparation for the game, and usually that’s where I give the team out. The next morning we meet at 10.15am for the team meeting. We meet up at about 8pm, after dinner, and then it’s down to the hotel where the players will have massages, a little snack and then go to bed. I would say 98 per cent of the time we spend the night before the game at the team hotel.