Corinthians U-17 coach explains methodology based on functional play and defends freedom for athletes

- By Mirella Ramos / Central do Timão Editorial

Coach Guilherme Nascimento, commander of the Corinthians Under-17 team, detailed the methodology used in the development of the club's young athletes. In an interview with the Ponto Futuro channel, published last Sunday (28), the coach explained how he applies the concepts of the so-called functional game, highlighting that his priority is to encourage the players' decision-making without imposing rigid behaviors on the field.

According to Guilherme, many collective movements that are usually associated with specific training emerge spontaneously when the team understands general principles related to bringing players together and occupying spaces.

Photo: Carlos Freitas
When explaining this concept, the coach stated that he began to realize, throughout his own experience, that these dynamics appear naturally when the work is conducted appropriately.

"It was something I said: okay, we train this intentionally, we put it explicitly, or will this emerge from the very approaches that we make? I realized with my practice that a lot of these dynamics happen through a macro dynamic, which is the dynamics of the approach and generating movement in the core of the ball. And then, when you take a photo of the play, you see a take of the image, you see the diagonal guys doing the ladder thing and everything."

Then, the coach commented on the main challenge for those who work with this game model. For him, there is a risk of transforming the functional game into a system as rigid as other tactical models, taking away the athletes' autonomy.

"We want to get closer, but if we do it in an imposing way, aren't we doing the same thing as other coaches? Which is overriding the player, over subjectivity, to do something ideal? That's the dilemma for me, it's the central point in fact: how to apply, how not to be idealistic and imposing, to have a football model ready like the guys."

To avoid this problem, Guilherme explained that he prefers to allow players to find collective solutions before carrying out more direct interventions. According to him, development begins with interactions between a few athletes before reaching collective work.

"Today it's very clear to me: it's about letting it happen. We, at first, let the collective expose themselves and let them bring some things that are inherent in the way they interact. My idea is always, in the first moment of the work, to deliver some macro concept to the guys, especially about individual development and development of interactions. Me and you against an opponent, two to one, three to two, two to two. If you interact closely, you create an advantage from these interactions. And it's obvious that we're giving some clues."

Still regarding this process, the coach stated that the constant creation of numerical superiority serves as a basis for improving the players' decision-making during matches.

"When you approach, it generates several momentary twos for one. The defender has the ball, the attacker starts to press, the midfielder comes and drops, you play a two for one. So, at the beginning of the work, we explore this training a lot in this way, so that the micro interactions are fine-tuned. I have the ball, the guy comes and marks me, what is the instant decision? I'm going to dribble, I'm going to confront, I'm going to turn this duel from two to one or I'm going to pass to Are you free? We're fine-tuning these interactions."

After the group goes through this initial process, Guilherme explained that the collective work starts to be guided by just three general principles, leaving the rest to be developed naturally by the athletes themselves.

"From the moment the guys expose themselves, they will self-organize and will notice in them the most relevant attractors, things that they like to do. And then we, as coaches, understand what makes sense and will give criteria. In the collective part, I pass three macro principles to the guys: let's be close, let's move a lot, get out of positions and let's look for progression. Every moment we have the opportunity to move forward, we will move forward. Just these three. This will generate a huge number of micro-concepts."

The Corinthian commander also argued that game patterns should not be defined in advance. In his view, they arise as a consequence of collective development and allow greater capacity for adaptation during matches.

"Forget pattern. We don't leave the coaching staff room with a standard to achieve. Now, naturally, due to normal system functioning, the team reaches a standard. But what is the benefit of this? Because, if the opponent constrains this standard, the guys change it. And why do they change? Because it didn't come rigid. There are several videos of the Argentine team against Austria, a recent World Cup game, which is a lot like that. She came to pressure and the guys readjusted themselves all the time, breaking the pressure, because there was no standard."

When explaining his role as a coach, Guilherme used the metaphor of a river to illustrate that the work of the coaching staff consists of guiding the players, but without determining exactly the path that each play should follow.

"The river will reach the sea. Now, whether it will go under a fallen log or over it, around the rock, I don't know. We're just going to give you guidance, not to turn around, not to go inside. Now, if the boys are going to go under the log, over the log, go around the rock, we're going to surround it here, because soon there will be some things that don't make sense. It's not a joke. It's good when they have the personality of playing naked, but it's not. There's responsibility, so it's obvious that we've been controlling it."

Finally, the coach explained that the tactical structure used in his teams is defined according to the characteristics of the available athletes and cited examples from previous work to illustrate this choice.

"My point is the player's characteristics. For example, my team at Athletico-PR, I started with a 4-2-4. It was a stronger team, galloping forward with great aggression. At Corinthians now, we already start with a 4-2-3-1. The structure, for me, is part of the player's characteristic", he concluded.

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Source: Timao Central