Deep thinker Carlos Carvalhal aiming to upset Arsenal

[Sumudica by Night]

Deep thinker Carlos Carvalhal aiming to upset Arsenal in the League Cup with Sheffield Wednesday

Fresh from upsetting Newcastle in the Cup, Carvalhal is now targeting another giant-killing against Arsenal that will have the Owls on their way back

 

 

On the train up to Sheffield, I flick through a book called Soccer – Developing a Know‑How. A slightly ungainly translation from the original Portuguese, it is a coaching manual and manifesto written last year by Carlos Carvalhal, now the manager of Sheffield Wednesday.

 

The book contains passages like this: “Tactical Periodisation is a practice concept that has a Conceptual Matrix – the play, the collective intent, the Tactical, supported by the Game’s MacroPrinciples; it’s operationalised based on another matrix, the Methodological that is supported by its own Methodological Principles, respecting a Standard Morphocycle in building a Specific style of playing.”

Sheffield Wednesday have had some fine managers in their history, but it is hard to imagine, say, Paul Jewell coming up with that. And so it goes for 186 pages, covering subjects as diverse as Rene Descartes, the strengths and weaknesses of the 2010-11 Galatasaray side and the “Principle of Horizontal Alternation Specificity”, whatever that is.

 

This, in short, seems like a man worth getting to know.

 

 

However elaborate Carvalhal’s stratagems, they seem to be working. Few in this country knew much about the 49-year-old former Sporting Lisbon and Besiktas manager when he was appointed during the summer. A record of 16 jobs in 15 years hardly inspired confidence. Yet after a shaky start, a run of eight games unbeaten has placed Wednesday firmly in the promotion conversation. Last month’s shock win at Newcastle United put them in the last 16 of the Capital One Cup.

 

There they meet Arsenal, in the biggest cup tie Hillsborough has seen for 15 years. These are the sort of nights Carvalhal wants to bring back on a regular basis, as he sets about restoring Wednesday – “a sleeping giant”, as he puts it – to its former glories.

 

Alas, when I visit Carvalhal, he is still trying to restore his desktop computer to its former glories. “I am very, very busy,” he says. “Not just because we have a game in a short time, but also the internet is not working.”

 

 

He consoles himself with a coffee from the espresso machine the club have installed in his office. “I’m Portuguese,” he says. “After lunch, I need an espresso.”

First things first, then: what on earth is “tactical periodisation”?

 

A raised eyebrow. Carvalhal thinks for a while, perhaps a little taken aback at meeting one of his readers. “You can say that it’s a methodology,” he eventually replies in fluent English.

 

“If I can explain in small words. All the time, we used to say that physical training is very important. But physical training comes together with organisation. It’s called tactical periodisation because you push the physical and the psychological part together, but with organisation. So you run, but you run all the time with the ball. Always with the ball.”

 

If there is such a thing as Portuguese school of football coaching, this sums it up. Jose Mourinho espouses a similar philosophy, and the pair actually did their Pro Licence coaching badges together. Carvalhal credits Mourinho with ushering in the new generation of Portuguese coaches around the world: Andre Villas-Boas at Zenit St Petersburg, Paulo Sousa at Fiorentina, Leonardo Jardim at Monaco. “We say Mourinho is the No1, who opened the doors to all the Portuguese coaches in the world,” he says. The pair remain friends and speak often.

 

Carvalhal’s own philosophy has evolved over the course of his two decades in management, working in Portugal, Greece, Turkey and the United Arab Emirates. But do English footballers – Championship-level footballers – really have the capacity to grasp his highly intellectual tactical concepts? “Yeah,” he replies. “Because ideas are very simple. The theory can be complicated. But the practice, very simple. Just play football. If you are a writer, you must write. It’s the best way to practise. If I’m a pianist, I don’t need to run in the forest for one hour or two hours to be a good pianist. I must play piano. So this is what we are doing all the time. Play football. Simple ideas.”

 

He continues: “The first thing you must see when you go to a [new] team is the culture of the club. The way that the team played during its best years. The size of the pitch. What do the fans like? More direct football? Football from wide? More control with the ball? So like architects do a house, you put in your mind a picture first. We must choose the players, and after you choose the players, you choose one way to play.”

 

So far this season, that way has been to attack. Slowly, Carvalhal’s cheerful demeanour and attractive football have won over the Wednesday dressing room and the Wednesday crowd. They sing a song about him at Hillsborough; it may well be the most tactically aware football song since Pass and Move (It’s The Liverpool Groove) from the mid-Nineties. It goes as follows:

 

Carlos had a dream

To build a football team

We had no players so we had

To sign them on loan

We play from the back

With Joao in attack

We’re Sheffield Wednesday,

We’re on our way back.

 

 

“On our way back”. It is the idea that consumes Wednesday fans. A return to the all-too-brief glory years of the early Nineties, when the likes of Chris Waddle, David Hirst and John Sheridan inspired Wednesday to third in the league, a League Cup win, two Cup finals, European football. “The Italian period,” Carvalhal purrs. “That was fantastic.”

 

Relegation in 2000, however, brought the reverie to an abrupt halt. They have not been near the Premier League since.

 

Which is why, Carvalhal believes, nights like this are so important. “The reality is that in the last 15 years, the club is a little out of the front pages,” he says. “When we won at St James’s Park, of course this is news.

“The game against Arsenal will be the same. The name of Sheffield Wednesday will run all around the world. So it’s good to the self‑confidence: not of the team, not of the coaches, but of the club.

 

Carvalhal has history when it comes to unlikely cup runs. In 2002 he took the tiny third‑division club Leixoes to the final of the Portuguese Cup, and thereafter into Europe. “We lost 1-0 to Sporting in the final,” he remembers. “The referee was a catastrophe. You can check the highlights very easily on the internet. The goal was offside, and we put two balls on the post. It was the first time the team that doesn’t win the cup received more applause than the team that wins.”

 

And though Carvalhal has rarely been in the same job for long, rarely in his managerial career has he left a club in worse shape than he found it. Good preparation, then, for the vicissitudes of the Championship, where the average lifespan of a manager is just 10 months. Which, for any manager with one eye on the long-term project, poses a certain dilemma. How do you carve out a long-term strategy in such a ruthlessly short‑term environment?

 

The answer, once more, is philosophical. “To me, I don’t have any problems,” Carvalhal says. “I don’t have economic problems. I have an independent life. I have big self-confidence. If someone says to me, ‘we don’t want you here’, it’s not my problem, it’s your problem. Maybe it sounds a little arrogant, but it’s the reality. It’s why I don’t care about pressure. I have my process, I have my way.

 

 

“Nobody gave me nothing in my life. My father sold ink. My mother made clothes. I started earning money at 15 years old. I built things myself. I am not the coach who was a very good footballer and they give me a big team to start. No, I started in the third division, then the second division, then small teams in the first division, medium teams, and then I go to a big team in Portugal, and after I moved to Besiktas.

 

“When you live this kind of environment, you understand that you must follow your ideas. I don’t care too much about the environment. Positive or negative. Of course I can feel more happy in a positive environment than a negative environment. But the way that I will play the game? It doesn’t disturb, absolutely nothing.”

 

Is it possible to detect, in Carvalhal’s steely, self-assured charm, the traits of another prominent Portuguese manager? Perhaps now is not quite the right time for all that. But a spirited display against Arsenal on live television will surely introduce an entirely new audience to Carvalhal and his methods. He may even need to write a new book: if, that is, he can get his computer working again.

 

 

 

Portuguese principals

 

Paulo Sousa (Fiorentina)

Won the title in each of his last two seasons, with Maccabi Tel Aviv and Basel. Currently two points off the Serie A lead.

 

Andre Villas-Boas (Zenit St Petersburg)

Has restored his reputation in Russia, winning the title and currently sailing through this season's Champions League group. Will be highly sought-after next summer.

 

Leonardo Jardim (Monaco)

Has done an impressive job in difficult circumstances, finishing third last season and masterminding a famous Champions League win over Arsenal.

 

Nuno Espirito Santo (Valencia)

Has transformed the squad and fortunes of Valencia, taking them back into the Champions League and appointing a young English coach called Phil Neville.

 

Jose Mourinho (Chelsea)

Going off the rails a bit at the moment, but still won more English league titles than all living Englishmen put together.

 

The Telegraph

[johan]

Underrated.

[Vimaranes1922]

Underrated.

 

Em Portugal?

[Jone Sampaoli]

Gostava muito do futebol que metia as suas equipas a jogar, não sei como está agora por lá mas parece que está igual do que li e a malta do Sheffield gosta do seu estilo.

Quando esteve cá no Sporting tivemos resultados mistos até porque entrou a meio, mas tínhamos boas ideias e jogávamos razoavelmente bem. Ainda deu para secar o FC Porto em casa por 3-0, por exemplo, numa grande exibição nossa (mesmo que tenha sido frente a um FC Porto na mó de baixo).

[Vaart10]

Underrated.

 

Porquê?

[Thor Odinsson]

Parece-me uma boa descrição. Tenho ideia que as suas equipas praticam sempre bom futebol.

 

Obrigado JP :mrgreen:

Editado 27 Outubro 2015 por Túrin_Turambar

[Joao Pereira]

descrição

[johan]

Acho que a maioria das pessoas desconhece por completo o percurso dele depois de ter saído de Portugal.

 

Fez excelentes trabalhos por onde passou e tentou sempre implementar um futebol positivo independentemente das adversidades dentro e fora de campo. Um exemplo disso foi o trabalho que realizou na Turquia ao serviço do Besiktas, em condições miseráveis conseguiu formar uma equipa com um grupo de homens completamente arrasados e desmotivados. E não só, na altura, a equipa técnica foi escolhida pelo presidente e vivia-se um clima de deslealdade e desconfiança porque o adjunto queria fazer-lhe a cama e saltar para principal.

 

Podia abordar os trabalhos dele no Leixões, Vitória, Braga e até no Sporting ou falar da competência dele como coordenador de formação. No Al-Ahli conseguiu efectivar um modelo de jogo para todos os escalões de formação juntamente com o Bruno Lage.

 

Tem todas as características de um bom treinador: relaciona a teoria com a prática, é inovador e muito competente nas relações humanas.

 

Fico triste por estar no segundo escalão inglês, apesar de toda a competitividade e blá blá. Merecia bem melhor.

Editado 27 Outubro 2015 por Trenza

[Thor Odinsson]

Porque não um futuro vermelho e branco?

[Ion Timofte]

Porque não um futuro vermelho e branco?

Só gosta de coisas fáceis!

 

#sefossefácilnãoeraparanós

[Red Prince]

Percebes quão mau o RV é quão na m*rda estás quando se equaciona o Carvalhal para o substituir na Luz.

[Danskin]

:prayer:

[andriy pereplyotkin]

É overrated por ser underrated.

 

Ainda assim gostava muito que um dia viesse treinar a Briosa. E consta que ele teria gosto em o fazer. No entanto acho que não é treinador para um grande.

[Thor Odinsson]

O Carvalhal é mau mas por onde tem passado tem feito sempre bons trabalhos. Como explicas isso?

Editado 27 Outubro 2015 por Túrin_Turambar

[Red Prince]

O que são bons trabalhos? A primeira vez que ouvi falar dele foi quando o Leixões da 2a B foi à final da Taça com o Sporting e a não ser que tenha ganho algum troféu menor lá por fora, nunca ganhou nada como treinador principal, mal se aguentando onde quer que seja. O que são bons trabalhos?

[Phil]

ele não disse que ele era mau. Mas quando alguém se diz underrated mas toda a gente diz que o é diz-se isso. Um exemplo é por exemplo o James Milner, e já agora quanto ao Carvalhal underrated # unappreciated

[Ion Timofte]

É de mim ou nas imagens os quadros dele parecem estar com um 4-1-2-1-2 à la JJ?

[Thor Odinsson]

Besiktas? Setubal?

[kareca]

É de mim ou nas imagens os quadros dele parecem estar com um 4-1-2-1-2 à la JJ?

 

Ou um losango à Fernando Santos?

[Ion Timofte]

Ou um losango à Fernando Santos?

Não pode ser.

O DE está no local certo logo não é o Eliseu

[leugim]

O que são bons trabalhos? A primeira vez que ouvi falar dele foi quando o Leixões da 2a B foi à final da Taça com o Sporting e a não ser que tenha ganho algum troféu menor lá por fora, nunca ganhou nada como treinador principal, mal se aguentando onde quer que seja. O que são bons trabalhos?

Ganhou a primeira edição da Taça da Liga, em 2007-08, com o Setúbal.

[Cabeça de giz]

epá... por muito que tenha simpatia pelo Carvalhal (e por muito que me agradasse a ideia de ter o RV no Benfica até ao fim do ano), se é para mudar para igual ou um pouco melhor deixem-se estar, ou então para isso vão buscar o Toni, vai dar ao mesmo e já vem com o "desconto" incluído.

[Lip McBoatface]

O Carvalhal já há um tempo que recuperou da reputação após Sporting e saiu do lote dos Ulisses da vida, chega dessa conversa de underrated.

[johan]

epá... por muito que tenha simpatia pelo Carvalhal (e por muito que me agradasse a ideia de ter o RV no Benfica até ao fim do ano), se é para mudar para igual ou um pouco melhor deixem-se estar, ou então para isso vão buscar o Toni, vai dar ao mesmo e já vem com o "desconto" incluído.

 

:funny:

[Stout]

Desde o Peseiro até ao Judas acho que o Sporting só jogou bom futebol no meio campo adversário com ele. Grande jogo que fizeram contra o Everton...