Julen Lopetegui and Aitor Karanka were among the guest speakers at the fourth UEFA Youth League Coaches Forum, where more than 100 participants gathered to exchange knowledge and ideas.
“The UEFA Youth League is an opportunity, not only for the players, but also for the coaches, to showcase their concepts in a more competitive environment than we are used to. “
These were words of encouragement from former Spain coach Julen Lopetegui at the fourth UEFA Youth League Coaches Forum, where he joined more than 70 coaches and administrators from 41 clubs at UEFA headquarters this week.
Over the course of two jam-packed days, visitors heard from speakers on a variety of topics, adding skill identification, Gen Z and Alpha, and integrating neuroscience into player development.
Subsequently, Lopetegui and Aitor Karanka, who have worked as high-level coaches in Spain, England and Israel, as well as with the Spanish U-16 team and as an assistant at Real Madrid, participated in a round table to close the event. Participants exchanged knowledge and concepts with other coaches from across Europe, while also contributing to their official UEFA coaching license.
While the semi-finals and final of the 2023/24 UEFA Youth League will be played from 19 to 22 April in Nyon, the coaches of the four finalists (Olympiacos, Nantes, FC Porto and Milan) attended.
Tips from Leaders
The testimonials of experienced coaches who have reached the pinnacle of football have been invaluable to Youth League coaches, many of whom are still in the early stages of their careers and some of whom are in their early coaching roles.
When asked about how to help young players reach the top flight, Lopetegui stressed the need for coaches not to just focus on football. “There are players with more skill than others who don’t grow because of bad decisions,” he said, “And there are players with less skill who grow faster because they perceive the game and how to deal with other demanding situations in their careers.
“It’s a whole component of the education that we want to give through the coaches. We have a duty to evolve both technically and emotionally, because the better the coaches are, the better the players become. “
Another topic of discussion is the importance of knowledge in trendy football and how both coaches have incorporated it into their methods. While acknowledging the importance of knowledge, Karanka also suggested caution when it comes to younger players.
“With synthetic intelligence, we have more and more data and we want to be informed about it,” he said. “But as coaches it’s also difficult to give the players a lot more data than we already give them. Sometimes there is so much data that we can restrict the player. That’s all we want to think about when we communicate and train. “
Shaping the future of the UEFA Youth League
The 2023/24 UEFA Youth League will be the last edition in its current form as we move towards a new form that mimics the upcoming adjustments to the UEFA Champions League.
UEFA has defined the changes, which come with an expanded group list that adds clubs from all of UEFA’s national associations and a league level that reflects the new format of the Champions League.
Other Highlights of the Coaching Forum
The coaches of Real Sociedad, Chelsea, Benfica and PSV Eindhoven have shared some of the reasons for their good fortune in creating player progression pathways to promote the skill from youth groups to senior categories. Discussions focused on exploring effective skill progression strategies, the key requirement. fortunate transition situations to senior football and practices for coaches and their clubs.
Coaches were also given a study on themselves, with the UEFA Intelligence Centre breaking down data on the average age and experience of coaches, as well as their players, skills landscape and European club competitions.
Jes Buster Madsen, Director of Research and Development in Copenhagen, gave a speech on integrating neuroscience into football, while Meagan Loyst, founder of Gen Z VC, presented tactics to better understand young players and optimize their development.
Other topics covered included identity and skill control, the transition in skill control in football and a presentation through UEFA Head of Refereeing Roberto Rosetti on the law of the game, exploring and explaining interpretations of offside and handball legislation, as well as describing UEFA’s mission. to create more respect for suitable officials.
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