The Tottenham Hotspur players will soon know exactly what to expect from training sessions under new head coach Ange Postecoglou.
The 57-year-old was brought in from Celtic and handed a four-year deal as Spurs look for the Australian to rebuild their club as he has done to many other sides over his long career across the world. Postecoglou demands that his teams play lightning fast, relentless attacking football and it has brought silverware aplenty across his career, with him finishing his time at Celtic with the domestic treble on top of the league and cup win from his first season in Scotland.
It is not just the matchdays that will prove to be relentless for the Tottenham players and in an interview filmed this month on YouTube for Open Goal, the then Celtic manager gave a detailed insight into his training sessions, the roles of his coaches and also the video analysis involved.
Postecoglou's view on training is very clear and he does not understand why anyone would simply go through the motions.
"Every day is an excuse to get better. Why do you train? You don't train just to say 'I've trained for a couple of hours' and that's it. You train to try to get better. In any other sport that's how it happens and football is no different as far as I'm concerned," he said.
"If somebody wins the Masters in golf then the next day they're out there on the putting green practising their putting. Why are you practising your putting when you're the best golfer in the world? It's because that's what they have to do because they know fine margins are what make you better.
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"Tennis players out there practising their serve or backhand. Footballers are no different. You come in every day and that period when you're out in the field or in the gym, or that period when you're sitting down with your coach going through your video, is an opportunity to improve.
"You're not going to improve a lot [in a single day] but just a little bit. So if you do that every day then that becomes part of who you are. Just walking in, doing your training, getting your bag and going home? No, every day is an opportunity to improve, for me, the players and everyone. So how do I continue to improve a team? By continuously focusing on that."
Postecoglou also explained how he prefers his training sessions to run without interruptions so his coaching and teaching is done beforehand through video work.
"Most of it [is done on video] because I don't like....well when we train we train and we train hard. We only train for 60 to 70 minutes and I don't want to do my coaching out there. I want my players to already have the pictures in their heads, so when they're out there in training they train," he said.
"So if we're doing an exercise and it's about possession and build-up, counter-pressing and pressing, they've already got that information and then they're executing it out there. Then if it doesn't work then we can go back and look at it and then we do it better the next day.
"So rather than me or any of the other coaches out there stopping it and saying 'look when the ball is here, you need to be there', well if you look at the way we play, we just want to be relentless. We don't stop. So I've got to condition the players to train that way.
"If you keep stopping it then invariably they switch off. Even when we're having a drinks break, the drinks station is between two drills. Finish your drill, have a drink and then go to your next drill. They're not going to the side, having a bit of a chat and then getting back into it.
"If you're training, you're training. So for 60 to 70 minutes I've got them training, their minds focused in on our football and if you think about a game of football, how long does it last? Between 50 and 60 minutes [with the ball in play] so 25 to 30 minutes each half they've got to be on it and we train that here."
He added: "We'll take video clips of training and if we're working on something specific, sometimes the coaches will use that individually with players. Each coach has got responsibility for three or four players and he might show it to one of them.
"If it's something we've worked on then JK (John Kennedy) will put it in the boys' WhatsApp group and say 'boys have a look at this, this is from today's training'. It'll all be drawn up so they know what they're looking at. If it's something that's really specific that I need to tell the whole group then we'll do it in a team meeting.
"If the coaches are in any doubt [about what to do with the videos] they will run it by me. Most of my work with [the coaches] is done at the start and, from what people tell me and the feedback I get, I'm pretty clear on what I want so there's clarity in the whole building. Most of the time they'll know if it's something I'm looking for, whether it's training or the game analysis."
Postecoglou was asked whether he plans training sessions from week to week or month to month, to which he responded: "All of it, so you've got your month to month where you try to put a programme together. We'll see what we've got ahead because you know the fixtures probably a month in advance. From there you go into a weekly thing and you say 'well have we got three games or have we got two games'.
"What's the game speed like, do we need an easier week? You'll do the weekly planner and you say 'this week we probably need to taper off a little bit' or 'we need to put the work into them'. Then you also do it on a daily basis. [Assistant manager] John Kennedy is in charge of the detail of that and we'll sit down on a monthly basis and then on a weekly basis.
"On a daily basis he'll run it past me the day before and say what he's got planned. Then he'll run it past the sports science staff, the medical team, the other coaches, the goalkeeping coach Stevie Woods and say 'this is what we're trying to get out of tomorrow, does it tick all the boxes?'. If yes then show it to me and away we go."
So what does a typical working day look like for Postecoglou? He's a man who needs his space in the early hours.
"I get in early. I'll get up at 6am, my body clock gets me up at that time so I'll potter around the house for a little bit until the kids get up. Then I'm usually in the training ground at 7.30am or 8am every day," he said.
"I like my quiet time. That's when I get to think. Once people get in the building then my office invariably gets busy so I get in early just to relax and have a cup of coffee with the quiet to do my thinking for the day. Then I usually stick around until 4.30pm/5pm depending on what we're doing in the evening before I get myself home."
What do you think of the Postecoglou appointment? Have your say below!
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