I like this podcast more with every new episode.. Here's a really good on how to develop a style for your team.. http://www.coachingsoccerweekly.com/085-developing-your-style-of-play/ Nothing groundbreaking but it's always good to revisit, revise and refocus during the winter break.
It was a well done podcast in response to a very confused question. From a coaching philosophy standpoint, I don't like the phrase "developing your style of play." My favorite style of play is the Dutch style, but it doesn't belong to me and I didn't create it. I borrowed it from the Dutch. About 90% of the matches I coached we used different variations of a 433 system. The only significant difference that I used from the podcast is that I started teaching the tactical moments of the game with transition to attack instead of defense. In the 1990s I taught a modified zone (specifically zonal marking with U-Littles) instead of a zone defense, but I don't think that is significant. Modified zones were widely used back then, but recently zone defenses have become so dominant that some people don't know that there are any alternatives. (One of my pet peeves is players and coaches yelling "Mark up" to players in a zone defense.) So today I would teach both zone defense and man marking.
My style that I loved was a mix of the Italian way with a man defense. With what I considered the German way and the argentine way. It take years playing together to do that. Plus you had to pay your players to get a player pool who could do it. Normally the style is always different because it had to fit the players you have.
I get it Nick. I always liked mixing the Dutch 433 with Hispanic forwards, German-like backs, and never-quit skilled midfielders. For my adult rec team, the best back I ever had was a German-Swiss immigrant, the best midfielders were white middle class former Div I college players (1 was an All American), the best forwards were an Iranian-American, an English soldier, and a Hispanic-American, the best players over-all were the English soldier (who was by far the quickest player I ever played with) and the Hispanic-American (who could play anywhere, any style, and with anyone). There was also a Black former college player, retired soldier, who might have been my best field player if he hadn't been over 50 playing with two artificial knees. He is the only midfielder of any age, that I know of, playing with artificial knees. (He played two sports in college and was still a US lacrosse international keeper in the over 50 category.) His sons guested with us a couple of times, which gives me a pretty good idea of what he was like with good knees. This is why I get upset with people looking down on recreational soccer. Premier athletes play rec soccer too. The rest of my players may not have had great ability, but they were all good people.
Most of my teams youth and adult were made up of different nationalities a lot of them immigrants not born here. The only problems we had was getting the adult team to practice three times a week because they had to work real jobs. So we got them jobs with our club supporters who understood the value of letting them leave early so they could attend practice. Even when I coached ethnic clubs it was not just the nationality of the ethnic club I was coaching. Why, because only take one nationality it is very hard to win not enough good players from one nationality to win. So I got the best players from everywhere so we did have the best players on it not just Italians or Russians or muslems from Kuwait and other places.
There was a pretty good team called black pool under 19 playing in our best division. They were an all black team from central Brooklyn. Except they had a bad keeper. Their coach and I talked after the game I mentioned their keeper. He said he is the best he could get. I told him why don't you get a keeper outside where you live. He told me a lie that white keepers are afraid to go where they train. Keepers are different then any other soccer player they will go anywhere to start. There was an adult club in the third division made up of gay men. They felt the need to tell people they were all gay. They did not really want to win. If they did they would take the best players they could find not just gays. If I could find a gay player that I really New could actually play I would take him in a heart beat.