A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A MODERN MANAGER
80-page dossiers on every opponent. A giant touch-screen telly. And the players allowed to chat on their phones in the dressing room . . .
ON THE touchline of a practice pitch at Middlesbrough’s Rockliffe training ground, Aitor Karanka is demanding more from his players.
‘Come on, come on, come on,’ the Spaniard urges, as Adama Traore’s strike is saved by Victor Valdes. ‘We need to score. When we get chances, we must take them.’
In training, 21-year- old winger Traore receives rebukes and praise in equal measure. ‘Adama, if you lose it there, we’re dead!’ Karanka shouts, as Traore attempts a trick near his penalty area. At the other end, he gets in a good cross. ‘Eso
es! (That’s it!)’ grins Karanka. The smile gives way. The stakes are rising in the Premier League and Karanka knows it. His side are 16th, two points above the drop zone and on an eight- match winless run.
Despite the fourth best defensive record in the league, Boro have scored only 19 league goals and some supporters are frustrated. Today Boro visit Sam Allardyce’s Crystal Palace and Karanka this week invited Sportsmail to shadow his preparations.
‘Before our last league game against Everton, we had a trip to Spain,’ he says. ‘We had a long chat. I asked them, “Why? Why do you have to go behind to score a goal? Why does that need to happen for you to wake up?” I said we need more players in the box.
‘I want us to take the initiative. When the team believe, they are brilliant. Against West Ham, we scored a brilliant equaliser, flowing football. We must start quicker.
‘Palace is big. I saw the game they lost 4-0 to Sunderland. Sam had them in at 7am training on the Sunday . . . Ooof! Then he cancelled a trip to Dubai. This is their first home game since. We expect a reaction but we are ready.’ IN THE leafy Darlington countryside, Karanka pulls into the training ground at 7.05am. The sun has not yet risen and training does not start for three hours but he is ready to work. He passes the dressing rooms. A quote by American motivational speaker Robert H Schuller is emblazoned on the wall: ‘Tough situations don’t last. Tough people do.’
Karanka is usually the first in, along with Avril Chilton, the 69-year- old cleaning supervisor. The two have struck up a bond. ‘I’m going global and viral,’ she giggles, posing for a photograph with the manager. ‘No more cleaning for me! I thought the only viral for me would be at the hospital!’
Karanka laughs. The 43-year-old is enjoying the Premier League. He has every matchday programme from the season. In the canteen, he greets the club chef, Howard Archer, and the manager makes himself a coffee from the machine he chose himself.
Unlike many of his peers, Karanka has not introduced rules about players eating together. Mauricio Pochettino has the same approach at Tottenham. The two took their coaching badges together in Spain.
Karanka does not obsess over diet. In the canteen, tomato ketchup and brown sauce are available, as is white bread.
‘They are grown-ups. If you say, “No, no, no”, you’re treating them like children. Don’t have coffee! Don’t have ketchup! A few bad results and they’d resent it, go home and do it anyway. We had Lee Tomlin here. He lost nine kilos playing under me. I didn’t ban anything.
‘It’s very straightforward. Players want to play. If you want to play, you train properly. To train properly, you have to be in shape. It’s like the dressing room on match day. When I played, it was like church before a game. Focused silence. Now some send text messages, music’s blaring like a disco.
‘People say, “You’re crazy, they have their head elsewhere”. If they take daft pictures and put them on social media before a game, I’m annoyed. They don’t do that.
‘If your daughter’s calling you for five minutes and a player wants to hear, “Good luck, daddy”, why stop that?’
In a dimly lit room illuminated only by the glare of a hi-tech smartboard, Karanka stares into his laptop. It is the managerial equivalent of the White House
I want to win games 5-0. If I had Ronaldo, Messi and Ozil we’d do that!
situation room, where problems are studied and solutions are uncovered. We are joined by Boro’s head analyst, Juanjo Vila.
Vila has developed software called 3D Futbol Tactico Coach, previously used by Pep Guardiola at Bayern Munich.
Before every game, Karanka receives an 80-page dossier from Vila and his three understudies. The same depth of work went into Oxford at home in the FA Cup as it will for Palace.
Vila’s team watch up to seven of their opponent’s previous games, from three different camera angles.
After Karanka reviews the dossier, it is condensed into a 14-minute video presentation for the team. On Thursday and Friday, each player spends 12 minutes with the analysis team to prepare for his direct opponent.
Alvaro Negredo, for example, will watch a package on the opposition goalkeeper, knowing how to address one- on- one situations. Goalkeeper Victor Valdes will receive the likely penalty-taker’s last five years’ worth of spot-kicks. The graphics are even broken down into whether the penalty was taken when a team are winning, drawing or losing.
Some players need guidance during games.
‘Adama and I have individual video sessions in my office,’ Karanka says. ‘I still only let him play on the wing near my dug-out extra so I can guide him.him The fans love him. The problem is he has not scored a goal or made an assist!
‘Cristhian Stuani, who is less popular with fans, comes in and grabs a goal. Sometimes, we attack and Adama is nowhere near the box. I say, “Adama, if you’re 30 yards away, you might as well be in the stand with a hot dog and a beer”. He is getting there.’
There are times the preparation works well. ‘Look here,’ he says, going all Jamie Carragher and picking up his smartpen. ‘This is how we got a draw against Arsenal. So what happens when we are in shape and Arsenal lose the ball?’ He draws blue circles over Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal high up the pitch.
‘We trained all week to prepare a way to defend that would allow Traore to neglect his defensive duties and stay high. His pace caused Arsenal nightmares in the spaces the full backs vacate.’
Sometimes it is less successful. Against Tottenham at home, Karanka spent the week focusing on how to prevent Spurs playing out from the back. The players watched the videos, recreated it in training (we know because Karanka films every session and shows us the very session where he talked his players through it). Seven minutes into the game, Boro concede from the very situation they worked all week to combat.
‘At half-time I say, “Are you going to explain this to me?”. As a manager, you’ve done all you can. It’s like, “Hello?” You can’t account for that.’
Video helps man-management. ‘If a player knocks on my door, and it’s always open, and asks why he is not starting, I have a thousand videos to show why. It shocks the players. They never imagine that you have so much information.’ ON THE eve of this six-pointer, Karanka is remarkably calm. It should not be mistaken for complacency. Karanka, remember, won three Champions League winners’ medals with Real Madrid, and is not accustomed to failure.
‘When we lost to Watford at home, I went to the manager’s room in the stadium by myself. I felt sick. But you can’t show that in front of the players as a leader. If you do, you are screwed. The next morning, I came in early, wo worked out how to get Traore into ou our team for the Arsenal game a and we got a great result.’
Karanka remains confident of survival. ‘Managers come up to me, blow their cheeks out and s say, “What a team”. Ronald Koem man was glowing. After a late defeat at Manchester United, Jose’s No 2 Rui Faria was going mad with me “Pesados, pesados! (I (Irritants!)”, because we’d been so hard to break down. Tony Pulis to told me not to worry about criticis cism. He knows how to stay up, rem remember. “Don’t worry, you are ma making chances, defending well, the points will come”.
‘I understand the frustration be because I would also like to win eve every game 5-0. If I was coaching Cri Cristiano Ronaldo, Lionel Messi, Me Mesut Ozil and Dele Alli, maybe we’d do that. We work to the strengths of the squad we have and I love these players. We spent only £19million last summer and made a profit in January.
‘We are improving. My message to the fans is easy: believe in this team.’