Levein learns to loosen the reins
EVERY footballer drawn to management is harbouring a barely concealed control freak deep in their soul. It’s what drives them to become the guy making all the decisions.
To hear Craig Levein talk about delegation and trusting his coaching staff, then, comes as something as a shock.
Not merely because the former Scotland boss was regularly accused of being too hands-on, too involved in first-team affairs, when he was only doing the director of football job at Hearts.
But because, by his own admission, his understanding of the head coaching job — added to his portfolio in the wake of Ian Cathro’s departure — has evolved so dramatically over the years.
Yes, he admits, his first spell as Hearts manager involved a lot of trying to do absolutely everything.
Being back at the helm, he explains, has allowed him to go a different way. To let a coaching staff of Austin MacPhee, Liam Fox, Jon Daly and Tom Taylor get on with their work.
‘I suppose everybody changes and evolves as they get older,’ said Levein, laughing as he added: ‘Maybe not in the right direction at times!
‘I’m different now to how I was at the start of my coaching career here.
‘I’ve got more trust in my staff, I don’t need to do absolutely everything.
‘That has been quite a big benefit, to let Jon, Foxy and Austin do what they’re good at — and just keep an eye on things.
‘That’s been the biggest change, I think, in how I work.
‘It’s not hard to be less hands-on. I think the director of football thing has helped with that. I’ve been standing back — and I feel comfortable doing that.
‘When I’m standing back as director of football, watching coaches, I think: “They’re doing all right”. We’re all working together, so it’s never a matter of me stepping in, as you put it.
‘We’ve all got responsibilities — Jon, Liam, Austin and Tom, our fitness guy.
‘They do their own things. I say what we’re going to work on this week and they come up with the training plans.
‘Then Tom works out how much effort they need to put in. Well, they just put in everything and he works out how to fix it afterwards.
‘Years ago, I would have done absolutely everything. Or I tried to do everything. But I feel all right about this.
‘I come into it on a Thursday and Friday, match day too.
‘Pretty much the beginning of the week belongs to everybody else.
‘We do video analysis, of course. We go over things that have happened in previous matches.
‘But I feel like Thursday, Friday and Saturday are mine.
‘I’m always there at training, every day. It’s not as if I’m not there, although there have been occasions when I have to do other things.
‘But the people who are working are good people. They’re coming up with good ideas, so let them get on with it.
‘It always is about man management. Previously I did that on top of everything else.
‘Now, Austin is responsible for analysis, Jon and Foxy are responsible for putting the training programme together — and Tom is responsible for making sure we don’t kill them.
‘Just before killing them, that’s where we want to stop.’
Fitness was definitely an issue under Cathro. Without wishing to criticise a rookie head coach he appointed himself, Levein is clear that hard work has been key to everything he has been trying to do.
The former Dundee United and Leicester City boss, who takes his team to Partick Thistle tomorrow, said: ‘That hasn’t changed.
‘You work as hard as you can and I will support everybody to the end. If you don’t work hard then...
‘For me, it’s simple. Our supporters expect the team to give everything they have got and, if they do and even if we lose, I will have no complaints.
‘That is the minimum. And I expect them to play well, of course. The players have worked really hard. Their fitness numbers were the highest again on Tuesday.
‘We’ve had some muscle injuries but we’ve had people exceeding their previous efforts — so that’s a small price to pay for getting this team working.’
Asked about interim head coach Daly’s previous comments about the team lacking fitness when he stepped into the void left by Cathro’s departure, a diplomatic Levein said: ‘You have to be careful with that kind of stuff.
‘Everybody has a different way of doing things and you can get fitness through a number of different ways.
‘It is my belief that you have to do the hard work on the training ground — physically and not just the technical side — as that enables players to run harder, stronger and quicker than the opposition.
‘Sometimes when you do that and don’t play well, you can still win.’
Still on their travels while Tynecastle is completed, with two more home games at Murrayfield to come, Levein has been impressed — but not surprised — by the reaction of Hearts fans during this period of exile.
Looking ahead to tomorrow’s trip to Glasgow for a 4pm kick-off against Partick Thistle, he said: ‘We will have the benefit of being backed by over 1,800 supporters — and we took 2,000 to Hamilton last week.
‘It is a win-win as our supporters are helping us and they are also giving the opposition some much needed revenue, so everybody feels quite good about that.
‘But, like them, I can’t wait to get back to Tynie.’