SCIENCE FRICTION

We’re so obsessed with hi-tech training we’re mollycoddling our young stars warns Pressley

Luddite, but sports science has too much of a grip in football in certain parts.

“I see kids play on a Saturday then do nothing for 48 hours.

“They come in on a Monday but don’t train, they’re still recovering. We’re educating youngsters that they’re in a state of fatigue for two days after a game.

“But if you train a certain way in that 48 hours, you coach your body to become more robust, and mentally you become more robust as you’re not giving yourself an excuse.

“We’re mollycoddling young players. I see a change in England with the arrival of Klopp, Conte, Pochettino, who are into sports science but aren’t slaves to it.

“Pochettino takes the players who have played on a Saturday and does running of a certain type on the Monday. It’s conditioning.

“Yo u are establishing the mental condition as well as physical by doing that. But because sports science has a grip now, despite inconclusive data, what used to be the norm is now portrayed as the exception.”

Pressley insists Scotland isn’t short of role models either – just not in football. He said: “Look at Andy Murray as a great example.

“Yes, he’s a great tennis player, but what separates him from the others who are also great is his mentality to be the best and find a way to win, no matter where you

have to dig it from. Yet in football there’s a sense we can achieve greatness without pushing ourselves close to our limits?

“How do you create the mentality you need with that as a starting point?” Pressley is happy with the set-up his son has at Villa as they, like the Celtic Academy run by Chris McCart that he took a keen interest in when he was at the club, emphasise that winning matters.

But he fears the too-much-tooyoung generation aren’t getting the lessons they need. He sighed: “They play on perfect pitches, travel in the same sort of bus as the first team, have the same level of staff – where’s the incentive?

“I was away with Scotland Under-17s last season and although it was hard to gauge in a few days where we were with that group in terms of the players, one thing I would have changed was them having a masseur with them.

“So let’s not just look at technical development of players. Let’s establish a hardness.

Another question is why are there no proper academy leagues? It comes down to the same issue. Creating a winning mentality and making them understand how to develop it because once they get into the first team, there’s no slack built in.

“A kid should have to look at a league table and if they’re at the bottom at the age of 12 or 13, they have to feel a bit of pain, a bit of a desire to do better.

“People may say some of my thoughts are old school but I’m not saying you abandon sports science.

“What I’m talking about is strengthening the psychology of players to earn the right to what they get and understand the significance of winning games.

“If we create a pathway where success or failure doesn’t matter that much, how will you ever develop that when you arrive where you want to get to?

“When you educate a doctor, and he makes a mistake, he doesn’t get told it’s okay, mistakes are fine.

“Obviously football’s not life and death, but the principle is the same. Every single thing you do, every training session, every game – it all matters.”