Coaches I’ve worked with: Players would freeze at his sight!

I think when coach Phillipe Troussier arrived at Kaizer Chiefs, we were not briefed about his background and where he was from, therefore we didn’t really know what to expect from him and it became a culture shock. He was introduced to the players and we had a team comprising of a good mixture of youngsters and more senior players. When you talk coach Troussier, he’s got different faces and personalities. You see him smiling and the next minute he’s so angry. He was a strict disciplinarian and a harsh but knowledgeable coach. We learnt a lot from him and I must say he wasn’t always the no-nonsense coach that people saw on television. As mentioned last week, having coach Trott Moloto as his assistant also went a long way in helping him understand us and vice versa. His English was with a typical French accent, but he was able to articulate his points clearly. His philosophy made people realise how football should be played. He got us to excel as both individuals and a group on the field of play. Certain tactical moves that he introduced to us were foreign, but he was patient enough to allow us time to adapt. Once we got used to them, we became a completely different team. You must understand that players are like schoolkids. There are fast learners, slow learners and then those who are in-between the two. You can imagine the pressure on this new coach who obviously knew almost everything about Chiefs and wanted to make an immediate impact, while we had players who struggled to adapt to his teachings. As a leader, you have to find ways to get everyone’s buy-in to your philosophy. He had his own way of doing things, but Trott intervened whenever he needed to, which was good for the team because you need the balance between the good and the bad cop. When I look at Pep Guardiola’s approach to football and life, I ask myself a lot of questions. Back then, I was just a footballer, but I can see things differently now. I’m not having a go at coach Troussier or anything like that but just expressing a view. We learn as we go along. When Pep was to coach Bayern Munich, he couldn’t utter a word in German and his move was delayed by six months as he underwent German classes so that he could equip himself and be able to strike a conversation with his players and everyone in his new surroundings and environment. That proved to be a masterstroke because he understood the culture and everything he needed to know before even embarking on that coaching journey. Looking back, I wouldn’t know if this was even something considered by the coaches back then, although I feel it is very important. When you compare the two coaching situations, it doesn’t take a rocket scientist to see what works better. We all come from different backgrounds and therefore it is important to find each other in one way or another. I can safely say Pep’s way works better because I know how difficult it was for coach Troussier to understand and accept some characteristics from his players and how it was such a mission for us to accept and embrace his way of doing things. When you come into a new country and try to change things, there are things you need to understand and accept that you won’t be able to change. You just need to find ways around them because when you don’t understand the background and characters, then that’s a recipe for disaster. Factors that influence behaviour or performance include mental factor, the physicality and social factor. When you look at us, the youngsters and even some senior players were walking on eggshells around the coach because they were always scared of him! Imagine players having a good laugh before training and then the coach shows up, everyone just keeps quiet because they don’t know how the coach will react to their laugh. Players would freeze at his sight all the time and people didn’t know about that! This was not the coach’s fault, I can’t stress this enough, because he just didn’t understand us and we didn’t understand him. He was doing what he felt was right and no one can take anything away from coach Troussier’s work. The man is a top coach and knows the game so well. As one of the seniors, I took it upon myself to protect them and made sure I assisted Trott, but that didn’t sit well with the coach, unfortunately. That man knew what he was doing and got a lot of things right at Chiefs and I really want people to understand that. Don’t overlook his great work because of the personality clashes that happened because those were results of misunderstanding and not taking time to understand one another. The man was a nightmare during the week at training, but come matchday, we all enjoyed playing for him because he was so clear with his philosophy.