Tactically… I read La Libre twice, in the prefab dressing room, with my mug of coffee going cold on the folder. Mark van Bommel used only one system for the whole September camp: the 4-3-3, with a few liberties and an adjustment in the defensive repositioning. One system. Same here. Mine is the 4-4-2, but the idea is the same: you don’t change religion on a Thursday.
What stopped me was Timothy Castagne. The Fulham player explains: “We worked a lot during this camp, even walking on the pitch, to see everyone’s positions, to understand what you have to do, or not do.” Walking. The Devils. I read it aloud to the towel.
Because that, I run on Tuesday. When we’ve got eleven, that is. Where I come from, nobody calls that a method, we call it pitch 2 after a downpour, when running is no longer an option. I make them walk, I place them, I say: you, there, you don’t move. Castagne says it lets you see exactly what is expected, the day after matches, without running. There you go. The level in the third provincial division (Belgium’s Sunday amateur leagues) has gone way up, people don’t realise: the top level has come down to us.
Then there are the substitutions. Van Bommel used all twenty of his changes, at the hour mark, with fifteen minutes left and in the last five minutes. In France, De Ketelaere and Godts came on in the 70th minute, then Keita, Openda and Trossard all at once in the 87th. A triple change in the 87th, I know it: that’s when the club delegate (the volunteer who runs the match-day paperwork) shouts that the parents have arrived. At least his paid off elsewhere: Lukebakio and Lukaku scored off the bench, in Italy and against Turkey.
Before France he had said: “There is no plan B, only a plan A.” The results, 0-1 then 4-1, I won’t defend them. But a gaffer with only one plan, I understand. I’ve only got one too. It’s in the folder, page one, and it works very well on a flat pitch.
A flat pitch away, mind you.
It’s true, we checked: La Libre.
