Manchester City is often seen by the European sport media as a good example of how a football club should be run.
Not many clubs have the financial strength of the Premier League side, yet a lot of what they do off the pitch isn’t prohibitively expensive in the scheme of running a top football club.
Tuesday’s edition of L’Equipe has an article on French clubs and free-kicks, and talks about the reluctance of Ligue 1 sides to hire specialist coaches for that task. A lot is usually left to individual players to put in their own extra training alone, and Lyon’s Memphis Depay is put over as an example of this.
Pascal Grosbois, a former midfielder who is now a specialist set-piece coach, was approached for comment and he was very clear when explaining things aren’t professional enough in that area right now.
L’Equipe quote him as saying: “What I have seen is that they work without organisation or intensity of concentration. However, to better compete with foreign clubs, these sessions need to be planned and the set pieces worked regularly, in a measured, refined and subtle manner.”
Grosbois went on to mention Manchester City specifically: “L1 clubs do not yet see the usefulness of a coach dedicated to set pieces. While at Manchester City, Pep Guardiola did not hesitate to hire a Frenchman, Nicolas Jover. It’s a shame, because there is untapped potential.”
This is undoubtedly one area in which French clubs could catch up with their Premier League rivals, with the relative cost of a specialist coach’s wages not being a huge drain on finances.
