I was listening to The High Performance Podcast yesterday with Robert Lewandowski and he talked about managing players now in comparison to when he was young.
He said even in training, you can’t push young players too hard. You have to be careful because they won’t be close to you, yet you need to learn from them.
He said when he was breaking out as a young player, there were ways he handled things but you can’t do the same with young players now. You have to understand them because if you push too hard, they’ll turn their backs on you.
And that, I think is the modern manager’s biggest conundrum. Having the patience and understanding to accept and work with the current generation. You need them to be successful.
How do you balance the acts of what you understand as an older person to what young players want and how they want to be treated?
You can’t treat them the same way you were handled. They’ll not deliver. They don’t give a damn! They’re rich.
It’s one of the things that make the difference in managers. Learning to balance discipline with care. Not overplaying either of them. You are not too close and are not too distant.
We will see more and more of this, but we must understand that times are different and every older manager is seeing it happen in real time.
When you train different generations, or manage across generations, evolution is a constant.
My name is Rilwan, I love and write about football systems, memories and the depths behind the game. Follow me and repost if you want more of this.
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