A good atmosphere

When I took over as manager of the Belgium national team, there were some questions.

People asked: “Why are you coaching a national team already, at the age of 37?”

But I saw big advantages to it. I had been a manager in club football for six years – and with big clubs, including Schalke, Spartak Moscow and RB Leipzig. Now, as head coach of a national team, I have a lot of time to really think about football. I have the time to see other clubs and to see other players.

Between the international windows, during the week I have the possibility to see nine or 10 club games. I will have a look at Arsenal, for example, because Leandro Trossard is playing there. Or Manchester City, because we have two players in that team. Or it could be Luton, because we have Thomas Kaminski as a goalkeeper.

And I have to say, it is a really fantastic part of the role to speak with the national team players. It is important for me to understand how they think – because everybody is different – and to have a big picture about everything. I really enjoy that side of the job.

"Every player is different. Some players need more contact and communication"

The biggest challenge with international management is that you have many ideas, but you have absolutely no time to train. Outside of the major tournaments, you have to focus on a few sessions per camp. The players are playing for their clubs the weekend before, then we meet on Monday, but you can’t train with players who have played one day before. So you have to give them time to recover.

You can work a little bit on video sessions, on tactics, on principles. Then the main work is on Wednesday and Thursday. Friday is already matchday minus one. After the second game, the players are gone already. You do not have the possibility to show them some situations you would like. There is no real time to speak to them, and you do not get to train again.

It was something that I was not used to at first, coming from club football. After a game, you have good situations and you have bad situations. As a manager, you can work on and improve all of them. So with international football, from camp to camp, we have to see if there is anything that we can do in between with the players.

Every player is different. Some players need more contact and communication. They need you to go and visit them. You meet them, perhaps before they play a game with their club, or you speak to them by Zoom, or telephone, or just messages.

That allows you to stay informed, perhaps to tell them that they played a fantastic game, or maybe to find out if they are injured, or if they need something. It all depends on the player.

"With this team, we need the ball, so we try to be the dominant side in possession"

We have other characters who, once they are in their club, really just want to focus on club football between the international games. At least, this is my feeling. Nobody is telling me this, of course, but this is just a feeling that you get – and you need to respect that. I understand it, because I was a club manager. It is good that players are focused on the daily work at their clubs. 

It is not the most important thing to always go and visit the players. They also need freedom, so it is important that you can have that kind of relationship, too.

Most important is that players have a good feeling when they get an invitation to play for the national team. We want them to think: “Cool, I’m invited! I like being in the hotel with the Belgium national team. I like the training pitch, I like the staff, I like my teammates.”

This is something very important – if they come, they come with a good mood. It is something we focus on and try to create. It is important to perform and get results, but always in a good atmosphere.

With Belgium, there is a big fit between my main ideas as a manager and the capacity of the players we have. With this team, we need the ball, so we try to be the dominant side in possession. When we don’t have the ball, we should try to regain possession as fast as possible.

Of course we have the idea of numerical overloads in some areas of the pitch. Sometimes it’s on the wing, sometimes in the centre. But we also know that, with the kind of players we have, even if we don’t have a numerical overload, we can have a certain, let’s say, ‘quality overload’.

"We are talented – very talented – but in some positions we are really young"

I really enjoy working with the players we have with the Belgian team, and the way that we try to play football. Okay, sometimes we might make mistakes, we might fail, but then we have to make the next step.

We know that the national team has lost a lot of quality players in recent times, like Eden Hazard, Axel Witzel, Toby Aldweireld and Simon Mignolet, for example. But at the same time, we have also brought in young players with big potential, like Jérémy Doku, Arthur Theate and Zeno Debast, to name just a few in different positions.

It is a Belgium team that is hungry, a team with a big potential. We are talented – very talented – but in some positions we are really young, and so we will see how things go with Euro 2024. Of course, we have to find a balance. Experience is sometimes important, and this is something we try to bring to the team with some players. Whoever plays, we will be motivated to do everything we can for Belgium, that is for sure.

To motivate people, as a manager you have to get more deep inside the player, to find out what drives them. In a national team, that is probably more difficult than with a club team. At a club, you work with the players every day. You see them when they wake up in the morning, and can see if they have some problems. 

As a club manager, I could tell a player: “Come to me, we will drink a coffee after the training session.” And then you speak one hour with them and you can feel that, for example, okay, they have family problems. You can really go inside and try to see what kind of motivation is most important to that player. If family is the most important thing to them, you could then create more family days at the club. You can invite their family to the games, or have a special event with them.

"It doesn’t matter if it is a national team or a club – the organisation needs to be cohesive"

Motivation is something that is individual. You have to go deep inside to ask players about their targets, because I believe that the team’s targets should always complement individual targets.

As a club manager, I knew that it was important for players to be in their national teams. So if your club is competing for first place, for trophies, the focus will be on that team, giving a bigger opportunity to play for the national team. And something we always try to explain is that winning games, winning titles, automatically brings motivation for yourself.

My ambition is always to be in a good atmosphere. No matter whether it’s a club or a national team, it is important that the atmosphere works, you know? That the leadership – the sporting director, general director, the president – have a commitment to the coach, the staff, and the team’s ambitions.

I like the people in the Belgian federation. I like the players and I like the team that we have, so it’s a really good moment for me.

It doesn’t matter if it is a national team or a club – the organisation needs to be cohesive. As a coach, you might be able to get some success for some months by doing things alone – by being tough and competing. But in the long term, it is important that you have this kind of system of close family. Then you can achieve everything. That is my belief.

Author: Craig Bloomfield