Corinthians Under-17 coach on functional play and players' freedom | OneFootball

Guilherme Nascimento, head coach of Corinthians’ U-17 team, detailed the methodology used in the development of the club’s young athletes. In an interview with the Ponto Futuro channel, published last Sunday (28), the coach explained how he applies the concepts of so-called functional play, emphasizing that his priority is to encourage players’ decision-making without imposing rigid behaviors on the field.

According to Guilherme, many collective movements often associated with specific training sessions arise spontaneously when the team understands general principles related to players staying close to one another and occupying space.

Photo: Carlos Freitas

While explaining this concept, the coach said that, through his own experience, he came to realize that these dynamics appear naturally when the work is carried out properly.

“It was something I asked myself: okay, do we train this intentionally, make it explicit, or will it emerge from the very movements of getting closer that we create? Through my work, I started to notice that many of these dynamics happen because of a broader dynamic, which is the dynamic of staying close and generating movement around the ball. And then, when you freeze the play, when you look at a frame, you see the guys in diagonal positions making that little staircase shape and everything else.”

Next, the coach commented on the main challenge for those who work with this model of play. In his view, there is a risk of turning functional play into a system just as rigid as other tactical models, taking autonomy away from the athletes.

“We want players to stay close, but if we do that in an imposing way, aren’t we doing the same thing as other coaches? Which is overriding the player, their subjectivity, in order to create some ideal thing? That’s the dilemma for me, that’s really the central point: how to apply it, how not to be idealistic and imposing, to have a ready-made football model just like those guys.”

To avoid this problem, Guilherme explained that he prefers to let players find collective solutions before making more direct interventions. According to him, development begins with interactions between a small number of players before reaching the collective level.

“Today it’s very clear to me: let it happen. At first, we let the group expose itself and let it bring out some things that are inherent to the way they interact. My idea is always, in the first stage of the work, to give the guys some broad concept, especially for individual development and the development of interactions. Me and you against one opponent, two against one, three against two, two against two. If you interact closely, you create an advantage from those interactions. And obviously we give some hints along the way.”

The coach also said that the constant creation of numerical superiority serves as the basis for improving the players’ decision-making during matches.

“When you move closer, you create several temporary two-against-ones. The center-back has the ball, the forward starts pressing, the holding midfielder drops a little, and you create a two-against-one. So, at the start of the work, we explore this kind of training a lot so those micro interactions become refined. I have the ball, a guy comes and marks me, what’s the instant decision? Am I going to dribble, go into the duel, turn that duel into a two-against-one, or pass to you, who’s free? We keep refining those interactions.”

After the group goes through this initial process, Guilherme explained that the collective work then becomes guided by only three general principles, allowing everything else to be developed naturally by the players themselves.

“From the moment the guys expose themselves, they start to self-organize and notice the most relevant attractors in themselves, things they like to do. Then we, as coaches, see what makes sense and provide criteria. In the collective side of it, I give the guys three broad principles: let’s stay close, let’s move a lot, leave our positions, and let’s seek progression. Every moment we have the chance to move forward, we’re going to move forward. Just those three. From that, a huge number of micro concepts will emerge.”

The Corinthians coach also argued that patterns of play should not be defined beforehand. In his view, they arise as a consequence of collective development and allow for greater adaptability during matches.

“Forget patterns. We don’t leave the coaching staff room with a pattern to achieve. Now, naturally, because of the normal functioning of systems, the team arrives at a pattern. But what’s the benefit of that? Because if the opponent disrupts that pattern, the guys adjust. And why do they adjust? Because it didn’t come rigidly. There are several videos of the Argentina national team against Austria, a recent World Cup match, that show exactly this. Austria came to press, and Argentina kept readjusting all the time, breaking the press, because there was no rigid pattern.”

While explaining his role as a coach, Guilherme used the metaphor of a river to illustrate that the coaching staff’s job is to guide the players, but without determining exactly what path each play should take.

“The river is going to reach the sea. Now, whether it goes under a fallen log or over it, whether it goes around a rock, I don’t know. We’re only going to provide guidance, so it doesn’t capsize, so it doesn’t go off course. Now, whether the boys go under the log, over the log, or around the rock, we’ll be here guiding them, because after a while there are some things that don’t make sense. It’s not a pickup game. It’s good when they have the personality of playing as if it were a pickup game, but it isn’t. There’s responsibility, so of course we keep it under control.”

Finally, the coach explained that the tactical structure used by his teams is defined according to the characteristics of the players available, and he cited examples from previous work to illustrate that choice.

“My main point is the player’s characteristics. For example, my team at Athletico-PR started from a 4-2-4. It was a stronger team, charging forward with a lot of aggression. At Corinthians now, we already start from a 4-2-3-1. The structure, for me, starts with the player’s characteristics,” he concluded.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.