Having witnessed the excitement last season after innovative manager Ralf Rangnick was appointed caretaker manager, Manchester United have chosen to recruit another leader who favors modern coaching techniques.
Erik ten Hag has already referred to a coaching term that may be unfamiliar to many people: “automatism”. He talked about it before Leicester City’s win, as well as before the Arsenal game.
Ralf Hassenhüttl is a great defender of the exercise, as is Antonio Conte.
But what exactly does automatism entail, how does it affect tactics, and why is it gaining popularity among modern coaches and practical managers?
Quite decipherable, automatism in a nutshell means doing something until it becomes automatic. The idea is that a team will rehearse scenarios repeatedly until specific moves and situational plays become a muscle memory.
Rhys Desmond of The Mastermindsite details, ‘These [automatisms] they are rehearsed game patterns based on the four key moments of the game: in possession, out of possession, defensive transitions and attacking transitions.
Within each of them, the automatisms are also based on the principle that every decision a player makes in a match must be based on four things: the rival, the space, the ball and his teammates.’
By combining every moment with every decision basis, the coach essentially wants a player to know exactly what to do in every circumstance on a soccer field.
This knowledge is a very important cognitive development for an athlete who is expected to undergo extreme physical exertion, especially given the current high-intensity, high-pressure game that dominates the Premier League.
According to medium Harsh Krishna, when a player becomes fatigued, most of the time they will rely on habits to complete a match.
Also, in an extreme environment, like playing at Old Trafford against Liverpool for example, a player may feel overwhelmed or scared (just human nature) and therefore use their acquired habits to determine what they do.
Ten Hag is trying to make sure these habits are always positive, helpful, and universal in terms of situations.
Already making his disciplinary style known, the Dutchman is showing his thoroughness when it comes to training. Through automatisms, Ten Hag wants to ensure that his team can not only control any situation, but quickly adapt to any moment in the game.
Although it may take a while to bear fruit on the pitch, the success of Ajax and the signings of ‘Ten Hag players’ in Antony and Lisandro Martínez should give reason to be optimistic about the value of the automatics.
