(Hopefully someone with direct experience can shed some light here…?)
At professional levels of the game, it’s mandatory to hold a minimum level of UEFA Coaching License.
LM is one of a raft of new managers who are all linked by holding the top UEFA Pro License at a relatively young age. He’s not alone in struggling within this cohort. How many of us know what the license entails and could its influence explain some of his recent difficulties?
Is it pure coincidence that so many of the so called young, modern managers have similar possession heavy philosophies and playing styles? Is this solely down to growing up in the Guardiola era or are UEFA courses encouraging it?
Whether he has or he hasn’t or whether he’s capable of implementing it or not, LM certainly believes that he has a detailed blueprint in his head. Is this what the UEFA courses do, facilitate a manager to choose a formation and pattern of play and then validate it via assessment? Do they leave the programme with a fully assessed and approved Plan A which they are then scared to deviate from? Does it explain why so many supporters of so many clubs lament the lack of a Plan B?
I want to believe that LM has a coherent plan that he will quickly find a way to execute but I fear he might be one of a generation of Pep-ball Pro License academics when what we really need is a free thinker or maverick who happens to hold a license?