FireFan is just about to make sports even more exciting

On my blog I love to feature ways to make the game of soccer and sports in general even more exciting. Regular readers will have seen my features on sports betting and fantasy football. But something new is arriving soon.

The thrill of watching your favorite team is just about to intensify. It is great to watch the game. Whether you are sat in a bar with your friends or at home with your family or even if you have to sneak a watch on your smartphone at work. It is a thrilling experience to watch the best in sports perform at the peak of their powers.

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FireFan is arriving on November 21^st so now is the time to get involved.

It will create the world’s largest sporting network of fanatics that will pit their wits against you during the game. FireFan are looking for the biggest sports fans in the world to take on the challenge of their peers. Think you know about sports? Pit your skills against the rest of the world!

FireFan – Ignite Your Passion

This game will set the world alight! And this is your opportunity to get in on the ground level. Pre-register now and you will be the first to experience this great new app and be in with a chance of winning fantastic prizes. And all for a free download. Try it now. Enter the code “ball_game”

There is nothing more exciting than feeling like you are a part of the action. This is the next best thing to playing the game yourself. It is available for both professional and college sports and you can put your knowledge of sports to the test when it comes to-

•          Football
•          Baseball
•          Basketball
•          Soccer

It feels like you are playing along with the professionals in real time as you follow the game. You knowledge and gut feeling can take you to the top of the leader board.

Sign up now. Challenge your friends to compete with you. Make the most of FireFan. It is here on November 21^st.

What the Manchester derby told us about the state of the game in Manchester

It was derby time in Manchester last night. I have spent the week in the city looking at the state of the game here and how the future looks for the two clubs. It could be looked at as a game in the middle of a crisis in the footballing city.Going into the game there has been much criticism-

• Manchester United lost 4-0 to Chelsea on Sunday after a poor showing at Liverpool the week before
• Jose Mourinho has spoken about his unhappiness living in the city
• Pep Guardiola's City went into the match on a streak of 5 games without a win
• The old guard of Vincent Kompany and Sergio Aguero seem to be out of favour

But in and around the city of Manchester you couldn't sense any panic or even much frustration towards the clubs or the players.These are generally proper football fans that love their club, are happy with the success that they have had but don't feel as though they are entitled to it. Contrast that to the glory-hunting Manchester United fan from other parts of the country and the globe. The fact that the United fans were still out-singing the Chelsea home support while being 4-0 down in Sunday shows that these are people who know their football and love their club.

Near the Old Trafford stadium I spoke to Mike, a United fan that sees a future that doesn't look as rosy as the recent past but will still support the club all the same.

"I can see us going down the same route as Liverpool did after their domination. Football goes in cycles and they have not really been near to winning the title again in over 25 years. I'd like to see them up there challenging for titles with us, but losing out to us every time! We have a future where we could go down the same road. I see Mourinho as a manager that could go one way or another. He could stay for 15 years and we could go on a run of winning trophies every year again or he could end up braking the club. It is a bit of a crossroads," said Mike.

The game does move on and it would be difficult to reliably predict what the future holds for the club. The longer they are out of the Champions League then the more they have to spend in wages to attract the big starts and the less likely it is that they will get another Cristiano Ronaldo or even another David De Gea.Mourinho is a gamble that the Glazers thought they just had to make after the failures of David Moyes and Louis van Gaal. Where the club goes from here is in his hands.

On the other side of the divide is the light blue half of Manchester. The game last night ended in defeat so Pep Guardiola is facing probably his worst managerial crisis - six games without a win. After the amazing start to the season not many would have predicted this but it is happening. In the club shop on Market Street they are selling those detested half-and-half scarves and training tops with the Champions League logo alongside merchandise from their sister clubs in New York, Yokohama and Melbourne. This is big business.

But without the players to enact his tactical game, and in possible the wrong league and conditions to do it, Pep is fining managerial life tough for probably the first time. It is not a full-blown crisis and it won't cost him his job but clearly there is work to do.

I spoke to Peter who lives and works in the city. He didn't buy into the Guardiola project but backs the club to get it right, "It will take time. He can't turn all of these Premier League players into La Liga players overnight. It looks like tactically he knows what he wants but the players aren't quite there yet. Maybe in a few months we will look back on this as part of the transition. I certainly hope so."

That was before the match. That was before the defeat in the derby. Although it was 'only' the EFL Cup and there were run outs for some players that were not in the usual first team it will still hurt. Manchester City's owners have bankrolled the club to deliver success and this current run of form and a tame loss to their neighbours isn't part of the blueprint.

What happens next really is down to Pep.

Is international football still relevant?

I watched the England v Malta match yesterday, well it was on in the background while I was doing other things. I was amazed to see a crowd of over 80,000 announced during the coverage for a game that England should have won at a canter against a team ranked well outside of the top 100 in World football. To me it was a bit of a non-match that even the TV companies wight have thought twice about featuring. But the fact that Wembley was close to a sell-out has made me stop.

I thought before the match that international football was becoming irrelevant and that matches between the good teams and the bad were a waste of time. But 80,000+ at Wembley and millions of others on TV disagreed with me. Maybe there is something there after all.

I don't believe that the top players in the game see international football as the pinnacle of the game in the same way that they did when I was young. The big international tournaments see the best players turn up injured or fatigued beyond belief so that they don't perform at the peal of their game. I know we can point to what winning meant to Cristiano Ronaldo at the Euros in the summer with his country. But I can't see that being the same with many players. Would Ronaldo have through this way if he had never won anything at club level? It was the icing on the cake, rather than the cake itself.

The England players don't seem to play their normal game when it comes to international football. In the Premier League we are used to high tempo and a pressing game that leads to exciting football and great matches. But for whatever reason we don;t play that way in the international games. When we have pressing players such as Jordan Henderson, Jamie Vardy and Jesse Lingard then we should play that game. We need a high tempo against teams like Malta to make chances, pressurise the opposition and make the breakthroughs that change the game. It appears that players take a step back on the international stage and I don't know whether it is the players or the coach that breed that mentality. I would have loved to see what Sam Allardyce would have done with the players because I can't believe he would have let his players sit back and take it easy.

It is time for a change and I would look at wholesale change with these poor quality of opposition that we have in the group. There has never been a better time to discard the older players and look to the future. I can't see a place after the next World Cup for the likes of-

• Wayne Rooney
• Joe Hart
• Gary Cahill
• Theo Walcott

And I can't really see what any of them offer now, except for Rooney selling shirts for the FA and Cahill plugging a gap until something better comes along (Smalling and Phil Jones have never cut the mustard at the top level.) There just has to be a brighter future. The England fans that watched in their tens of thousands yesterday can be satisfied with a win but there was little else to excite. I like the way that Jesse Lingard plays the game but he needs more help. I would get Rashford and others on to the pitch and say to them "there you go, guys. You are the team for the next World Cup. Go out there and make it happen."

Watching the football coaches on FNF

I have been on an FA coaching course recently and it was a really good way to get into the coaching of my kids football team. The course was very comprehensive and will help me no end on my coaching journey. But what it wasn't was a complete journey. It is meant to set me off to go and learn about what we are doing as coaches and learn and adapt.

One of the tips at the end of the course was to go out and watch other coaches. I have watched some local games to see what other amateur coaches are doing and it all fits quite nicely with the way I want my players to play the game. And this is also the way that the FA want the game to be played in this country.

And I try to watch what the coaches are up to when I watch the big BPL matches like Chelsea v Liverpool tonight. Antonio Conte and Jurgen Klopp are coaches with impressive records behind them and will both be looking for a Champions League place this season.

Obviously you don't get to see as much as you would like of the coaches from a television screen but the glimpses that are shown are fascinating. Players don't hear the vast majority of what a coach says in the heat of the match against the noise from the crowd. But some coaches scream and shout as though their lives depended on it. Meaningful input to players close by would be more effective.

I hope to bring a style of play to my team. We will pass the ball around and stay true to this all the time. Let's hope that the way Chelsea and Liverpool play tonight shows the way!

Changes to training sessions after my FA Coaching course

Regular readers will know that I have recently been on a football coaching course delivered by the Durham FA. I encourage anyone that is interested in football to get along to one of these courses as it gives a great structure to the way you watch and understand football as well as giving you a valuable skill that you can apply.

I have used some of the key points in the course to change the way that I coach my players when it comes around to training sessions on a Wednesday evening. Here are the changes that I have made as part o the learning of my FA Level 1 Coaching course-

Arrival activity
This was  major pain when I started coaching. I was waiting for a all the players to arrive and be ready for training. Some would arrive 15 minutes early while others would be up to 10 minutes late for various reasons. So there could be a 25 minute gap between first to arrive and last to arrive. I used to start the training session on time and then those that were late would just filter in as they arrived. This was disjointed and caused a little chaos. Arrival activities are playing with the ball in games that can be scaled up as more players arrive. Passing with 2 people can become passing with 6; a match with 1 v 1 can quickly upscale to 5 v 5 if needed. These arrival activities means that everyone is involved as soon as they arrive and we don't see the disruption that might happen otherwise.

Progressions
This was a major part of the course and it concerns taking your players along a journey with a particular drill or set of drills to get them better in one or more areas of the game. Take passing, for example, you may have a dill set up to get your players passing. After a few minutes, a few weeks or longer hey become very good at this particular drill. So you need to change it up to make it more difficult for them to achieve success. As this gets more and more difficult and your players get better and better, the progressions that you put in have helped to challenge them and up their skill level. The progression need to be planned out in advance so you can see where you are going with it and how you will give your players the next challenge. This talk of planning leads on to...

Plan, do, review
This is the way that the FA want their coaches to deliver the training they give to their teams. It is part of the England DNA that I have written about before. You are expected to spend as much time planning your training sessions as you do delivering them, and again the same amount of time on reviewing how they went. This means that you are in total control of the way that you want your players to develop and progress. You plan out what each training session looks like and how this fits into the long-term plan for your set of players.

Links between the England game this week and my FA Coaching course

It was interesting to see the England setup from start to finish this week. There was a lot of comment relating to the sections that Sam Allardyce made in both his squad and his team. There were a lot of familiar faces in both and he came in for some criticism for not changing a lot, mainly because-

• It was a team with 8 of the players that played in the last Euro match - a defeat against Iceland
• It was a squad with only one uncapped player - Michail Antonio
• It was a very similar formation to the one Roy Hodgson had used
• Big Sam gave players like Joe Hart and Raheem Sterling a chance when they were awful in the Summer

It was the most difficult match of the campaign on paper - away to a dangerous opponent that had completely stifled us in June. But we came through with three points due to reckless tackling from Martin Skrtel and poor goalkeeping at the end. So on the face of things there was much criticism before and a small celebration after.

But I ask what possibly could have changed?

I was on an FA Level 1 Coaching course the week before and there was a lot of talk about the England DNA. The game in this country is now geared to play a certain way. It would be difficult, if not impossible, for Allardyce to anything different. Where are the future England players that are playing regularly for their club sides?

The formation suits the way we want to play football. It is something that many of the players are familiar with from their clubs. It really is almost a part of the DNA of the game in this country.

The players that form the squad will form the basis of the squad all the way to the next World Cup and beyond. WE need evolution, not revolution. If the academy system is producing players like John Stones then we have to put some faith in it to produce more.

Part of the England DNA of football coaching

With the England match away to Slovakia tonight in mind - first one for Big Sam - it has been interesting doing my Level 1 football coaching course this week. The way that the FA is now structured is that every level feeds into the national team and the way of playing the game. In future you will see the players that have gone through the grassroots of football and through the system to reach the top level of the game. We are now generating players that have played in all positions, have developed the skills that have been identified as essential and will play the game in the right way.

The FA Level 1 Football Coaching course has been really interesting for me to work with other budding coaches and get an insight into the way the FA wants us all to bring our players through and develop them. I am really excited about getting to put all of this into practice with my team. I am ready to get back to my club and put all of this into practice.

Being able to watch and learn from the tutors as well as see practices delivered by others on the course was a great way to get together some ideas about different training sessions, how they fit together and how to adapt them to players of different ages. I am confident that I can start to think about the development needs of my players and how I can put training sessions into place to help them be better players over time.

The way that all of this fits together from grassroots up to the top level of the game is really interesting and will stand the game in this country in good stared in the future. The different phases of the game are looked at in detail to establish the necessary skills-

• In possession
• Out of possession
• Transition

You will see the way that young footballers play the game will change over time. The emphasis on everyone enjoying their game, players swapping roles and being comfortable on the ball are all major factors in this. One other parts that I found will make a massive difference is encouraging your players to take risks and not being afraid of the consequences. The focus has been taken away from winning games at all costs to achieving specific objectives both from a personal and a team point of view.