Why football coaches at national teams tend to be pragmatic
ByDhiman Sarkar
May 25, 2025 07:17 PM IST
Constantine, Stimac and Marquez, India coaches past and present, explain the difference between coaching a club and a national team
Kolkata: Didier Deschamps was in the stands at Parc des Princes on May 7 watching Luis Enrique’s Paris St-Germain (PSG) beat Arsenal in the Champions League semi-final. Hansi Flick’s Barcelona came close to doing that in a season where they have regained La Liga and beaten Real Madrid four times.
Paris Saint-Germain's Spanish head coach Luis Enrique, posing after the French Cup win on May 24, has transformed the Ligue 1 champions after discarding the failed policy of chasing European glory with super stars. (AFP)
Paris Saint-Germain's Spanish head coach Luis Enrique, posing after the French Cup win on May 24, has transformed the Ligue 1 champions after discarding the failed policy of chasing European glory with super stars. (AFP)
Deschamps, Enrique and Flick were with national teams in the last World Cup. Two-and-a-half years later, only the Frenchman remains in his position. “Among elite teams, he is possibly the best example of what a national team head coach needs to be,” said Stephen Constantine, the peripatetic head coach who was twice in charge of India and is now with Pakistan.
But Germany’s Flick and Spaniard Enrique have revived their careers at clubs. Flick has extended his contract till 2027, which is also how long Enrique is expected to stay. “If I have the ball, I attack, if I don’t, I defend,” Enrique said in an interview to PSG before the season. It would have required hours on the training ground but PSG players have walked Enrique’s versatility talk. They have been solid in defence and often spectacular in the middle and front thirds.
Before 2024-25, there was uncertainty over Raphinha’s future, talk of Robert Lewandowksi’s age and whether young players would last the season at Barcelona. Well, Flick’s high-risk, high-reward, high-line style has fetched them three trophies this term and Barcelona were three minutes of regulation time away from playing the Champions League final.
It is some shift from how Enrique and Flick fared with Spain and Germany. Flick was removed in September 2023 after a run that saw Germany win only four of their last 16 matches. Enrique stepped down after losing to Morocco in the round of 16 in the Qatar World Cup. For all their possession, the former world champions only went sideways, said Morocco coach Walid Regragui. “I think he was unlucky to lose in the World Cup and Euros on penalties,” said Enrique’s Spanish compatriot and India head coach Manolo Marquez.
To understand how different the coach’s role is for club and country HT asked Constantine, Marquez and Igor Stimac, India head coaches since 2015 who have also worked at clubs. Lack of time – “it’s something I now know,” said Marquez – is the biggest difference and everything follows from that, they said speaking separately over the phone.
The coach’s job in the national team is more about man management and hoping you have got your selection right for that game, they said. “There could be players who are starters at their clubs but will start on the bench in the national team and you will need to keep them happy and motivated,” said Marquez.
“You need to maximise time, from the moment they land in the airport to the moment they leave. In most cases, you are not going to work on their fitness or technical ability. What you have to work on is their mind and what position you are going to play them,” said Constantine.
Sometimes, it helps if most of the players are from one or two clubs, said Stimac, India’s head coach from 2019-2024. Like it was with Croatia in 1998 where eight from the squad was from either Dinamo Zagreb or Hadjuk Split. “They had similar styles,” said Stimac, who was part of the 1998 World Cup where Croatia finished third.
But won’t players from two rival clubs stick to themselves in the national team? “I have heard about that happening in England, but for us the shirt and the national anthem knocked out whatever differences we may have had,” said Stimac.
Constantine said lack of time, which prevents a national team coach from working on a player in the way Enrique did with Ousmane Dembele, shifting him from a right-side attacker to a false nine, is usually not compensated by the availability of the country’s best players.
“If you are picking players from the Premier League, yes. I have had to work harder with most of the national teams,” said the former Rwanda and Sudan head coach.
That segued into what Stimac said. If you are not a top team, you are not going to improve just by playing in every FIFA window, he said. The rare highs for India – winning LG Cup in 2002, the final round of Asian Cup qualifiers in 2022 and winning three tournaments in 2023 – preceded long preparatory camps.
At clubs, players can build relationships as Lewandowski and Raphinha have said explaining the Barcelona front three’s tally of 92 goals in all competitions this term. Given the nature of international engagements where players meet 10-12 times a season, often 72 hours before kick-off, such connections are unlikely.
That is why national team coaches tend to be more pragmatic in their approach.
It is what has made Deschamps stand out in 13 years as France head coach during which he has played two successive World Cup finals, winning one. He has got millionaires and superstars to play the way he wants, said Constantine. “For that the coach needs to be transparent and honest.”
It is what Brazil will be hoping Carlo Ancelotti can bring to the national team.
Didier Deschamps
Champions League
Kolkata
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