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Happy to wear their medals if they win , but what about when they lose?
Most of the top coaches in world sport will pay each other a visit at some point to discuss and look for any new opportunities. Some may be surprised that Pep watches rugby and other sports to learn of new ways to unlock defences of other teams. They are all ball games and have many similarities in their approach.
Eddie Jones met Pep in 2015 and spent a practice session at Bayern Munich followed by a good hour and a half discussing tactics. Eddie didn't know it at the time that Pep followed rugby closely as it was about the ball movement unlocking the defence. Pep's philosophy is about a quick game moving the ball around creating space for players to move into them.
Rugby is fairly similar in that regard as set plays are used to create space giving the players time to use the ball wisely. There is less time when a shallow defensive line is used, but there is room behind it if planned carefully. Rugby is different to football as it is a full contact sport but the fundamentals of moving the ball into open space remains exactly the same to football.
When coaches get together it isn't about various coaching methods but more about tactical and how they see the game. Getting an insight into how a top coach sees something is creating a different angle and awareness you might not have seen before. Players can endure a lot more physical pressures than what they might think and is one reason why Pep pushes players to near breaking point.
I do like to see the contrasts that coaches bring to a team and Eddie Jones has definitely added a new dimension to the England squad. The one attribute of arrogance I will touch on now but will raise in a future post at some point. Eddie made his team arrogant on purpose as he felt it gave them the edge over other teams. This is the only point I do disagree with on his coaching methods.
If we watch how England play their rugby there is some comparisons that could be down to Pep's influence. The ball is moved quickly through players hands and the phases are maintained keeping possession for long periods of time. Against the All Blacks this is exactly how they thrashed them suffocating them over long periods of play. The team had the patience to attack for long periods of time holding onto possession. This is exactly how Barcelona played under Pep and the blue print was used by Eddie in the England game plan.
Not every team can do this however as you need to have those types of players in your squad and can only be used against certain types of teams. Using this style against South Africa with the team they had would never work as a different approach was needed. Having possession against a team like that would only put more pressure on your selves and mistakes would happen as they are physically bigger and stronger than you are.