33 Years On The Touchline

By Mr Ernst Middendorp

33 years on the touchline – what changes in a coach’s mind?

How did your understanding of coaching evolved from instruction toward perception, decision-making and responsibility.

When I started, I believed that being a good coach meant having solutions, giving instructions and organising the team as precisely as possible. With experience, I have moved more towards observing, understanding

and creating the right environment for players to find solutions themselves.

I intervene differently today. Not every mistake needs correction. Not every situation needs my voice. Sometimes the best coaching decision is to observe and allow the player to solve the problem. I have also become less attached to formations and more interested in principles, relationships and behaviours. Football is too dynamic to believe that a system can provide all the answers. And perhaps most importantly, after 33 years I have more humility towards the game. Players will see things I don't see. Assistants will challenge my thinking. Opponents will create problems I didn't anticipate. Experience hasn't made me believe that I know football. It has made me understand how much there is still to learn about it.

Europe vs Africa.

What did coaching in Germany, South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia and elsewhere teach you about culture, leadership, player behaviour and why methods cannot simply be copied from European football.

Working in Germany, South Africa, Ghana, Ethiopia and other environments taught me one fundamental lesson: you cannot simply copy and paste a football methodology from one country into another. The principles of the game are universal. Space, time, decision-making, intensity, organisation, transition: football doesn't change because you cross a border. But the environment changes completely. The culture is different. Communication is different. The relationship with authority is

different. The educational background of players is different. Infrastructure, resources, expectations and even the understanding of time and responsibility can be different.

As a coach, I must understand that before you start demanding that people adapt to you. Earlier in my career, I probably arrived more strongly with the idea: this is how we are going to work. Today, I first want to understand: Who are the people? What is already here? What are their strengths? What is missing? And how can we build something that works in this environment? At the same time, cultural understanding cannot become an excuse for lowering standards. That is equally important. Respect the environment but maintain standards. Africa has also taught me enormously about talent. There is creativity, spontaneity, resilience and an ability to find solutions that we should be very careful not to coach out of

players by simply importing European structures. So, it is not Europe versus Africa.

Take the knowledge. Understand the environment. Protect the player's natural qualities. Adapt the methodology, but don't compromise the standards.

“The game is the teacher.”

What is your conviction around perception before action, decision before execution, principles before systems, and what that means on Monday morning on the training pitch.

“The game is the teacher” means that I don't want to constantly provide players with solutions. I want to create situations in training where they must recognise the problem, decide and experience the consequence. Football starts with perception. Before a player passes, presses, turns or runs, he must see and understand what is happening around him. Therefore, for me, perception comes before action, decision before execution. That changes the role of the coach. On Monday morning, I don't

want to begin with an exercise because it looks good or because another successful coach is using it. I start with the game. What happened in our last match? What problems did we have? What will the next opponent potentially ask from us? What behaviour do we want to develop? Then I create a training environment that brings these situations back to the players.

Numbers, spaces, direction, rules and opposition create the problem. The players must find solutions. Of course I coach. I intervene, question, guide and sometimes give very clear information. But I don't want my voice to become the most dominant element of the training session. If I constantly stop the exercise and tell the player what he should see, where he should move and which pass he should play, perhaps I create a very organised training session, but I may also create a player who is waiting for my answer. That is why I believe in principles before systems. A formation gives players starting positions. Principles help them solve the constantly changing situations of the game. My job is not to make the game predictable for the player. My job is to prepare the player for the unpredictability of the game.

Managing people rather than formations.

Difficult players, owners, pressure, losing streaks, dressing-room dynamics, assistants, conflict and the decisions you would make differently today. This is particularly aligned with Schäuble's format.

After more than 32 years, I am less interested in being identified as a 4-3-3, 4-2-3-1 or 3-5-2 coach. I am not married to a formation. Before you manage a formation, you manage people. You deal with players who are confident and players who are insecure. Players who need information and players who need freedom. Players who are playing, players who are sitting

on the bench and players who believe they should be playing. You deal with assistants who need responsibility, you deal with owners who have expectations, you deal with supporters who want results immediately and you deal with a dressing room that can change very quickly after two or three defeats. That is the reality of coaching.

I have learned that you cannot communicate with everybody in the same way. Leadership is not treating everybody identically. It is understanding what different people need while keeping the standards and principles consistent. I have also learned more about conflict. Earlier in my career, I felt strongly that I had to win certain arguments. Today I ask myself: What is important here? Is this about the team, the performance and our standards or is it about my ego? That doesn't mean avoiding confrontation. Sometimes leadership requires a very clear decision, and sometimes people will not like that decision. But clarity is more important than popularity. The same applies to my staff. I don't need assistants who simply confirm what I already think. I need people who observe, challenge and bring information that can improve the decision.

In the end, the head coach must decide but he doesn't have to pretend that every good idea came from him. And losing teaches you more about leadership than winning. When results disappear, everybody looks for explanations. The coach must remain clear, objective and consistent instead of becoming emotional and changing everything. Would I make some decisions differently today? Absolutely. Experience should change you. But the biggest change is probably this: Earlier, I spent more time thinking about how to manage the team. Today, I understand that you first must understand the people who make the team.

From professional coaching to developing the next generation.

Why, after decades in professional football, your attention has shifted toward talent identification, coach development and creating a genuine pathway for young players.

After more than three decades in professional football, my attention has shifted, but my ambition has not. For many years, my responsibility was very immediate: prepare the team, improve performance, win the next match, manage pressure and deliver results. That environment teaches you enormously. But over time I started asking a different question: where do our professional players come from, and what happened to them before they arrived at our door?

Particularly in South Africa, the fundamental problem is not a lack of talent. The question is whether we identify that talent early enough, whether we provide the right environment and whether there is a genuine pathway from potential to performance. And that pathway cannot only be about finding players. We must develop coaches. The quality of the player's environment is directly connected to the quality of the coach working with him every day. That is why my thinking is very simple: develop the coach, improve the environment, develop the player. Talent identification also must become broader. We cannot continuously look in the same places, around the same clubs and in the same major centres.

A talented young player should not have fewer opportunities simply because he was born 200 kilometres away from where everybody is scouting. But development is also bigger than producing professional footballers. Every training session and every competition is an opportunity to develop responsibility, resilience, communication, decision-making and respect. Football can be a classroom for life. That is what interests me now. I can use what professional football has taught me, including the mistakes, the pressure, the successes and the failures, and bring that knowledge to an earlier stage of the player's journey. Because perhaps the greatest contribution after 33 years is not only what you can still achieve yourself. It is what you can help the next generation become.