It’s taken me a while to come to this conclusion because there are so many different reasons that there would be a decline in a team’s performance. However, after much observation and countless games of watching under prepared teams, I can safely say that most of the time, the biggest reason a team will suffer with their team work and cohesion is the lack of training that is done together as a team during the week. Some people will say teams need to go have bonding sessions, but what I say to that is bonding sessions socially are good, but in terms of on-field performance, they do not help.

The Success Of The Team Depends On The Turn Out

The turn out at training that is. With more people at training during the week, there is a better chance to work on the passing game of the players and their roles on the field. This means that when it comes to the usual weekend game against another side, you come with a team that has had considerable bonding time on the field and the side will not lack cohesion but rather, understand all the plays and tricks that their teammates might pull. I can’t begin to express the amount of times that I have done a Ronaldinho style trick and my team mates have not seen it coming, even though I do these things all the time at training. The reason here is because it’s these duds that don’t show up to training to understand how I and other people play and let the team down.

Training Sessions Are Very Important

If you didn’t realise this already, these training sessions that you have with your team are one of the most influential parts about playing football and it is with your team that you will shine. I have never heard of any footballer getting anywhere by individual brilliance alone. Ronaldinho is great individually, but if you see most of his plays involve his team mates, the one-two passes, the back heel flicks and other manoeuvres involve a team mate in some way, and that is what makes the techniques Ronaldinho does, look so great. Your team members are like your arms and legs, they allow you to do a lot more different things that you could not normally do without them. So, if there are any coaches reading this, whether your players show up to training or not can mean the difference between a loss or win on game day, so control the situation.