Inside the Academy: Dave Hughes on U21s coaching

What was your first route into coaching?

"I was a young professional, playing as an apprentice at Aston Villa. I had a short career, retired with injury, and was always aware of the impact my youth-team coach had on me, as an individual, not just in a football sense. He was an inspirational character. And that always carried a great deal of weight for me, really. And so, I guess, when I retired, I loved football. I'd always wanted to be a coach. I did bits and pieces, then started my coaching badges and eventually secured a job. I now find myself at Manchester United, which is the pinnacle for youth development really. The history attached to it here is unrivalled."

What was the reason that youth-team coach inspired you?

"Good question. You always felt he wanted the best for us. He was a really good teacher who had really, really high standards. He let you know if you didn't hit those standards. He taught us about the game, but also about the importance of being a good person and a good role model for others."

Are those the values that you try to instil yourself?

"It looks a bit different today [but] I think those values will carry young people a long way. They're not just standards of of successful footballers. The importance of discipline you could say is one of the key factors of success in any walk of life, not just football. That's life, you know? Humility, honesty, all of those parts come before what football may stand for. And I think they've always been something which have been really, really important for me. I would hope that the young people I've been fortunate enough to work with and try to help and support would see that those have been evident in the way we've tried to teach them."

We've watched from afar and noticed you often speak individually to the players. What's the importance of those individual interactions, and what language do you use?

"Simplicity is key. It has to be relevant and understandable. Development takes time and so the conversations I have with the players must be thoughts that are evident [to me] in some of the meetings, but that forum might not be the right time to air them. So it's about reflecting on it, thinking about when's the best time to give that thought."

And in those team briefings, what struck us is the emphasis placed on the players themselves being the problem solvers...

"Yes. It's their career. Individuals need to have the skillset to identify what that problem is and then have an understanding of what the solution looks like. It's easy to say, but they've got to do that in a split-second."

How many decisions will these players make in a game?

"I think if we looked at it in its simplest form, you're looking at your opponent, the ball, space, time, team-mates and areas of the pitch. But what that doesn't include is the added pressure that comes from playing in front of 75,000 people. I'm not sure how easy that is to quantify. It's really, really difficult. And you've then got all of the other distractions that come alongside it. So if it’s a pass that's coming in, there are really instinctive things around -- look at the bits we've just highlighted there — but then you also have to think about the speed of the pass, where it's coming in and what foot it’s coming into. Is my first touch out and forward or do I need to take it away from pressure? Which foot do I need? Do I need to manipulate my body? Can I make the angle bigger or smaller? Is it one-touch combination? Do I need to slow it down to draw someone in to play around them? It's huge, really, and you get some individuals who are really good readers of the game, who see danger, spot danger before it happens. And then you'll see really inventive, creative, innovative attacking players who sometimes can thrive on instinct.

"We had a really interesting conversation recently. We asked Jack Fletcher, 'when you're taking somebody on, what is it you're looking for?' And it was powerful. He said, 'well, if he crosses his right foot over to tackle me, I'm going to take it away with my left. If he crosses his left foot over, I'm going down the outside. If he gets too tight and dangles a foot, I'll probably try to nick it and travel.' So there's all of these points, what, 20 or 25? And we've not even considered the stage of the game. If you're 85 minutes in, are you 1-0 up or 1-0 down? What does it look like playing away from home, especially in Europe?"

"All these factors have an influence on decision-making. Our job, essentially, is to appreciate that it's really difficult and to then identify what is right and to reinforce that. And to identify what's not right and work out how to address it and how to almost recreate that scenario at times again -- whether in training or a game -- so that next time it happens, they make the right decision.

"It's really complex, isn't it? Sometimes we'll work in tighter areas so the guys have to make those decisions really quickly, quicker than the game might need them to be made. You're condensing it into a tighter area so, when it comes into a match, that's a little bit bigger, they might just have that little split-second more time. So our practices are relevant and close to the game and you're trying to get to a point where individuals are making decisions for themselves and then understanding and reflecting in the moment about whether that was the right one or wrong one and why that was the case.

"The game is the test. So you practice and you go through the week with the game on the weekend and that's the opportunity for the guys to test themselves against talented individuals in the opposition."

What are the principles of what you want from a training session?

"There are multiple outcomes to any training session. It needs to be serious, but there needs to be high levels of enjoyment. And there needs to be a stretch and a challenge, but there needs to be some support around solving that problem. If the lads don't solve it themselves really quickly, how do we guide them down that path as opposed to telling them what that looks like? So there's always possession-based elements. There's always elements regularly on quickening up attacks. I think when you look at the history and the culture of the club, fast, attacking players is part of what this club stands for. So developing talented individuals who can see that and execute it is really, really important. And then I suppose in simple terms, there's giving them what they want and giving them what they need. You know, I think if you spoke to the guys, they’d want small-sided games and a bit of finishing all the time. But what they need is to have an understanding of different sections and areas of the game. The game's changing and evolving. We have to make sure we're equipping them with skills to survive and thrive in the game in 10-15 years, not just now."

A lot of the work at this level, and it seems to be the key difference from what comes before at U16s and below that, is that you're giving instructions in the match, but you're not giving that feedback and analysis immediately. It's later when it's easy to digest…

"The game is the test. So you practice and you go through the week with the game on the weekend and that's the opportunity for the guys to test themselves against talented individuals in the opposition. What we try to do is we'll have a TV screen in the dressing room at half-time where we'll give some feedback and say ‘have a look at this, how do we solve this? What does this look like?’ And the same post-game when we come in and we've looked at the game as a whole.

"I think one of the enemies to learning would be consistently talking them through the game when they need to be in those moments. Nobody can ever tell you how to feel and how to think. What they need to know is that if it's right or wrong, they've got the support, when they come off to say ‘Actually, that was good. That was really good. But maybe you could try that next time as well.’ I think it's just how we are really, as individuals, as coaches and as a coaching team working with the boys. Tommy [Lee] is the same with the goalkeepers. Colin [Little], Adam [Lawrence] and Kevin Wolfe [goalkeeping coach] are the same with the U18s. So, I guess it definitely lends itself to having a real good teaching environment in the phase."

It’s interesting that you and the others always prefers teaching and learning rather than coaching…

"Yeah, it’s the same thing, really, isn’t it? Sometimes you think of a coach, you think of a clipboard, a whistle, a stopwatch, don't you? And we’ll have a stopwatch and a whistle, but, in the classroom, you'll have a pen and a pencil, and out on the grass, you'll have a whistle and a stopwatch. And that's, I guess, trying to make sure that we're managing that period of time. But we are teaching.

"I've not worked in a first-team environment, but I've always kind of had in my mind around, surely everybody wants to get better and wants to improve, at every level of the game. You know, getting that last ounce more out of yourself to try to be better tomorrow, than you were yesterday and today. Me and Trav sat watching a senior game this afternoon thinking what do the best players look like? What are the most talented individuals? What is it that gets the supporters off their seats? What do they look like and how do we ensure that we're continually giving the right message to the boys in our programme?

"We said it today, we're trying to help them become individuals who are talented enough to play on the world stage. That's an incredible feat for individuals to achieve. I think we're always trying to give them a pat on the back, and then at the end of that pat on the back, saying, ‘but we've still got to keep trying to get better. And that's on us, but that's also on on you guys as well as your career. And our job is to help you, and your job is to be a really good team-mate and support each other as much as you support yourself as well.’