Rui Faria: Coaches must adapt systems to players in their squad

Faria worked alongside Mourinho for 17 years, winning 23 major trophies, including the Champions League with Porto and Inter Milan and six league titles across three different countries, before they parted ways in 2018.

He says flexibility has to be the key for a Head Coach to succeed.

“We have examples in the Premier League recently where a new coach arrives to a big club and he was defending a way of doing things or his philosophy with new trends,” he told our audience at St George’s Park last autumn.

“It seems there is only one football now – that is high pressure, building short or the zonal with blockers or markers in defensive corners. 

“Sometimes the team doesn’t allow you to do that, even if you think you can do that or even if that is your philosophy,” he said. “You look to the people you have in your hands and you say ‘can I do this?’.”

‘This mistake happens a lot’

He added: “You need to believe – if you don’t believe, who is going to believe? If you don’t believe you can do it, how are you going to tell the players they need to believe they can do it?

“In the example that I am giving, it is not nice to speak who the team was, it was impossible to do high pressure with that team – impossible – with the players that were there. But because that was the main idea from the coach and he wanted to show to everyone that was possible to do, it didn’t work.

“This is a point where you need to step back and say ‘maybe what I believe or the idea that I had I could do, it doesn’t fit in this context’.

“This mistake happens a lot.”

Faria was one of many prestigious speakers at TGG Live 2024 and a dozen of the full presentations are now available to watch for TGG Members.

We have another collection of high-level speakers at this year’s live event at Old Trafford on October 7th and 8th.

You can see a list of speakers and the full programme for the event and buy tickets, which have been frozen at 2024 prices, here.

‘I never see data as an answer or a decision’

In his panel discussion last year, Faria went on to speak about the use of data in the game and said he did not foresee AI or an equivalent ever replacing anything for which a coach has responsibility.

He said he felt data was a tool to be used alongside coaching and management.

“I think data is there to complement or to help you with your work and I think the most important thing overall is the knowledge you have with the specificity of the context where you are to give some sense to data,” he said.

“I never see data as an answer or a decision. I think data should make you question your work, try to reflect about your work, try to find the answers – it’s the way I like to see it.

“There are so many things that are not measurable in football and I want to believe they will last at the end. I think there is so much on decision[-making] during a match – by experience you always try to figure out what will be the problems you face.

“Imagining at half-time you are losing 1-0, the last minute the opposition score, minute 75 whatever – so if you try to prepare yourself and give answers to the possibilities that you can face, I think we are always much more prepared.

“This is trying to predict the future. You don’t know what will be the game, what the problems you will have – but you try always to get the best image of everything.”

You can hear more from Faria and an in-depth insight into his partnership with Mourinho on Episode #43 of the TGG Podcast below.