An attempt to quantify a lack of trying to help players understand why effort counts.

1. Football: What happens
when you don’t try?

2. It’s a very important question. Unlike
individual sports, there can be a sense
of diffused responsibility. You are
entirely responsible for your
performance and how that impacts the
result.

3. It’s YOU versus HIM. Your output determines who is
going to come out on top.
YOU HIM

4. If we go into a match of 11v11, it’s no longer so
simple.

5. We know that if a goalkeeper doesn’t try, then that
team is going to have a real problem.

6. But what about the other players?

7. But what about the other players?
In a 90 minute game, the ball is in play for around 60
minutes. In those 60 minutes, each player will only have
possession of the ball for around 1 minute each, slightly
more or less depending on positions and ability. For some
players, it’s mainly headers, blocks, and tackles.
With only 1 minute on the ball, the first question is, what
do you do for the other 89?
That 1 minute on the ball is where many come alive. We
love to see the shots, the dribbles, the passes, etc. but as
we can see, that’s only a small part of an individual’s
overall game.

8. Just how important are you?
What about responsibility? Forgetting “luck”, which we can
describe as an event or occurrence outside of our control
which impacts us negatively, we’ll say that each team is
50% responsible for the result. This makes each individual
player around 4.5% responsible for the result.
That’s very little ownership. You wouldn’t be happy with
owning 4.5% of a house, a car, or even a pizza. Your direct
input and contribution to the game is often very hard to
see.
Goals, assists, saves, blocks etc. are easy to see and
recognise. If a player scores the winning goal, it does not
necessarily mean they have been the best player. They
could have been absent for the entire game and then show
up at the right moment to take all the glory.

9. Imagine just one player gives up…
The reds have lost a player because he simply can’t be
bothered anymore. The team is losing, no one is passing to
him, it’s late in the game etc. whichever pathetic excuse it
might be, that burden now falls on his other ten
teammates.
The 10 versus the 11 have to each increase their output to
make up for the lack of effort from the teammate that has
given up. Now, each player has to work a little harder. They
have to cover more ground between them despite being a
player less. This means extra sprints, blocks, challenges,
and less options. Players are going to tire quicker now that
their workload has increased.

10. Imagine just one player gives up…
The reds have had to up their game to make up for that
one lazy individual. It’s risky, but not impossible for the
reds to continue competing with the blues. Now, the reds
have 48% of the players on the pitch versus 52% of the
blues. That 4% gives the edge to the blue team.
The thing about humans, especially kids, is that we are so
susceptible to trends and other things around us to
influence us. Imagine there is another red that is close to
giving up, he will now be more likely to give up having seen
another of his teammates do so already. If that second
player gives up, to make it 9v11, it becomes 45% versus
55%. Now there’s a difference of 10% between numbers on
the pitch.
We’d all take a 10% increase. A 10% increase in wages, in
height, in speed, in strength. It’s now becoming a
significant chunk.

11. Imagine just one player gives up…
It doesn’t look like much, but that’s what can happen, and
in a game of inches, with close scorelines, you want to give
yourself every advantage possible. Or, you want to
disadvantage yourself as little as possible. If you were
offered the chance to start the game with 9 or with 11
players, we all know which one you’d take. So why shoot
yourself in the foot like that?
It takes just one goal to win a game. A goal can come at any
moment. Any pass, error, bad tackle, lost challenge, missed
header etc. could be the one that leads to the goal. That
time you decide to not track a run or to duck out of a
challenge, that could be the moment they score. And just
look at the people that you let down by doing that.

12. Imagine just one player gives up…
If players are having to work at 100% when it is 11v11, if a
team has two players give up and stop trying, it means that
the remaining 9 hard working players will have to work at
122% to make up for it.
Pretend that it’s 2-0 with 20 minutes to go. 2 players
decide that we’re not going to win today and throw in the
towel. For those 20 minutes, the remaining 9 (if no one
else decides to give up), have to operate at 122%, which is
not sustainable, especially so late in the game. It puts them
at greater risk of injury, fatigue, burnout, giving up, or
conceding more goals. A team player does not do that to
their teammates. A hard working, committed individual
with the drive to succeed, never, ever does that.

13. Let’s talk in terms of distance
In an adult game of 11v11, the ten outfield players will
cover large distances roughly around 10k. For argument’s
sake, we will pretend all ten of them should be running 10k
in order to be operating at close to their best. Too much
more than that and perhaps performance starts to decline.
In this scenario, all ten outfield players on both teams are
working very hard and have covered 10k in their game. It
means that one team combined is running 100k. So there’s
the magic number (in rough terms). It’s not that you have
to run 100k to win the game, as the other team should be
doing that too. It’s that you should be running 100k in
order to give yourself the best chance of not losing. You
have done the minimum of what is required of you by
giving your best for the entire game.
10k

14. But as we understand, not everyone will give their
best for the entire time Every time you move into space to receive the ball, every
time you track back, every time you follow or try to lose
your marker, you are picking up metres to achieve your
10k. Pretend some players go missing for parts of the
game. Or that some players decide not to track, press, or
join in with counter-attacks. It may look more like this on
the left.
Some of the reds may still be covering hefty distances of
9.5k, but even one player failing to cover that 500m is
enough to give the opponent a 500m advantage. Because
all the blues try their best all the time, just by doing what is
required of them, they have edged in front of the reds. This
could now be 91k v 100k. That’s an extra 9k of tracking,
covering, moving into space that they are doing, and you
are not.
The reds that aren’t slacking have to pick up extra metres
to cover for those that are. This now pushes them into 11k
or 12k, and performance can start to decline due to
fatigue. This is sometimes referred to in football as
diminishing returns.
10k

15. The law of diminishing returns
The law of diminishing returns tells us that we’re probably
not going to be able to PERFORM at our best for the entire
game. Even if you were to give 100% for 90 minutes,
fatigue will set in. You may still be running at full speed and
getting stuck into challenges, but your decision making will
be slower, and your legs will be heavier, affecting execution
of technique.
With a break for half-time, we can rejuvenate briefly. This
graph shows why a lot of goals are scored just before half-
time and full-time. We’re tired, even though we’re giving it
everything, we will become tired.
0
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40
60
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120
0-15 15-30 30-45 45-60 60-75 75-90
Performance Quality
Performance Quality
MinutesMinutes
Half-time

16. The effect of motivation on performance
The annoying thing about trying to develop young players
is that for many, the only metric by which you can
determine the quality of performance is by the result
(remember that an individual is only 4.5% responsible for
the result). It’s very hard to keep track of individual stats
such as interceptions, pass completion, tackles, shots on
target etc. It’s even harder to keep track of what are known
as “non events” in that it didn’t actually happen. For
example, the striker didn’t receive the ball because the
defender was marking him tightly, and as such, the
midfielder decided to pass to a different player in a less
dangerous position. This is the important stuff that goes
largely unnoticed and without praise or reward.
When losing, too many players let their heads drop. They
can’t wait for the final whistle. Even if there is time
remaining, they have clocked out and are done for the day.
They remove themselves from the game because they are
no longer trying, meaning that their team is only playing
with ten players.
0
20
40
60
80
100
120
0-15 15-30 30-45 45-60 60-75 75-90
Effort Levels
Effort Levels
2-0 down
Minutes Minutes

17. How good is your best?
When trying hard, it can mean a lot of different things to
different people. For some, they work until they become
uncomfortable. When they start to sweat, feel out of
breath, or feel pain, that’s enough for them. To them,
genuinely believed they have worked hard. They wouldn’t
be sweating otherwise, right?
What that means is that they have reached the edge of
their comfort zone, but are not prepared to go further.
Why stop there? Nothing worth achieving was ever
achieved from within the comfort zone. You have to leave
the comfort zone if you want to push, extend, and
challenge yourself.
Are you prepared to get muddy? Are you prepared to take
a ball in the face? Are you prepared to bust a gut for a ball
you may not even get to? Are you prepared to challenge an
opponent twice your size?
20%
40%
60%
80%
100%
Leaving the comfort zone
Kind of working hard
What’s required

18. But it’s not so straightforward
Where some players may think they are trying hard, are
they trying hard enough? Do they realise how much their
lack of effort is affecting the team? Do they know just how
much more they can contribute?
We’re all prone to quieter spells during the game, or bad
patches. It’s difficult to operate at 100% for the entire
game, but that doesn’t mean we shouldn’t strive for that
level of output.
On the left, we see the work rate of the individual
members of the two teams. By having just a few players
drop their games, it brings down the level of the whole
team. The blue team are working on average 10% harder
than the red team. So even though it is 11v11, the reds are
essentially playing with 9v11.
90%
78%
95%
91%
86%
84%
71%
74%
80%
72%
76%
92%
90%
94%
95%
89%
91%
97%
93%
92%
86%
88%
897 1007
92%82%

19. How does that affect life on the pitch?
Two obvious examples. Samir Nasir ducking
out the way of a free-kick against Manchester
United. Robin van Persie scored that free-kick
which won the game for United in the 93rd
minute of the game away to Man City.
Ozan Tufan caught sorting his hair out rather
than closing down Luka Modric. The ball
travelled to Modric in the air (trigger to press),
and he volleyed it into the keeper’s bottom
right corner. This Euro 2016 game finished 1-0
to Croatia.

20. What are the less obvious examples?
This red player here decides he can’t be bothered to track
back and get into a defensive shape. That means that the
reds will be defending with one player less. Right now, it
looks relatively easy for the blues to be able to play out
from the back. The other CB has been able to come across
into space since the red CF won’t track him. The second red
CF won’t press because it would be pointless without the
help of a teammate. As he won’t press, the rest of the red
team will not squeeze high to press together. And while the
reds are slightly more vulnerable, the blues have more time
to get their players into useful positions. Right now, there is
nothing to prevent a diagonal switch to the blue LB.
What if the red CF was here? Or here? That provides a
much better shape to launch a press. The others will then
press with him.
If one player doesn’t do their job properly, it’s impossible
to press high. And then the game plan has been thrown
right out of the window.

21. Don’t conserve your energy on the counter
The reds have cut out a pass in midfield. The CM is now
driving forward at the defence as the blues desperately try
to recover. He can slot through two CFs, and there is the
RM and LM busting their guts to get forward in a good
position to receive. Because of his multiple passing options
in many directions, it’s hard to close down the CM. The
blues are struggling to make play predictable. Which pass
do they try to block?
The RM is probably the least likely to receive the ball, but
as he is charging forward, he’s making that backline
consider him. He is affecting their shape and decision
making.

22. Don’t conserve your energy on the counter
This is the exact same situation, only this time the red LM
and RM have decided to not support the counter. This
means our red CM carrying the ball forward only has two
options in advance of him. Two options rather than four
make the reds much more predictable.
All that the blues would need to do to diffuse this situation
is for that close-by blue CM to recover enough to screen
the pass to the red CF on the right. Then it’s going to be a
very special through ball for the red CM to put the left CF
through on goal.
Of course, for a counter, it’s not just the wingers that
should be bombing forward. They are being used in this
example because of the team’s shape when the ball was
won. If the ball was won deeper, it would be expected for
more players to be joining in.
What are the excuses? I’m tired, it’s too far, he might not
pass to me… wah wah wah.

23. Nor when defending the counter
In this situation we see the reds attacking a corner. Just like
we have seen numerous times in the Champions League,
Bayern and Real Madrid are lethal from this start point.
They attack and full speed and flood their opposition.
In this scenario, the blues start their counter-attack. It’s
late in the game, and they want the win. The reds that
went forward are tired. The cross was terrible and the taker
is an idiot. And now, as the blues surge forward, it looks like
they might score. All you are going to do is wish your
teammates luck.
The blues get closer to the goal, but the keeper pulls off a
miraculous save. The ball comes back out to the edge of
the box and is free. Who is going to get there first? The
blues. In goes the Frank Lampard run from the blue CM
who is unopposed because the reds decided they didn’t
want to track him. It was likely the blues would score, until
the keeper pulled off that save. Then it was definite the
blues would score, because no reds were there to stop
them.

24. Transitions are key The reds are in a great shape. They have width and depth.
The players are spread out well and the player on the ball
has many passing options short and long. The Red CB plays
into the marked red CM. Already, a few things are wrong.
By playing to a marked player, he is asking a lot of his
teammate. If the two red CMs can combine, it’s a slick Up-
Back-Through. The receiver should be coming shorter to
receive, but decides to wait for the ball instead. He
somehow manages to receive it, and instead of holding or
bouncing, he tries to turn into three defenders, and
inevitably loses the ball. He’s going to complain about the
pass and how the second CM didn’t support. What a bunch
of idiots. Nevertheless, the reds have lost the ball and find
themselves 3v6 in this central area with huge gaps all
around them.
The other reds are not at fault here, they didn’t cause the
loss of possession. But it’s their TEAM that will concede if
they don’t react quick enough. They need to recover
immediately, and to be compact horizontally (narrow) in
order to close the gaps and defend the central areas. If you
can’t be bothered to make those recovery runs, you
shouldn’t be upset when your team concedes a goal.

25. It needs to become habitual
What we practice is what we get good at. Practice doesn’t
make perfect, because if you are practicing with improper
technique, it will not be perfect. Practice makes
permanent. So if you slack in training, if you cut corners,
duck out of challenges, don’t track back, don’t provide
passing options to the player on the ball in training, you
will also be doing those things in the games. It becomes a
habit.
Training is where you learn how to win games and how to
become champions. The notion of some players that they
don’t try their best in training because they are saving it for
the game is an absolute fallacy, and is the war cry of the
mediocre. How can you improve your ability to play at
100% (the game) if you practice at 50% (training)?
The intensity must be realistic. Learning patterns of play,
shape, and organisation, it may as well be conducted on
the tactics board or with cones if players are not going to
press, challenge, and support with full intensity.

26. It’s useless without realism
For every minute you waste by not training hard, you are
letting your opponents get ahead of you. You are falling
behind them. Pretend that every team in your division
trains for the same amount you do. Let’s call it three hours.
If you spend the first fifteen minute drill of each session
talking, messing around, showing off etc. that’s fifteen
minutes of improvement your opponents have gone ahead
of you. View it like reps at the gym. Every minute is worth
one rep of a weight. Your football ability and decision
making is a skill just like any other muscle, so treat it as
such. Do more. Do better.
In this typical evening of training, we notice that your
opponents are not wasting any time. They are giving each
drill their full attention and effort. No talking, interrupting,
low intensity. You are doing that for some of the time, but
not all of it. So we do a comparison of which team had the
most benefit from training. Out of 90 minutes, your
opponents went hard for the full hour and a half. You only
went hard for 60 minutes. They are now 30 reps better
than you.
Rondo
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27. Every inch counts
Let’s look at a ten week period (just over two months) of
two trainings per week and one game. That gives you a
potential of four and a half hours of football. Your
opponents, as they are dedicated footballers that try hard
and want to improve, do not waste even a minute. You, on
the other hand, only work hard for about an hour per
training, and 70 minutes per game. The rest is wasted time
that you can never get back.
Your opponents get 2,700 minutes of relevant and useful
football practice that will improve their ability,
understanding, and aid their development. You, on the
other hand, since you enjoy slacking, only get 1,900
minutes of development in that same time. Your
opponents get 45 hours of development in ten weeks,
whereas you get 32 hours. This is the same timeframe,
doing the same training. That’s a difference of 13 hours. In
a ten month season, that becomes 225 hours v 160 hours.
Or 13,500 reps v 9,600 reps. Which team is going to have
the stronger football muscles?
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28. But what can I do? I am just one person!
As was mentioned earlier, it takes just one player not trying
to bring out the worst from the rest of the team. It’s a
nudge. One player lowers their game, others will follow.
What about if training isn’t relevant to you? You’re an
attacker and it’s a defending topic. It’s boring. You won’t
need this in your game. Well, of course you will. Everyone
is a defender. When the team is out of position, that team
is the defending team, and as such, you are all defenders in
that moment.
Even so, if the coach is prioritising just one or two players,
shouldn’t you still be working hard and paying attention? It
needs to be realistic and intense, or else the practice
session won’t benefit them. If you could make your
teammates better, you would, wouldn’t you? They would
be more likely to make interceptions, play better passes,
help create scoring opportunities. You could benefit from
that. You owe it to them and to yourself to give your
absolute best, no matter what.

29. Is working hard enough? Absolutely not!
No. Hard work alone won’t suffice. We need to be
clever with it too. You need to have the bravery and
the confidence to try it. Everything done in training
and in games is to make you a better player for the
future. Winning a game as a youngster may be fun,
but does it actually make you a better player? It has to
be done in the right way. If you’re not challenging
yourself, you’re not improving. If it’s easy, you stay
inside your comfort zone and you don’t grow.
Hard work beats talent when talent doesn’t work
hard.

30. Last slide! Get working! Is training enough? Absolutely not. If you want to be the
best, you need to be working hard at that dream every
single day. Every little thing you do can either positively
or negatively affect your development. You don’t just
win in games and in training. You win every single day
with every single choice you make. Get up early and
practise or stay in the warm comfy bed? Go to bed early
to rest for the game ahead or stay up late? Have a good
breakfast to prepare for the match or skip it altogether?
Two or three hours a week is not enough. You need to be in
the garden, at the park, playing at break time. You need to
be watching games to increase your understanding. You
need to be analysing and evaluating your performance and
the performance of others. Think, do, review, think do,
review, think, do review. It’s constant. You have a great
opportunity, seize it. Be the best that you can be.