Albert Ferrer on tactics, coaching and management

Albert Ferrer, remains one of the most respected players in the modern era of the game in Spain. .

After graduating through the youth ranks of FC Barcelona, the pacy and tough-tackling defender became the club’s first choice right back for the greater part of the 1990’s and was a stalwart of the legendary Barcelona ‘Dream Team’ coached by Johan Cruyff. During his time at Barcelona ‘Chapi’ Ferrer and his team mates won five League championships, a European Cup, a Cup Winners’ Cup, two Copas del Rey, four Supercopas de España and two European Super Cups. Ferrer was also a Spanish international, winning 36 caps, and was a member of Spain’s gold medal winning football team at the 1992 Olympic Games.

Ferrer joined Chelsea in June 1998 and quickly established himself in the Premiership side, helping the club qualify for its first ever Champions League campaign in his first season.

Ever since then, Ferrer has remained a keen observer and student of the English game and he now thinks that it is time for him to turn his obvious talents to coaching and management. Working and chatting regularly with ‘Chapi’ it has become clear to me that his lifetime in the game and sound footballing education learned at FC Barcelona has equipped him with an incredible grounding in the principles of the sport . It would be a real waste if Ferrer, one of the sharpest footballing brains in the business, did not get the opportunity to pass on that knowledge to an English club…. 

Describe your perfect football team….

Albert Ferrer: My perfect team is a team based around sound tactical principles that plays a very modern brand of football. By ‘modern’ football I mean a team that plays a good passing game, with pace, that uses space cleverly….a dynamic team. It’s a style of football that has been fundamental to the principles of FC Barcelona for many years. I’m talking about the kind of football that requires intelligent players as well, a way of playing tat asks the players out on the pitch to think, to be able to adapt to situations as they present themselves – I don’t want to see a team of players who are like automatons who are incapable of taking decisions.

In terms of English football, a footballing arena that fascinates me, my perfect team would also know how to get the best out of all those typically English football virtues. Playing an attractive, passing game is nothing without adding things like aggression, an abundance of commitment and a good work ethic. I do believe that football based around technique wins nothing without a physical side; but I also believe that the physical game is nothing without sound technical ability.

A physical side can run around a lot and work hard, but it must be able to move the ball around well: the movement of the ball is fundamental o the game and a good side must always be able to create doubts in the minds of the opposition. My perfect football team is therefore a blend: one that combines the technical and the physical expertly.

A combination of Liverpool and Arsenal perhaps…

Ferrer: Yes. A combination of the pressure, organisation and work rate of Liverpool with the quality and technique of Arsenal. It is something that is very difficult to attain, it depends a great deal on the players you have at your disposal, but it is perhaps best exemplified in this current FC Barcelona side we are watching in Spain at the moment. For me, Barcelona combine fantastic technical ability with commitment and work rate: ‘modern’ football in other words.

Look at Spain during the Euros. They showed the world that in an era that was becoming increasingly dominated by a physical brand of football, that it was possible to win a major tournament by playing a technical, passing game where everyone worked hard for everyone else – but above all they were able to dominate possession and control games by their use of the ball.

If, say, a team were interested in you as a coach; what do you have to offer?

Ferrer: Well, as someone who has been a top level player for many years, without necessarily being a major star, I have learned how to get the absolute most out of my abilities. As a coach I have a great deal of faith in my own abilities and I have so much to teach and pass on to others; I love football – above all good, entertaining, football.

I’d surround myself with good people, good football people, who I have known for years. I have a great deal of confidence and a belief that at any club, say a team in the Championship, that I can help them to improve and to raise their game a level. A lot of people may say that as a young coach you have no experience, but I have absolute confidence in what I am doing.

Look at Pep Guardiola. He has broken all of the unwritten rules – he has effectively taken over at a club that is one if the biggest in the world and moved straight up from a level of football that is an equivalent to, say, the English 3rd division. The unwritten rule that says you have to have years of experience as been broken. But Pep and I have both spent years at a club like Barcelona where you are constantly learning and being educated in football at a very high level. The concepts, practices and principles learned over a lifetime in the game by Guardiola and I are , I believe, preparation enough.

Guillem Balague 11-2008