Decision making is arguably one of the most difficult qualities for a youth player to develop. It is a quality that has a lot to do with the environment that a player is placed in: the coach, the team, the club, the methodology, the philosophy, the style. There are objectively better environments to create players and, specifically, players that can make better decisions. Of those listed influences on a youth player, what impacts their decision making the most? Without question, the coach has a huge impact on that player’s ability to grow in their decision making, good or bad. While a coach is never going to be able to teach or guide a player through every decision they will make it a game, what they can do is give players principles, patterns, and cues that they look to follow, feedback that they can take in and learn from, and suggestions for the future, but we can never (and arguably should never) make decisions for them. How players make decisions is incredibly complex; it is the quality that separates a player that might be technically gifted from a player that is truly a standout player. During my time as a coach, I have seen a trend in youth players naturally lacking the ability to make good decisions both with and without the ball. Whether this is a lack of watching the game at higher levels and digesting information gathered from that, lack of contact hour and playing free, all of that is up for debate, but without proper guidance and education, it can be something that plagues a player as they develop the other attributes of their play and sets them back from where they could ultimately go as a player.

There is a way to describe the perfect execution of each of the six techniques of the game of soccer and each technique can realistically be taught to relative perfection. Making a decision though? Is it possible to make a perfect decision? There are wrong decisions and there are right decisions, this is very true, but a decision is non-binary and there are different levels of decisions within each situation that our players encounter on the field. A good decision, a great decision? It is all much more subjective. How do players make decisions? How do we teach our players to improve this side of their game play?

How Do Players Make Decisions?

When breaking down a decision for youth players, perception→action coupling is a good place to start, but I feel it can be broken down to a greater extend and is in need of additions. The complexity of a soccer game, even when represented in the most basic form of a 1v1, leads to the player needing to process huge amounts of information and with opposition, physical limitations, and other factors, perception→action coupling does not sufficiently capture the complexity of a player’s decision making. This complexity of decision making is why it a) is so difficult to teach and b) why there are a huge amount of players that are technically gifted, but lacking decision making abilities.

How many times in a youth soccer games does it occur where the ‘action’ (execution) cannot be completed due to technical breakdowns and physical limitations? The decision might have been a good one, but the execution let the player down. How does the player react to that? Beyond perception and action, with the decision making cycle of our young players, we need to take into account the huge emphasis that feedback plays. This feedback, provided by external influencers (coaches), should weigh much higher in the player’s mind in regards to future decision making rather than the outcome of the decision. In other words, the successfulness or unsuccessfulness of the execution of that decision is not what coaches should prioritise their focus on in relation to the feedback to the player.

Perception→Decision→Execution breaks down the decision making cycle a bit more, rightly separating the ‘decision’ from the ‘execution.’ As coaches, it is important to make sure that player’s recognise that the decision itself is much, much more important than the execution of the decision. In a player’s mind, however, it may be hard for them to differentiate the decision and the successfulness (execution) of their decision. So if it is the correct decision, but the player’s technical execution let them down, it may be difficult for the player to understand that the decision they made was correct as the physical outcome was a negative one. These are moments where coaches must provide purposeful and deliberate feedback and put a huge emphasis on whether or not the player made the correct decision in that given circumstance rather than focusing on the execution.

With this, there has to be an appreciation from the coach that players are going to make the ‘wrong decision’ at times. In those moments, players also need encouragement from coach. Too many times when watching youth practices or games, coaches use empty phrases like ‘unlucky’ to describe an outcome of a player’s decision. What does that provide the player? It does not give them any information about their decision. Was it a good decision? Could the player have done more to make a better or different decision? Was it the execution that was not good enough? Players need feedback to improve their decision making. Feedback and prior outcomes are huge parts of future decision making.

What else influences the perception of players in their decision making process? They need to have conscious awareness of what is around them; the physical references on the field: space, teammates, opposition, the ball, the goals, the lines. They need to be able to recognise patterns and cues, which can both be self conscious and learned from repetitious training.

The teaching of patterns and cues are a must in any training methodology. By giving players principles and by using patterns and cues that we as coaches see in a game, it gives our players a better understanding on the game. If you think about the top coaches in the world, ones that have a very defined game model, they constantly work on patterns and cues that allow the team to play, but there is also freedom within the play.

Totally mechanised teams are useless, because they get lost when they lose their script. I also don’t like ones that only rely on inspiration of their soloists, because when God doesn’t turn them on, they are left totally at the mercy of their opponents. Marcelo Bielsa

There are certainly debates that arise from this: some may argue that patterns lead to totally robotic players while others will question whether this means unopposed passing patterns and thus, ‘how can a decision be made in an unopposed environment?’ For me, patterns teach triggers and cues, which can be used to open up new ideas in both players and coaches. When I use a passing pattern in a training session, it is not because I am insisting that I see these patterns play out in a game. Instead, I am giving the players different ideas and different cues and laying out the principles of play to look for in relation to their teammates’ touches, movements, body orientation, et cetera, and as a team we are trying our best to both understand how we will react to different situations and also trying to best understand how the opposition will react. If patterns, cues, and triggers become a part of a player’s perception within the decision making process, it can only make them a better player and allow them to become more informed and autonomous in their decision making. Romeo Jozak (former manager at Legia Warsaw and the Kuwait National team), who released the book, ‘Development Curriculum’, wrote:

Automatism or knowledge which is stored in the subconscious mind, does not limit creativity. On the contrary, automatism is what enables and enhances a great expression of creativity and a faster and better decision-making process. In contrast, a player who does not have a good enough automatism expends a lot more of their attention on the execution of individual elements, which takes from the decision-making process. Moreover, the number and quality of possible solutions in the game are limited if there are no programs (technical skills) that enable swift and proper execution. This limits players and their ability to choose, and ultimately the quality of their game. Given the accuracy and speed that is necessary in all aspects of soccer at the top level, much of the player’s performance happens subconsciously. Romeo Jozak

The above highlights two things: we should not shy away from developing technical skills because, as Jozak says, the better a player is technically, the less burdened they are when it comes to decision making and that we must give our players the framework to succeed. Giving the players an understanding of the game and the principles of play allows for better decision making and for creativity within and around that framework. We know that we cannot prepare a player for every single situation, but building a framework of principles within your game model that decisions are based around is incredibly important.

Klopp talks about giving players a ‘playbook’ during an interview in the 2019/2020 season

Conscious Decision Making

Perception→Decision→Execution. Players have to start somewhere. How do we move players from perception to decision to execution? This is where the arguments about isolated training or game related training becomes a necessary discussion. Do we work backward from execution and train players with isolated technique? Or do you put them into settings where they have to take in information, process it, and execute an action? Is there a balance? We can agree that there is a learned process. Decisions come from something players have learned, either on their own or from coaches or parents or television, or any other external factor. So at that starting point, when everything is fresh, it is safe to say that the decision making process is very feedback-driven and very conscious in the player’s mind when playing. As coaches, we work on a situation in a training session to help players make a decision in a specific situation; we want that situation and that decision to be at the forefront of the player’s mind, but what we want from there is for the information we are providing and the information they are taking in from the ‘game’ to be stored. We want it to be something that they can recall and that plays into the perception phase of the decision making cycle in a game or practice in the future. We want it to become second nature and subconscious.

When the subconscious, instinctual references enter the player’s decision making cycle after thousands of repetitions of learned and deliberate practice, players are given a greater ability to solve problems. This harkens back a bit to Jozak’s quote on automatism. At this point, where actions become subconscious for a player, we have given them a framework in which to be successful and build upon. From here, players can begin to make conscious decisions with more consequential outcomes. I see the progression of decision making as follows:

Feedback-Driven and Immediate Outcome-Based Decision Making As mentioned above, this is the starting point where coaches and other influencers can have immediate and deliberate feedback given to the players and where the decision or the idea of the decision is very much in the forefront of the player’s mind. The Perception→Decision→Execution cycle makes sense when it is applied here: ‘x is happening, that means I do y based on different things I have just been told and have seen.’ Although I see this as mostly applicable to youth players, looking at the professional game, this can also be applied to manager turnover at a club. A manager will look to instill their game model on the players, outwardly pushing decisions based on their ideas. Instinctual Decision Making The subconscious level of decision making allows player’s to operate more fluidly as they read the game. This is where a lot of good youth players find themselves. Jozak’s comment on automatism fits into this stage of decision making as the repetitions from training and games of the past build the player’s foundation and the Perception→Decision→Execution cycle again makes sense here: ‘I have done x thousands of times, it is the right solution for y.’ Conscious Decision Making The player is able to consciously process the information that has been instinctual, breaking down why they do ‘x‘ when they see ‘y‘ and contemplating other means to solving ‘y’ based on triggers, cues, patterns, and other situational tendencies that they process in the moment. From here, players can also conceive ideal outcomes from their decision allowing them to make ‘better’ decisions and can also deceive the opposition. By adding ‘visualisation’ and ‘deception’ into the player’s decision making cycle, we can better map the decision making process that we want to players to get to, where they are fully in charge of their decisions: Perception→Visualisation→Decision→Deception→Execution, ‘I

Think about the best players in the world and what separates them from other players. Messi looks to be able to do anything he wants. He can manipulate the ball with excellent technique and with his ability on (and off) the ball, he can manipulate the space, the opposition, and his teammates. He has a high level of awareness, an ability to disguise his decisions, and the ability to execute decisions consistently with excellent technique. Most players can make more conscious decisions with a lot of space and can make informed estimations about what will happen in different situations based on patterns and behavioral norms.

During the ‘Visualisation’ stage, a player sees the multiple possibilities in a situation. It is an active creation of those possibilities in the player’s head. During the ‘Deception’ phase, the player is able to disguise their decision either through the manipulation of this body in relation to their pass or with the movement of the ball. When I think about these stages, what I am calling ‘Conscious Decision Making,’ and the ability to process information quickly and to think ‘if I do this, the opposition will do that,’ I think about one of Messi’s goals against Athletic Bilbao and his brilliant use of la pausa.

Messi’s goal v Athletic Bilbao, 27 April 2013

Some may say this is purely instinct, and there are certainly moments of that like taking his touch away from the second defender, but I think a player at the height of Messi is able to make consciously making decisions here after assessing each situation, especially the la pausa moment. We typically see youth players needing a lot of room to consciously analyse situations, rather than relying on instinct, but even in tight situations like this, youth players that are, first, advanced technically, can demonstrate similar problem solving and decision making.

How We Frame Decision Making

As youth players are starting out, coaches are the most important source of feedback. Coaches are seen as an informed authority on the game. For that reason, coaches have to be excellent in how they deliver feedback to their players. This feedback is the driving force of decision making when players are starting out in a coached environment and in order to present the best information possible to their players, coaches have to understand how it is that they would frame a decision. As I said before, decisions are non-binary, especially without context. There is a spectrum of decision making and it is complex. The framework behind what makes a something closer to a ‘right’ or a ‘wrong’ decision varies from coach to coach, club to club, game model to game model. We know there are principles of play and of the game that are inherent to all and that decision making can be adopted from this, but one has to delve deeper into what actually makes a thought closer to a ‘right’ decision than and a ‘wrong’ decision with the spectrum, because as coaches we have to be prepared to educate our players on what they need to be looking for in different situations. We can never teach a player about every moment that they will encounter in a game, but we can teach them principles of our game model so that they can apply them to a situation, allowing them to get to close to a ‘right’ decision.

As mentioned, the desirable decision in a situation can change from coach to coach, club to club, and game model to game model. As coaches, everything starts with our game model; how do we want the game to look when it is being played? This informs us in the construction of our session plans and, perhaps more importantly, helps us inform players of the decisions that we expect to see in different situations and molds a ‘right’ and ‘wrong’ decision making spectrum. If I want to limit transitional moments that allow for counterattacking opportunities for the opposition, this is something I have to address from an organisational and structural perspective as well as getting this message across to my players so that they are making the ‘right’ decision in relation to our game model in the given situation and this requires information for both the moments when we are in possession, making sure we are structurally suited for our build up and for transitional moments, to the moment we lose possession.

I am only able to inform my players if I have my own understanding of what we are trying to achieve as a team. Each player’s decision making is based around the game model and it has a direct impact on the three levels of decision making: feedback drive and immediate outcome-based, instinctual, and conscious. Of the three, the instinctual decision making is influence significantly less than the other two by the game model, but over time can be altered. Whether the quality of the players allows them to be capable of making direct, truly conscious decision making is based on the level and whether they have mastered their technical abilities, harkening back to Jozek’s idea, and whether we, as coaches, have given them the right information and automatism to allow it.

Understand Your Players

You have to know what your players’ needs are and be honest about their level of ability. Different players need different moments of intervention and coaching and need to be given realistic and specific feedback. Harkening back to Jozak’s comments about a less technical player having to concentrate on so many other actions before making a decision, we have to adjust our instruction when in a situation where a player is struggling technically compared to a player that is technically proficient, but making ‘bad’ decisions. We have to make sure that we are putting our players in the most appropriate setting where they are able to have success, although not expecting success all the time, in their technical abilities because it they are not having success at the technical level, it is difficult to expect any form of true decision making.

We must also recognise that players will not be able to just figure things out on their own, as much as we are sometimes told this. Yes, we want players to be autonomous, but they need to be given the tools to succeed. We cannot allow ourselves to get into a mindset where we believe that stepping in and adjusting players is a negative. We have to allow them to make mistakes and always allow them to make decisions in a given moment, hoping that they are basing their decision in that moment on prior experience, and then give them the necessary, specific feedback on their decision.

The best players we see both at the youth level and professional level are the ones that have awareness of what is around them, are constantly checking their reference points on the field, and go through a decision making cycle from perceiving the situation to visualizing outcomes, making a decision, deceiving the opposition, and then executing their action. We see it on and off the ball from top players. We need to make sure that we are putting our players in the right situations where we can allow them the chance to make decisions and we need to make sure that we are providing out players with the right amount of information. The key to player development is developing a player’s decision making balanced with their technical abilities, without one complimenting the other, a player will get stuck in their development.