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BILL SHANKLY revolutionised Liverpool Football Club. The legendary Scot wrestled control of team selection from the directors and set about transforming the club's fortunes.

New signings Ian St John and Ron Yeats inspired the Reds to the Second Division title in 1962 and in his first column for the ECHO that summer, reproduced in new book 'Shankly: The Lost Diary', the manager underlined the importance of his backroom staff and a training regime tailored to an individual's needs.

“I was most fortunate in having a really first class team in Reuben Bennett, Bob Paisley and Joe Fagan, and no praise can be too high for their efforts,” he wrote.

“Between us, we set about preparing a plan for improving the training routine and the facilities which at that time existed at Melwood.

“We reorganised the whole training system. Every day we conferred and discussed training and before we left for the training ground, every phase and detail was planned so that we could move quickly from one function to another.

“We have found it beneficial to train in groups for a number of reasons. Firstly, in this way we can more easily assess the requirements of individuals and secondly we can group together those who require heavier or lighter work.

“It may be a new thought to some people that different players require different exercises and quantity of training, but such is the case.

“One of the most difficult problems in training a team faces is to size up the requirements of individuals to reach and retain peak fitness. Does, for instance, a comparatively slightly built man like Jimmy Melia require less training than a heavily muscled chap like Ronnie Moran? Or does he require more? We have found that Moran does not need the amount of work which Melia does, in spite of his size.

“This is the sort of problem we have to meet and I mention it only to show that we do everything we can to assess players, not as a whole, but as individuals and work them accordingly.

“Nevertheless, you can accept it as fact that every one of them train hard, but get a rest from the grind when we think that a rest is required for their benefit.

“You must realise that it is never easy to go ‘over the top’ in training with staleness resulting. The whole art is to reach fitness and maintain it.

“Another aspect of training in which I believe in implicitly is that of tactical talks. In order to remove any misapprehension which you may have about the subject, I want to make it perfectly clear that this does not imply it is my function to stand in front of a blackboard and harangue the lads.

“A tactical session is more like a good discussion in the Forces with me as the officer leading it. Just as a good officer realised that he was not the only one present who knew anything about the subject under discussion, so I try to be at a tactical talk.

“I start the ball rolling, but anybody who has anything to say knows that he is expected to say it. When necessary, I become chairman and call the meeting to order, but I have found this method gets results because everyone has his chance of voicing his opinion on any suggestions or move.

“If I have emphasised my ideas and the problems with which I had to deal, it is only because I want to make it clear that my whole aim from the start has been to have pre-arranged plans both for training and match play.”