For those of us on the outside looking in, it’s tempting to view the creation of clever tactical gameplans as a manager’s only job. When a team executes an off-ball rotation between two wide players to open space for a third player out wide, or demonstrates a comprehensive understanding of pressing cues to disrupt the opposing team’s buildup, we typically applaud the coach for their ingenuity.



It’s not wrong to praise a coach for well-thought tactical ideas. In both of the above situations, the manager deserves credit for coming up with tactics that gave their team an advantage in specific moments. However, the generation of tactical ideas is not the only key to coaching success. If a coach has the best ideas in the world but cannot communicate them to their players, then what’s the use?



The optimal process for a coach is to develop ideas, explain and illustrate those ideas, and eventually imprint them on players’ minds,...