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Steve McClaren meets Barca coach, Frank Rijkaard

For [Fabio] Capello it's going to be difficult, for anybody, because the English way of playing is ingrained: their attitudes, their commitment is always there and they play for 95 minutes non-stop and never give up, but tactically I think we can improve.

Steve McClaren
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Steve McClaren told Revista de la Ligathat England need to learn from other football cultures in order to improve, both technically and tactically.

The former England manager travelled to Barcelona with Guillem Balague to take a look around the training grounds of Barcelona and Espanyol.

There he spoke to Barca boss Frank Rijkaard and Espanyol coach Ernesto Valverde to find out about their coaching methods.

Speaking exclusively to Revista, McClaren said: "One of the strengths of the Spanish game is technique and tactical awareness.

"That is from a very, very young age - from 8 years upwards they are taught technique and tactics.

"They're schooled and they study, and they really take those kind of things very seriously. And I think we can learn from that.

"The players can learn, but first and foremost the coaches have to learn.

"They have to learn to be able to teach that, what to teach, how to teach these youngsters so that, yes we retain our strengths in the English game, but we also say 'well, can we improve technique, can we improve tactics?'

"One of the things that interests me is the foreign coaches: what is the process that they go through to get their qualifications, to get their experience?

"To be able to transfer that to not just 8-year-olds but also to 25-26-year-olds who are established in their game."

McClaren believes that foreign imports to the English game have improved the standard of play in the Premier League but feels that young English players need to become more tactically aware as their foreign counterparts are.

He added: "I think that's changing because of the influx of foreign players and foreign managers within clubs, I think that's changed a lot.

"Foreign players, from my days at Derby 10-15 years ago certainly improved me as a coach - the way they questioned me, tactics, everything that they were doing, so you had to be spot on."

Improve

McClaren believes that the England players he worked with had the will to win but lacked tactical nous and the technique to prosper at international level.

"I think for [Fabio] Capello it's going to be difficult, for anybody, because the English way of playing is ingrained: their attitudes, their commitment is always there and they play for 95 minutes non-stop and never give up, but tactically I think we can improve.

"We have played a lot of 4-4-2 football over the years, playing in straight lines, whereas I think the game is developing and we're learning that - that it's different and we have to play in different spaces and different areas.

"I know these players well and they want to learn, and they want to improve - every player does.

"To stand still in football is to go backwards because we're always going forwards.

"The English game needs to improve; the English players need to improve.

"It's not just now but our younger players so that in 5-10 years we have the technique and tactical awareness of the Spanish, Italian and other cultures and bring that into our game. Imagine all that together? Along with the strengths we have it would be quite a formidable team.

"But it has to start somewhere and it has to start pretty soon.

"We have to develop our players but first of all we have top develop our coaches.

"So it all goes back to: how do these coaches develop in Spain, in Italy, in France, in Germany. What apprenticeship did they have, what coaching courses did they go through, what is the curriculum that they have to do? And I think maybe we can learn from that.

"I think everybody can learn from each other, not a whole thing but maybe one or two little things that I can take back and improve me as a coach."