Kevin Keen has been talking about his coaching methods at Melwood.
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| koptalk.co.uk |
The Liverpool first-team coach - who was recruited in the summer following Sammy Lee's exit - lifts the lid on what goes on behind closed doors in an interview with the offal.
Keen said: "This is my 10th year coaching, and my philosophy has always been that training has got to be fun and enjoyable.
"I always enjoyed certain types of training more than others, and I think the fun element is a massive part of training every day, week in week out.
"Even though the game has become more professional, everything is on the telly and everything has got to be spot on, I still think the fun and enjoyment element has got to be there. I think Kenny is very important in that role.
"He is a fantastic leader of Liverpool Football Club, a really good manager. All of those little aspects in terms of man management, making sure you have a little bit of fun when the time is right, Kenny is fantastic at that."
So what is a typical day like at Melwood, Liverpool's training complex in West Derby.
"I normally come in between eight and half eight in the morning," explains Keen. "Kenny, Steve and I will talk about the training and sort out what we want to do, whether it's team work towards a game at the weekend, or just a bit of hard work with different ideas on different days.
"We'll then take the training session and any little bits afterwards, such as shooting with certain players certain people like Jordan, Stewart Downing, Andy Carroll, Jay and people like that.
"After training, we'll often come in, sit down, have a cup of tea and talk about the week ahead, the opponents we're playing and how we're going to play against them. We'll maybe look at some videos too and things like that.That's a typical day.
"It's not like it used to be for players when they'd turn up 10 minutes before training, train and then go home. It's a long day.
"At the start of the week we've got a good idea of how we're going to work the week. On a Monday, we'll build up to different days to do different sessions. Then, in the morning, we'll just clarify exactly what we're going to do.
"I think there is pretty much a regular plan in terms of 'Monday we might do this, Tuesday we'll do this...' but it will have a little tweak every week depending on who we're playing against. For example, maybe the defensive work might be a little bit different, or maybe we'll not do any defensive work if we want to concentrate more on something that happened the previous weekend. So little tweaks come into place depending who we're playing against, how we played the previous weekend and things we need to work on."
On working with Steve Clarke, he added: "He is meticulous in his planning - whether it's training, travelling to games or set plays. He is the most organised person I've seen in terms of getting training right.
"We have similar ideas and philosophies on how the game should be played and how we should defend and attack. It's good and I enjoy working with him."
