Sven-Göran Eriksson on football : the inner game - improving performance / Sven-Göran Eriksson ; with Willi Railo & Hakan Matson

Eriksson, Sven-Göran

ISBN 10: 1842224255 / ISBN 13: 9781842224250

Published by London : Carlton, 2001

About this Item

Fine copy in the original colour printed boards. Particularly and uncommonly well-preserved; tight, bright, clean and especially sharp-cornered. SIGNED. Physical description; [160] pages : illustrations (chiefly colour), portraits ; 22 cm. Subject; Soccer. 1 Kg. Seller Inventory # 273550

Bibliographic Details

Title: Sven-Göran Eriksson on football : the inner ...

Publisher: London : Carlton

Publication Date: 2001

Binding: Hardcover

Signed: Signed by Author(s)

Edition: First Edition.

About this title

Synopsis:

Everybody wants to be successful in their life, whether it be in their career, home life or, in their leisure activities, particularly if they play sport of some kind. Sven-Goran Eriksson is one of the most successful coaches in world football and, together with leading sports and organisational pyschologist, Willi Railo and Swedish journalist Hakan Matson, he has explored the best way to encourage people to succeed in sport. They take a look at how to get the right spirit flowing through a team, how to deal with players who lack self-belief and how to set goals which are truly achievable which will, in turn, lead to even greater success when taken as a whole.

Review:

In On Football England coach Sven-Goran Eriksson delivers his thesis on how to win--and he doesn't mean sticking a big lad up front, keeping it tight and playing for the set-pieces. This is an exploration of the average footballer's least celebrated organ--the mind--and how to nurture it to improve sporting performance. In the company of sports psychologist, Willi Railo, Eriksson analyses his experience of building winning teams--in particular the 2000 Italian champions Lazio--and addresses the key psychological issues that have to be managed if individuals and groups are to fulfill their potential. Traditionally British football managers have struggled with this sort of thing--performance analysis swiftly reduced to shouting about giving 110 per cent--and for fans reared on the blood and thunder ethos of the Premiership, some of it is going to read like pretty revolutionary stuff:

Eriksson: I spend a lot of energy taking the aggression out of my players. All a player has to do is begin to argue with the referee, play dirty or quarrel with the opposition for there to be a danger that their performance will sink like a stone.

Anyone who has ever endured an extended session of corporate team-building exercises will be familiar with a lot of the language used here, but incredibly, On Football manages not only to render ideas about "winning cultures" intelligible, but also genuinely interesting. This is not a dry, unapproachable work--the overall style is conversational, there are plenty of colour photographs and illustrations, and the authors have taken care to root relatively intangible ideas in actual big-name examples. Anyone who plays or watches sport will find this book enhancing--and challenging--their understanding of what is happening on the pitch. This is an intriguing, intelligent work, made astonishing (think Kevin Keegan) in that it's been written by the man who is actually shaping the fortunes of the English national team. --Alex Hankin