Albert Capellas interview: Former Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund coach on 'the things you never learn in books'

In an exclusive interview with Sky Sports, Albert Capellas shares some of the lessons that he has learned from coaching at Barcelona and Borussia Dortmund. «That is the most difficult part of being a coach. You are working with humans not footballers.»

Comment and Analysis @ghostgoal

Tuesday 21 November 2023 09:16, UK

Albert Capellas is recalling his time as Peter Bosz’ assistant at Vitesse. “We would spend our afternoons just talking about the game,” he tells Sky Sports. Capellas wanted to know all about Dutch football. Bosz would want to hear stories about Barcelona.

Capellas had worked at La Masia, Barcelona's academy, for over a decade, coaching Andres Iniesta, among others. After Vitesse, he would go on to be Bosz' assistant at Borussia Dortmund. By then, the pair had devised their own code words for the game.

«I know he is still doing it now. We were trying to create a language to help the players to understand concepts as quickly as possible. For example, we had the five-second rule. When you say five-second rule, every player on the pitch knows what it means.»

The idea was to win the ball back as quickly as possible. «Peter says it is now a three-second rule because he wants the pressure to be even quicker.» The concept of 'klein' was another favourite — squeezing up the pitch once a longer ball had been played.

«Then there was the three-metre rule if they had chance to play a ball in behind. If there is no pressure on the ball, drop three metres. If they do not play a long ball, up three metres again. With that, you can solve a problem in one second. We worked on it a lot.

»You cannot imagine how many afternoons we discussed this. How can we say this to the players? How can we train it? I loved it and I know