Foundation from style
There is an interesting question for modern football: Why don't most good coaches come from the fastest, strongest, most outstanding players on the field? Why is it easier to imagine Mikel Arteta, Michael Carrick or Xabi Alonso holding the sa bàn, than a Michael Owen, a Gareth Bale or a winger living by sprints?
If we look back 10 - 15 years ago, when Arteta was still diligently regulating the pace of play at Arsenal, Carrick silently held the midfield for Manchester United, very few people thought of them as "stars". But if someone says that one day, these 2 names will become coaches in big matches, even in their old team, the reaction is probably the answer: "Sounds reasonable".
Football always contains the element of surprise. No one can be sure that a player will enter a coaching career. No one dares to guarantee that a coach will reach the peak. But strangely, just looking at the playing style, people often guess quite correctly who will stay with football through the path of intelligence.
Arteta and Carrick, currently, stand at two very different points. One is steering Arsenal on the journey to regain Premier League glory after many years of "Gunners" being lost. The other, in his interim role at Manchester United, is like a fire keeper in the midst of a storm, in the context that the old team is struggling to regain its identity. But the common point is not in the result, but in the way they see football.
They are not explosive players. Not relying on speed, strength or handling that makes the audience stand up. They play football with restraint. With the ability to read the game. By standing in the right place, passing in the right rhythm, keeping the formation balanced.
Just talking about Arteta and Carrick seems one-sided, so if you look broader than other examples to affirm that it is not an isolated case. Statistics show that among the 27 coaches who have led a Premier League team this season and are professional players (almost all), the distribution according to their playing positions in the past is very uneven. There are 14 people who were once midfielders, mostly focusing on defense rather than attack, and 11 people who are defenders (6 center-backs, 5 full-backs). There is only 1 goalkeeper, Nuno Espírito Santo. And there is also only one center forward, Daniel Farke, who used to play at a fairly low level in the German league system.
That has its logic. Central midfielder is the position that requires the most tactical thinking on the field. They must know when to keep the ball, when to accelerate, when to stretch or narrow the squad. Defenders, in other ways, are forced to read the match continuously, predict the opponent's actions, coordinate with teammates to protect the overall structure. These are skills that almost match the job of a coach.
Success because of... slowness
But there is an even more interesting point. Most successful coaches have been... slow players. Not slow in a negative sense, but not defined by speed. They do not beat others with their feet, but with their heads. Johan Cruyff once said: "You play football with your brain, and feet are just tools". That saying is like a perfect summary of the portrait of many great coaches.
Cruyff is a rare case. He is fast enough, technical enough to become an attacking star, but what makes him great lies in his thinking. After Cruyff, it is very difficult to find more high-speed players to transform into top coaches.
Pep Guardiola once identified himself as a slow midfielder, not good at shooting, not good at dribbling, not strong in aerial combat. Farke once gave an interview and admitted that he is probably the slowest striker in Western Europe. Fabio Capello is praised for his ability to read the game, but is always mentioned as a weakness in speed. Arne Slot, according to those who write about him, always carries the obsession of not being fast enough when he was a player.
This list can be long. And it shows one thing, when you can't win physically, you are forced to rely on intelligence. When you can't run faster than your opponent, you have to think faster.
Arteta and Carrick are typical examples of such a generation of players. They peaked in the period when European football was passionate about ball control, where the greatest value lies in tempo and structure, not in sprint meters. Barcelona and the Spanish national team dominated the world with short passes, with patience, with space control.
But even during that period, Arteta and Carrick still felt like they were on the sidelines of the limelight. Arteta did not even once wear the Spanish national team jersey at the highest level. Carrick made 34 appearances for the England national team, but was always a secondary option. He only started 1 match at the 2006 World Cup, played very well, and then was dropped.
They are not names that are sought after by the media. But it is such a "non-prominence" that forces them to understand football more deeply. Must exist with tactical value. Must become someone that teammates trust.
When statistical data began to become popular, people realized their silent value. In the 2012-2013 season, Arteta and Carrick were in the top 3 players with the most passes in the Premier League. The other was Yaya Toure, who is also on his own training journey, as an assistant in the Saudi Arabia national team.
Perhaps, they are also people "favored" by the times. In modern football, where high-intensity pressing and continuous acceleration become the standard, such players may not have much room to live. Arteta or Carrick, if born a few years later, may not have had such a long playing career.
Xabi Alonso and Xavi, the two iconic midfielders of that period, have now taken very long steps on the coaching path. Leverkusen and Barcelona, each team in a different way, both benefit from the minds that used to operate their playing style at the highest level.
The future?
So if we look at the current generation, who can be the coaches of the future?
Martin Zubimendi is a name that easily evokes associations. Playing as a defensive midfielder, living by reading the game, once mentored by Alonso at Real Sociedad Academy, now working under Arteta. He also comes from the Basque Country, a land with a tradition of producing good coaches. Other names can also be mentioned such as Bernardo Silva with sophisticated football thinking, Granit Xhaka with tactical understanding, or Casemiro with organizational and discipline.
But it is also necessary to acknowledge a reality. Football is getting faster and faster. Thinking fast is not enough, people also have to run fast. That may make the "slow but deep" player model become rarer in the future.
Therefore, looking back at the period around 2010, it can be considered a special period. When football was at its peak, in a short period, absolute faith was placed on the brains in midfield. And therefore, many good coaches of today have been shaped.
