In 2007, I came across a business management book that would change the way I would approach football team management on a personal level.

There are plenty of resources for actual coaching of tactics, principles of play etc, but there is very little out there that will help you to get your players to gel, to get on with one another and find that little bit of magic that turns a group of players into a team.

In LAX airport I picked up a copy of Patrick Lencioni’s “5 Dysfunctions of a Team”, by the time a touched back down in Hong Kong I had a new approach to the teams I was coaching and to be honest, many people that I had any kind of working relationship with.

In his book, Patrick Lencioni outlines 5 dysfunctions and then the methods of righting those wrongs, to create a harmonious, productive team. You can see what these are from the pyramid image above, working from bottom to top.

Let me simply summarize this for you now.

Members of teams with an absence of trust…

• Conceal their weaknesses and mistakes from one another
• Hesitate to ask for help or provide constructive feedback
• Hesitate to offer help outside their own areas of responsibility
• Jump to conclusions about the intentions and aptitudes of others without attempting to clarify them
• Fail to recognize and tap into one another’s skills and experiences
• Waste time and energy managing their behaviors for effect
• Hold grudges
• Dread meetings and find reasons to avoid spending time together

Member of trusting teams …

Admit weaknesses and mistakes
Ask for help
Take risks in offering feedback and assistance
Appreciate and tap into one another’s skills and experiences
Focus time and energy on important issues, not politics
Offer and accept apologies without hesitation
Look forward to meetings and other opportunities to work as a group

Overcoming the absence of trust …

Personal histories exercise
Team effectiveness exercise
Personality and behavioural presence profile
360 degree feed back
Leader role

Teams that fear conflict…

• Have boring meetings
• Create environments where back-channel politics and personal attacks thrive
• Ignore controversial topics that are critical to team success
• Fail to tap into all the opinions and perspectives of team members
• Waste time and energy with posturing and interpersonal risk management

Teams that engage in conflict …

Have lively, interesting meetings
Extract and exploit the ideas of all team members
Solve real problems quickly
Minimize politics
Put critical topics on the table for discussion

Overcoming Fear of Conflict …

Acknowledge that conflict is productive, and that many tend to avoid it.
Team Members must occaisionally assume the role of a “minor of conflict”
(someone who extracts disagreements in the team to sheds light on them.)
Team members need to coach one another not to retreat from healthy debate. Remind them what they are doing is necessary.

A team that fails to commit…

• Creates ambiguity among the team about direction and priorities
• Watches windows of opportunity close due to excessive analysis and unnecessary delay
• Breeds lack of confidence and fear of failure
• Revisits discussions and decisions again and again
• Encourages second-guessing among team members

Teams that are committed …

Have clear directions and priorities
Are aligned around objectives
Develop an ability to learn from mistakes
Seize opportunities before the competition
Moves forward without hesitation
Changes direction without hesitation or guilt

Overcoming lack of commitment …

reformulate action plan
Set and honor deadlines, including interim milestones
Worst case scenario analysis to remove the fear from mistakes
practice quick decision making with limited analysis

A team that avoids accountability…

• Creates resentment among team members who have different standards of performance
• Encourages mediocrity
• Misses deadlines and key deliver-ables
• Places an undue burden on the team leader as the sole source of discipline

Teams that are accountable…

Ensure that poor performers feel pressure to improve
Identify quickly problem by questioning one’s approach without hesitation
Establish respect among the team who are held to the same standard
Avoid excessive bureaucracy around performance management and corrective action

Overcoming avoidance of Accountability …

Publication of goals and standards: no one can ignore them and we know who is responsible for what
Progressive review : team members should comment on their peer performance against objectives and standards
Reward team instead of individuals
Do not relegate accountability to consensus approach: shared team responsibility with individual responsibility

A team that is not focused on results…

• Stagnates/fails to grow
• Rarely defeats competitors
• Loses achievement-oriented employees
• Encourages team members to focus on their own careers and individual goals
• Is easily distracted

A team that focuses on collective results …

retains achievement-orientated employees
minimizes individualistic behaviours
enjoys success and failure acutely
has individuals who subjugate their own goals for the good of the team
avoids distraction

Overcoming inattention to results …

public declaration
the team must make results clear
have results based awards
reward only those behaviors and actions that contribute to those results.
They must be careful not to get sidetracked to tangential action items.

Teamwork ultimately comes down to practicing a small set of principles over a long period of time.  Success is not a matter of mastering subtle, sophisticated theory, but rather of embracing common sense with uncommon levels of discipline and persistence.

“The 5 P’s” is a handy acronym often used in the British military, designed to help you remember a key idea:

Proper Planning and Preparation Prevents Poor Performance.

This serves as a reminder to players that training isn’t just about the here and now—it’s about preparing for something bigger. It also keeps everyone aware that there’s always more to focus on as we train.

In addition to the core 5 P’s, we can consider five other P’s that are directly related to how our team plays football:

Passing, Possession, Position, Pace, Pressure.

Let’s break them down:

1. Passing

The ball always moves faster than any player. The team that passes quickly and accurately will almost always have the upper hand. Since football is played with our feet, ground passes are the easiest for teammates to control. With defenders constantly closing down space, the most successful pass is typically about 10 yards (9.144 meters).

This is a distance that, with practice, every player should be able to complete successfully 100% of the time. That’s why I emphasize short, quick passes to keep the ball moving and maintain control. Being confident to be able to pass and receive is incredibly important.

2. Possession

The ball is your most valuable asset. With it, you can win the game; without it, you can’t. When we have possession, it’s crucial to use the ball wisely—make decisions that are in our favor, and don’t panic. Keep possession when needed, and be ready to move quickly when an opportunity to attack presents itself. We should never give up possession of the ball cheaply. We can do this by understanding the attacking principles of play. 

If we do lose the ball, we must act quickly to get it back, showing both focus and determination.

3. Position

Based on our formation, what phase of play we are in (ie: do we have the ball or not) and where we are on the field in relation to our teammates, the ball and the opposition. When we have the ball, positioning is all about creating angles and opportunities for the teammate with possession. It could mean moving to a position to receive a pass or moving to draw a defender away to open up space for others. Again, all based around the attacking principles of play.

When the opponent has the ball, a player’s job may be to press an opponent, or to fill space in ways related to our team’s formation or our collective team philosophy at any given time. Again, this is often based around the principles of play, but often players can have specific instructions, while other players may need to adapt to what is happening in the moment. Communication is key here—players should talk to one another to ensure everyone knows where they need to be.

4. Pace

Pace isn’t just about speed—it’s about timing. A pass should be delivered at the right moment, just as the receiving player arrives. It also applies to how our team reacts as a whole. For example, if the opponents have everyone packed into the final third (near  their own goal), we may not want to rush. Instead, slow down, pull them out of their defensive shape, and strike with pace when the moment is right.

Want to see this in action? Watch how Brazil plays Argentina in this futsal match. Brazil holds possession while Argentina defends efficiently. When an Argentine defender breaks rank, Brazil seizes the opportunity to attack swiftly.

5. Pressure

Pressure is created when there are more players in a smaller area of the pitch. You can easily demonstrate this during a training session, by reducing the size of the area that you play in. Less space means a higher concentration of players in the space, increased pace of passing and movement of players to maintain possession. 

The application of pressure is predominantly the requirement of the defending team, or the team without the ball. Pressure can be applied to try and win the ball back, and more often is created in areas of the pitch that would provide the opponent a high chance opportunity for scoring or creating a goal (such as in Zone 14!).

When we lose the ball, we often immediately press to regain control of the ball, by reducing the opposition’s time and space to make decisions and ultimately force errors that transfer possession of the ball back to us.

When we have the ball, we might be seen as putting pressure on an opponent by following our attacking principles and moving the ball into their half and closer to their goal. This forces our opponents to defend/compress nearer the ball (which creates the pressure). We try to make them do this in areas of the field that ultimately creates more space (reduces pressure) in the other areas of the field that we actually want to attack, like those in front of the goal (zone 14).  If the opposition does a good job of applying pressure on us that might cause us to lose the ball, we can release the pressure by playing the ball back into our half — where having more space and time allows us to regroup and keep possession.  (Again, you can see this in the Brazil v Argentina futsal video)

All these principles reflect conversations I had with Michel Bruyninckx, the Academy Director at Royal Standard Liège Football Club, whose insights helped shape my approach.

Michel uses the acronym MAT to guide his players: Movement, Angles, Timing. These ideas align with the 5 P’s but specifically focus on attacking play. Michel encourages players to move the ball with their first touch, which changes the angles on the field and forces the opposition to react. This allows us to dictate the flow of the game.

Michel also shared a simple but powerful insight that will change how I coach 1v1 situations:

In a 1v1, you dribble to attack space, not just to “take someone on.”

The key point is that when you’re in a 1v1, moving forces your opponent to move, which opens up new spaces to exploit—either by passing or dribbling. It’s not about flashy moves; it’s about controlling space and time.

Football isn’t just a series of individual battles—it’s a game of evolving space and moments. Understanding this makes all the difference in how we play.