Bjarki Már Ólafsson | Starting XI
11 Questions Starters With First Team Coach & Analyst of Al Arabi SC 2/2
6. As a young coach working at a senior level what challenges have you faced? Has age been a factor?
“I think in terms of age and in terms of the professional environment, the biggest limitations are the ones you set yourself. If you tell yourself ‘I am too young to be making an impact’ or ‘I shouldn’t speak to him because of my age’, that’s always going to hold you back.
When it comes to being a coach, a player, whatever it is, the single biggest factor is self-belief. Belief that you are there for a reason and that factors like age won’t limit the way you approach the job.
There is always something you can contribute, even if that’s just a positive attitude or youthful inquisitiveness. I feel that one of the biggest things is actually recognising what this thing you can contribute is. Recognising where you fit into the puzzle and where your strengths lie.
Further, if you try to be a jack-of-all trades at professional level, you will probably fail. To be good at everything will take years of experience. But age is much less relevant when it comes to being good at one thing — you’ve just got to know what it is and understand how you can use it to help the collective.
Then of course it’s all about having strong values and sticking to them — determination, effort, humilty, commitment — these things don’t have to be effected by your age.”
But surely it hasn’t all been smooth sailing?
“Of course not, but as I said at the start, these challenges have more been within myself. In the beginning, I came to a new environment as a young professional and I created some blockages for myself, some doubts.
In the end I’ve learned that those things are self made. If you can contribute, overcome those things and you will.”
7. You’ve been involved in analysis at both National Team and Club level. Are there big differences?
“I think I’m fortunate to be working currently with the same coach. I followed the coach from the Icelandic national team, so our approach and way of working has been similar in both places.
Of course the volume of work is much greater. We are playing so frequently compared to a national team. So from having months to prepare, you now have a week or less. So preparation becomes much more short-term but the values, ideas and routines stay the same.”
And how about your methods of presenting information. How have your ideas around that developed and have there been any contextual adaptations required?
“If we talk about the way of communicating with the staff, I think a strong staff speaks the same footballing language and shares a way of thinking. I’ve come to see that as a strong trait. If you can cultivate that, then transferring information becomes quite easy and it often becomes a very shared and open process. I would recommend any coach at any level to consider how they can create this within their coaching team.
With regards to players, it’s more complex. We have many nationalities and cultural backgrounds in our current squad (Al Arabi), that you have to find the right balance. This is something I think you just pick up as you go.
You have to to understand cultural context. In my case, I’m working for a predominately Qatari and muslim faith locker-room. My starting point has to be their values.”
Can you give an example of how this effected your approach in practice?
“One key value in this particular society is respect. They respect their opponents, they speak well about them, they don’t downgrade them. In Iceland, when I was presenting for players I didn’t pay much attention to which adjectives I used to highlight an opponents weakness. I might say something disrespectful about an individual without me or those I was presenting too thinking much of it. Here I would be immediately corrected.
My first meeting in Al Arabi, I highlighted the opposition left-back, said he was terrible and we should target him, or something like that — I thought I’d see the room rise with confidence. Instead, the only thing rising was a players hand (laughs) and he immediately corrects me, saying I ‘shouldn’t talk so badly about this player because he’s actually really good’. I still wince about that moment, it was so foolish on my part.
In general, when I look back on my first presentations, I shake my head.
Especially when you are young, it’s really tempting to constantly try to prove your worth and intelligence through the work you do. But that’s not the point. The point is to meet the needs of those you are presenting to, not your own, and that’s a thought that has strongly influenced my analysis as it has developed.
The role of the analyst is to filter and present information. The quality of the information depends on the relevance. Relevant information is therefore quality information and it’s only relevant if it works for those you are presenting to.
I now very much start from then point of view of those people. I’ve come to understand the value of simplicity much more.”
8. You’ve also contributed to the scouting and recruitment process in the club. How has this worked in a somewhat foreign league and region?
“It’s definitely been a learning process. I can’t say I knew much about the Qatari league or the Asian footballing markets before I arrived (smiles).
Another thing to get used to was having fairly strong restrictions on our transfer strategy. The quota rules say we can have 5 foreign players and within that one must be arabic and one must be from Asia.
The Qatri recruitment market is really easily covered. We can watch every player in Qatar live within a week. The furthest stadium is 30 minutes drive from my house, all in Doha, and normally the games are played at different times. So you become extremely familiar with the local level quickly, but of course that’s a tiny market and a very competitive one.
You then look internationally, and that’s much more complex.”
And how have you gone about doing that?
“Some context, when we arrived here, the club had turned over something like 17 coaches in 7 years and the player turnover has been similar, around 170 players in a short space of time. So a long-term recruitment strategy was non existent, which is not unusual in this context.
What we hope to be able to contribute is a longer lasting recruitment strategy, building a structure that affords stability and a longer lasting team identity.
The standard foreign recruitment here has been manager or agent driven. Our goal is to develop a more identity based recruitment strategy.
We’ve used data to a great extent to allow us to look into some big, lesser known markets and we’ve created parameters that reflect our playing style, allowing us to filter in and out suitable recruits.
Then nearly all of our scouting process is video scouting, basically because we don’t have the physical resources to fly around the world all week long.
We are a small department in a very big footballing world, so we’ve had to find ways to work smarter.
We certainly haven’t always got this right and we’ve learnt a lot from trying to change a structure in such a short space of time in a footballing culture where stability is not always a strong feature.”
Are there any other areas in the transfer process that you have tried to refine?
“You have to consider what league you are in, and whether there are any KPIs that suggest a player could be successful in that league. You can also consider how successful they may be in relation to where they are moving from.
One thing I’ve also really come to value is the importance of evaluating the transfers. Firstly, understanding what a successful one looks like to us, creating some KPIs around that and then reviewing each recruit and the process that went with it.
Not every move will be successful, but the key becomes questioning whether the process was followed correctly and, if so, whether that process is working in your current circumstances. Each transfer gives you a little more insight for when you make the next one.
We then continually try to develop and improve our proccess. The past two years have provided us with a great deal of insight both for now and the future.”
Some of the other foreign signings Al Arabi made in recent windows, like Mark Muniesa and Aron Gunnarsson, they appear to be much less about the data and much more about the person behind those numbers. Is that the case?
“Yes definitely. I think if we talk recruitment, we talk about data, we talk about traditional scouting, but the best recruitment you can possibly make is when you know what type of person you are getting. When you know what type of an impact a certain personality is going to have on the squad.
When you have a foreign quota, you need to sign players who speak the football language of the coach. They are guys who will set the example in the locker room and send the messages that the coach wants, or doesn’t if you get it wrong.
But there is no data that can outline what influence a player can have personally on a team. You have to consider that yourselves, especially when a signing will come in as a key player to a place like Qatar.
And then there is one of the most important factors, can they personally deal with the move. You are not only bringing a person into a team but you are also bringing a person into a country and culture, in fact, perhaps you are moving an entire family.
You have to try and understand if that person and their family will adapt well, and we’ve tried to do that by understanding the place we are working as deeply as possible and then understanding those people who might want to move.”
Can a ‘star player’ transferring to a place like Qatar for financial reasons or less pressure still be a top performer though? Is there a key to motivating them?
“Everyone makes a career move for a different reason — and there is no right or wrong to that, you just have to understand what it is. That’s where management of people is so important.
I’ll use Wilfred Bony as an example. He’d had a hugely successful career before he arrived here in a January window from Swansea City. He had some injury problems in the years before his move and it would be easy to say a player like him is no longer motivated to play at his best level, something which you quickly find out isn’t true.
With him it became clear he had a huge motivation to get fit to play for his country in AFCON. It was his motivator. Once we knew that, we could not only use it to drive him but we could also help him to achieve that goal.”
And finally, in such a diverse market, is there any player you missed out on who you wished you didn’t?
“I’m actually going to be pretty boring here (laughs). Yacine Brahimi. It would be silly not to say him. He was a player on our shorltist but went to our rivals Al-Rayyan on a free transfer (2019) from Porto, after a really strong season in Liga NOS. As an arabic player, on a free transfer, and considering the impact he has had on the league and the team he plays in, he would have been an amazing signing. I think every single club in the Middle-East wishes they could’ve signed this player.”
9. What have you learn most from working with Heimir Hallgrímsson for Iceland and in Qatar?
“Far too much emphasis falls on the Xs & Os. The coach has been built up as the protagonist of all success. I think in football we all can easily forget that it’s a players sport.
Once you recognise that, the most important element of the head coach becomes person management. His or her management of the players, creating chemistry and building relationships within and amongst the group.
That’s what I’ve learnt most from him: person management. This pursuit of trying to get the best from and for each and every individual involved, from the medical staff through to the players.
Heimir sees the best in every person and trusts your ability to accomplish what you need to. Even if you lack experience, he see’s your potential and places a lot of trust in you.
The role of the coach is to first and foremost streamline things, getting everybody together and moving in the same direction, whilst making sure individually people are in a good place personally and professionally.
Coming from where he does, and working in Vestmannaeyjar (small island on the south coast of Iceland) before taking on the Icelandic national team, he’s seen it all, he’s probably done all the jobs, like I mentioned earlier. So he knows the role of each and every person and has that skill of being able to understand and communicate with them.
In this area I feel he is one of the best managers in the world.”
As well as working alongside a leader, you’ve also been one yourself. Which have you found has developed your understanding of leadership more?
“The most important thing is to understand you can learn about leadership from everyone, whatever your surrounding.
You can learn from people who don’t have great leadership skills, you learn from people who make mistakes. You just need to begin to consider how those events might effect your idea of what great leadership entails.
I would say don’t chase either. Just see what your situation is and take something from it. Focus on the human part of your job, get to know people, learn from your interactions and relationships.”
10. Crazy condiditons, different cultures, favelas… you’ve gone to some extremes to learn and develop. If you did it all again, what would you not do?
“Someone in my shoes now, I’d say put more emphasis on being confident and trusting the path you are on, as long as you know for sure you’re doing enough for it to warrant that.
I wouldn’t say I regret anything I’ve done, but I do think I could’ve approached some of these moments with more confidence and less concern about how others perceive me — that way I’d have probably got even more out of them.
I heard a quote the other days saying ‘be ambitious but be careful to not become overly-ambitious’ and I feel that sums it up nicely. There must be a balance but you have to be driven and confident. Don’t have too many doubts.
We are lucky. The footballing world is big and takes you to crazy places if you are willing to take a leap once in a while.
So then, my advice to any young professional, or anyone who wants to develop — allow it to take you there and embrace those experiences, whether good or bad. After that it’s just about being confident and trusting the process you are following.”
11. Who would you like to read an interview with next and what would you ask them?
“I’m not going to say a specifc person, I’d simply like to hear from another young professional who is working at a high-level of the game.
My question would be: what specific moment or period in your childhood made you fall in love with the game and how does this influence your attitude and approach to your work today?”
