From Assistant to Elite: Coaching Success Formula

What can motivate a head coach with 10 years of career to become an assistant fielder? There is no single answer, but the humility of someone who believes they can still learn something is one of the possible explanations for the leap they made. Gabriel Heinze in July of last year to support Mikel Arteta in it Arsenal English, who yesterday visited Bournemouth and beat them 3 to 2 to maintain the leadership of the Premier Leaguea competition that in the last three editions invariably had it in second position.

Arteta added it and Heinze’s contribution seems to go beyond the defensive area. He is a motivator, he talks, he shouts, he explains and he is the last one to whisper an indication to the substitutes before a change. He Gringo seems to be the spark the team needed to ignite. Since his arrival, the ambition seemed different and the Gunners seemed invincible in the competition in which they had to participate: between the Premier League, the UEFA Champions League and the League Cup, they were undefeated in 18 games. Now,

That restlessness and constant humility took him out of centrality and positioned him as an assistant, is not new. In 2019 when he was coach of Velezhis team lost to Defense and Justice in Amalfitani and he ruminated home on arguments to understand the defeat. Although he didn’t know him, he decided to call the rival coach to chat. “I have concerns about the decision of that party project that I could not imagine. I thought of 20 ways (to play) and there is something I didn’t foresee“, said the then coach of the Hawk, Mariano Sosoon ESPN about what he told him Gringo in that conversation that lasted until dawn and began a bond of friendship that they still maintain.

Heinze never followed the flow and seemed to go against convention. He came to the National Team after emigrating to Europe without many knowing that he had left. With just eight games in Newell’s Primera, he left at the age of 19 at a time when news was spread according to the space on the paper or seconds of air time and the telephone was barely independent of the cable. He was 23 when Marcelo Bielsa called him up for the National Team. He won the gold medal in Athens and was a a stranger of which journalism had to account for its identity. “Heinze, who the hell is Heinze? ​​Where did Heinze come from? (He plays for the national team)”, an underground band that barely survived Y2K asked in a catchy chorus.

It was precisely in those early 2000s that he was Arteta’s teammate. They coincided as footballers in the PSGhis third league in Europe, after the Spanish one with the Valladolidand the Portuguese, with the Sporting. He was in France when Bielsa put him in the National Team and that is part of the invisible thread that connects him with the Spanish coach, a disciple of Josep Guardiola who, in turn, finds in the Loco a good part of his football identity. An idea that unites them and should not be explained.

With a Madrid accent, this man from Entre Ríos by birth and a leper by conviction began his career as a coach in Godoy Cruzwithout a qualifying card. That’s why during the week he trained with the team and on game day he gave instructions from the stands. He applied for a temporary permit that he did not get because he was fired earlier due to poor results. “Thank you Heinze, but we need a coach with a title”the fans hung a flag on him at his farewell.

His next step was Argentinos in the Second Division and he experienced the hostility of the fans, urged by results that did not project a promotion. When the team understood Gringo’s proposal, it was a steamroller that reached Primera undisputedly. There was plenty of praise from the stands long before the consecration was consummated, but the coach never raised his arms in gratitude. “I dealt with all the bullshit in silence, why do I have to believe the applause?”he said publicly and offered one of the most visceral examples of his encounters with journalists, a group that he does not like.

At that point everyone already knew who Heinze was, while he forged himself as a coach through adversity. Thus it came to Velez -hence the anecdote with Soso- the false step in Atlanta Unitedwhere the players asked for his head for his work methods, which they considered iirrational and outside the employment agreement. The MLS It was not prepared for a guy like Heinze, perhaps for the same reasons that the Uruguayan National Team is not prepared for Bielsa’s daily and constant intensity.

The experience did not daunt him. He returned to the country, continued his career as a coach at Newell’s and despite having 10 years of experience and the centrality of the decisions, he resigned that role and joined a coaching staff as a field assistant. His contribution significantly strengthened Arteta’s team. Always the same direction, the difficult one, the one used by the salmon…

As an assistant, he focuses on the defensive aspect due to his job as a footballer, but his instructions are not limited to that function. Even Arsenal has a display on the playing field that resembles the idea of ​​its solo teams. Since his arrival, defensive stability became one of the aspects most highlighted by different media and analysts. Since the beginning of the season, Arsenal have scored just 14 goals in 20 games and they are the least beaten hurdle of a season in which they have already sustained streaks without goals against.

“Heinze is an exceptional person and an excellent coach. He requires us to give everything and fight tooth and nail to win the games. To ensure victories, we have to defend exceptionally well, especially in this league, which is the most demanding in the world and, often, games are decided by a single goal. Therefore, maintaining this defensive capacity is crucial for all of us. It is not just about the defense, but about the entire team, so the credit goes to him too,” the goalkeeper said smoothly. David Raya.

He was not the only one of the footballers of the Gunners with praise for the assistant coach, who moves on the court as if he were the main one. He is the one who gives the instructions to the substitutes when they are on the line waiting for the change, while the coach follows the match from the bench. He has the precise instructions in the previous minutes and everyone seems to listen to him with extreme attention.

“He is a great help, especially for the defenders. He gives us energy because he always talks, always loudly, even in training, when we do simple things, he always talks. Even for nothing, he talks. He talks a lot, and it is good to have him around. I think this boy can help us a lot,” said the Frenchman. William Salibamaking Heinze’s intensity clear.

The players know another side of the Gringo. The level of demand that ejected him from the MLS is the same that arouses admiration in Arsenal players. The family surely knows his smile, but apparently the footballers of the English team do too.

“Everyone loves him. We joke and have fun with him. He is a sensational person, the entire team is comfortable with him, he has his Argentine mannerisms, but he is a sensational guy that the group embraced in an incredible way,” said the Brazilian. Gabriel Martinelliwho confirms that behind that inflexible posture and few friends, there seems to be an endearing guy… and a very competitive coach regardless of his role in a coaching staff.