Coaching Interview: Richard Allen-Nottingham Forest Analyst/Coach

Richard Allen is a 26-year-old Performance Analyst and Coach who is extremely passionate about the constraints led approach, athletic identity and the use of performance analysis. Richard has over 10 years of experience working within the game. Currently at Nottingham Forest Academy as a coach and performance analyst working with U9–16s. Richard also has experience working in the women’s game as both a coach and analyst at Derby County and Nottingham Forest Ladies. In addition to being a UEFA B Licensed Coach, Richard holds the FA Advanced Youth Award, Bsc (Hons) in Sport Science and Coaching, is a qualified teacher and accredited Performance Analyst.

What are 1–3 books that have greatly influenced you as a coach?
Chimp Paradox, Stillness and Speed, Jamie Vardy are some really good books I’ve read over the past few years which have been insightful for many different reasons.

What is the best investment you’ve made?
Probably something I’ve done recently, I invested in myself by going to visit Benfica academy. I spent a week there observing their analysis and coaching staff. It was massively insightful and one of the best learning experiences I’ve had. This is something I would highly recommend doing to go abroad and look at how other cultures work.

How has a failure, or apparent failure, set you up for later success?
When I was 16, having just 3 GCSE’s it made me feel like school was a wasted period in my life! This spurred me on to coach at a young age and gain a coaching degree. So, I can probably say that that failure inspired me to do better.

What advice would you give to a smart, driven student about to enter the world of football? And what advice should they ignore?
It would probably be to know what they’re looking for. When I was in the same process as a young coach, I watched a lot of sessions but didn’t absorb much because I didn’t really know what to look for. When observing sessions and trying to get ideas, I would suggest specifically looking for things such as technical detail, practice design, coach behaviours, interventions or the environment. For bad advice, I hear people saying that we can’t be honest with players. I think if coaches aren’t honest with players, they’re doing a disservice to them. Players always appreciate honesty, even if it’s not in the short term! There’s ways of speaking to people whether they’re 8 or a 1st team player, and what honesty will look like will be entirely different.

What are bad recommendations you hear from others in coaching? Probably not a recommendation but the way the system is designed a lot of coaches need qualifications to gain jobs but they miss out on learning opportunities. There’s so much value in taking your time with qualifications, exploring new cultures and meeting new people.

What is your ‘go-to’ training drill?
I don’t do ‘drills’ nor do I like the sound of the word! I have around 5 or 6 games that have a framework or template so to speak, such as shape of the pitch, thirds etc that allow me to use constraints and create environments where players can gain learning opportunities. I use these templates with all ages, because the framework stays the same, yet the size of the pitch, detail and interactions may look different.

How do you try to develop as a coach?
I’d definitely recommend podcasts, they’re a great way to learn. Talent Equation and Ted Talks are some great podcasts to gain new ideas and challenge thinking. Twitter is good if you can filter through the good and the bad! I don’t have a particular mentor at the moment but I like to think I work in a positive environment where people can be really helpful, open and honest with each other.

Who is a coach you greatly look up to? And Why?
These are for me the people I work with daily. People could say Pep Guardiola or someone influences them but they don’t feel what he feels, so I feel the people around you are the ones to inspire and develop you.

What was your pathway into coaching?
I’ve gone between analysis and coaching roles for most of my short career, but my first real job was at Nottingham Forest Ladies where I took a team after seeing an advert on their website, and then on with Nottingham Forest Academy, The FA Skills Programme and now back at Forest. A lot of my early career was working in the girls and women’s game whilst combining analysis roles in senior football, to where I’m now, working with younger players which is extremely rewarding.

How would you describe your preferred style of team play?
I work with young ages so I like to see behaviours like dominating possession, creativity and high pressing. Teams should be tactically flexible and I try to give players lots of problems to solve by playing in different positions or areas of the pitch. I think this has been very similar when I’ve worked with older players. Football is an entertainment industry, and I think we should never forget that. So taking risks in all areas of the pitch is really encouraged.