Many mock his conclusions and he is revolutionizing football. Before our eyes

The situation in the final extra time, in which he let Markus Rashford and Jadon Sancho onto the pitch, even earlier – in the 70th minute – Bukayo Saka, and then the three of them wasted penalties, became for Sammy Lander a ticket to the big ball. He has long believed that football does not use the reserve potential, but it was only in the Euro final that he got a bright enough example to turn the head of the president of AFC Wimbledon – an innovative club from the English third league.

Sammy Lander has never played football, he cannot see with one eye, but he is revolutionizing football

The English fans have yet to wipe their tears, and Lander already had his warm-up analysis done by Rashford and before entering the pitch. – After getting up from the bench, they slowly walked past the end line. There they warmed up for about 11 minutes and then stood still for seven minutes watching the game. Then they stretched their groins for two minutes. Just before entering the field, they sat on the bench for a minute. In my opinion, they were neither physically prepared to enter, nor properly focused on the task, he enumerated.

Once upon a time, AFC Wimbledon was known as the “crazy gang”, but today it’s a bunch of nerds. The club employs many coaches with a very narrow specialization: he is – a model and Thomas Gronnemark – a throw-in coach, a set pieces coach, a coach of young people who are just entering the team and a mental coach. Lander felt there was a place for him as well, the first substitute coach in football history.

Where did the idea to deal with players sitting on the bench come from? From the autopsy.

Lander never played football because he lost his sight in one eye in a car accident as a child. However, he dreamed of becoming a coach. Less than two years ago, he was an assistant in Weymouth on the fifth league level and a scout at the second division academy. Even then, during the analyzes, he noticed that the same footballer plays differently when he starts the match in the first team and differently when he comes from the bench. In the latter case, he is more likely to experience missed passes, missed ball receipts or positioning errors. Most of them can be explained by a lack of concentration.

Later, Lander saw the substitutes sitting with their arms crossed, bored and absent, on television. They seemed disappointed with the coach’s decision and discouraged. Lander was betting that neither of them would help the team once it was on the pitch. He was not mistaken. And so – step by step – the idea was born in his head to become a coach responsible only for the substitutes: for carrying out an appropriate warm-up, for outlining tasks before entering the pitch and, above all, for keeping them motivated.

The breakthrough, however, came at the beginning of the pandemic. By chance. – Before one of the games many of our players fell ill, so the coach asked if I could put on my uniform and act as a substitute. I agreed. Instead of wearing a tracksuit, I was sitting on a bench in a T-shirt and shorts. I did not think that I would have to enter the field. At the end of the match, however, our striker got injured, and I remained the only substitute. When the coach asked if I was ready to get on the pitch for those few minutes, I panicked. “I’m not, I didn’t expect it,” he said.

AFC Wimbledon won 5: 3. One of the substitutes scored a goal, the other scored an assist

Journalists from “The Athletic” were present at the Wimbledon – Portsmouth match in September, in which the hosts were leading 2-1 in the first half. They described what happened during the half-time: “Seven Portsmouth substitutes headed for the dressing room to heed the coach. Seven Wimbledon substitutes ran to the other side of the pitch during that time and immediately started a series of runs and exercises with the ball. They trained individually and in groups. Very intensely, under the watchful eye of Sammy Lander. After eleven minutes, the Portsmouth substitutes were back on the field. They paired up, 30 meters apart and lazily passed the ball. “

Immediately after the break, the guests equalized. In the 57th minute, Wimbledon coach Mark Robinson introduced the first substitute. In the 70th minute he added two more. Eight minutes later the visitors took the lead. But the tip belonged entirely to Wimbledon, whose players scored three goals in a quarter of an hour and won 5: 3. One of the substitutes won, the other assisted. The Portsmouth coach, on the other hand, made only one substitution that did not significantly affect the course of the game.

– The break in the match is the most important time for me. I have a quarter of an hour to conduct a mini-training session. We used this time in the game against Portsmouth very well. Each player made about 200 touches of the ball. He had the opportunity to feel her. This is what we mean. The warm-up for the substitutes at the half-time may not be worse than the pre-game warm-up for the players scheduled to play from the beginning. We divide players into groups: defenders fight each other in the air, forwards finish the action, midfielders focus on passing. In a word: they are doing what is most useful for them in the match – Lander told journalists “The Athletic”.

“Marcus Rashford and Jadon Sancho missed the ball before they hit the pitch in the Euro final!”

– We do not call our backup “deputy”. We prefer the terms “finisher”, “finisher”. The message is different, the players’ feelings are better. In this way, we move away from the hierarchy in given positions, and focus more on fragments of the match. Someone starts, someone ends. But they both feel important. Players need to be mentally, technically, tactically and physically ready to help the team as soon as they enter. This was another observation: the player was walking onto the pitch, but it took a few minutes for the player to crank up. So we have special exercises to keep this time to a minimum. The warm-up cannot take place without the ball, which usually happens – said Lander in “El Confidential”.

– In the Euro Saka final, Sancho did not touch the ball before the entrance! It’s like driving a car: if you drive every day, you can easily put a single in and off you go. You don’t think twice, you do it automatically. However, if you have a long break from driving, you need to concentrate slightly at first to keep your car from going out. But after a while you feel your car well again and you don’t focus on moving off. That is why we want the player to make his first passes and dribbles outside the pitch and during the match he does not have to focus on it. It’s supposed to go out onto the pitch and operate automatically, Lander explained.

– Besides, the substitutes often “turned off” during the game. My job is to stimulate their attention. So we sit on the bench and discuss: what a player in his position does well, what he can do better after entering, what his opponent has shortcomings in, what can be used – told “BBC”. – Anyway, the very fact that our club employs a substitute coach shows them that they are very important.

“Who’s next? Bottle delivery trainer?”

Unconvinced mocked that the next Wimbledon coach will be responsible for serving the water bottles. – Profits are marginal, but they are. This is what football is all about today, to move forward with minimal steps and increase the advantage over rivals. Statistics show that out of 30 goals, seven were scored by the substitutes. This is the best result in the league. But the numbers don’t do it all. Sometimes the defensive midfielder has no part in the goal, but we are happy with him because he moved the game away from our goal, helped us press or hold the ball. It is difficult to read it from the statistics. But I don’t think it’s over. I still have a lot of ideas. The substitutes will mean even more, Lander assures.