New South Melbourne technical director Strati Xynas has praised the strides the club has made on and off the pitch in areas of training philosophy, junior development, and the unification of the women’s and men’s sides, so soon after his appointment.
Taking over from the outgoing Sean Gale, the importance of the technical director’s role was not lost on Xynas, who has set about immediately aiding the development of both players and coaches at the club.
“My belief as a leader, in a technical director’s role, is that my mentorship to coaching other coaches is paramount, it’s the key,” he admits.
“It’s important giving the coaches transformational leadership, giving them information that they transfer it onto the players.
“We’re following processes, the coaches get given the format, the structure, the team model, and the sessions that bring it to life, and the coaches are the facilitators to bring it over to our kids.”
Xynas’ appointment has allowed for South to tap into the brain of experienced coach Jose Rojo Martin Pacheta, who works two days a week with the youth teams – from U11s up to U20s.
Pacheta once played in La Liga for the likes of Espanyol and Numancia, before managing teams including Numancia, Oviedo and Hercules.
Xynas said that the youth players were able to benefit from Pacheta’s influence at the club, emphasising a focus on first touch, tight and sharp action drills, and enabled South Melbourne the opportunity travel overseas with the youth teams.
“Pacheta’s knowledge of football is absolutely amazing,” said Xynas.
“We formulate training sessions which we’ve identified our kids need help with.
“His experience is second to none. The way he actually interprets things and then brings them to life at training is absolutely amazing.
“What the club will get will be able to transfer this information and it’s what the kids need to keep getting better and better.
“If we can get to the kids early enough, we will travel to Spain, and what we will do is find that our kids are actually getting to that level [on par with Spanish youth teams] – the short sharp actions that are vital in the game and releasing the ball when you are meant to,” he said.
Part of Xynas’ model, alongside specialised areas of coaching, encourages his staff to embrace their own philosophy in training.
The technical director noted the success of this process so far, with players meeting goals earlier than expected and a desired style of play being adopted swiftly in games.
“I have the coaches in mind when I’m doing all this stuff as well, because coaches need to diversify themselves and view football from a different angle as well, sometimes you might get caught in the same drills and the same setup.
“During the week if we have four training sessions, two of them are designed for our club personally, so it’s got our DNA rolled up in these sessions, and two, the coaches have got two sessions where they can express themselves and do stuff that gives them enjoyment as well, so there’s a balance of both worlds really,” he said.
“Already we’re starting to see things happen, in the way players are ready to receive the ball and to pass it on where the teammates are best to receive it.
“When we put it into a game it happened within a couple of minutes, where the boys knew that we’ll start in confined spaces, we’ll manipulate the ball in those spaces to be able to release players.”
“It happened really quickly. It’s a great space we’re in at the moment and he we haven’t even started to scratch the surface at the moment.
The other development at Lakeside during the off-season has involved the merging of the women’s and men’s sides under one banner, which Xynas says has made the club stronger and allowed for the same training methods to be used for the benefit of both sides.
“I think it’s turning our great club into a bigger great club,” he said.
“I’ve spoken to Soc [women’s coach Socrates Nicolaidis] about being able to introduce the same model and we had many meetings about how we’re going to do it.
“I think the most important part is that Gabrielle [women’s president Gabrielle Giuliano], and Soc are on board – he’s a forward thinker in football.
“It’s paramarount we’re on the same page all together, we’re moving forward and the youth are moving forward.”