Newly-appointed Palace manager for the 23/24 Premier League season, Roy Hodgson recently gave an insight into his coaching philosophy on popular YouTube channel The Overlap.
In an interview with Gary Neville, the first of two episodes, Hodgson highlighted the importance of establishing a firm bond with his players – the impact of which was clear to see at the culmination of 2022/23.
Hodgson explained: “You can only ever be a good coach if you’ve got players who are going to work for you, play for you and win matches for you.
“If those players are not going to win matches for you, you will never be regarded as a good coach.”
In the second episode, Hodgson revealed to Neville how he approached the task of guiding Palace to safety for a fifth time at the end of last season.
The manager recalled: “It was very low-key. There weren’t any Churchillian speeches. It was really more: ‘right, we know what we want from you, and we’re going to work very hard to try and make you understand what we want, and try and bring out the best of your qualities.
“’All we want is for you to get behind that and show us, every training session, that you are on board with what we as a football team are trying to do, and that you believe it will get some results.’"
On his initial focus, he added: “I find organising teams defensively an easier task than organising teams offensively, because you need organising offensively: you need structure there, you need moves, you need to know what the guy in front of you and just behind you are doing and how they’re going to liaise with you in your movements, and that’s on the training field every bit as much as the defensive part.
“I’d seen [these players’] games, albeit on the television. I realised there was a lot of attacking talent here – players with exceptional technical skills, and good pace as well.
“I knew with these guys, we had pace, athleticism and technique, so there was no reason why, if we could get these players into the right positions, they couldn’t score goals. We had to make certain we made them focus on the moves, the type of play and the type of actions that were going to be necessary for them to get into those positions.
“[We told them] when it happens, we’re one hundred percent behind you, so don’t fear you can’t take the shot or make the dribble – we will be more angry with you if you don’t, and you play the simpler pass and start attacks again.
“It takes a lot of effort and good play to get into that final third and into good attacking situations – you’ve got to profit from them because if not, you start all over again and there’s no guarantee the next situation will be any better than the one you’ve just created."
As for the overall mood character he hopes to instil in his players, Hodgson noted: “If you’re going to bring any calmness and belief, and promote some sort of faith in the group itself that we’re good enough and we can do that, you’ve got to have the faith yourself.
“I was pretty convinced we were going to give the right messages, we were going to do the right training sessions – we were going to give the right support, and as a result we had to show a bit of character ourselves.”
And asked by Neville if he felt the potential existed within Palace's squad to target a top-half finish in the Premier League next season, Hodgson reaffirmed: "One hundred percent.
"If we can keep competing with [the top teams], if we can keep being in the same sort of ball-park, and if we can get into that top half of the table, I think that's a great pat on the back for the club."
