Get to know Miki, head coach for the women`s team

Foto: Hordalandsfotball. 

Name: Miquel "Miki" Lladó Plana
Age: 35
Position: Head coach, Åsane Fotball.

2019-2024: CE Sabadell FC (Spain)
2018-2019: South United FC (India)
2014-2018: Anantapur Sports Academy (India)
2011-2014: Sant Cugat FC (Spain)

The most surprising thing about Miki is that he is a biologist, he worked as a biologist in Germany, and when he finished his university degree, he worked in LAP, developmental biology in a lab with a research group. He then understood that this was not what he wanted to do long term. He wanted to explore the world, so he did his master’s degree in international corporation.

While he did his master`s degree, in Barcelona (after he was in Germany), he was 22/23 years old and that`s when he started coaching as a hobby, In a local town. When he finished his master`s degree, he had the opportunity to work with UN, the United Nations developmental program, and he was at the same time offered to go to India, whit the club from his hometown and an opportunity to stay in that organization. He had to select between football and the UN,
- "I chose football and from there on it has been a journey."
He was supposed to stay in India for a year, he stayed five. Then he moved back to Spain, he coached CE Sabadell and their boys at national level, then he was promoted to the first team as an interim, and he discovered that it was hard to come into the first team without a football background. 

Miquel Lladó Plana then moved to California, he stayed there for 6-8 moth and coached for fun outside of work. Out of nowhere he got a new call where Sabadell wanted him back as an assistant coach. It happened very quick, he got his assistant coach position, and he hold that position for two years. He was the youngest first coach in that level in Spain, it was a very high achievement. Afther this adventure he had to take a break when he was let go, as all coaches do in this profession, and then I came to Norway.

What was your first reaction when you found out that you were taking over as head Coach this summer?
” I didn’t expect that, I had been mostly on the men`s, so it was not something I thought about. I started working her as a coach developer for the academy. I got the proposal, so I had to think about it because it was a change, it was different. So, I said Okey, let’s try this out, it’s a new experience. I`m always positive and I called some people I trusted and asked, they told me it was an opportunity I should take.”

Second question: How will you describe your football philosophy?
Answer: I put a lot of attention on defending, not because my teams are defensive. But I think it´s important in the game. I mostly like as much as I can to go high and press, but if the game brings us to defend on our half, we work on that. So I adapt to de different circumstances, but put a lot of attention on what’s important when you defend andwhat ideas the players need to dominate, then little by little build the attack. My philosophy is being as competitive as possible. It’s not the style that used to be many years ago In Spain, of always building up from the back, I think now in modern football it`s disappearing. See who you are playing against, have some clear ideas and make your virtues and advantages, prevail over the opponents, so over all the style is very adaptable. Always have in the back of our mind to be better than the other team, sometimes we have to be better without the ball because they have more capacity than us and sometimes, we need to be better whit the ball because we have more capacity.

Miquel Lladó Plana sees grate potential in his current team and hope they can work in a way so they can shine in their places on the field.

What areas in the team do you see is the most important to improve, short term? - “It’s a team whit a lot of potential, so the first area to improve is the mentality that they put into things. I want them to be conscious about and value themselves and what they really are. The first point is to not feel sorry for themselves and really do what you need to do to win the game. Change the perspective from “I can’t do it” to “what do I have to do, so I can do this”.
They don’t have a bad mentality now, but it’s important to build it in a positive way, I feel we are really growing in this area.The second point it’s to fill them whit concepts and ideas, what actions will bring you success while playing? “Do them”. What will not bring success? “Stop doing that.”

Miquel Lladò Plana think to balance developing the team and the immediate results we need that individual development comes as a result from team development. He is focusing on strengthening the team, to do that they must individually raise their level.
- "You can’t strengthen a team if your players are individually week. They will have to raise their  standards." He knows it is a lot of individuality focus in Norway, “want can I do to improve me”, but he believe we are not playing an individual game, it’s a collective one, individuality will always be within some more important parameters that effect the group. That’s also is a change in the team’s mindset he believes, they always come second, because the team comes first.

Do you have some thoughts on the team’s current play? Did you change anything when you took over?
- “We changed a little bit the way we defend, we have started to bring a little awareness to what spaces we would like to control and play the ball in when we attack. We are building a different vocabulary. The game is the same, but if we bring awareness to it. It`s like the analogy to the forest, you go to take a hike but you don’t know any of the names of the trees or any of the plants you find, you know you’re in nature and that you are hiking but you’re not aware of what type of trees you are passing, what plants that are growing, what you can and cannot eat. So, we are bringing the knowledge of the forest, they knew the forest, but now specifically know what they try to do.”

The head coach strategy to build strong team spirit and chemistry on the field between players is internal competition. He wants players that know they must be there and train to get their playing time and their spot. That does not condition for negative vibes, it needs to be understood that competition makes you better. And knowing them we need to do some activities, so we feel they are a part of a group.

When we ask if he think there is some big challenges this fall, Miquel Lladò Plana
thinks the games is a challenge itself;
- “I don’t think they are facing anything big and unattainable; the challenge is to play football during a game and have their chance to win, and we are doing that.”

Do you feel any pressure?
- “I was a coach for a club that have a history of 120 years that has played 14times in the first division in Spain. The fans didn’t understand why I was made coach, imagine 7- 8000 people in the stadium and the media all over the place. Without being a formal player and the youngest coach on the team... So, what pressure are you talking about? -"This is Disney compared to that, there will always be bad looks when you don’t make the right decision and there will always be thoughts, we play football I don’t spend much time on the rest.”

The last question we had for our coach was if he had some long-term goals. He explained that the only goal is to stay in the Toppserie, when that is achieved, we will see what`s the club’s vision is. “If we bring in more tools for the female players would be fantastic and its possible to build from there. If we stay in the league maybe my experience can continue here. “

We are excited to see how the end of this term will be for our team in Toppserien whit Miquel Lladó Plana as our head coach, we wish him good luck!