Coach Justin Cochrane leaves the England youth set-up to become head of player development

Sounds great. We're winning the league in 20 years for sure. Glazers in.
 
Nice. Good to see us snapping up highly rated coaches. We have some good players for him to get his teeth into.

We are going to need a good youth system to compete with the rate we spend cash.
 
The threads on this from the United and the youth forums have been merged into this thread.
 
MyOnlySolskjaer said:
Fair play to Kajumba, for me he’s the most reliable football journalist in the country.
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I don’t see his name often but when I do, it’s normally attached to something reliable. Good sign.
 
krentz said:
That's very insightful additional information from you, considering Cochrane has only started his managerial career in the latter half of 2019. And Yes, getting world class manager with proven track record of winning titles had done wonder for us in the past. I sure missed the days when proven managers like LvG bored me to death with his proven "philosophy" football or Mourinho repeatedly humiliating our club and our players during press conference. Ooh Ole won trophies with Molde too, sure you'll find a way to belittle that (Norwegian league ? LEL) but a league trophy is a league trophy even if it was say, Malta super League.
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Quality. Get this person promoted please
 
Sounds like he's very highly rated by those who are familiar with his work. Great news!
 
pascell said:
He has ties in the Sancho camp too, so he and the German newspaper close to Dortmund are the only ones I listen to when it comes to Sancho news.
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If he has ties in the Sancho camp then when is Sancho day? :smirk:

Fraud!
 
How long you reckon until he informs Murtough that Ole and his staff can’t coach?

All the best Coch. Go bad up these dead beat man we have running this club.
 
krentz said:
You're boring. Now, do you have something else to about this appointment? something informative cause you sure sound like a knowledgeable fella from Malta?
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What really makes this, is the "fella from Malta". I don't know why, but I laughed.
 
Didn't know alot about him until I did a internet search to see how highly rated he is for his work. John Murtough has now nabbed a number of highly reputable people to form the coaching/recruitment structure at youth/reserve level.

David Harrison, (head of academy recruitment) nabbed from Man City.

Lyndon Tomlinson, (assistant head of recruitment) nabbed from Man City.

Ronnie Cusick, (head of scouting in the North West) nabbed from Man City.

Henny de Regt, (head of European scouting) former head of the Ajax academy.

The above are just some names who were brought in on merit, including Nick Cox, who oversees the academy.
 
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Adnan said:
Didn't know alot about him until I did a internet search to see how highly rated he is for his work. John Murtough has now nabbed a number of highly reputable people to form the coaching/recruitment structure at youth/reserve level.

David Harrison, (head of academy recruitment) nabbed from Man City.

Lyndon Tomlinson, (assistant head of recruitment) nabbed from Man City.

Tony Cusick, (head of scouting in the North West) nabbed from Man City.

Henny de Regt, (head of European scouting) former head of the Ajax academy.

The above are just some names who were brought in on merit, including Nick Cox, who oversees the academy.
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Any idea how we man people from City? Offer more money? Our history?
 
LInkash said:
Any idea how we man people from City? Offer more money? Our history?
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I'm not sure, but my guess would be better terms.

Take Mark Anderson as a example, he was head of department at Brighton and we managed to sign him as a scout probably due to him getting better terms at United. But I think Anderson currently heads our southern division in England when it comes to scouting.
 
How did I miss that we promoted somebody to Director of Football ? John Murtough.

What are the general thoughts about his promotion ?
 
tomaldinho1 said:
Looks essentially the same - Butt's role was 'Head of First Team Development' from what I remember so maybe this will be working with younger players as a priority? Assume similar though. Butt seemingly did really well when you think of the younger players all on the periphery/getting minutes so hopefully that trend continues.
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First Team development is more of a BS to me. When you are already in 1st team, it is all about HOW can I squeeze into starting 11. The likes of Carrick should be your coach.

U17 U21 on the other hand, can use a lot of HR equivalent coaching and advice - whether I will ever make it at professional level, whether I am good enough for the Top EPL clubs, and which side of my games is more suitable to Ole's requirement.
 
Unfortunately he left to Brentford to be a first team coach but did a great job with Alejandro, wish we could keep him in the club

IN June 2021, Justin Cochrane was appointed as Manchester United’s first Head of Player Development and Coaching, with a remit to “maximise the potential of each individual player" aged 17 to 23.

Speaking on the latest episode of the Training Ground Guru Podcast (which you can listen to below), the 40-year-old has given a fascinating insight into how he did this with Alejandro Garnacho, United's most exciting young talent of the moment.

Cochrane, who left United to become first-team coach at Brentford in the summer, explained how his philosophy of “content and connection” was put into practice with the 18-year-old Argentine.

“It was interesting, because I had to get to know him initially,” Cochrane said. “His English wasn’t great, I had a few words in Spanish, but we built up a bit of a connection.

“We had a clear development plan for him and he followed that. It’s gone quicker than I thought, but he’s an example of connecting with the player, getting to know him, understanding him and then having a bit of context.

“He listened to me and he listened to the other coaches about some key development traits that you see him do now when he is playing for Manchester United. It’s fascinating for me to see, because it further cements my ideas on coaching."

Garnacho signed for United as a 16-year-old from Atletico Madrid in October 2020. He made his first-team debut as a 91st-minute substitute in the 1-1 draw with Chelsea in April.

Cochrane said: “At Manchester United, if you were going to get in as a winger, you had to challenge Anthony Elanga, Jadon Sancho, Marcus Rashford and now they have bought Antony.

“So for Garnacho, he had to make sure that he’s really good at what he’s good at - and he is excellent on transition, he makes darting runs in behind, he is quick and he can finish.


“So we had a clear development program for him that he was part of, that he had insight into. He contributed to it and we spoke in detail about just a couple of areas.”
The teenager, who played for Spain's Under-18s before switching his allegiance to Argentina, the country of his mother's birth, scored his first goal for United against Real Sociedad in the Europa League on November 3rd.
He followed his up with a 93rd-minute winner against Fulham in the last Premier League game before the World Cup break 10 days later. Cochrane was particularly delighted, because the goals demonstrated something he had been working on with the player.

“One of the areas actually was that we said about no 'chopping',” Cochrane revealed. “He used to go down on his left foot and always want to come back onto his right.
“And one of the things I said (was), ‘Look, in the next few games, when you get it on your left foot, take the left-foot shot. So before you chop, you’ve got to have two left-foot strikes before you can come inside.’
“Something so small like that made a difference to him and then we laughed, because I used to say to him ‘no chops.’ And then when you see him score for the first team in the Europa League and he takes it on his left foot you are delighted - and then he takes it on his left foot the other day again.

“So, listen, that’s not me and the coaches at Manchester United, it’s all him. But you know that you tried to have an impact on the development side with him.”
Garnacho was called up into the senior Argentina squad for the first time in March, although he didn’t play. At the time he thanked Cochrane and Darren Fletcher, the club's Technical Director, for their support.

“Justin and Darren Fletcher are two members of the club who are always very attentive to me, supporting me in all kinds of decisions," Garnacho said.
There is now huge interest in the player, in both Manchester and beyond. Cochrane acknowledges the challenges this will pose, but says he has seen enough of the player to believe he will not be phased.
“It’s hard with these young players now,” admitted Cochrane, who coached at Tottenham and with England's U17s before joined United. “I think he’s into two or three million followers (on Instagram Garnacho currently has 3.2m followers) - just in one year, it’s crazy!

“He has got that quality that he thrives in the big moments. He did it in the Youth Cup (final) last year. I remember speaking to him before the game. He was taking ages to get ready.
“The players were ready to warm up and he still didn’t have his boots on. I said, 'Alejandro, come on! Get ready, hurry up. He was like, 'Don’t worry coach, I’ll score two goals today.'
“And then he went out and scored two goals. Little things like that make you laugh. Me and Travis (Binnion, who led the U18s last season) would speak about it and laugh about it. Some of these high talented players can drive you up the wall at times, but you need to be able to work with talent and work with difference.

“Not everyone is going to be the model young player. And they are young players, 17, 18, 19, not adults, and they don’t think like adults all the time. They shouldn’t.
“They are going to be a bit challenging, a bit different. You’ve just got to be accepting of that. It’s not accepting that anything goes, but you’ve got to have an understanding that they’re going to push the boundaries and you’ve got to know when to pull them back in.”
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