In Academy football, it’s the young players that take the spotlight, but behind the scenes it’s the coaches who get very little coverage that put in all the hard work allowing them to progress to the next level. I spoke to Michael Skubala, head coach of Leeds United Under-21s, and asked him about managing Academy footballers.
Overview
Michael Skubala has seen it all, from managing England’s national futsal team, to leading out Leeds United on the biggest stage of them all at Old Trafford against their archrivals, Manchester United. So as an Academy footballer, you couldn’t ask for a better manager.
Over the years, Skubala has gathered valuable experience in all different aspects of Football. The 41-year-old started his career in coaching whilst he was a PE teacher at a secondary school in Leicester, he then quickly progressed up the ranks in football and was announced as the head coach of the England National Futsal team. Skubala’s work with the England National Futsal team didn’t go unnoticed, as he then progressed to work with England Under-18s. He was then picked up by Leeds United in July 2022 and took the head coach role of the Under-21s. After all his great work with the U21s, when Leeds sacked Jesse Marsch in the 22/23 season, Skubala was brought in as Leeds United first team’s Interim manager, where he managed three fixtures, the biggest being Manchester United away, where he saw his side battle it out for a 2-2 draw.
Keeping players grounded
Academy managers face many challenges in their career, and one of the main obstacles is keeping players levelheaded, when they want to be pushing onto the next level. I spoke to Michael Skubala on how he keeps his players at Leeds United going in the right direction, “The best way is just to keep supporting them, but also giving them high challenges, we want to challenge them to understand the level we want them to get to, even though they can have really good performances, we still work on them to improve every aspect.”
“If we improve every player, this improves the team and my work is to keep improving all the time, there is no doubt there is things to improve on, and we make sure we review every game, the good stuff and the things we can improve on and we keep grinding and improving, making sure that they know (the players) that better never ends.” said Skubala.
Keeping players level-headed is one of the most important tasks as an Academy manager. When youth players have gained minutes for the first team but are dropped back down to the academy squad it can be sometimes difficult to keep them motivated.
Managing game time:
When it comes to Academy football, all the young players want to do is to play as many minutes as possible, and as a manager, managing this can be very difficult. You run the risk leaving players unhappy, when all the young players want to do is prove themselves to rise to the next level.
Michael Skubala spoke on this matter, “The trickiest role of an Under-21s manager is to make sure you have a blend of supporting the first team, getting development minutes into the younger players and making sure that’s all fair.”
“A big challenge is making sure that we can still play our way, but at the same time using all resources available to us.”
Skubala also believes that the role of head coach of an academy side can be more challenging that managing a first team.
“To a certain degree an Under-21s job is more challenging, as a first team coach you have a set group of players where you can just play in your way.”
“I think this is a challenge of an Under-21s head coach at any club, it’s to make sure that the melting pot effect of all those things and the decisions are balanced, but also at the same time making sure that you can get the very best out of every play in the situation that you have.”
Looking ahead
Since my Interview with Skubala when he was Leeds United Under-21s coach, he has done what many academy footballers hope to do and made the step up to the next level. In November, the day after his Under-21 side lost 2-1 against Chelsea, Skubala was announced as head coach of League One side Lincoln City.
