What to learn/look out for in the 2024 Carabao Cup final.
So, you are probably questioning my choice of image to introduce this article. Though, believe me, there is huge relevance and connections/links between the two which I will talk about in the next section. Firstly? We need to understand why exactly you are here, what is the true reason for you clicking onto this link? Because in truth, you knew this isn’t your conventional free publication, you knew a paywall will be coming and despite this you were still interested—You see, I understand why. I also know the difficulties when faced by a paywall; despite the receptiveness you have for learning and to actually progress yourself in purposeful work. I understand you... I want to tell you a story before we move onto the next section which’ll serve as quick value for you to take and instantly implement; I am now SUPER strict when it comes to turning games off and focusing on optimizing ‘flow-state’ or my actual brain-power, and this is completely different to what you’ve been told. It would be far cooler if I told you to watch the full-90s five times a day, optimize or increase the volume and learn from your attention and knowledge… The truth is, this actually isn’t good advice. Common, but really bad advice. However, I took this advice, I wasn’t always like this. I would watch uninteresting games down to the last SECOND, squeezing all value that was possible to collect—How much value (lessons) do you think I accumulated? ZERO. By the second-game I was mentally fatigued, throughout the reminder of the matches I had my attention drained. My attention drained? That is one of the key tools I was using to learn. The second, well, you might not want to accept this, though my actual knowledge I went into these ‘learning-grounds’ with was lower than you’d think, and you’re no different. You see, what I’d like to call the ‘any-benefit-mindset’ is worse than sub-optimal. It is inefficient and indirectly advised to you. I am not saying don’t use live-matches for learning, I mean I literally do have pages of notes from this very technique (some more ground-breaking than others), though you have to control this with enough awareness and humility to see when you’re gaining nothing.
The 25th of February—the day of the final.
These are the games that are on prior to the game in question:
11:30; Juventus vs Frosinone.
12:00; Lens vs Monaco.
13:30; Wolves vs Sheffield United.
14:00; Toulouse vs Lille
14:30; Frankfurt vs Wolfsburg.
And there are more—This might be conspired, I mean why else would they directly schedule their matches to purposefully disrupt your ability to focus, learn and observe/analyse. Whatever you want to call it.
There is a version of you who follows this advice, knowing that it is so polarizing and uncommon to the words which have failed you, with the motivations being that it must give different results. Right? Well, this is exactly what has happened with my experiences. My worst-case is different to yours. It is because; If I don’t find value, if the game isn’t providing opportunity to learn, I read books which almost always results in my notepad being 1% fuller than previously. You see, I cannot lose with this principle in place. HOWEVER, I can also see the version of you who doesn’t believe my words. You are laughing hard. You think you are going to spot something that I haven’t seen, don’t you…? FootballOrigin exists for that reason. Soon, the game/moment you are thinking of will be accessible on the platform that I use the most for my scouting work. You can’t win, inside the box…
…I will now tell you about why I chosen the picture that I did. It would appear, to me, that I have ‘Two-Ws’ to explain in that sense. Firstly, the who? Who is that and what relevance does he actually have with the final in question? It is Nigel Adkins, manager of a fourth tier club in England. In truth… He holds no link to this game. Which brings me on nicely to the ‘second-W’ or WHY. You see, it was one post-match interview with him -which have usually been insightful- that opened my eyes to what exactly his E-T-F task could be, and after excessive thinking and notes, is why I am writing this type of post for you. So, what is that abbreviation? It translates to ‘eat-the-frog’ which is essentially explained via a visualisation; If you had to eat a live frog as part of your evening meal—What would you eat first? The frog, or the actual meal? This concept is basically ONLY suitable to implement if you chose the former. Why? It is doing your MOST IMPORTANT task first thing, especially/often waking up early for it. So, although I am actually half-speculating, what is Adkins’ E-T-F task…?
I have this as almost an entire page in my notepad, and you’ll understand why should you give this your full attention. So, in my mind, Adkins’ ‘frog-task’ would be that once he wakes up early he re-watches his sides last/most recent game (maybe with his team or a few other of our coaches, though he makes clear that he would do this in the ‘cold light of day’ without emotion and with a optimal view of the entire game) and, this is where is gets super interesting; he watches/analyses until he identifies LEARNING LESSIONS for his team, notes them down or pauses the game to think of ways to ‘deliver’ them to his players either via presentations (which’ll be outsourced or a separate task) or drills coupled with explanations which may also be separate. He’s to intelligent to ‘task-switch’ in-fact.
Now this, is exactly what brings me here today in this present moment. I got the thought - spontaneously, without many thoughts - wrote it down and immediately entered a pure euphoric state. Why? I knew. I knew this was the ultimate place for me to get to, this was the promise land of ‘purposeful-impact.’ I’m not there yet, I actually still have a long way to go, though (right now) this is where I want to end up… That is a big claim so early? Well, sometimes you just feel it. You can’t explain it nor does anyone else see it/understand it. I’m excited for you if you are there, or if you are ‘almost’ at that physiological point and this has opened your eyes…
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