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Inside Mikel Arteta’s managerial mindset, with Arsenal’s former head of methodology

Published

4 months ago

September 20, 2024

Inside Mikel Arteta’s managerial mindset, with Arsenal’s former head of methodology

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When The Athletic revealed last month that Mikel Arteta hired professional pickpockets to pinch valuables from his Arsenal players at a team dinner last season, there were plenty of people wishing they had been in the room to witness the reaction.

Kevin Balvers, the club’s head of methodology for three years before moving to current Dutch champions PSV Eindhoven this summer, could do one better than that.

“I was in the control room of the camera system,” Balvers laughs.

“It was before the Liverpool game (Arsenal’s 3-1 home win in February) and the message to the players was that you always have to be prepared for them to trick you into something without knowing, as their mentality is to win.

“Afterwards, we had a meeting with the players and Mikel said, ‘Is someone missing a phone?’, then pulled it out of a big bag. Then it was, ‘Is someone missing a hotel key?’.

“The coaches all knew as we had hired them but even one of the staff had something stolen. We showed them the cameras, with the message that this is exactly what Liverpool are going to do. It helped align the players with the way the coach was thinking.”

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This is what Balvers describes as an ‘activation’, a pre-match brain game with a deeper psychological message behind it. It is the kind of outside-of-the-box thinking from Arteta that he quickly became used to after joining his staff in 2021.

They would only happen on occasions when it was decided the squad needed something extra to focus their minds, but they were more common before early kick-offs, with Arteta’s own version of Pictionary being a favourite.

“When we played against a team who counter-attacked and there were open spaces, he would say to the players, ‘The highway is open’, which was a picture of an F1 car without any other cars around them,” says Balvers. “If we were playing against a team with closer organisation, it was an F1 car but really crowded. The players would then remember more quickly the things we were talking about.

“This is Mikel. When he speaks with people from a different world, he is trying to think of how he can translate it into football — even with a pilot.

“We had a presentation where he was speaking about them not having control of the plane every single minute because some things were automated and they just had to adjust. We had a presentation with a plane going up when you face a high press and another going down when you have to control the game. It was to say that you may need to change tactics in-game.”

His path to Arsenal was paved by Arteta’s assistant Albert Stuivenberg. They first met when Balvers had been trying to expand his knowledge base at Dutch club Vitesse Arnhem and had reached out to dozens of coaches from the Netherlands to understand their way of playing.

They spoke for two hours as Balvers helped Stuivenberg articulate his game model and philosophy, which led to him being recommended to Arteta in 2020.

“I was out of contract sitting at home (after leaving Vitesse) so I offered to help Albert with anything for free,” says Balvers. “He asked me to help with the analysis of the opposition but I was working with Carlos Cuesta and Miguel Molina on it, who had not joined yet either.

“They saw my work there but Arsenal were struggling with Covid, so those two could join then, but Arteta could only get more staff members later.”

Balvers was at Swedish club Malmo in 2021 when he received a call from Arsenal sporting director Edu Gaspar asking him if he would like to interview for the job as head of methodology. A video call with Arteta and Stuivenberg was followed by an anxious wait as there were two other candidates. Arteta stressed the one with the best “connection” would be chosen.

Balvers during his time at Vitesse (Photo: Paul Meima/Pro Shots/Isosport)

But after an eclectic decade with the Cyprus FA, the Netherlands’ youth teams, Caribbean nation Curacao, Vitesse, Barcelona’s La Masia academy and Malmo’s first team, Balvers secured the role in north London.

He was tasked with creating a uniform footballing idea that ran through the men’s team, the women’s side, and all the way to the youngest academy age group. He did not, however, envisage just how wide-ranging his role would become.

“It wasn’t only his (Arteta) ideas on the pitch, it was the re-culturing of the training ground and the club in every way,” says Balvers.

“If he said the painting in the toilet in the stadium has to be changed, it was because he had a vision. It is a stupid example, but I helped him a lot with these sorts of things.

“At the training ground, all the walls were white but Mikel wanted them to create a culture. I designed with him some words and pictures to go up on the walls.

Plenty of thought goes into the messaging at Arsenal, whether at the Emirates Stadium or the training ground (Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)

“One of them was ‘BASICS’ — B for Boxes, A for Attack, S for Shape, I for Intensity, C for Compete and S for Set pieces. It made it clear what we expected from them, and because he speaks that language every day, the players then speak it.

“He had many specific words he used but one was ‘collaboretition’ — collaboration and competition every day.”

Balvers quickly became a football analyst, a graphics designer, a motivational filmmaker and an interior designer all in one, such was Arteta’s desire to bring his colourful analogies to life.

“It was all the graphics and the motivational videos,” says Balvers. “There was a promo video the club made for the Liverpool home game last season, but he wanted a bit more energy to create a connection with the team and the fans. He had a different idea, so he came to me with it and the video you saw was the new one.

“When we went to away grounds, I made the banners with the crests of Arsenal and others with words from our game model that were placed around the changing room.

“When he was presenting to the board about his plan for the club financially, we did some really good stuff. We lost the first four games after I joined and I was thinking, ‘I could be out already’, but the strength of Mikel was that he could translate his vision and ideas about the whole organisation, not just the team. I think that’s why the board and owners believed in him.”

No stone was left unturned when it came to ensuring Arteta’s ideas became ingrained in the players’ minds. They sought the advice of educational experts to help understand the science behind how people best learn.

“We had people from different clubs and different sports coming over to speak to the coaches, which is how we picked up things,” Balvers says. “For presentations, we had an American come and share techniques which teachers use at university to bring across the message, how to get information into them and how to get information out of them.

“In tactical meetings, I learned from studies that if you put a dark blue background the players will learn the information more than white, black or red as the contrast is better. When speaking about defending, we made sure the text and areas highlighted were red and when attacking it was blue. This helps their brains know instantly what phase of play we’re talking about.”

Even more thought went into the presentations used to pitch the club to prospective new players.

“We spoke about how we saw them fitting in on the pitch, outside the pitch and had some pictures of them photoshopped in the kit already,” Balvers explains.

“For (Jurrien) Timber, we had some pictures of his family with the message that we are a big family and take care of everything. As I’m Dutch too, I put in some music from artists he was listening to, rather than English music. Win the dog was in the one for Kai (Havertz), as we knew he loved dogs and we explained we wanted a family feeling.

“That summer, we used an animation of a train. Mikel was saying, ‘We have our direction and we know where we want to go. If you want to keep going then jump in’. A lot of them said it was amazing as they felt like the club really wanted them in the team.

“Everything that was in Mikel’s mind, I was visualising and trying to make interesting but easy for the players to understand. It was really fun for me as I could be creative when he came to me with an idea and I had to think about how we could present it in the best way. It was the perfect job for me.”

Having spent three seasons at Arsenal, it was a wrench for Balvers to leave. But with a wife and two children, aged three and five, the lure of going home to his family in the Netherlands proved too strong.

There were difficult times due to the distance but the environment at Arsenal helped him get through those moments.

“Mikel is great at speaking about tactics but he’s interested in your family and if you have a problem at home, you could call him in the middle of the night,” he says.

“We had a few breaks before Christmas but in 2022 we only had one before the World Cup, so it was really difficult. I spoke with Mikel and Edu and told them I was struggling, that I could not do this another year. It was special that they just asked me what my idea was and let me work one week a month from the Netherlands.

“That’s the biggest example of why I love the people in the club so much, as it’s not a club just based on results, it’s a really warm place.”

Balvers was given a signed and framed shirt to remember his time at the club by, but his kids now have two red-and-white jerseys they wear playing in the garden after Daddy joined PSV, who have the same colours.

He left his own form of a leaving gift to the Arsenal squad after the final-day victory against Everton, his way of urging them to go on and complete the job of becoming Premier League champions for the first time in over 20 years.

“At the end of every season I always made a video showing the highlights of the whole season, but not just on the pitch. The team building, the barbecues, everything. They were really emotional videos,” he says. “This summer I tried to make the message that, yes, we tried to win and were disappointed, but we have to look back to the road and the story we have built together. We have been amazing, but we have to accept that Manchester City are amazing too.

“I’m not in doubt that, if Arsenal can make steps like they did last year, they can be the main team in the Premier League. Every club has its era.”

(Top photos: Getty Images; design: Eamonn Dalton)

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Sports

Novak Djokovic beats Carlos Alcaraz at Australian Open in display of physical and tactical fortitude

Published

7 minutes ago

January 22, 2025

Press Room

Novak Djokovic beats Carlos Alcaraz at Australian Open in display of physical and tactical fortitude

Relive how Novak Djokovic won the Australian Open quarterfinal

MELBOURNE, Australia — Novak Djokovic beat Carlos Alcaraz 4-6, 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 in the Australian Open quarterfinals at Melbourne Park on Tuesday night.

The No. 7 seed prevailed over the No. 3 seed in a fever-dream of an encounter, defined by a Djokovic injury, his tactical shift as it healed, and Alcaraz’s endless and ultimately fruitless search for a spark.

After three hours and 37 minutes, Djokovic moves on to the semifinals, where he will play No. 2 seed Alexander Zverev.

The Athletic’s tennis writers, Charlie Eccleshare and Matt Futterman, analyze the match against Alcaraz and what it means for the tournament, and for tennis.

A ninth game of Alcaraz genius and Djokovic injury

Alcaraz had started the match looking nervous, and struggling to find his range. He was making errors on the first shot after both his first and second serves, and when Djokovic held serve for 4-3, it felt like he just needed to raise his intensity to steal the first set.

Instead, Alcaraz held for 4-4 before Djokovic suffered a triple whammy in the ninth game. Having chased down a drop shot to go up 15-0, he appeared to hurt himself, wincing and moving gingerly afterwards. Then the thing happened that every Alcaraz opponent dreads: he hit a highlight-reel shot. After an outrageous forehand pass up the line, the Spaniard cupped his hand to his ear and suddenly looked visibly lighter. The third blow felt inevitable for Djokovic, and sure enough a wide forehand conceded the break of serve that was coming and gave Alcaraz the chance to serve out the set.

Novak Djokovic injured his left leg in the first set of the match, in the same game that Carlos Alcaraz seized the decisive break. (Clive Brunskill / Getty Images)

Djokovic was forced to leave the court for a medical timeout; a couple of minutes after returning, he was a set down. In what felt like the blink of an eye, he was suddenly having to play catchup against a player who had only lost one Grand Slam match from a set up. And that was at the Australian Open four years ago, in what was his first-ever major.

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Matt Futterman, Charlie Eccleshare, James Hansen

Djokovic plays Alcaraz tennis, against Alcaraz

There wasn’t any chance that Djokovic was going to go away after picking up that injury. He came out for the second set a completely different player than the one who started the match.

In the first set, he was all about conservatism, turning points into physical contests and allowing Alcaraz to make errors, as he did in the first 12 games of both sets in their gold medal match at the Paris Olympics back in August.

That was no longer a possibility once he was playing with an injury. So Djokovic morphed into a first-strike player, just as he did in the tiebreaks of that Olympic final. He went hunting for every serve, ripping from the baseline at his first chance, even serving and sneaking into the net whenever he could to finish the point quickly. Points soon started ending after three or four shots.

Djokovic turned Alcaraz’s own style against him to win the second set. (Martin Keep / AFP via Getty Images)

Facing his own gifts being turned against him, Alcaraz was caught off-guard and lost his serve in the second game of the second set, as Djokovic whaled away on two forehand returns to get a break point, then won the game on the next one. After that, it became a test of whether this strategy could keep Djokovic in the match long enough to draw even, which would give him time for some combination of adrenaline and medication to kick in. Playing a hyper-aggressive brand of tennis for three sets would be nigh impossible, especially against the master of the art.

It worked even better than he could have hoped. Not only did he steal the set he usually loses while buying time, but when the pain in his leg began to ease, he was able to catch Alcaraz off-guard and keep him guessing about which Djokovic he was going to be facing from one point to the next.

GO DEEPER

Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are redrawing the tennis court

Matt Futterman

How two players used to playing with house money dealt with being the gambler

At the 2024 Laver Cup in Berlin, The Athletic watched a match with eight-time Grand Slam champion Andre Agassi. When analyzing the encounter unfolding in front of him, Agassi kept returning to the idea that tennis players are always seeking to keep the odds of winning in their favor. The best players become like the house at a casino, and turn their opponents into gamblers who start with things stacked against them.

Throughout his career, Djokovic has been the ultimate in applying this logic, the epitome of ‘the house always wins’. His opponents might hit the flashier shots, but ultimately they end up losing the match, because whatever they are doing proves unsustainable.

Against Alcaraz, at this tournament and previously in last year’s Wimbledon final, it’s been a surreal experience to see Djokovic thrust into the gambler role, desperately hoping his number might come up. Injuries have played a part in this on both occasions, but it’s also a reality of his now being 37 years old: not everything can be played on your terms.

Alcaraz struggled to play on his terms after the fourth set. (Icon Sportswire / Getty Images)

What made the dynamic more interesting was that Alcaraz too was having to alter the way he normally becomes the house. His instinct is to be the protagonist and get on the front foot, even though he is also a great defender. He trusts that his brilliance will be enough to ultimately overwhelm his opponent, because it almost always is.

Djokovic’s approach Tuesday took him out of his comfort zone, and in the second set he appeared unsure as to what his best route to victory was. He was celebrating hanging in points and drawing errors, rather than whipping up the crowd after hitting a winner that had got them off their feet.

His head looked scrambled and, having been dicing with danger in several service games, Alcaraz was broken to love and Djokovic levelled the match.

By the start of the third set, Djokovic was moving more freely, which gave him the option to play both sides of the equation: house and gambler. He could drag Alcaraz into rallies and bait him into coughing up a spinny shorter ball, or blast off early. This noticeably flummoxed Alcaraz, who seemed confused about his route to victory. He never entered full highlight-reel mode; his serve, with a new, more fluid motion, couldn’t get him cheap points as it did earlier in the tournament.

By allaying his instincts and playing more conservatively, he became the gambler, as so many of Djokovic’s opponents have fooled themselves into doing in the past. This was different — Alcaraz was, at times, playing three different versions of Djokovic at once — but he couldn’t reverse the trend.

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Charlie Eccleshare

Alcaraz’s search for a spark

All night long, it seemed like Alcaraz was a spark away from finding himself. Especially in the third set, when he was behind from the start and digging to come back. He went a break down, but got back on serve in the seventh game.

This was it… wasn’t it?

It was more like the opposite of that.

Alcaraz then committed three successive errors, on a volley, a forehand and a backhand. Djokovic, sensing his opponent had zero shot tolerance, went to work. He sucked Alcaraz into a 22-shot rally, then finished it with a looping forehand winner into the Spaniard’s backhand corner, not dissimilar to the one Alexei Popyrin hit against Djokovic at the U.S. Open last summer to send the crowd on Arthur Ashe into raptures and put the Serbian on notice that he was going home.

Alcaraz was frequently frustrated by tiny margins of error that accumulated throughout. (Hannah Peters / Getty Images)

After nearly two hours of deadening the stadium to keep the vibes low and Alcaraz disengaged, he put his hand to his ear and revved up the noise.

Then Djokovic fell 0-30 down as he served for the set. Could this be the Alcaraz spark? Nope. Two more errors from him drew Djokovic even. Time to test the shot tolerance again. A 17-shot rally this time, ending with Alcaraz whacking a running forehand into the net.

Rattled, and a point away from going down two sets to one, Alcaraz let Djokovic twist him this way and that and even baulked on an easy overhead before missing a backhand volley that he shouldn’t have had to hit.

Two games, 10 points, about eight minutes of play.

Script flipped.

Matt Futterman, Charlie Eccleshare, James Hansen

The 33-shot footnote in tennis history

In what was a weird match in so many ways, there was at least an exciting finale.

Alcaraz seemed to belatedly realize his only route back into this quarterfinal was to get the atmosphere going. He had searched for that spark all night, and finally got the chance in the fourth set.

When he won a 33-shot rally to save a break point that would have left him 5-2 down and out of the match, the Rod Laver Arena finally fizzed with energy. Djokovic raged, well aware of how significant the moment could be, with both players bent double at the side of the court. Alcaraz was smiling and laughing. Djokovic was fuming.

It felt like the turning point that Alcaraz has shown the tennis world so many times in his career, when he creates a highlight and then rolls downhill. Suddenly he was grinning again, sprinting around the court, almost enjoying himself.

When he held two break points in the next game, the comeback very briefly felt like it might be on.

But back came Djokovic, fending them both off before holding serve. Two games later, he served out the match to render that 33-shot rally ultimately irrelevant.

Charlie Eccleshare

What did Djokovic say after the match?

“I just wish that this match was the final,” Djokovic said in his on-court interview. “One of the most epic matches I’ve played on this court — on any court.”

“When the medications start to release, I’ll see what the reality is tomorrow morning. Right now. I’ll just try to be in the moment and enjoy this victory,” he said of his injury.

What did Alcaraz say after the match?

“We push each other to the limit,” he said. “I think we’ve played great points, great rallies. It was really tight in the third, the fourth set.

“I’m just lucky to live this experience. I’m 21 years old. From these matches, I’m getting so much experience about how to deal with everything. I’m not going to hide.

“I’ve done great things in tennis already, but playing against one of the best in the history of our sport, these kind of matches help me a lot in the future to be better.”

Lions losing Ben Johnson to rival Bears is big 'body blow,' Super Bowl champion says

Published

37 minutes ago

January 22, 2025

Press Room

Lions losing Ben Johnson to rival Bears is big 'body blow,' Super Bowl champion says

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Former Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson left the team to take the Chicago Bears’ head coaching job Monday.

Super Bowl champion Lomas Brown talked about what Lions fans are going through losing their top coordinator after a crushing playoff loss during a recent appearance on OutKick’s “Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich.”

“I know it’s another body blow. You know that old game, body blow, body blow. … That was a big one yesterday,” Brown said. “All of them on talk radio, that was the subject yesterday, Ben Johnson leaving. Oh my god, you got so many fans upset at Ben about taking the Chicago job. I think it’s more, not him leaving, but more of the job that he is accepting because of how bitter rivals we are with Chicago.

Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson before a game against the Chicago Bears at Soldier Field. (Daniel Barte/IImagn Images)

“Now, we got to face him twice a year. That just made the division even harder with Ben Johnson going in there. And a lot of sentiment before he took the job was that Ben wouldn’t take that job because he knew he would have to go up against his good friend Dan Campbell twice a year. But he took it. A lot of people not happy with it around here.”

The No. 1-seeded Lions were upset by the No. 6-seeded Washington Commanders, 45-31, Saturday.

Brown said losing Johnson, especially to a division rival, and potentially other top assistants make the loss to the Commanders hurt that much more.

LIONS’ DAN CAMPBELL CONFIDENT TEAM’S SUPER BOWL WINDOW REMAINS OPEN AFTER DISASTROUS LOSS TO COMMANDERS

Detroit Lions offensive coordinator Ben Johnson watches a play against the Chicago Bears during the first half at Soldier Field in Chicago Dec. 22, 2024. (Imagn)

“A lot of people not happy with it around here, and I think that it’s, again, I just think a lot of that’s from the results of the game, and just everything that’s going on the last few days around here. It’s culminating with Ben Johnson taking the job and, d—, we’re going to lose other assistants,” Brown said.

“I mean Aaron Glenn, you talk about maybe (offensive line coach) Hank Fraley. It’s other assistants that we’re going to lose off this team. That’s why this was the year for us to get it done.”

Glenn was scheduled to interview with the New York Jets for the second time for their head coaching position Tuesday, according to NFL Network.

Tuesday’s interview will be the first in-person meeting between the Jets and Glenn.

Lions legend Lomas Brown speaks during a Ring of Honor induction ceremony at halftime of a game between Detroit Lions and Las Vegas Raiders at Ford Field in Detroit Oct. 30, 2023. (Imagn)

Fraley is being interviewed for the Seattle Seahawks’ offensive coordinator position Tuesday, according to ESPN. It will be Fraley’s second interview with the team and their first in-person interview.

Brown spent 18 seasons in the NFL and was with the Lions for 11 of them. Brown was a star left tackle and made the Pro Bowl seven consecutive seasons from 1990-1996.

Brown won a Super Bowl in his final season with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in 2002.

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Sports

Lakers get back on track against woeful Washington

Published

1 hour ago

January 22, 2025

Press Room

Lakers get back on track against woeful Washington

Two days after the Lakers were saying it almost never would be easy, almost never came to town.

The Washington Wizards, who have won a league-low six times, were the cure for the Lakers after a loss Sunday to the Clippers exposed a number of their weaknesses. The postgame morale was low, LeBron James and JJ Redick openly discussing how their roster wouldn’t be able to organically improve an already narrow margin for error.

But with the midway point of the season here Tuesday, the Lakers played the one team in the NBA bad enough to make anyone — even the Lakers — feel like they’ve got it figured out.

The Lakers did the right things consistently over four quarters, barely being threatened before winning 111-88 in a game they desperately had to have before hosting Boston on Thursday night.

“It just starts with a very professional approach from our team,” Redick said. “That was one of our more complete games, regardless of what time of season it was or who the opponent was. Like, we just, we had a really professional approach.”

The Wizards (6-36), in the early stages of a rebuild with eyes on the top of the NBA draft, haven’t won since Jan. 1. Kyle Kuzma and Jordan Poole are their best offensive options and backup center Jonas Valanciunas and forward Corey Kispert their only other veterans, Washington fully committed to the future.

Compared to the Lakers (23-18), whose eyes are squarely on the present, that made Tuesday predictably one-sided — though the Lakers still needed to execute.

Anthony Davis had 29 points and 16 rebounds while bullying rookie Alex Sarr. James, fresh from watching his beloved Ohio State win the college football national championship Monday in Atlanta, had his ninth triple-double of the season with 21 points, 13 assists and 10 rebounds. Austin Reaves, despite a four-for-15 shooting night, still finished with 16 points and eight assists, and Dorian Finney-Smith had 16 points off the bench in just 22 minutes.

The Lakers did it by attacking the paint and finding the open player, the team scoring on more than a handful of lobs.

“It’s… just being ready to make the passes on time, on target,” James said. “And when we do that, we look pretty good.”

The biggest highlight came when Reaves found James for a lob off an offensive rebound, with the 40-year-old Lakers star dunking on Valanciunas.

Austin Reaves drives to the basket against Washington’s Bob Carrington in the first quarter.

(Wally Skalij / Los Angeles Times)

“I got hype. Screaming so loud, I almost passed out,” Davis said. “I mean, it wasn’t one of his best ones, but I’ve seen better. But it was a good one.”

The Lakers held Washington to 35.8% shooting from the field and 25.6% from three and limited the Wizards to 11 points in the fourth quarter.

“We went out, we had a game plan, we executed that,” James said. “I thought defensively, we were great. We were in tune with what they wanted to do, what they tried to do. And offensively, we shared the ball, limited our turnovers. We were really good.”