Squad planning – the mix makes it…

After each season the question arises how to put together the team for the coming season.
Various factors play a role here. In this article, I will openly describe my personal perspective on how we at Zug United have put together the squad for the coming season.

Analyzing the past season

For me personally, the past season was a bit difficult. On the one hand, my team wasn’t technically and physically at the level I had expected. On the other hand we lacked consistency.
Last season we had a lot of talent in the team, but the team was very young and unexperienced in winning.
When I took over the team, I had to do very long basic exercises with the team to develop a game philosophy.
That’s why we had to play relatively defensively last season.

To be a bit more precise we had a total of six players, who still had a U21 license.

So if I summarize the past season, the following points were not good:
– Physis
– Winner mentality
– shooting efficiency
– Constant performance during the games

Together with the sports management and my staff, we went into the strategic season preparation right after the elimination against the Wizards.

Existing squad

Of course the first talks with the own players were already held during the playoffs. We tried (successfully) to bind the top players to our NLA team for at least one more season.
There were also unpleasant decisions to be made. There is always the danger of letting personal feelings flow into the decisions. From the very beginning of my coaching career I have always said to myself that I train a performance team and have to decide whether a player has the potential to strengthen the team and improve herself.
Of course, humanity is also important, but not the personal feeling.

Physis

As I mentioned in detail earlier, I was not satisfied with the physical level of my team. Thanks God this point is relatively easy to improve. In our case we were also a bit lucky that Simone Baratin is already working in our club.
Already last March I was able to sit down with Simone and discuss the details for the summer training. I was able to give him clear instructions about what I expect from my team in the coming season and he shared my view 100%.
Also it is of course very helpful that the team is also ready for the “extra mile” and wants to improve.

Junior players

Practically every club known to me and its soul lives from its own young generation. Young players usually pass through the entire junior departments in their own club and have grown up and have roots with the club.
For the coming season we could engage two top coaches – Thomas Rieben and Magnus Heglund – at Zug. They will do a very good job with our talented juniors. But this is exciting for the future.
Even though we were already one of the younger teams last season, I have decided to include young players in the NLA team for the coming season. One of them – Snezhka Dubyk – is going to be a permanent member of the squad. In addition, 5 more players in the promotional squad will be supported in order to make the decisive step into the NLA team sooner or later.
With the current progress, it could even happen that it will be in the course of the upcoming season.

Foreign players

Two more points from the season analysis are deficiencies in consistency and the winner mentality. I dealt early and intensively with these two points. I was also able to call on my international network to find the right foreign players for my team.
With the transfer of Kamila Paloncyova and Ivana Supakova, we were able to sign two national players of the current Czech national team.
Kamila and Ivana are transferring from 1.SC Vítkovice to Zug United. Vítkovice can be compared in the Czech Republic with Piranha Chur or the Kloten Dietlikon Jets. Both players bring a lot of experience and the winner mentality. This should bring more consistency and stability in the coming season.

Improve shooting

That leaves another important point, which we definitely have to improve on last season. Here I am clearly talking about our final weakness.
I have to admit that I had to spend most of my time on this point and we also had the one or other setback with our transfers.
Nevertheless, we were able to make some steps forward in this point as well.
On the one hand, my offenders have improved individually and we are also focusing more on training sessions in this area. On the other hand Magnus Heglund will work with our offenders in the coming season in addition to his mandate in the U21 team.
What I am also very happy about is the transfer of Eliška Trojánková. Although Eliška is still very young, she has a lot of potential. She fits in well with the concept of Zug United, where we will make sure that we give her space to develop further. I hope that by doing so she can support the team with her qualities.
It will certainly be helpful for Eliška to have two other players from her home country, Kamila and Ivana, as well as her.
As a father of a daughter, who is only a little younger than Eliška, I am willing to take on the responsibility that Eliška will have a good time with us and that we can support and challenge her in the field of floorball. Only when she feels comfortable will she be able to show us all her full potential.

Preparation

We have divided the preparation into several phases, I assume that other teams are doing the same. At peak times the team trains up to 6 times a week.
At the end of August we will have our second training camp and a preparation tournament.
Unfortunately, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, we cannot go abroad as originally planned, the risk is just too high, but we have found an optimal alternative in Switzerland.
After the preparation tournament in Winterthur, we will switch to regular training.