Ronald Koeman reckons the players these days are so busy with technology that they develop a communication gap even with their own teammates and it results in poor coordination on the field.
Koeman brought up the game between Southampton and Newcastle United which was played at St. Mary’s Stadium the week before this and picked an instance from that game where three players in the defensive line of the Magpies went in the same route to tackle Sadio Mane, while, they should have gone in different directions and that error made a goal happen for the Saints.
According to Koeman, it could only have been the lack of communication on Newcastle’s part and nothing else. If there had been proper communication, different routes could have been taken and the goal could have been denied.
Koeman believes the players especially those who have grown up in this generation, they sort of build a different world for themselves and they remain busy in that world only. Face to face conversation just doesn’t come naturally to them.
That’s why, Koeman has set a rule for the Southampton players that when all of them are together, they will have to stay away from their electronic gadgets, their cell phones, laptops or whatever and instead, have a conversation among themselves to try and understand each other better and catch each other’s hints while playing alongside.
Koeman also believes that it’s important to develop the tendency to communicate in children.
Koeman talked about his own children and revealed that when he’s with his own children having dinner, he tells them to forget their mobile phones for that duration and just talk and it’s the same that he is trying to do with his Southampton boys.
Whatever he is doing though, the Holland native, it must be influential because Southampton is playing well.