“Football obsessive.”
Ask people who know Steve Holland well how they would describe the former Chelsea and England coach and the same phrase is repeated.
“Football is his life,” a source told BBC Sport.
“Whether it’s Champions League, thoughts on players or something else, he has a hell of a brain when it comes to football detail.”
It explains why, instead of sitting back and reflecting on the success of Manchester United’s 3-2 win at Arsenal, Holland spent the return journey to North West England going through footage of the victory with head coach Michael Carrick and the rest of his backroom team to come up with a plan for Sunday’s home game against Fulham.
On Monday, while the players were given a day off, Holland and company were at United’s Carrington training ground, honing the sessions they hope will lead to a third straight Premier League win.
Attention to detail is a Holland character trait, something he has relied on since joining Crewe in 1992, after concluding he would advance further as a coach than he did as a player if he dedicated himself to the profession at a young age.
Holland, 55, believes only former England boss Graham Taylor was younger than him when he gained what is now known as the Uefa A Licence coaching badge, when he was 21.
Of the rest of United’s new coaching set-up, boss Carrick had not even started secondary school when Holland began his coaching journey. Jonathan Woodgate is slightly older than Carrick. Jonny Evans and Travis Binnion are younger.
It is why Holland’s presence – and, through his England experience, ability to deal with intense pressure – is so vital to Carrick and his coaching team and why he is getting so much credit for the positive start to a tenure that has already delivered victories against Manchester City and Arsenal and taken United up to fourth in the Premier League.
“He won’t be bothered about the scrutiny and pressure at Manchester United,” says former Radio Stoke editor Graham McGarry, who got to know Holland well during his 16-year stint with Crewe.
“He will take it all in his stride and just do his job.
“His training sessions are fantastic. You can already see the Manchester United players are responding to them.”
Not that Holland is likely to be talking about it in public.
A second trait that keeps being noted is that he is a man of few words, someone who is difficult to read. “You never knew whether he was quietly content or silently raging,” said a source who has worked with him.
But that mask can help when it comes to delivering messaging. The less someone speaks, the argument goes, the more likely their audience is to listen when something is being said.
It is far too early to assess Holland’s work. It is just over two weeks since the coaching team were introduced to United’s players as a group for the first time, but several well-placed sources stress the coaching team work as a collective.
It should not be dismissed either that while Darren Fletcher didn’t win his two games in interim charge, he reset the formation following Ruben Amorim’s dismissal on 5 January. The Scot began to lift the mood. He also recalled Kobbie Mainoo. It meant key players Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo returned from the Africa Cup of Nations to a stable environment, which gave Carrick the best chance of success.
Changes to the training programme have been made, according to sources. The days are now shorter, but more intense. There is a different energy about sessions and more focus on individual work with specific players. The matchday routine for home games has been tweaked so players now arrive at Old Trafford slightly closer to kick-off.
Carrick was given the job ahead of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in part, because of the work he does ‘on the grass’. But Holland ran the sessions with England, allowing Gareth Southgate to take an overview.
In consultation with Southgate, Holland concluded England’s formation had been ‘too stodgy’ in qualification for the 2018 World Cup, triggering the switch to a back three. “Harry Maguire’s ability on the was ball fundamental,” explained Holland in a half-hour dissection of his work for the Coaches Voice podcast in 2021.
Speaking to Sky Sports before the Manchester City game, Maguire recalled his own dealings with Holland.
“He was magnificent for England,” he said. “We all knew what we were doing.
“I can remember a lot of time working with Steve and he really does drill in tactically how to defend and how to keep the ball out of the back of the net.
“It’s basics but really disciplined basics. I feel he will have a big part to play in making our defensive record a lot better.”
Since leaving his role with England following Euro 2022, Holland has had a short, unsuccessful spell in Japan and undertook some work for the League Managers’ Association.
What he has not done is court media attention.
The Coaches Voice chats and others with the Football Association are rare examples of Holland being interviewed.
“The perfect number two,” as he has been described.
The insight that does exist is revealing.
“With any session the more the players are enjoying their work the more you will get out of them,” he explained in an interview published by the FA.
“It is important to try to find creative ways of delivering repetitive practice to stimulate the players’ interest.
“The key always with practice is the transfer into the game. It is important to try and maximise the possibility of a transfer by not steering too far from the reality of the game.”
He may be new to Manchester United but navigating the fall-out from a departing boss is something Holland has plenty of experience of.
It was then Blues manager Andre Villas-Boas who elevated him from the youth ranks to the senior team at Chelsea. “I was on holiday in Spain,” recalled Holland. “I took the call on day two and returned home on day three. My wife still reminds me of that regularly.”
Villas-Boas was sacked after nine months back in 2012. His successor, Roberto di Matteo, won the Champions League but was dumped after eight.
Behind the scenes, Holland was impressing. He survived the tenures of Rafael Benitez, Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink before quitting to concentrate solely on England after Chelsea won the Premier League in Antonio Conte’s first season in charge.
“At a big club, every day is a drama,” Holland told the Coaches Voice. “It is never quite as bad as it is made out to be but your ability to handle these moments are decisive.
“My experience of life at Chelsea has taught me it is about winning. That winning mentality doesn’t include feeling sorry for yourself or making excuses. It means you analyse and push to do better next time.”
They seem like wise words given the intensity of the noise that surrounds Manchester United, who will look to add more weight to claims their revival under Carrick and co is more than a flash in the pan when they host Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday.
From the outside looking in, it seems Holland is already having a significant positive impact at English football’s fallen giants.
The job might be tough, and the demands might be high, but it is fair to assume the Stockport-born ‘football obsessive’ is in his element.
Edwin Díaz responds to Steve Cohen comments, settles in with Dodgers
PHOENIX — Dodgers closer Edwin Díaz has been settling in with his new team at Camelback Ranch, but in his first comments to the media since camp opened, he faced questions about his old team.
In an interview with Mets broadcaster Howie Rose on Friday, team owner Steve Cohen called Díaz’s decision to a sign a three-year, $69-million contract with the Dodgers “perplexing.” Though Díaz was caught off guard by Cohen’s comments, he said Saturday he had no bad feelings towards the Mets or their fans.
“It’s a market and I was a free agent, so I got the chance to talk with everyone,” Díaz said. “I think the Dodgers did a great job of recruiting me, so at the end of the day, I chose to be here. I have a lot of respect for the Mets organization — players, staff, ownership — they treated me pretty good. I don’t have anything bad to say about them. But at the end of the day, I’m here, so this is a new journey for me. I’m happy to be with the Dodgers, so let’s see how it goes.”
Díaz participated in the Dodgers’ first day of official workouts Friday, throwing a clean bullpen session without any hiccups. Dodgers manager Dave Roberts has liked what he has seen thus far from the three-time MLB reliever of the year.
“I’m very excited to get to know him more,” Roberts said. “[He’s] just a great teammate, really good person, loves baseball, a good heartbeat. You can tell he knows what he needs to do to get ready. [He’s] likable, and at the end of the day, he chose to be here, so that’s something that is of a lot of value for us. High character. I’m really looking forward to getting to know him.”
One thing that attracted Díaz to the Dodgers was the team’s culture.
“That’s how they’ve been so good,” Díaz said. “They have a really good clubhouse… They’ve got different personalities in the clubhouse. They’ve got different players from different countries, and they all get together and have fun, so that’s something good.”
Part of having a melting pot of a clubhouse means missing some key ingredients for an extended period of spring training. The Dodgers will have several players participating in the World Baseball Classic, including Shohei Ohtani, Yoshinobu Yamamoto, Will Smith and Díaz.
Each Major League player competing in the event runs the risk of injury, something Díaz knows all too well. Moments after striking out the side to send Puerto Rico to the WBC quarterfinals in 2023, Díaz sustained a season-ending knee injury.
Despite suffering the trauma of the last WBC, Díaz told reporters it was a no-brainer, when he was asked to compete for his country again in 2026.
“It wasn’t in my mind,” Díaz said. “I have the chance to play in front of my family in Puerto Rico. It was an easy decision.”
Díaz’s fearlessness is one trait that Roberts admires about his new closer. Díaz met Roberts’ squad in the 2024 National League Championship Series, where the Dodgers managed only two hits off him across 5.1 IP, scoring no runs.
“He’s not scared,” Roberts said. “When he’s in the game, it’s an uncomfortable at bat for lefties and righties, and when we did see him in the postseason, [we were] really trying to keep him out of the game, knowing that he can go one, two [or] even three innings. That, he’s done against us in the postseason; [he’s] just a great competitor.”
The addition of Díaz should stabilize the back end of the Dodgers rotation. Since bidding farewell to Kenley Jansen after the 2021 season, the Dodgers haven’t had a closer tally more than 25 saves in a season. Over his nine-year career, Díaz has 253 saves.
With Díaz expected to be the regular ninth-inning guy, Roberts looks forward to having more flexibility when managing his bullpen.
“It’s huge,” Roberts said. “I don’t think that there’s one way to manage a pen, but when you have a guy like Edwin Díaz as your closer, I do think it frees up other guys, myself included. Not having to worry about matchups for the ninth, I think that’s freeing for me and allows for getting the matchups we need in the prior innings.”
Dodgers staying cautious with Graterol
One key relief weapon Roberts hopes to have in his armory is Brusdar Graterol.
The hard-throwing right-hander underwent labrum surgery shortly after the 2024 World Series, and hasn’t pitched in a game since.
Roberts provided an update on Graterol’s recovery Saturday.
“He’s in the picture, but I do think that coming back from the shoulder, it’s going to take some time,” Roberts said. “He’s in the bucket of, ‘We’re going to slow-play him’. I think yesterday he threw off the mound, and the velocity is not near where it’s going to be, so I think that it’s a slow progression. I just don’t know where that puts us, but it’s a slow process for Brusdar.”
Staff writer Anthony Solorzano contributed to this report.
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Manchester United: Why Steve Holland could be key to revival under Michael Carrick
“Football obsessive.”
Ask people who know Steve Holland well how they would describe the former Chelsea and England coach and the same phrase is repeated.
“Football is his life,” a source told BBC Sport.
“Whether it’s Champions League, thoughts on players or something else, he has a hell of a brain when it comes to football detail.”
It explains why, instead of sitting back and reflecting on the success of Manchester United’s 3-2 win at Arsenal, Holland spent the return journey to North West England going through footage of the victory with head coach Michael Carrick and the rest of his backroom team to come up with a plan for Sunday’s home game against Fulham.
On Monday, while the players were given a day off, Holland and company were at United’s Carrington training ground, honing the sessions they hope will lead to a third straight Premier League win.
Attention to detail is a Holland character trait, something he has relied on since joining Crewe in 1992, after concluding he would advance further as a coach than he did as a player if he dedicated himself to the profession at a young age.
Holland, 55, believes only former England boss Graham Taylor was younger than him when he gained what is now known as the Uefa A Licence coaching badge, when he was 21.
Of the rest of United’s new coaching set-up, boss Carrick had not even started secondary school when Holland began his coaching journey. Jonathan Woodgate is slightly older than Carrick. Jonny Evans and Travis Binnion are younger.
It is why Holland’s presence – and, through his England experience, ability to deal with intense pressure – is so vital to Carrick and his coaching team and why he is getting so much credit for the positive start to a tenure that has already delivered victories against Manchester City and Arsenal and taken United up to fourth in the Premier League.
“He won’t be bothered about the scrutiny and pressure at Manchester United,” says former Radio Stoke editor Graham McGarry, who got to know Holland well during his 16-year stint with Crewe.
“He will take it all in his stride and just do his job.
“His training sessions are fantastic. You can already see the Manchester United players are responding to them.”
Not that Holland is likely to be talking about it in public.
A second trait that keeps being noted is that he is a man of few words, someone who is difficult to read. “You never knew whether he was quietly content or silently raging,” said a source who has worked with him.
But that mask can help when it comes to delivering messaging. The less someone speaks, the argument goes, the more likely their audience is to listen when something is being said.
It is far too early to assess Holland’s work. It is just over two weeks since the coaching team were introduced to United’s players as a group for the first time, but several well-placed sources stress the coaching team work as a collective.
It should not be dismissed either that while Darren Fletcher didn’t win his two games in interim charge, he reset the formation following Ruben Amorim’s dismissal on 5 January. The Scot began to lift the mood. He also recalled Kobbie Mainoo. It meant key players Bryan Mbeumo and Amad Diallo returned from the Africa Cup of Nations to a stable environment, which gave Carrick the best chance of success.
Changes to the training programme have been made, according to sources. The days are now shorter, but more intense. There is a different energy about sessions and more focus on individual work with specific players. The matchday routine for home games has been tweaked so players now arrive at Old Trafford slightly closer to kick-off.
Carrick was given the job ahead of Ole Gunnar Solskjaer, in part, because of the work he does ‘on the grass’. But Holland ran the sessions with England, allowing Gareth Southgate to take an overview.
In consultation with Southgate, Holland concluded England’s formation had been ‘too stodgy’ in qualification for the 2018 World Cup, triggering the switch to a back three. “Harry Maguire’s ability on the was ball fundamental,” explained Holland in a half-hour dissection of his work for the Coaches Voice podcast in 2021.
Speaking to Sky Sports before the Manchester City game, Maguire recalled his own dealings with Holland.
“He was magnificent for England,” he said. “We all knew what we were doing.
“I can remember a lot of time working with Steve and he really does drill in tactically how to defend and how to keep the ball out of the back of the net.
“It’s basics but really disciplined basics. I feel he will have a big part to play in making our defensive record a lot better.”
Since leaving his role with England following Euro 2022, Holland has had a short, unsuccessful spell in Japan and undertook some work for the League Managers’ Association.
What he has not done is court media attention.
The Coaches Voice chats and others with the Football Association are rare examples of Holland being interviewed.
“The perfect number two,” as he has been described.
The insight that does exist is revealing.
“With any session the more the players are enjoying their work the more you will get out of them,” he explained in an interview published by the FA.
“It is important to try to find creative ways of delivering repetitive practice to stimulate the players’ interest.
“The key always with practice is the transfer into the game. It is important to try and maximise the possibility of a transfer by not steering too far from the reality of the game.”
He may be new to Manchester United but navigating the fall-out from a departing boss is something Holland has plenty of experience of.
It was then Blues manager Andre Villas-Boas who elevated him from the youth ranks to the senior team at Chelsea. “I was on holiday in Spain,” recalled Holland. “I took the call on day two and returned home on day three. My wife still reminds me of that regularly.”
Villas-Boas was sacked after nine months back in 2012. His successor, Roberto di Matteo, won the Champions League but was dumped after eight.
Behind the scenes, Holland was impressing. He survived the tenures of Rafael Benitez, Jose Mourinho and Guus Hiddink before quitting to concentrate solely on England after Chelsea won the Premier League in Antonio Conte’s first season in charge.
“At a big club, every day is a drama,” Holland told the Coaches Voice. “It is never quite as bad as it is made out to be but your ability to handle these moments are decisive.
“My experience of life at Chelsea has taught me it is about winning. That winning mentality doesn’t include feeling sorry for yourself or making excuses. It means you analyse and push to do better next time.”
They seem like wise words given the intensity of the noise that surrounds Manchester United, who will look to add more weight to claims their revival under Carrick and co is more than a flash in the pan when they host Fulham in the Premier League on Sunday.
From the outside looking in, it seems Holland is already having a significant positive impact at English football’s fallen giants.
The job might be tough, and the demands might be high, but it is fair to assume the Stockport-born ‘football obsessive’ is in his element.
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