You never know whether a break will be a good thing or not, and it usually depends on how things are at that moment in time. Sometimes it’s great for several different reasons (you can train, injured players can rest, it can even bring an end to a losing streak or a drop in form), but on the other hand, it can also be damaging (you can lose momentum, consistency and intensity, etc).
From a training point of view, I really like this break for the Copa América. It gives you a chance to “freshen up” on things that you could not work on consistently before. It gives you the opportunity to identify things that are improving but that still need time to “perfect” and it also gives you the chance to work on new things or things you haven’t had time to work on. So, I am always very happy to have extra time for training.
If you throw in the fact that we didn’t have a preseason this year, which meant that all tactical preparation was rushed, I think that having time now should be productive and I hope that this will be evident when we return to competitive matches.
Copa de Chile
You may think that we won’t have a game for over a month, but no, they have suddenly, and without warning, organised the Copa de Chile for this time, with special rules such as players born after the year 2000 playing a set number of minutes.
If this is to give young players an opportunity to play then great, but “enforcing” it doesn’t feel like a good thing for the player, who might not be ready to play at this level, or for the teams who want continuity and consistency.
Anyway, we will respect the rules and try to field a competitive team. We also need to take into account the fact that we have lost two of our players who would have been eligible to play under the rule because they are playing for Chile in the Copa América.
Training, training and more training. This should be the blueprint for any manager during this break. Training is how you plan and prepare and forms the foundations for what you do on the pitch.