Jack Wilshere has lifted the lid on the thinking behind the half-time team talk that helped inspire Luton Town’s remarkable comeback at Reading last weekend – revealing how he has worked to improve his approach since the end of last season.
Wilshere’s words to his players during the interval have gone viral this week after Luton released footage from the dressing room showing the manager calmly addressing his side while they trailed 3-1.
Rather than tearing into his players, Wilshere reminded them of their attacking threat and told them: “We can score two goals in 10 minutes.”
Luton duly scored twice within seven minutes of the restart, both from Kasey Palmer, before an injury-time winner from substitute Gideon Kodua completed a stunning 4-3 victory, to extend their unbeaten run to 12 league games, albeit split over two terms.
With the clip attracting praise from across the football world, Wilshere has now explained what was going through his mind before and during that team talk
The 34-year-old insists there is no single formula for what happens at half-time, with his approach dictated by the circumstances of each match and what he believes his players need.
“I think the players — and I always say this — you don’t go on a run that we have without players that are absolutely committed and are absolutely all in on everything,” Wilshere said.
“Some half times are like that, some half times are different. It all depends on the type of game, and you get a nice feeling of what the players need.
“I felt like in the first half we had complete control, but we gave goals away which we weren’t happy about.
“But also having empathy with the players a little bit, because I can understand that it’s the first game on both sides. We want to do well, they want to do well.”
Wilshere was particularly pleased with how his players responded after the interval, with Luton immediately taking the game to Reading before turning the contest completely on its head.
“The players responded — they went out in the second half, they were on the front foot,” he said.
“We knew that if we did certain things we would create opportunities. We’ve got quality, we created opportunities in the first half.
“We want to be more clinical, we want to be more ruthless. But the good thing is that we are creating opportunities and we’re attacking and we’re on the front foot. And yeah, the players in the second half were outstanding.”
Wilshere revealed that the way he handles half-time team talks was one of the areas he identified for improvement when reviewing his first season as a manager during the summer.
He has also drawn on his own experiences of playing under a range of coaches, including Arsenal’s legendary boss Arsene Wenger, although he has adopted a very different approach from his former manager.
Asked what he was thinking in the moments before addressing his players, and whether he had to balance the frustration of the situation with not wanting to overload the Luton players, while still getting his message across, Wilshere said: “That was something — along with loads of other things we’ve already spoken about — that we reviewed at the end of the season.
“I wanted to be better at that. I wanted us to deliver a better message. I wanted us to get our timings right.
“I played under a lot of different coaches and they all had different ways of doing it. For example, Arsene would be silent for the first 12 minutes of half time and use the last three minutes. We don’t do that. We do it slightly different.”
Rather than immediately launching into his own assessment, Wilshere first gets together with his coaching staff to discuss what they have seen.
“We’d have probably a two-minute discussion about what we see, what we think we see,” he said. “I can see some stuff, we’ve got a coach upstairs with the analyst who has a better view and he sees some stuff. Kevin Foley probably talks the most in that small group we have at half time.
“And then it’s about feeling the mood, understanding where the players are at, feeling what they need. Sometimes they don’t need a lot of tactical information. Sometimes it’s just motivation. Sometimes there is some clear tactical stuff we have to do.
“And I feel like you have to get the timing right. We probably leave the players alone for three or four minutes, and then I will speak for no longer than four minutes.
“And then there’s that little period where coaches go around to individuals. Powelly’s [Chris Powell] really good at that — you can see it in that video as well. His voice and his presence in there is really helpful.
“And then there’s the last two minutes — we try and get their energy up, get them motivated, and then they go out and do a re-warm up before they get going in the second half.”
Perhaps most revealingly, Wilshere believes the tactical side of coaching is only part of what is required to get the best from his players.
The former Arsenal and England midfielder says building a genuine connection with his squad is central to his approach.
“You have to have a connection with your players, and that is a big part of my job. I’m always trying to find ways to connect with them,” Wilshere said. “Generally, I’ve got a lot of love for these guys. A lot of love.
“What they’ve given me, what they’ve given the club, the staff, everyone, on the pitch all the time, even through adversity. There is a lot of love. And yeah, you feel that back a lot of the time.
“Ask the players who aren’t playing, they probably hate me. And my job is even more about finding a connection with them and keeping them motivated.”
For Wilshere, his experience as a player gives him an understanding of the pressures facing his squad which he believes can be invaluable.
“The human side, I feel like one of the strengths of an ex-player going into coaching, especially straight away, is you have empathy,” he said.
“And that’s a really important skill to have, because you want the players to do stuff and play in a certain way, but there are also a lot of outside factors — pressure, social media — that you have to understand and approach with the players while still building their confidence. Empathy is really important.”
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