Our guest on Episode #64 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Hudl, is Natasha Patel.

Natasha is Assistant Academy Director at Southampton and one of the most experienced women working in men's professional football.

From 2011 to 2019 she was Academy Analyst and then Head of Performance Analysis at Southampton, before leaving to become Head of Performance Analysis at New York Red Bulls for the next three-and-a-half years.

Here is Part 2 of our interview with Bayern Munich Head of Coach Development and Playing Philosophy Rene Maric. In this second half, Rene told us how he kickstarted his career with the tactics blog Spielverlagerung, about coaching Erling Haaland and Jude Bellingham at Borussia Dortmund, and about his brief spell as assistant at Leeds United.

SHOW NOTES =>

01:44: Reaction to announcement last night (February 21st) that Thomas Tuchel would be stepping down as Bayern Munich manager at the end of the season.

03:44: Start of his relationship with Tuchel, via his Spielverlagerung blog.

11:11: Meeting Marco Rose - a pivotal relationship in his career. Approach to social media and content creation nowadays.

18:24: Experiencing the Red Bull philosophy at RB Salzburg.

24:50: Onto first-team staff at Salzburg at 23; then onto Borussia Monchengladbach and Borussia Dortmund.

27:15: Being one of the 'laptop coaches'. "It would be pretty stupid nowadays if you don't use a laptop."

28:03: Working with stars like Dominik Szoboszlai, Jude Bellingham and Erling Haaland.

36:08: Joining Leeds United in July 2022.

38:06: Jesse Marsch seemed a great fit after Marcelo Bielsa. Why didn't it work out?

43:36: Ambitions for the future?

45:50: 'Tactics don't exist, you have decisions of players.'

50:03: What type of Head Coach would you be?

Our guest on Episode #62 of the TGG Podcast, in association with Hudl, is René Marić.

The Austrian is one of the most interesting and highly-rated young coaches in European football. He made his name by founding the cult tactics blog Spielverlagerung and went on to become Assistant Manager at Red Bull Salzburg, Borussia Monchengladbach, Borussia Dortmund and Leeds United.

Now he's Head of Coach Development and Playing Philosophy at Bayern Munich. In Part 1 of this Episode, René told us about the 'Bayern Munich way', why the Academy is fundamental to the club, the importance of 'game insight', the relative age effect, raising the Academy entry age to 11 and liaising with manager Thomas Tuchel.

SHOW NOTES =>

02:41: Role as Head of Coaching and Playing Philosophy explained. The 'Red thread' that runs through the club.

08:36: What is the 'Bayern Munich Way' of playing?

11:55: Now the Head Coach of the U19s and Youth League team too! How has that been?

16:25: How important is the Academy at 'FC Hollywood'?

19:42: 'Game insight' and why legend Thomas Müller and young pretender Alex Pavlović are great exponents of this.

28:38: Relative age effect and why Real Sociedad are outliers in this area.

33:28: Raising age of entry to the Academy to 11 years old.

37:00: Transition to the first team and liaising with Thomas Tuchel.

39:05: Structure of the Academy/ different age groups.