Claudio Vivas: "We are looking to develop good footballing principles"

Vivas reflects on his long coaching career, and reveals how eight years working with a certain Marcelo Bielsa profoundly shaped his approach to talent development. Bielsa’s influence, particularly his emphasis on both technical skills and mental resilience, has been central to Vivas’s understanding of the complexities involved in nurturing young players.

Some of Viva’s key areas of work include:

• Striving to implement a consistent methodology and selection systems at all levels of the national set-up;

• Helping run a talent identification system that is grounded in position-specific attributes; and

• Ensuring that Costa Rica national team coaches strike the right balance between devising their own tactical systems and retaining the essence of Los Ticos’ playing philosophy.

Part 1: Claudio Vivas’ vision for the FCRF
Claudio Vivas’ role as Director of National Teams means he is directly involved with all the country’s national sides, and across all the disciplines in which Costa Rica competes. As he explains, his overall aim is to implement a consistent methodology and selection system at all levels of the national set-up. With this goal in mind, Costa Rica has built a well-developed scouting network tasked with assessing all the available talent at every age group, and whose job it is to select the strongest possible squads for tournaments and international friendlies.

Part 2: What does talent look like?
Of course, before you can run a consistent talent development programme, you first have to define what (and who) you are looking for. As Vivas explains, Costa Rica train using unit and team-level exercises, but their approach to identifying new talent is based on position-specific attributes. For example, the association’s scouts look for teenage goalkeepers who can command the penalty area, and wing-backs who can defend as well as deliver a telling cross. Once those players have been identified, it is down to the association’s coaching staff to develop their skills even further and integrate them into their squads.

Part 3: The link between playing style and talent development
It stands to reason that your template for a youth international will be informed by the playing style you want your national sides to adopt. Vivas is keen to stress that Costa Rica gives its coaches the freedom to develop their own systems, but the country’s national sides sometimes exhibit “traditionally” Costa Rican features, such as playing with a back five. Dynamic, direct forward play, a ferocious work ethic, and strong, determined defence from front to back are among the other hallmarks of Los Ticos’ footballing identity.     

Part 4: Working with Marcelo Bielsa
To finish, Vivas reflects on his coaching career to date, and particularly on his 8 years working as assistant to Marcelo Bielsa. As you might expect, coaching alongside the man affectionately known as “el loco” was a formative experience for Vivas, and gave him some unique insights into how to develop players and get your ideas across on the training ground. Of course, some of Bielsa’s ideas did not work as planned, but Vivas is in no doubt that their time together was key to equipping him for his current role.