Trossard looks back to focus on future

Leandro Trossard is one of the more experienced players in the Arsenal dressing room. With nearly 200 Premier League appearances to his name, and approaching 50 caps for his national team, our Belgian forward has seen a lot in his career to date.

But the 29-year-old tells us he is still learning every day. Shortly before joining the Gunners he completed his UEFA A coaching license, which he says showed him a different side to the game, and he also tells us that lately he has learned to embrace the analytical side of the game, in terms of both performance and aiding recovery.

It’s all a far cry, he says, to when he first started out in football back home in Belgium. But there are certain lessons he learned back in youth football that have stuck with him ever since.

“That’s already a long way back for me!” he says with a smile. “Obviously the first thing you need to do is just work hard when you’re getting into your first team as a young kid.

“But also I think you need to be brave. A lot of players when they come into a new environment, you can be a bit shy at first. Sometimes that can work in your favour obviously, people will see you as humble, but I think in football terms you need to be present. You have to show yourself, be brave, stand out.

“I think that’s a good thing to be able to do that, but it can be difficult when you’re young, especially if you are just a kid, and you arrive in a dressing room with players who are 30 and already have two or three hundred games.

“That’s difficult. But there is one piece of advice I got from a coach when I was young, which basically translates as you can’t blame yourself as long as you have done everything that you control in the best possible way. The way you train, recover, whatever – as long as you are controlling those things, that’s all you can do. Anything that isn’t in your control you can’t blame yourself for. Manage what is in your own control, and leave the rest. I think that’s a good thing.”

"you can’t blame yourself as long as you have done everything that you control in the best possible way"

Leo’s first steps in football were at local club Patro in his hometown of Maasmechelen in eastern Belgium, when he was 10, and he then played for Bocholter’s youth sides from the age of around 14.

Does he ever think back to those days to see how far he has come to the top of the Premier League tree?

“Yes, it’s nice to think back to then. Those days in the youth teams were so nice. It’s more about playing with your friends, and we won the league a lot of times when I was in the youth clubs. It was a really nice period. It’s more about having fun so it was an enjoyable time.

“I started off as a No 10, then a striker – I scored a lot of goals! I started most of the time as a No 10, then when I was 13 or 14 the coaches saw I was quite good at scoring goals, so I went up front, and from those years I would often score about 50 or 60 goals a season.”

Goalscoring clearly has always been in the blood, but how about his work ethic? Was young Leo just as dedicated then as he is today?

“No! To be honest, at the start I was all about the games and not practising. I loved the five-a-side matches in training, but anything other than that I wasn’t really bothered about at that age. So I’ve learned over the past 10 or 15 years that nothing comes easily if you don’t pay attention to absolutely everything.

“I’m still learning every day and I’ve had some good coaches in my career and obviously tried to take all the good bits from every coach. I think that’s what made me the player I am today.”

Leo, who joined us two years ago this January, says that all of his early influences were coaches, and that senior players were generally not as generous with their advice and time back then as they are now.

“I didn’t really look at other players or even watch that much football,” he reveals. “I was more focused on myself and enjoying myself. Anyway, I think it’s different now to 15 years ago. The culture has changed. It’s quite a long time since I first went into a dressing room, and it’s a different culture now from back then.

“Back then the senior players would test you more as a young kid. They would make you feel that you are up with the big boys now, and you need to show yourself. Whereas now if we have a young guy who comes in, we try to help him as much as possible. Almost looking out for them more than you would other players, and I think it’s better the way it is now.

"I don’t know how the older players were thinking back then, but every player that comes into the squad can give competition. It doesn’t matter what their age is.”

It came to a stage when Leo realised he had to make things happen for himself, and he says the greatest step forward in his career was when he was a teenager, and went out on loan from Genk – his first professional side.

“Yes, it was when I was 18 or 19,” he says. “First I went to a second division club in Belgium, Lommel, where I really developed myself. I had such a good season there. I worked well with the coach there who really pushed me and who gave me all the confidence by playing me every game. There is where I made a lot of progress, and felt more like I was playing men’s football, whereas before that I didn’t play many first-team games.

“I had made my debut with Genk, but after that I didn’t really get many more chances. So at the age of 18 I went to Lommel and got some games there. After that season I went another time on loan to a first division club, Leuven.

"I played a lot there, did really well and had a good season in the top division. From then on it all went better and better. I went back to Genk, had some good seasons there and then I went to Brighton.”

"if we have a young guy who comes in, we try to help him as much as possible, looking out for them more than you would other players"

So was that time about building confidence, or was it first-team exposure that helped him go up a level?

“No, no. I had all the confidence that I could!” he laughs. “But obviously I felt like I couldn’t show it. So I asked personally to go out on loan. Because even at that age I felt like I wanted to play and I wanted to show everyone what I could do. I wanted to show my qualities. I knew it was a risk as well, because if I didn’t do well there, they can say, ‘You can’t even do it on loan.’ So I knew I was taking a chance, but I wanted to do it.”

Now Leo finds himself playing the role of the senior pro in the squad, and passing on his advice to the young players around him. He turns 30 in December, so has he thought about what life holds for him after football? Could a career in coaching be on the agenda?

“Well, I have done my A License,” he says. “I enjoyed the on-pitch side of it, giving the sessions, but the theoretical stuff – that was a bit much! And actually designing the sessions was really hard work. You might not think it, because when you are playing, you just get on with it. You come into training, do your stuff and everything is done for you. But once you need to design them yourself, you actually see what goes into it.

"Even the things like the coaches need to referee in training as well. When the ball goes out of play, the players will moan, but when you do it yourself you see it’s not always the easiest call to make!”

Leo took the coaching course while he was at Brighton, during Covid when he had more time available, and although he admits to being unsure about a future career in coaching, he says he did allow himself to think about what his footballing philosophy would be as a manager.

“It would be to play attacking football. Play nice, offensive football. I’ve learned a lot from the coaches I’ve worked with. I’ve worked with some great coaches and I think I could have some good ideas from them, but I’m not sure if I would do it. Obviously being a head coach is a lot – a lot of work. They spend so much time at the training ground, it’s actually crazy.

“But the older I get, the more I enjoy the analysis side of it too. Before I never had any interest in that, but I think I’ve developed more in that way as well. I want to know more about my stats, what I do in games and I think it’s also a good way to recover, when you know how you feel after the work you’ve done. We have a tough schedule, so any stats you can use to help recovery is great for that.

“There was none of that when I started in Belgium. We went on the pitch, trained, then went home!”