A friend of mine is having a problem at the moment, whereby he appointed an assistant to help him (mainly so that he could split the team in two during training to work on specific position based drills).

The problem now, is that the assistant is starting to take over, basically taking over the team talks when he is meant to be just running the warmup, so by the time it gets to the 'official team talk' it has all been said. Even then he was louder and more in their faces than the manager, and jumped in at every opportunity. The other problem is he is saying stuff to the players without the manager there or discussing with him first, so my friend doesn't even know what is/isn't being said or if it is even what he wants...it can't carry on with no communication...

I feel this is undermining the manager, and am worried what will happen if he doesn't nip it in the bud now. It is also annoying, as my friend took over as no-one else stepped forward, and is now being made to feel like he has the 'boring bit' no-one else wants to do, and the stress of chasing players, and the assistant just wants the fun bit of doing the team talk.

The difficulty is he doesn't know how to tell him to back off without offending him? He appreciates the help at training etc, and would be happy for him to give him feedback/input, but he seems to just think he can plan training without even consulting the manager, and wont stop giving talks at matches and training, rendering my friends talks as manager pointless.

Any ideas??

Its the exact reason that i was very choosy in finding a decent assistant and ran my previous side alone until a good friend of mine with zero coaching experience but a good player who certainly had plenty of good advice but i was very lucky as he was happy to follow instructions on what i wanted worked on.

The trouble at junior/youth level football when trying to teach is conflicting opinions so i would recommend giving the assistant a set routine of what YOU want them to do under his guidance as its clear the more you let them decide the more they feel in charge and try to take over.

Every team needs one leader who makes the final descision regardless of how many other opinions are given and the team will not know who to listen too if this carries on.

At my current side again i am doing things alone and again for the same reason, i do understand why and how an assistant does help though, but you have to stamp a certain amount of authority to the players or any coaching staff working with you.

you need to speak to the coach ASAP and the team to clear up exactly who is in charge.