Marcelo Fronckowiak is one of those coaches whose brain is constantly alert, constantly on the lookout, constantly questioning. And it is not this third season at the Tours Volleyball of the Brazilian coach, marked by ups and downs and concluded on Sunday April 28 with a lost MSL final, which will have dried up the Source of his reflections…
So, this Tuesday, April 30, Marcelo Fronckowiak took the time to share with us his analysis of this exercise and his questions too, during a casual discussion.
What are your thoughts on this season?
“At the moment I am very sad, I am touched. I feel bitter because we had the opportunity. What a great story it would have been if we had been champion by coming back from the bottom… And at the same time, what a great story to have hit the bottom and come back…”
7
Like the number of finals contested by the TVB since Marcelo Fronckowiak took charge of the team, with among others a Coupe de France, a championship and a Supercup won, but also a CEV Cup final contested.
But the Brazilian coach, after the end of this exercise, stops with another assessment: “I made three championship finals, and I lost two of them. It’s hard and delicate. In Tours, we have a very important organization with the medical staff, the technical staff, etc… But we have to think about having even more things, structures because performance becomes difficult. »
So, are you satisfied with what you managed to get from this team, given its initial potential and multiple injuries?
“It’s difficult to answer in the first person singular. There was a break after the Super Cup (won against Chaumont), even though we had worked really hard before, and we got there really strong. But afterwards, there is a doubt that sets in, because we win but 3-2 against the promoted, against whom it is always difficult to start. Behind, we lose matches and there are individual doubts in the group.
We were still surprised to have so many bad performances at the start. The 3-2 lost at home against Montpellier, the 22-18 in Paris, the 22-18 against Toulouse… And there, the technical staff, Pascal Foussard who did not want to immediately put the pressure on because we had built a young team, knowing the risk there was, we all decided to go back to basics and work hard on basic work.
And then, the skills meant that we had a string of very decent performances in the European Cup, which boosted us. There was also an understanding between the senior players and the newcomers, a complementarity. And then, in January, there is Abouba’s injury (Drama, back)that of Zejko (Coric, foot). It’s a subject that I have already mentioned, but staying fifty days with a major player who, in training, cannot jump to the net… I don’t know how we did it, and it impacted Zeljko on his aggressiveness in the block and on the serve. As for Abouba, he showed too much alternation. And there, I make a link with the golden set…”
A golden set which was a sort of concentrate of your season?
“Even though we worked a lot, there were details that we missed. When we worked in November and December to get back to basics, we didn’t have time to train thoroughly for everything. We missed things that we tried, as the season progressed, to sweep under the rug. This lack of regularity, with such a heavy schedule, so much travel, injuries, lack of training mean that there is something that we missed, that we missed a little… Is that in the delicate moments spent in November, December, our confidence, including for executives, suffered? I think so… There is something that has remained. »
Presumably the team also left a lot of emotional energy to come back?
“We made sure that the systems were well worked, and at the beginning, we saw that we did not have regularity in serving, that our block defense did not work as before and that had an impact on the players on an emotional level. We were so far away and everyone made an effort to come back. We lacked consistency too…”
When time has passed, do you think you will still be satisfied or rather frustrated?
“I will be left with this mixed feeling. I want to keep this pride of not having given up, of having done with the staff, with Pascal Foussard, what was necessary to get by when no one bet a kopeck on us. We did it because we worked a lot and had this belief in work, which belongs to the history of the club. We are proud but we want more. »
Marcelo Fronckowiak, here in discussion with Thomas Royer, always values the work carried out with his staff, both technical and medical.
© (Photo archives cor. NR, Ludovic Dupraz)
This year, TVB was betting on youth. On this level, are you satisfied with the work carried out and the result?
“I think it will be beneficial for the future. Those who stay next season know the taste of victory, of the result with the Super Cup, the Champions League but also the taste of defeat. If this still generates a lot of emotion in me and difficulty in digesting, it should be the same for them. Now they know the weight of the jersey: it is heavy and they will have to jump ten centimeters higher, committing with much more autonomy and individual responsibility. I had discussions with Antoine (Pothron)Strehlau, Faganas, Luca Ramon or even Märt (Tammearu) who is heading towards an incredible challenge (in the Polish championship) and I see that their skin has become harder. Next year, everyone will have to contribute in all areas, and there we are talking about tactics, technique, physical condition but also gnac, behavior and leadership. At 22 or 23 years old, it’s not easy but they now know the weight of the TVB jersey. And that’s why we always work hard, so that the players can have this confidence to say to themselves: I’m ready. »
Post-Foussard
Among Marcelo Fronckowiak’s areas of reflection, there is logically the post-Foussard period. And in particular this idea of collectively living up to the work done on a daily basis by Pascal Foussard and his legacy. “The question now is: what are we going to do in the pain? In happiness? What operating methods will we have? It’s a great challenge to live up to what Pascal leaves us. If there is one thing I will fight for, it is for the club to remain a reference. »
And the Brazilian coach returns to the fears of the man who brought him to Tours regarding the club’s future challenges. “When Pascal Foussard says that he is afraid about the future of high-level sport vis-à-vis institutions, it strikes me as he has experienced so much with more important, less important support but in a context where the club did not need to sell itself as it must do today. »
