Any team that wants to have success needs to get the blend right. The balance between attack and defence is crucial but so is the mix of youth and experience. RedMatchday recently spoke to Barry Robson on his 36th Birthday.

Any team that wants to have success needs to get the blend right. The balance between attack and defence is crucial but so is the mix of youth and experience

Although Alex Ferguson gave the lie to the idea that “you win nothing with kids” down in Manchester, that was the exception that proved the rule – and don’t forget, that side still had he likes of Cantona, Bruce, Pallister, Keane and Schmeichel in it.

Because of the financial realities that confront us, Scottish football has very much given itself over to younger players in recent times, but one of Aberdeen’s great strengths over the last 18 months has been the infusion of older heads, players such as Russell Anderson and Barry Robson using their experience to hold things together, on and off the park. As Barry explains, as a seasoned pro, he looks to set an example to the youngsters these days.

“After training, I will go into the gym to try and complement my fitness. Someone like Cammy Smith sees that and so he is also now in the gym more often. All the young boys are hungry. Players like Lawrence Shankland want to stay behind to practice finishing. Craig Murray is the same. I have a lot of time for all of them. They really want to work hard. If they want to push to get into the team they have to do extra, they have to work harder, you have to do these things, you have to go and improve your game and you have to go in the gym more, work on your technical side, watch videos, see how you can improve your positioning on the pitch. You have to do a lot more than the guys who are in the first team. As a young player you have to learn so you can get to that level.

“I don’t think nowadays it is any harder for young players to make the breakthrough these days. It has always been hard for young players. More often than not, I have seen talented players fall by the wayside. In my opinion, it is always the ones who work hardest that come through. We have a good number of them here at the minute.

“When you talk about the top players in the world, your Ronaldos, these guys work harder than anyone. That is what young players need to get into their mind. It is not about cars, money and fancy goods, it is about getting out there and showing people how good a player you are on a football pitch.

“They have to be focused. Football has to become everything for you. I remember when I was a young kid myself, I was not physically or mentally ready for it when I was at Rangers. Looking back, that was criminal. I then had to go down to the bottom of the leagues and work my way up to the very top again. That route took a lot longer. When someone has an opportunity at a club like Aberdeen, they have to try and take it. This is a fantastic club to be at. That is what I try and drill into them. Mentally, you have to be ready. You have to listen to the more experienced players, your coaches, your managers to try and learn the game, to get better. These are the things young players have to do.”

Knowing the game is such a key element in a player’s armoury and that can help a footballer play on into his late thirties. We’ve seen how valuable Barry is to the side, even from the bench, brought on late in games to see out a close one. It’s a job he understands.

“Obviously I still want to be playing and I can still run games at this level as I have shown when I have played, but I have spoken to the manager about it and it is an experience thing for me. I still feel as if I could play every single week, but maybe the manager would disagree with me! I am still fit though and up there with the stats in the fitness tests we do. The one thing I have realised is that with my age, I am here at this club for other reasons. Some games I will come on at various stages depending on how the game is going, some games I will start and some games I will have a specific job to do. I understand that because I see the other side of it now. I see where the manager is coming from.

“I love seeing the game from the other side as well. I will go in and see the manager and ask him some questions, as I would like to get involved in coaching. However I still feel I have got this season and maybe another one playing at this level. I know a lot of boys at my age have stopped but I like to think I have looked after myself. I am 36 this week but if I continue to look after myself and play the right amount of games, it could get me another year next year.

“As long as I am contributing, I am happy. I also know I will still play of lot of games, there are a lot of games at the business end of the season that I will be needed for. It will be the same for Russell as well. We are both players who want to be here. We are players who want to do well for the club and look after the younger players.

“When you are younger you can be more selfish and I was one of the worst when I was at that age. You want to play every single minute, you want to be involved in everything. When you get to my age, you see the bigger picture. I have always been a team player but when you get older, it is a lot more about helping the younger boys, doing a job for the team. If you have to come out of the game, if you have to be sacrificed, that is fine. You work hard and you react well and then make sure you are ready for the next game. But I have still got that determination to play every single game and that will never leave me. I have still also got that will to win.

“I’m not sure you can teach a winning mentality though, I think it’s more something you are born with. I know there are days when I come into training and think, “Right, let’s just get through this unscathed today, there is a big game coming up” or what have you. I’m not saying I take it easy, but I am maybe a bit more conscious at my age that you can’t go flat out every day. But as soon as my team goes a goal down, the head goes again! I will then be flying into tackles, kicking people to make sure we win!

“It is just something that was instilled in me as a young kid. I have had to work and fight for everything my whole life, even as a kid I had to do that, I worked as a kid on the milk rounds at four in the morning before I went to school. I have always had to work to get to where I want to.

“I just want to win at every single thing I do. That winning mentality is as valuable as ability, is as good as making great passes because if you have that desire and that mentality to win a football match, you will go that extra mile.”

Experienced professionals are never more important than when things are going against you, bringing in that winning mentality, and the likes of Barry played a big role in picking things up again after the recent reverse down at Hamilton.

“You have seen since the bad result against Hamilton that there was a great reaction from the boys. It is something we have always done when we have had a negative result. We received some criticism, but that is football. I am used to it by now! I have seen it all before. When you are at a big club and you are not doing well, you are going to get criticism so you just take it on the chin and move on. We know where we want to be. If you look at recent results there is no problem here.

Yes we had a bad performance in there against Hamilton which was unacceptable, but we will make sure it does not happen again.

“We have some good players here. We have a very well balanced squad, a lot of players with different ages, a lot of players at the peak of their powers, unlike myself! We also have some great kids coming through like Cammy Smith who is really knocking on the door at the minute. There are a few other younger lads pushing as well, so it is good to have their enthusiasm and freshness around the first team squad.

“We are now starting to move along and function and starting to play quite well again and there is hopefully a lot to look forward to in the months ahead. Defensively, we are looking sound again. We went back to basics at bit. Some of the games were a bit like a basketball game, we would attack, then they would attack and then we would attack again. That is not want the manager wants. We have to be a bit more controlled. That is what we have to get back to. We have a lot of pace in the team and a lot of boys want to break forward and whilst we want to play attractive, attacking football you need to keep the back door shut first and foremost. We were
getting a little bit carried away.

“The manager has done well to get us organised again. We identified what was wrong and tidied things up a bit. Sometimes though you go through a few games here and there where you lose a few goals and maybe your back players lose a bit of confidence but we were still scoring goals and winning games.

“Hamilton away was just one game and I think people outside the club overreacted a little bit. We addressed it and we moved on and now we have a League Cup semi-final in January to look forward to. It is a cup competition we do not want to lose out on. Everyone knows the memories that we created last year. It was a long wait for a trophy but that day will live long in the memory. The fans we had down at Celtic Park and then the 70 or 80,000 that were on Union Street – that has not happened a lot through the club’s history so the boys want to go and win the competition and make it happen again. We do not want to give up the trophy.”