Little pearls of advice, a hero to Lukaku yet old school: Thierry Henry’s role on Belgium’s backroom staff

You will, by now, have a pretty firm perception of Thierry Henry’s formative experience as a head coach at Monaco.

Henry, who emerged as a precocious talent at Monaco in his playing days, returned to the French club as manager in October 2018.

He took over a side in the relegation places. When he was sacked in the January 20 matches down the line, having won only four, Monaco were still in the relegation places.

This was a managerial reign curtailed to the extent that newspaper headlines announcing its end measured the duration in days; only 104.

In the week leading up to his sacking, he had apologised for using foul language to insult opposition defender Kenny Lala during a 5-1 home loss to Strasbourg. His relationship with the media was tense and it is hard to argue his two wins in 12 Ligue 1 games constituted the improvement Monaco craved. Matters also became strained with several first-team players, whom he accused of “only thinking about their own futures” and some were reported to have been sent to train with the reserve team.

Football management, however, is rarely so black and white and the truth is that although results remained poor, several squad members felt Henry improved them as individuals and had the potential to revive the situation over the remaining four months of the season.

Rony Lopes, a winger now with Sevilla, admired Henry’s methods.

He toldThe Athletic: “The time with Henry was a very hard campaign because it was a moment in the season when we had 17 injured players. We played in the Champions League with strikers who were 18 years old. Even if they are good players, they do not have the experience to play games like that. It was a hard season for them. I have never been in a situation like that in my life.

“I think people don’t really know what happened with Thierry. In my opinion, the club did not give him enough time. The training sessions were really good and the ideas were bright and engaging. When he had the players back fit, and the team starting to be how he wanted, the club sacked him. I did not agree with that. If they had given him more time, he could have been a fantastic coach for Monaco. In training, I could see the signs. The team had confidence back again. Things were going well at the moment they sacked him.”

Perhaps the clearest indication that there was more to Henry’s Monaco reign that meets the eye can be found in a story regarding their Belgianmidfielder Youri Tielemans. Henry is now part of Roberto Martinez’s Belgium backroom staff atEuro 2020, having previously worked under the Catalan coach for two years leading up to and through the 2018 World Cup. They finished third at that tournament in Russia, losing by the only goal to eventual winners France in the semi-final then beating England 2-0 in the play-off.

During his first spell with Belgium, he developed a close relationship with now-Leicester City midfielder Tielemans, who emerged as a bright prospect in the national team. When Henry took over at Monaco the following October, Tielemans had been struggling for form and recognition under predecessor Leonardo Jardim.

One source close to the situation explained this week how Henry held talks with Tielemans early in January 2019, when Leicester and Tottenham Hotspur had registered an interest in signing the player. Tielemans’ loyalty to his head coach was such that he outlined a desire to remain at Monaco and support Henry through his troublesome first job in management. The source recalls: “Then, a week later, Thierry was sacked. Once that happened, Youri made the decision to go to England. It would not have happened if Henry remained at Monaco.” Tielemans joined Leicester on loan on January 31, a move that became permanent the following summer.

As part of Martinez’s staff, Henry has been described by Belgian players as “the perfect link” between the head coach and the squad. During that first spell, the Arsenal great helped Martinez and assistant manager Graeme Jones design training sessions, as well as performing the less stimulating job of laying out the cones and collecting them up at the end of the sessions.

After the 2018 World Cup, Jones left the Belgium set-up to join the West Bromwich Albion coaching staff andhe now works with Gareth Southgate’s England team and under Steve Bruce at Newcastle United. Henry was promoted to be Martinez’s main assistant rather than the second assistant role he’d previously held.

Martinez with Henry during a training session last week (Photo: John Thys/AFP via Getty Images)

Henry left his new Belgium role after three months to join Monaco. He returned to management with MLS club CF Montreal in November 2019 but resigned in February this year as he felt the strain of the pandemic and of being distanced from his UK-based family while working in Canada. Henry has now returned to a Belgium staff that alsoincludes former Wigan Athletic and Celtic playmaker Shaun Maloney.

Interestingly, Henry’s first appointment to the Belgium staff in 2016 was initially suggested by leadingGerman coach Ralf Rangnick, who was one of those interviewed by the Belgian FA following the departure of Marc Wilmots after their disappointing performance at that summer’s European Championship. Rangnick had identified Henry as a world-class player with coaching ambitions who could provide one-to-one tuition for Belgium’s most gifted players. Rangnick ultimately missed out on the job, as did former Manchester United and Holland manager Louis van Gaal, whose presentation to the federation officials is said to have been dull.

Following the series of interviews, the three federation officials presiding over the conversations asked each other to write the name of the coach who had most impressed them in a sealed envelope. All three wrote Martinez’s name, and the former Swansea, Wigan and Everton manager was subsequently appointed. The federation, however, liked the idea of getting Henry on board — as did Martinez.

Martinez previously toldThe Athletic that Henry’s experience of winning a World Cup in 1998 and European Championship in 2000 as a player for France would provide vital know-how as Belgium sought to get a talent-packed team over the line to major tournament silverware. Martinez knew that “golden generation” — players such as Eden Hazard, Kevin De Bruyne and Romelu Lukaku — did not have the Belgian reference points from previous generations.

“A German kid grows up knowing that a tournament means you have to get to the final. Spain were the same as Belgium, until they won Euro 2008,” he said. “In France, it was the same (until 1998) and that’s why Thierry is so important as my assistant. He brings the experience of turning talent into success at this level.”

Henry rapidly developed strong ties with several Belgium players. When he firstwalked into their training camp, some players, who grew up worshipping the Frenchman, were star-struck. Strikers Christian Benteke and Michy Batshuayi had Henry posters on their bedroom walls as children.

He sometimes participates in training drills and at 43, six and a half years after retiring as a player, remains in pristine condition. He speaks English, French and Spanish fluently, which he demonstrated from the touchline while coaching Montreal, where he would deliver instructions in different languages for different players. WithBelgium, Martinez communicates in English but Henry’s French also helps him to be close to the dressing room. He worked at the 2018 World Cup predominantly on attacking set pieces and, along with captain Vincent Kompany, he helped conjure a routine that led to the opening goal of their 2-1 quarter-final win over Brazil.

Kompany was aware Brazil coach Tite had visited Manchester City’s training ground in the year leading up to the tournament to study Pep Guardiola’s methods and he noticed the Brazilians had been employing a defensive set-up that mirrored City’s in the opening games of the tournament. He approached Henry to explain the similarity and the pair felt that a whipped ball to the near post could exploit that set-up, which proved crucially accurate when Belgium opened the scoring as Fernandinho scored an own goal from a corner.

This week, sources close to the Belgium squad say that his little pearls of advice remain essential to the players.

A source said: “He is talking a lot with all the players and he is the perfect guy. Players at that elite level don’t want people who are, ‘Blah-blah-blah’, they want concrete stuff they can use on the field. Thierry can provide this value. Sometimes, he focuses on specific situations where Roberto must focus on the team as a whole.”

Henry during his time at CF Montreal, in February 2020 (Photo: Minas Panagiotakis/Getty Images)

Henry blends light and shade as an assistant. He has been pictured playing basketball with Eden Hazard and Benteke while he previously watched matches live with Kompany. Yet he is also direct in his communication and unafraid to challenge Belgium’s leading names. During Saturday’s victory over Russia in their group opener, he pulled Lukaku over to the bench to provide advice at one point. As is the modern way, both coach and striker spoke with their hands over their mouths to ensure what was said remained a secret to anyone watching on. In 2017, Lukaku described Henry’s coaching as “the best thing that has happened to me”.

Lukaku said: “He is really with us and not at all distant. Sometimes he comes to drink a cup of tea or play at PlayStation with us. With Benteke and Hazard, he took us aside. He corrected my way of escaping a marker. We spent a long time in front of the screen and he pointed out our mistakes and told us how to do it. We listened really carefully. It took about two hours, but it was great.”

Henry, for his part, started referring to Lukaku as “the lawyer” as the striker was ready to debate and explore every issue in such depth. During his previous spell with Belgium, Henry travelled to England on several occasions to meet up with then-Manchester United player Lukaku during periods of club football and conduct video analysis sessions.

Writingin The Players’ Tribune, Lukaku reflected nostalgically on the pair’s relationship.

He said: “When we were kids, we couldn’t even afford to watch Thierry Henry on Match Of The Day! Now I’m learning from him every day with the national team. I’m standing with the legend, in the flesh, and he’s telling me all about how to run into space, like he used to do. Thierry might be the only guy in the world who watches more football than me. We debate everything. We’re sitting around and having debates about German second division football. I’m like, ‘Thierry, have you seen the Fortuna Dusseldorf set-up, though?’ He’s like, ‘Don’t be silly. Yes, of course’. That’s the coolest thing in the world, to me.”

Henry with Lukaku during Belgium’s opening Euro 2020 match against Russia (Photo: Kirill Kudryavtsev/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)

Although Henry is forward-thinking, he remains old school in his expectations.

Sources close to several players say that he can be direct and highly demanding of Belgium’s players.

Henry previously toldThe Athletic: “With me, you know exactly where you stand. When I’m upset, you see it, when I’m happy you see that, too. (Johan) Cruyff — rest in peace — when you watch some of his videos, watch him on the field and how he spoke to people. There was no ‘please’ or whatever, he was telling you what to do. And if you weren’t happy about it, you had to go. But what people do not see in those moments is that those guys are critical of themselves first and foremost. You never had to tell me how I played when I was a player.

“I know if I didn’t play well. I’m not waiting, I’m not fooling myself. I was never saying, ‘There’s this one guy who says I played well, let me jump on that bandwagon’. No. Nobody needed to tell me.”

Henry’s ambitions remain aflame andThe Athletic has been told he wants to be a manager again and, as things stand, his contract with Belgium is only until the end of this tournament.

Henry was reported to have received interest and held talks with Bournemouth when the Championship club’s managerial role became available in February but a move did not materialise.

Since then, he has been at the forefront of challenging the failure of social media companies to sufficiently clamp down on racist abuse on their platforms. Henry disabled his online social platforms and several weeks later, much of football united to boycott social media for a three day period. Henry has also publicly supported attempts by theSwedish billionaire Daniel Eck to buy Arsenal from the Kroenke family. Yet his desire to coach remains high among Henry’s priorities.

After head coaching roles at both Monaco and Montreal, it did not appear likely Henry would return to an assistant role this summer. Indeed, he had even signed up to be a Euros pundit with the BBC in an announcement made on May 20. However, within 10 days, Martinez had talked him round and returned Henry to the Belgium staff. Martinez admires, too, Henry’s tactical understanding, after being impressed by the way he coached variations of a five-man defence, a 4-3-3 and a diamond during his time in MLS.

“Thierry had to cancel things to go into the camp,” a source explains, “But Roberto was very adamant he wanted Thierry to be a part of it. He realised something could be missing and he wanted him there.”

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(Top photo: Vincent Van Doornick/Isosport/MB Media/Getty Images)