Anthony Correia take drastic measure at out-of-sorts FC Utrecht: ‘Not normal, it was really intense’

Not every Eredivisie manager welcomes the international break, but for Anthony Correia the pause came at the right time. FC Utrecht had made a wretched start to the season under him, leaving the coach with repair work to do in recent weeks.

He has tackled that with intensive training and a special kind of team building: an extremely tough military exercise. "I can tell you, it was very tough. Unbelievable," Correia told De Telegraaf.

"At a certain point you simply get tired. Then it becomes so physically demanding that you start to be tested mentally. Yes, it was really intense. If I had known beforehand what we were going to do, I might well have said: it is for the players and not for the staff," said Correia, who also took part in the military endurance test with his staff.

As the exercise wore on, the group fell silent. "Nobody was talking any more, everyone was surviving," Correia said, describing the mood. "And you have to survive together, because if one link drops out, you have to do another assignment. You do not want that, because you are already enduring so much physically that you do not want any more."

That mental side mattered most, with confidence at Utrecht at a low ebb after the false start in the Eredivisie. "The idea beforehand was to work on performing under pressure, team building, growing closer together and mental resilience. We ticked all of that off," said Correia.

Correia himself had to dig deep as well. "At a certain point people started pushing me. At the front was the guy who was setting the pace. He belonged to them. You were not allowed to fall behind. So those at the back had to keep up as well. So at one point I was literally being pushed to stay with it too."

Still, he has no regrets about the decision. "Look, activities such as padel or paintball are also fun and they bring you closer together too. It is just that I think the mental pressure is tested more here. And that is the thing that, if you look at the matches, may well benefit us the most. You can take that on to the pitch as well."

Now Utrecht must show whether the hard-line approach has worked. They resume their league campaign on Sunday at home to bottom side Willem II.