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Soccer

'A genuine privilege' | Lisa Fallon on learning from the Dubs & London City Lionesses

The Football Show spoke to the coach of London City Lionesses, Lisa Fallon, about a storied and v...



'A genuine privilege' | Lisa F...
Soccer

'A genuine privilege' | Lisa Fallon on learning from the Dubs & London City Lionesses

The Football Show spoke to the coach of London City Lionesses, Lisa Fallon, about a storied and varied career that has led her to take charge of the Women's Championship club.

Fallon left her role as the Game Analyst & Strategy Coach at Chelsea in May to join the club linked to Millwall, and has a CV as varied as anyone in the game.
She was a key member of Cork City' men's double-winning staff, winning the Premier Division and FAI Cup. She also worked for the Northern Ireland men's national team and also formed part of Jim Gavin's backroom staff with Dublin men's senior footballers backroom team in 2018.

Lisa Fallon on the Dubs

Fallon credits the experience with the Dubs as one of the highlights of her career so far.

"Commitment, humility, work ethic, the will and drive to work as hard as was needed to win and keep winning," Fallon says of her time with the Dubs.

"Every new year and every new game was an opportunity to go and test yourself and challenge yourself. I grew up as a Dubs fan, and to have had the opportunity to work in that environment was incredible. It was something I was very grateful for.

"You learn so much from every environment, and Jim was an exceptional mentor. He gave me a lot of confidence by bringing me into that environment; the fact that he thought of me in that environment was very humbling and a genuine privilege."

Male-female subtleties

Fallon believes that going in to work with a winning team added another strength to a burgeoning sporting skillset.

"To go into that environment and see what else we could bring, and share some of my previous experiences in different environments, or just to look at things with the way that I viewed things [...] it was one of the greatest privileges of my career, and always will be."

Fallon moves from extensive experience in men's sport into the head role at a new project in the Lionesses, and spoke about the subtle differences between the genders in training and on the pitch.

"The women's team environment is quite different to the men's environment - you are dealing with different group dynamics.

"But in terms of the nuts and bolts of the type of work that goes into the training [...] all of that stuff is exactly the same. But dealing with men requires different skillsets to dealing with women - how you deliver stuff, how you coach it, and how you manage them.

"Generally, I find every environment different."

The future

So how are these differences brought to bear?

"Female players questions things a lot more, whereas males tend to take the information on board. It is hard to explain, but people take on the information in different ways, and it is about understanding how to transfer the information from my brain to the pitch in different ways.

"The group dynamics are slightly different, and the craic might be slightly different - it is about being respectful of both environments and understanding needs and how you deliver information.

"The way that I would have delivered information to the Sheriff men's team or the Cork City men's team, would be different to how I would deliver it to the London City Lionesses."

The Lionesses begin their season in with serious contenders in Liverpool, Leicester City and Sheffield United with just one promotion place - so what is considered a good season?

"There’s nothing we don’t need and we have a good full-time environment which you need to compete.

"That we have that is helpful and gives us an opportunity to succeed and drive things on over the next year or two."


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Dubs Jim Gavin Lisa Fallon