Will Still is gearing up for his first game in England, and his first game in charge of Southampton, as they make their 2025/26 Championship bow against Wrexham on Saturday.

Only 32 years old, Still has become one of the most talked-about coaches in Europe after his spells with Reims and Lens in France.

Back in April, Still appeared on Monday Night Football alongside Jamie Carragher to talk through his philosophies and methodologies as a coach. He gave some fascinating insights and maybe provided some idea of what Saints fans can expect this season…

Saturday 9th August 11:00am


Kick off 12:30pm

On his breakthrough in France

“Honestly, I think I’ve been incredibly lucky. I started off as a video analyst and gradually worked my way up through the Belgian second division and then into the first division. I just tried to push as many doors open as I could. I got lucky at the right times and met the right people along the way.

“I moved to France as an assistant manager, and then things changed pretty quickly. The manager I was working under got fired, and the club asked me to take over for five games before the World Cup. From there, it all just started to snowball.

“A lot of people might not know that my first real experience was as an academy coach at Preston North End. I was doing a university course in Preston, and as part of that course, I worked with the U12s at the club.

“I wasn’t a full-time coach. I came in more as an outside assistant, but we had the chance to travel through the academy, observe the coaches, watch the players, and get involved. That’s really what gave me the bug. From that point I just knew I wanted to work in football, in whatever capacity that might be. I was hooked.”

On his 19-game unbeaten run to start

“That run really put me in the spotlight, although that was never the intention. I was literally just filling in until the World Cup. The board said to me: ‘You’ve got five games. Just try to pick up as many points as possible.’

“We were in the relegation zone at the time, so it was very much about stabilising things. They told me: ‘If we need to make a change during or after the World Cup, we will. But if not, just keep going.’

“The priority was getting the team to work quickly because we didn’t have much time. The advantage I had was that I knew all the players. I’d been in the building, I knew what wasn’t working, and I had a sense of what could be tweaked easily to get a few points on the board and then build from there.

“In the end, we won three and drew two of those five games. From there, it just kept building. Once you go on a run like that, I won’t say it’s easy, but you do get into a kind of flow. The energy improves, the positivity around the club grows, and that’s how we ended up turning it into what became a historic run.”

On his style and philosophy

“I’ve always thought of it this way: I hate watching boring games of football. I don’t want to go to a stadium or sit down to watch a match on TV and think, ‘I don’t want to watch this’. I want to see something engaging.

“I’ve always tried to be pragmatic and open about what we do, but always focused on being on the front foot. I want people to watch and think, ‘you know what, that’s all right. At least they’re trying to do something.’

“The main thing is to enjoy it. But if I had to describe [my teams] in one word, the best one I’ve found is proactive. I want my teams to be proactive in everything we do. That involves pressing a lot, and I ask a huge amount from the players. They have to run. One of my key phrases is ‘defensive effort is non-negotiable’. If we can all attack, we can all defend -and we do it as a unit.

“It comes down to making it entertaining. They have to buy into the idea that by running, we’ll get closer to the opposition’s goal, we’ll create more chances, and we’ll get them into positions where they can be effective. For example, with a winger like Anass Zaroury – who was at Burnley – I’d say, ‘Anass, I need you to put in this effort so we can get you into this position as often as possible, where you can really make a difference for the team’.

“If it’s a striker, I’ll say, ‘I need you to full press the two centre-halves and the ‘keeper, because it will help us win the ball back higher up the pitch, and hopefully, that leads to a goal’. You just have to convince them. You have to tell the story in a way that makes them believe it’s in their best interests.

“Then you build it into a collective message: ‘Listen mate, he’s doing this for you so you’ve got to do this for him.’ And if everyone buys into that, then we’ve got a fair chance of doing something interesting together.”

‘The seven-minute rule’

“What we try to do as a staff is make everything as clear and simple as possible for the players.

“Using a blackboard isn’t engaging. They need to see and feel the situation, so we make everything as interactive and visual as possible.

“How long do we show this to players? Seven minutes. That’s about the maximum for their attention span.

“Honestly, I’d bore myself going longer. I’d never ask players to sit through 10 or 15 minutes. But for seven minutes, you’ve got their focus.”