The most significant part of Grant’s education came at Liverpool when Bob Paisley allowed him to observe training at Melwood – although only after he had changed out of the blue shirt he had thoughtlessly worn on his first day. “He was a big, big influence, first because of the way he chose the players and ran the team,” Grant says. “I came from Germany where the team-talk needed to be two hours and they’d speak about the opponent, but he spoke like two minutes before the game.
Paisley didn’t speak much, but when he did it was straight to the point.
“I remember they played against Everton. [The then coach Tom] Saunders was there and I said to him: ‘Can I see the team-talk?’ He said: ‘We did it already. It’s what the players came to do 10 minutes ago and we finished five minutes ago.’ I asked him what was said and he said: ‘Oh, two or three things.’ I’d just come from Germany with two hours’ team-talk about the opponents and I thought: ‘Well, they won’t win the game.’ The result? They won. Then I started to think about the mental capacity of players to take in information.
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The way they played was unbelievable. I think people don’t remember that but he really changed football in England. Nobody before played like this … They played on the ground, not long balls – and they won three European Cups. Since I was there I followed all the games and
it was amazing to see them: tap, tap, tap, tap, tap. When you say ‘tiki taka’, it starts with them.”https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/jan/27/avram-grant-ghana-africa-cup-of-nations
