Largest Ever Annual Technical Masterclass welcomes over 300 to St. George’s Park

The 2026 LMA & LCA Annual Technical Masterclass, marked its third edition by welcoming over 300 attendees to participate in the most immersive programme to date. For the first time, the event expanded into a two-day format, offering unique insight, learning and networking opportunities across the professional game. Hosted at the home of England’s National Football Teams, St. George’s Park, and held in association with Elite Soccer, guests were able to engage with a number of on-pitch and group sessions, featuring a stellar line-up of elite managers and coaches.

The event kicked off in front of a vibrant and engaged audience, with an on-pitch session focused on attacking overloads delivered by England Men’s Senior Team Assistant Coach, Justin Cochrane and assisted by FA YDP Lead on Talent ID, Michael Johnson. The exercise highlighted the importance of launching quick and precise attacks, the craft of creating advantageous 2v1 scenarios and how to find optimum final-third positions.

Focus shifted in the afternoon as Rehanne Skinner, who has worked across a number of senior roles in women’s club and international football, facilitated a high-tempo session alongside former Ipswich Town Women’s First-Team Manager, Joe Sheehan. This featured several phases of play all designed to help create opportunities for breaking deep and structured defensive lines.

The evening featured a highly technical Q&A with Coventry City Head Coach, Frank Lampard OBE, who answered a range of questions submitted from the audience and host, Hayley McQueen. This unique discussion provided a rare opportunity for our members to hear first-hand about the intricacies involved in masterminding a promotion campaign. There was also a tactical deep-dive into the various methods that have contributed to leading Coventry City back to the Premier League for the first time in 25 years.

Day One was rounded off with a showcase presentation from former S.L. Benfica, Wolverhampton Wanderers and Botafogo Head Coach, Bruno Lage, who discussed his coaching pathway, the structure of his sessions and the vital role this plays in building a successful on-pitch philosophy.

Bruno and his co-coach Rúben Fernandes started Day Two with a tactical showcase highlighting the importance of fluid build-up play from defensive areas and how these fundamentals can significantly impact a team’s attacking output.

The final session of the Masterclass was delivered by the highly experienced duo of Steve McClaren and Darren Moore. In an experimental coach education exercise, Steve and Darren joined the coaching staff of Walsall PDP & Derby County PDP respectively, to provide live insight into the tactical conversations that take place in the technical area on match day.

This provided the opportunity for attendees to see and hear how each manager approaches different tactical and technical scenarios that occur during an 11v11 match situation, with a pre-match briefing, live broadcast of half-time team talks, and post-match debrief, demonstrating the importance of clear communication and strong messaging.

We were delighted to be joined at this year’s event by a team of coach developers from The FA, who facilitated post-session debriefs and Q&As with each deliverer to help consolidate the key learnings from the coaching demonstrations.

Richard Bevan, Chief Executive, League Managers Association, commented: “Each year, the Annual Technical Masterclass continues to grow in both its ambition and scale. With over 300 members attending across two days, it marked the largest iteration of the event to date. It was great to see the enthusiasm and passion of our attendees combined with the outstanding quality delivered by our line-up of elite coaches and managers. This helped contribute to a fantastic atmosphere across the two days with a real focus on learning, networking and gaining insight.

“Whether it’s from a technical, tactical, wellbeing, legal or employment perspective, the LMA and LCA is committed to providing a diverse range of opportunities to help support our members with their career development. As part of this pledge, we were pleased to announce at the masterclass that our HCA UK Health Assessments will be made available for all LCA Members from 1st July. This is a significant expansion of our existing and highly successful health test programme, and we look forward to supporting our LCA membership with this important provision.

“The feedback we’ve received so far from the Masterclass has been exceptional, particularly around the unique tactical insights shared and the opportunities for peer-to-peer collaboration. I would like to extend my thanks to all attendees, the players and staff from Derby County, Birmingham City, Walsall and Stoke City, and our line-up of coaches and managers, all of whom helped make it such a memorable and valuable event.”

Finally, thank you to LMA Technical Partner Elite Soccer for its continued support of the event. A special edition of Elite Soccer Magazine will be published with all session plans available exclusively to LMA and LCA members.

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