Everton v Leeds United: Why futsal and teaching has been handy preparation for Michael Skubala

The former PE teacher, school head of year, national futsal coach, Football Association employee and UEFA consultant currently finds himself at the coalface of Leeds United's relegation fight and is the club's public face, as it stands.

Can a classroom full of kids, coaching in a football format which is viewed with scepticism by many traditionalists and experience of countless 'talking-shop' seminars truly prepare you for a seismic survival six-pointer at one of English football's few remaining bear pits in Goodison Park?

Shortly after the air raid siren sounds on Saturday afternoon and Everton's classic Z-Cars theme tune is played, we will start to find out.

Skubala, a personable chap from the East Midlands, kept his head and impressed, to be fair, in two interim matches in charge against Manchester United.

With all due respect to Leeds's meetings with the old enemy, today's game with Everton - a direct relegation rival - and next weekend's versus Southampton are ones which will define United's fates more.

They aren't free hits and arrive with a health warning.

As for anyone who would suggest that futsal, an indoor game played with just five players, a small-sided arena and a small ball, is football-lite with few coaching skills able to be transfered over to 11-a-side, Skubala begs to differ.

The format means that one tiny mistake usually leads to a goal. Substitutions are prolific in their number and attention to technical and tactical detail is very high.

It's a demanding game which sharpens up coaching skills. A 'pressure cooker' as Skubala once said.

It is not just players who have to think and work smart and fast, but also coaches. Useful preparation for Goodison then. On his futsal background, Skubala said: "I wondered when that question would come!

"First of all, I was a football coach who moved into futsal and then back into football a little bit, so the journey's very different.

"But culturally it's not a different game in other countries, (like) Brazil or Spain. It's a bit unusual here, but when I decided to have a look at futsal in a more serious way, I think I learned a lot.

"I learned a lot around things like tactical decisions and making substitutions. There are nuances of the game which are different and others which are similar.

"I think in a way it's made me a little bit different to other coaches which I'm proud of, it's part of me, it's part of my eclectic journey and gives me a way of looking at things in a slightly different way."

Skubala was assigned with publishing a six-year strategy for futsal development in 2018, only for FA to cut funding after Covid-19.

In his time as head coach for the national futsal team, which began in 2016, he guided them to their highest world ranking in two decades. Skubala's stock was such that he was kept on by the governing body on a consultancy basis.

England U18s called and he worked in that set-up as an assistant for 18 months before beating off significant competition to land the under-21 job at Leeds last summer.

At 40, he is still relatively young in coaching circles.

The senior role he is now entrusted with at Leeds may be a big one, but it is an experience he is already taking plenty from.

He continued: "I've always thought about just doing the best job I can do, be it my under-18s with England and now onto Leeds.

"I just try to do the best job I can and hopefully leave people with the feeling I've done a good job.”

Alongside his time in futsal, more especially, his experience of the teaching world has helped broaden his skills set as well.

He worked at Lutterworth School for seven years between 2006 and 2013, combining his work with several coaching jobs, including in the academies at Coventry City and Nottingham Forest and with Leicestershire non-league outfit Barwell.

He was also head futsal coach at Loughborough University.

To excel in coaching and teaching, you must display an ability to control people and problem solve. As he did once where there were issues at exam time in the school hall and staff were distracting pupils to regularly nipping out to the staff room.

Skubala said: "For 20 years, they were all facing the wrong way. I said 'just turn the seats round and it will solve your problem. Sometimes we look for the really big stuff and sometimes I feel the solutions are in front of us. With the players and staff, it's always been solution-focused really. Coaching is learning and learning is coaching, so they are very similar (roles). It may be slightly different in terms of how you use methodology with players, but it (teaching) helps me a lot."

Both Skubala and his opposite number today in Sean Dyche hail from the southern part of the East Midlands, traditionally rugby union territory. Dyche is from the Northamptonshire town of Kettering.

They are different in terms of character, for sure, but their backgrounds show they are grafters and problem-solvers. And fighters in their own way.