Watch: Forest legend Andy Reid on coaching Ireland U18s

Video: Andy Reid speaking on Team Talk about coaching Ireland U18s

Former Nottingham Forest midfielder Andy Reid is now coaching the Ireland U18 squad.

Speaking on the latest episode of Team Talk, on tonight (Wednesday April 25) at 8pm, Andy said he completed his coaching badges in December 2017.

Now he’s training the Ireland U18s and said the age group can be one of the most ‘impressionable’ stages of a player’s career.

Andy said: “It’s really important to impress the right things on them, guide them and help them along and it’s important they get fed the right information on and off the pitch.

“I was very lucky at that age because I had Paul Hart and Charlie McParland working with me.

“Information I was given on the pitch about defending, attacking, passing, positional sense when I was between 16 and 19 stuck with me until the day I retired.”

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Andy Reid speaking on Team Talk

Andy said he is ‘enjoying’ his time as a coach and thinks it’s very different to playing the game.

He said: “I’ve been there, I’ve done it and I’ve said to them if the players if they come back and ask me questions, I’ve got experience to say how things might happen.

“The thing that you need to learn is the set-up of sessions, getting all the numbers right, getting the size of your areas right.

“These things are important that you don’t automatically get going from playing to coaching so you’re learning yourself as you’re going along.

“You speak to experienced coaches and you ask them questions because you’re always learning and should always be learning.

“I’m going into something different now and I’m enjoying it.”

For more from Andy, along with the latest Forest, Notts and Mansfield news and analysis, watch the April 25 episode of Team Talk sponsored by On-Call Recruitment on our catch-up service by clicking here after the show airs.