In-Depth with Julio Ribas
March 25, 2024

From the bleeding through of young talent to the writing of another page in Gibraltar's footballing history. We go in depth with our enigmatic Uruguayan, Julio Ribas, to talk all things football.

An honest assessment of last week’s Nations League 1^st leg loss v Lithuania in Faro kicks off our in-depth interview with Gibraltar’s Head Coach, who goes on to discuss the episodic nature of football, the strength of his Gibraltar squad, how he prepares for matches such as these playoffs, forming part of Gibraltar’s history and his pride in bringing through Gibraltar’s next generation of footballers.

Check it all out below:

Q1: It’s not the result we wanted in the first leg, but talk to us about the performance. What are your thoughts now looking back at the match?

First things first, like you’ve said there, the result is not what we wanted at all, that is clear. With that being said, the team’s performance was very good, especially considering we went down to 10 men after 23 minutes. And with 10 men, we worked and fought throughout the game, we tried our best and under those circumstances it was a good performance.

We have to remember always that we are playing against opponents of a high level, Lithuania are 70 places above us on the FIFA Rankings for a reason, they are a team that has had some great results, but, aside from the result in the first leg, we are more than satisfied knowing that our team is ready again. We are the team we need to be, we have evolved and we have plenty of youngsters ready with the experience to achieve great campaigns and great results.

Q2: Obviously, we go into every game with a specific gameplan in mind. Can you please explain how much a red card changes everything?  

Football is very episodic, that means it’s not consistent, it’s always changing. There are various changes throughout a match, but with this in mind, there are two factors. Firstly, which comes above all else is the goals, goals change everything, and secondly, its red cards.  A red card brings about changes that aren’t only about the players themselves, in our case for example we had to bring on a Goalkeeper for an outfielder, but as well as this, a red card changes the dynamic of a match. 

It's because of this that I say, despite being down to 10-men, the players put on a great performance, they’ve done it previously against Netherlands last year, even though the result wasn’t what we wanted the performance was still there.

A red card changes everything.

Q3: After the red card, Bradley Banda took to the field, a player who himself is having a great domestic season with St. Joseph’s FC. How much peace of mind do you have as a coach, knowing you have players of such in your squad?

It gives me great peace of mind knowing that all the players in the squad have been picked for a reason. In the case of our Goalkeepers, I have always said the same thing, be it Dayle Coleing, Bradley Banda, Christian Lopez or Jaylan Hankins, who himself has now recovered from his injury, we have four goalkeepers of great quality and stature, as individuals you already know they are great people, they are young and have an enormous future.

All positions are important on a pitch, but for me, the position of a goalkeeper is extremely important, as is the security and confidence a goalkeeper gives the team. I mention that all positions are important, but a winger can play in midfield, a winger can play in defence, a defender can play on the wing or in midfield, a midfielder can play up front, a striker can play in midfield, but, only a goalkeeper and be a goalkeeper.

In my case, and I say this from a personal point of view and it’s just my view, in this aspect I don’t like rotation. I’ve had it as a player and as a coach. When you have good goalkeepers sometimes minutes are split between competitions, I’ve always been of the opinion that you have your goalkeeper and he keeps his place. Your others are at a good level and they have to wait for their chance, but they do this because they know they form part of a strong group and family, and they know that while we respect everything a starting goalkeeper has done throughout his time playing, we also respect all the time the others have waited for their opportunity to play.

That is my opinion in regards to the position of a goalkeeper. Fight for the right to play, fight for your opportunity, but always support fully whoever gets to play. Total support, without exception.

There is no such thing as “you lost by so many goals”, because when we lose everyone looks at the goalkeeper, because he’s the one in the photos conceding the goal. Generally people say “The keeper played well but he conceded 3, 4, 5 goals…”, that makes no difference to me, goals against us are a product of the entire team, the coaching staff as well included. They are not down to just one person and nor does one person need to feel responsible for the goals we concede.

On the other hand, me personally, I don’t make changes based on form, I make changes based on tactics, because players can go through bad spells of form, they aren’t robots, so if you don’t support them so they regain their form then it’s just a continuously sliding door, it’s something I don’t believe in.

We are part of a National Team setup, we don’t have much time with the players, there is only a few days in between matches and we’re also playing at the elite level, the elite of the elite.

This isn’t the Champions League, Europa League or Europa Conference Leagues, we’re playing at the elite, which is to say that all those players who are playing in those competitions I have mentioned, are all focussed and aiming towards playing for their National Teams.

Many times, certain decisions may not be understood, they may not be accepted either generally speaking, but they are by the group. I’m a coach that generally speaking doesn’t like making changes at half-time either, for the same reasons, because I think the players deserve a chance to improve and redeem themselves. I also try to not make changes during bad moments because it could give the impression that players are waiting for failure of others to get their chance, that isn’t the case with our group.

It's a concept I want to eradicate completely and the players already know this. We make changes when we have good results, we make strategic and technical changes, however many are needed and there aren’t any problems with that, but we don’t make changes because of bad form because the players need to be supported. And we never make changes due to a loss, because we need to maintain the personality and the trust of the players so that they know that changes may be made due to tactics or injuries, but never bad form or losses.

Q4: With this in mind, is this situation an excellent example of how football is not just about the Starting XI, but it’s about the group?

Of course, totally. Generally National Squads are together for a short period of time, their players have a high level of competition and they play in powerful leagues around the world. With us it’s not quite the same. So, when I became Head Coach in 2018, the first concept we discussed with the players was to become a family, a family that would become a team.

For that there has to be concepts, principles and values – you have to behave like a family, which means that the first thing we need to remove is the idea of selfishness and egomania – we need to eradicate Egos.

We need to retain self-esteem, but that is totally different. Egos don’t serve a purpose for us, self-esteem does. Making a group believe this is difficult, co-existence is what makes this happen, which is why for us it’s so important the days that the group gets together before matches, because it doesn’t only help us achieve our footballing and tactical goals, but also our personal objectives, which is to get these players from different teams to feel the same thing, to get them to buy into our values and principles of family and of the solidarity of the group.

We need the teammates who aren’t playing to some extent being more important than those who start, because not only do they need to support the team, but they need to work hard for a chance to play and to fight whilst also respecting the family, the group and the team.

Those concepts are paramount, when we speak about the team, many people think that being part of a team eliminates individuality, but it’s the other way round. What we do is to promote individuality, because it’s important that we, through the individual – which is important, the want to play, the want to work hard, the want to perform, the want to triumph – the individuality of our players is a bastion of football, but there comes a time when the “me”, when the individual becomes an “us”, becomes part of the group, and that the group boosts the individual to the top level.

That’s what we are after, and that’s why we have such a beautiful sporting family, a great group and a team that every time tries harder to improve, fight and achieve results, in a period of time throughout a process which is going to be a long one, because we’ve only been playing professional football for 10 years, whereby our opponents have over 100 years at this level.

Q5: We come into the match on Tuesday 1-0 down, but it is very much all to play for still. Is it different having to prepare for to back-to-back games against the same opponent?

In relation to this it’s very clear. From the first moment we got the team, in which in four years a match hadn’t been won, we said ‘from now on, every time we play it has to be a final, every time we step on the pitch it has to be a final’, because we had to change our situation and we mentally prepared ourselves to do just that. And we did that, which is to say, the group is ready to play finals, because from our first match against North Macedonia and later against Armenia, we played finals. And when we play ‘friendlies’, for us they aren’t friendlies, we play finals. In that aspect, the group is together and it’s solid.

In terms these playoffs, which when you look at it, are divided into two halves of 90 minutes each, logically we have a clear tactical and strategic plan defined. We are going to go out to play the match the same way we have every other final we have faced – We’ve had differing levels of success, wins and losses, sometimes we have conceded many goals, but throughout it all, we have entered the pitch ready to play a final, and a final means stepping onto that pitch to win and without any fear.

On the match itself, people say ‘we lost the home match, now we play away’, the truth is we always play away, always. If we’re not playing at the Victoria Stadium then we’re the visitors. In Portugal we are the away team and in Lithuania we’ll be the away team again, there is no difference to us. The group knows what they need to do, and they know how to manage the game. We’ll see on the pitch if we can achieve what we set out to do, sometimes we can achieve our goals, other times we can’t, but that’s football.

Q6: Back home, many Gibraltarians will remember when we won Nations League D, a historic achievement which you formed a big part of. If we were to do the unthinkable on Tuesday so to speak, and turn the game around, would it become the most important part of our recent footballing history?

I don’t think about that, I can’t answer that, because I’m not thinking about that. The Nations League is completely different to other tournaments, it’s completely different to knockouts. There are teams, Lithuania included, which have had the opportunity to play in other Leagues, be it Nations League A, League B, League C etc. The Nations League has that concept that you rise and fall between leagues.

Now we play in March and in September we have the Nations League again. It’s completely different to the other tournaments. For us, in this moment, the only thing we’re thinking about is this match on Tuesday.

There was a very experienced man, who was a World Champion back in Uruguay, and once he told me there was a competitive similarity between football and horseracing. And I told him “What has one got to do with the other?”, and he said that in both football and horseracing only the best times matter. That is to say, we will remain part of the history of Gibraltar for the good moments that we achieved – winning our first match both home and away, winning the last two matches at the Victoria Stadium, winning Nations League D – Those are the best moments and that is what will remain, the rest is the process that we had to go through to get to those great moments. These players have earned themselves a great place within the history of Gibraltar, a footballing history which, despite only being 10 years professionally in UEFA, has been written across a 120-year period.

Q7: And finally, last week you added James Scanlon to a growing list of young players you have handed a debut too. A list which already consists of Tjay De Barr, Louie Annesley, Kian Ronan, Dayle Coleing, Bradley Banda, Ayoub El Hmidi, Jayce Olivero, Scott Ballantine, Evan De Haro, Niels Hartman, Julian Valarino, Dylan Peacock, Ethan Jolley, Nicholas Pozo, etc. Can you explain how proud you are of this?

When we talked about the best moments, aside from the matches we have won, what we need to take into account is the number of young players, which is now up to 39, which have been called up to the Senior National Team – some have not yet made their debut, but they’re part of our squad. You’ve mentioned some names, but there are plenty missing. The idea of 6 young players from the next generation forming part of the senior squad is more important than any one individual.

With this being said, it’s important to note that a player like James Scanlon, who is still extremely young, has debuted with the senior team in a match of significant importance. Aside from the personal achievement for himself, what’s also important is what this means for the next group of youngsters who are waiting for their chance, it sends such an important message.

As an individual he has this memory, he debuted, he played very well, not only for the team but for himself also and he has an immense future. But his debut serves as a message for us, for Liam Jessop, Kai Mauro, Taylor Carrington, etc. It serves as a message for players who know they are on the cusp, and it’s an even more powerful message for those in the U17, U19 and U21 squads, because they are watching and thinking ‘I can get there, 6 or 7 of my teammates are there, so I can get there, I can be there’.

It's great motivation, especially because it’s not only about getting here, because anyone can form part of our squad, it’s about getting to the squad with the ability – like Louie Annesley, Ethan Britto, Tjay De Barr, Julian Valarino, Graeme Torrilla, Dayle Coleing, Bradley Banda, Christian Lopez, etc – Like all the other players who have arrived, debuted, fought to stay here and developed.

Why? Why do players from the U17, U19 & U21, whose results are for the most part of the same vein, arrive with the senior team raise their level of performance? They do this for the same reason Scanlon has, because they know they are in a place whereby they’ll have confidence, they’ll have protection, they’ll have demands, they’ll have discipline, they’ll train in a different way and it is all this, that despite their age, will prepare them to debut just like all those we mentioned before who debuted at similar ages.

Britto, Annesley and De Barr all debuted at 16/17, Valarino and Ronan at 18, and they all sacrificed and fought and are still here now. Everyone who joins us will do the same, because since 2018 we have had these standards in place, specifically with the aim of completing this process, a process in which we have players of an age whereby they will be able to form part of a journey spanning 3 World Cup cycles - 12 years.

All this is also part of our best moments. It is a cornerstone of our legacy that our players continue to grow. In between all this, will there be defeats? Of course.

Playing in the Nations League will we drop a division like other nations? That is what the Nations League is.

We are in March now. In September, October and November all the teams will be going through the same experience as us, it is super competitive because if you’re not in the top 3 of your group you get relegated. In September we start another campaign, and after this iteration there will be another, and this is why it is so important that you win a group like we did in Nations League D back in 2020.