Written by /Zhao Yu
On January 27, the national football team will challenge the Japanese team away in the round of 12, which is the first official appearance of the team after the new coach of the national football team Li Xiaopeng took office.
From Li Tie to Li Xiaopeng, the national football team continues to work hard to impact the Qatar World Cup. But everyone knew that the hope was too slim. The problems encountered by Li Tie, Li Xiaopeng also needs to face, and the pressure on the national football team can be imagined.
At the mobilization meeting before the match with the Japanese team, Li Xiaopeng told the players three "worthy", which may also run through his coaching of the national football team. He hopes to bring about new changes, but professional football is about talking about results, and if the results are not good, everything will be meaningless. Facing the two games that are about to decide the fate, are Li Xiaopeng and his players ready?
A national football coach without a sense of ceremony
From Li Tie's dismissal to Li Xiaopeng's class, everything stayed on paper official announcements, and the Chinese Football Association did not even hold a press conference for the new coach to take office.
When Li Tie was coaching, the Chinese Football Association hollowed out the slogan of "unity is iron", which was everywhere. After Li Xiaopeng took office, the slogan was gone, and there was nothing else on the red curtain of the training ground except sponsors. Will you think of a slogan or slogan for him in the future? The signal from the team is: don't get it, it's fine. In terms of ceremonial sense, Li Xiaopeng's national team seems to be lacking a lot.
Just after taking office, he finalized a super training list of "52 players + 15 assistant coaches", and Li Xiaopeng used this way to make people remember his first training.
It was found that Li Xiaopeng recruited almost all the players who could come to the Li Tie national team (except for injuries), and those players who were in the national team roster in the past basically came. Some people joked that the new coach could not be offended.
For such a special training list, there is a lot of speculation from the outside world, and some people believe that this is not li Xiaopeng's decision, and he will be constrained by many mysterious forces as soon as he takes office. However, according to Tencent Sports, this list is indeed from Li Xiaopeng's hand.
"The training methods and personnel were all set by Li Xiaopeng in accordance with his previous plan." People familiar with the matter told Tencent Sports that during the Shanghai training camp, the team came with 44 players and 38 staff, which was unprecedented. Li Xiaopeng divided the players and coaches into two teams, the old players and the young players were mixed, and everyone ate and held internal tactical meetings separately, "hoping to create a sense of internal competition in this way." ”
Li Xiaopeng recruited so many players for another purpose, that is, to play an internal teaching game. Affected by the epidemic, the national football team cannot play warm-up matches with foreign teams, and has to find a sense of competition through internal teaching competitions. Li Tie led the team most of the time with the club team warm-up game, now the clubs have been on holiday, can not accompany the national football team to play warm-up matches, he can only recruit more people, the formation of two national teams, with the "national team vs national team" way to find feelings.
During the training camp, a total of two teaching games were played within the national team. The players who went to Japan with the team were selected from two teams, not the "national first team" that was rumored to be in the final twelve. The two teams were parallel throughout the training period, and there was no such thing as "first team" or "second team".
Motivate players with three "worthy" points
Li Xiaopeng's national team has a strong coaching team, counting his total of 16 people, they are basically the best in domestic football, many of them participated in the 2002 World Cup, Li Xiaopeng also hopes that these old teammates can pass on their past experience to the current players.
Li Xiaopeng once said something like this when communicating with the assistant coaches: "The team atmosphere is very important, and I hope that all the players who come to the national team to participate in the training are happy." He also stressed to the players that everyone should take it seriously when training and do their best when playing.
When coaching in The Shandong team, Li Xiaopeng spoke the local dialect at all times. Later, after arriving in Wuhan, he began to speak Mandarin in order to let every player hear his own requirements, and the same was true after he arrived at the national team. On the first day of the national team training, he did not speak a single sentence of Shandong in an interview with the media on the sidelines.
After arriving in Japan, the national team held a mobilization meeting for the top 12 matches, and Li Xiaopeng mentioned three "worthy" in his speech: "I want to work hard to lead everyone to achieve satisfactory results, worthy of the hard work of the General Administration of Sports and the Football Association support team, worthy of each of us who have worked hard for football for many years, and worthy of the support of our families." ”
According to the players, in addition to talking about this, Li Xiaopeng also stressed the importance of "unity" for a team, hoping to bring a united and effective team. In addition, he is more concerned about the business within the stadium, and does not put forward many requests for other aspects.
As for the technical and tactical content, the whole team is reluctant to disclose too much to the outside world, and the team's past training and teaching competitions have also been carried out in a closed situation. It is certain that Li Xiaopeng will make adjustments in the lineup and the use of players, the adjustment range is not large, and there will be no subversive changes in the main framework. First, because there are basically only a few excellent players in China, in addition, he himself has repeatedly stressed that "it is impossible to have complete changes at the beginning."
Therefore, how Li Xiaopeng's national team played in the round of twelve, and the match with the Japanese team on January 27 can basically be seen at the beginning. A coach's football philosophy can often be judged by past work experience, and perhaps in the tactical play of the national team in the future, people can also see the shadow of Shandong Taishan and Wuhan teams.
The national football team conceded a goal in the first leg against Japan
The problem of naturalized players that plagued Li Tie also bothered Li Xiaopeng
From the end of last year to the present, Li Xiaopeng's work has been generally stable and smooth, but in recent days there have also been twists and turns in the issue of naturalized players. First, Luo Guofu complained that the flight was cancelled, and then there was the incident of Fernando turning back to Brazil, which also affected the preparation of the national team to some extent. You know, the national team has been operating since the first day of training, and these people have returned, but in the end, they have not been successful.
Li Xiaopeng also said that long-distance travel under the epidemic is prone to special circumstances, and he expressed his understanding. This "understanding" is probably more of an acceptance of reality, because even if it is not understood, Fernando will not be able to come back.
At present, there are a total of 3 naturalized players in the national team, namely Jiang Guangtai, Alan and Luo Guofu. Luo Guofu was suspended for accumulating yellow cards and missed the match against Japan, and the national football team could only play two naturalized players at most on January 27.
These people were in a state of vacation some time ago and did not carry out systematic training, so it is unknown what the state is and whether they meet the conditions of the game.
On the issue of the use of naturalized players, Li Tie has been fiercely criticized by the outside world. Now such a problem may also plague Li Xiaopeng, each coach will develop a game strategy according to the state of the players and their own tactics, and naturalized players are the focus of attention from the outside world, whether they are on or off will become a hot topic, coaches need to have their own more accurate judgment. As for whether to refer to public opinion and fan opinions, that is Li Xiaopeng's own business.
Now it seems that the naturalization of Chinese football is not as good as initially thought, and the potential risks and possible problems of the relevant managers and clubs in the whole process are not well planned, so it has led to today's situation.
Clubs have had problems with funding, naturalized players have left one after another, and the topic of "Kaldek entering the national football team" that was still hotly discussed last year has not been mentioned anymore. To be sure, there will be no new naturalized players coming to this year's Round of 12.
After playing these two games, the three naturalized players who are now coming to the national team are likely to return to their birthplace. As for whether the March round of twelve will be returned, it is even more unknown. Perhaps after the end of these two final matches in the future, the fate of the national football team has been determined.
What is the cycle of Li Xiaopeng taking the national football team?
Whether it is Li Tie's dismissal or Li Xiaopeng's appointment, it was completed in a hurry. Li Tie initially signed a contract with the Chinese Football Association in the Cycle of the World Cup, and he later successfully led the team to the top 12, and the Chinese Football Association extended with him until 2026, which is a long contract that no coach has ever made. However, due to Li Tie's resignation, this long contract lasted only a few months before it ended.
What is the cycle of Li Xiaopeng taking the national football team? Tencent Sports also asked the relevant FOOTBALL Association people, and the reply was "not clear". Neither Li Xiaopeng's official announcement nor the Chinese Football Association has given a clear statement on his coaching cycle.
Therefore, on the contrary, there are different views on when Li Xiaopeng will bring the national football team, on the one hand, he is only a firefighter, first take the national football team to play the top twelve matches, on the other hand, he may lead the team to complete the 2023 Asian Cup.
All of this is limited to the outside world's rumors, and the coach's leadership cycle is not clear, which also reflects the non-professionalism of Chinese football to some extent, let alone respect for the national team and the coach himself.
Of course, this is also the particularity of Chinese football, and it is indispensable to need local coaches to fight fires. If you choose a foreign teacher, you must explain all the problems clearly before you start working.
From Lippi to Cannavaro to Lippi, and later Li Tie and Li Xiaopeng, the national team has experienced many coaching changes in the past five years. Aside from taking office in the Round of Twelve, which gave people a glimpse of hope, most of the time remained and they struggled with defeat.
Every coach has his own successful experience, but when he reaches the position of the manager of the national football team, he will completely "not do", and Lippi will also be spat at by the outside world that he "does not understand football". Chinese football is not only of low level, sometimes it is not united, everyone thinks that they are the best, they can always pick out other people's problems of one kind or another, and the final result is that no one can look at anyone. Many people are willing to find their own sense of superiority in the failure of others, but they do not find themselves in the quagmire of failure.
Li Xiaopeng once coached the women's national team, and now he has brought the Chinese men's football team, presumably he must know what this position needs to face next. Li Tie is a very active person on social media, but Li Xiaopeng is at the other extreme, which may reduce his trouble. But everyone knows that the results are the first, Li Tie led the national football team to break into the top 40 when he also posted ads on personal social media, no one criticized him, but these will not work when they reach the top twelve, the team loses, and the coaches do everything wrong. Professional football is to talk about results, and Li Xiaopeng must be prepared.