The reason why "Coaching" is placed at the end of this reflective series is because anyone who has watched the ball for several years knows that the quality of a country's football performance has something to do with the coach, but it is definitely not big. One of the reasons why Chinese football has collapsed so much is that even now, this basic concept is not understood by everyone in the circle.
Just this past World Cup qualifier, the Chinese men's football team completed two consecutive futile "feats" of changing coaches in the middle of the way. Li Tie's departure was almost cheered by everyone, as if as long as he left class, Chinese football ushered in hope.
Then, it was the dazzling 1-3 show in Vietnam during the Spring Festival.
Chinese football, especially the Chinese men's national football team, has long been caught in a logical paradox without knowing it: if you think that a good head coach can play an immediate and outstanding effect on the national team, the world's top coaches like Pi should sit in this position for a long time and be firmly trusted and maintained by the Chinese Football Association - it is very simple, people have taken the club to win the Champions League, and the national team has won the World Cup.
But if the effect is not so great, what is the significance of changing coaches all day long? Gao Hongbo can't do Lippi, Lippi can't do Li Tieshang, Li Tie can't do Li Xiaopeng, seeing that Li Xiaopeng is not ok, which one to change? In fact, whoever is on it is like that, and the position of coach is not played like this. What's more, Chinese football has never handed over all the authority of a head coach at any time.
The most common misconception we judge about a manager is whether he has improved the level of a player's ability. This can only be said to be one of the manifestations of the overall backwardness of Chinese football: when will the national team coach consider promoting players? Isn't that what should be done in the academy, at the club? European international football players in the national team every year time is pitifully small, generally in the national team before the week before the training, if you play two consecutive games is ten days, a total of six or seven times a year such concentration, really rely on this time to improve the technical level, yellow broccoli will be cold ...
The main responsibility of the head coach of the national team is to examine and select the players, select the most suitable players to enter the national team according to the performance of the players in the league and their own tactical needs, and then pinch them together through short tactical training to form combat effectiveness. Such a responsibility dooms the head coach of the national team to have no fundamental impact on the ability of the players, and it is more meaningful to expect him than to expect the players to take the initiative to train themselves.
On the field, the head coach can do even less, except to observe the situation and make tactical adjustments, basically only yelling. Obviously, Lippi has shown miracles many times in Evergrande and the Chinese team, but even if he is the god of football, he cannot count the mistakes of Feng Xiaoting, let alone pull the Chinese team to the top four positions in Asia in an instant.
What's more, does the head coach of the Chinese national team really have the full authority to select players? Is there full authority to handle the affairs of the team? It's all a very questionable thing. For example, one of the crimes of a big guy who fell in the last football black storm was to sell his national team position to collect black money, and he has never been a head coach.
Now that this is the case, there are no deeper questions to be asked. What should the technical and tactical style of Chinese football look like? Shouldn't the entire national echelon of Chinese football maintain a similar technical style? Shouldn't this style be implemented from the beginning of professional football academy training?
Judging from the rise of Japanese football, these issues are actually very important. But until the Chinese team really starts to have a head coach in the full sense, these topics have no point in continuing to study at all – how dare you expect a temporary worker whose main existence value is just a back pot to think about such a long-term and profound thing for you?
Conclusion
A recent Internet celebrity once said that a successful career must be done right. To borrow this phrase to describe Chinese football, it is: a cause that has failed so much must have done a lot of wrong things. The tragedy of Chinese football is that failure is always simple and it is too difficult to reflect. Even once in a while, I don't know where I succeed. Everyone just stumbled down that path, not knowing where to go, and going down itself became the greatest meaning—although there were examples of people who had already taken the right path, no one was interested in taking a serious look. "The Three-Body Problem" says that weakness and ignorance are not the biggest obstacles to survival, arrogance is.
Take this as your commandment!
Text/Hubei Daily reporter Guo Xiaoming
Photo: Xinhua News Agency