Just after February Erlong's rear, the Chinese Football Association, which was deeply at a low ebb, also revived and finally finalized the manager of the men's national team. U23 national youth coach and Serbian coach Jankovic took over the "hot potato" of the Chinese team.
Chen Jiayuan, president of the Football Association, and Li Tie, former coach of the national team, were taken away to assist in the investigation on suspicion of serious violations of discipline and law, but the darkest moment of Chinese football has not completely come, and the consequences caused by the lack of talent in the national team, the chaos of the league organization, and the weak football foundation have not yet fully erupted. At this moment, Jankovic is the manager of the national team, and I don't know whether to praise his bravery or lament his helplessness.
01 Helpless?
Li Tie is about to be imprisoned, Li Xiaopeng has also become a dispensable "little transparent", once after the top 12 matches, the limitations of the marshal have been vividly displayed, it is estimated that in a few years, the leaders of the football association and even higher levels will be very cautious about using the marshal, there are not many who understand human favor and business, there is no need to muddy the waters to protect the lives of the meritorious old marshals, and the young marshals lack experience and are difficult to convince the public, can no longer move Gao Hongbo's guidance out to save the scene, right?
Chinese football has always been hovering between the local marshal and the foreign marshal, the local marshal understands the national conditions, the foreign marshal is fine in business, and the Football Association always cares about one or the other in each selection and employment, overkill.
Logically speaking, this time the local coach failed to produce good results, should have reached the stage of choosing a foreign coach, there were many foreign coaches familiar with Asian football who had scandals with the Chinese team before: Paul Bento, who just left the coach position of the South Korean team, Queiroz who has been working in Iran for many years, Renard, who led Saudi Arabia to defeat Argentina in the World Cup, and Olaroyo, who led Jiangsu to win the Chinese Super League championship...
In terms of fame, resume and ability, these coaches should be better than Jankovic, and it seems that it is better to choose anyone than to let the Serb take over.
Choosing to coach Qatar was a smart choice for Queiroz
However, in the current situation of Chinese football, can people come? Bento and Olaroyo have both spent time in the Chinese Super League and absolutely know how deep the water of Chinese football is, and now that Chinese football is in turbulent times, it is difficult for them to challenge this "hellish difficulty" job.
As for Queiroz and Renard, staying in the Middle East is the best choice in terms of income and career aspirations, Qatar's investment in football is obvious to all, and even rose to the height of national strategy, and it is not surprising that Queiroz accepted Qatar's invitation; As for Renard, leading the team to defeat Argentina and giving the former fish-belly army a new look, his reputation in Saudi Arabia is skyrocketing, why come to China?
There is no need for Olaroyo to muddy the waters
Before the Golden Yuan football bubble was not disillusioned, the Chinese Football Association could still rely on the funding of enterprises to hire famous coaches with super high salaries, and now the Football Association can no longer and does not dare to solve the problem in this way, and the story of Camacho and Lippi may become legendary.
Therefore, the "uplift" of the U23 national youth coach Jankovic has also become the "optimal solution" of helplessness. After all, he is indeed a foreign coach, we can afford the salary, and five years in China can be regarded as understanding Chinese football...
This is the reason why many media friends look down on Jankovic, the Serb's resume is really unconvincing, if he is a "temporary worker" without a guaranteed contract, once the national football performance is too ugly, he will be the first to be sent to the altar of public opinion.
02 Rational choice?
After reading a lot of comments and communicating with many friends, I found that unlike the rhetoric of many media who are looking down on Jankovic, some fans and friends expressed some optimism about him becoming the manager of the national football team.
This coincides with the author's attitude. At present, Chinese football has fallen into undervaluation, the national team needs to be rebuilt, stability is of course the most important thing, Jankovic has led the youth team for many years, the current U23 age group of excellent players he knows very well, and can basically do a good job, the upcoming Asian Cup and World Cup qualifiers, these young people will gradually increase their voice in the national team, Jankovic leads the team has a natural advantage, can maximize the stability of the team.
In addition, in the summer of the national football selection team in the East Asian Cup in the summer of 22, the Serbs also have a mentor-apprentice friendship for some members of the national team, and also successfully integrated Jiang Guangtai, Zhu Chenjie and Dai Weijun into their national youth team system, and after losing to South Korea in the first game, they adjusted in time to draw strong opponents Japan and win Hong Kong under pressure, all of which showed Jankovic's business ability.
The problem of the Chinese team is not the problem of the coach, and the problem of Chinese football is not the problem of the coach. Since you know that the problem lies at a deeper level, why bother to demand the results of the national team, abandon the gambler mentality, do not expect someone to bring qualitative changes to the team, and find a football that can best maintain the team's combat effectiveness at this stage, play football within your reach, and do your best is actually a good choice.
Chinese football has reached this point today, not caused by a mistake, and the work of bottoming out is not achieved overnight. If you can give Jankovic a relaxed environment, let him adjust players and polish tactics with peace of mind, he may be able to bring out a Chinese team that is not strong, but has a tenacious style, pragmatic tactics and is difficult to deal with.
03 Must be bad if you are famous?
The Chinese team is not without a little-known foreign coach, before Jankovic Frenchman Perrin is also unknown, although he can not win two games in the World Preliminary Round Hong Kong defeat, but we can not ignore his stability based on confrontation and emphasis on running tactics, in the Asian Cup Saudi Arabia, Uzbekistan, North Korea, three games won all three games to reach the quarterfinals. The author believes that these "small famous" foreign coaches are generally more pragmatic, which may be more in line with the basic plate of the Chinese team's weak strength in recent years.
Judging from the situation in which Jankovic led the team to the Dubai Cup and the East Asian Cup, he is also very pragmatic in terms of tactics, and tries to combine the most advanced European concepts with the actual situation of Chinese players:
Whether in the national youth team or the national selection team, Serbs are emphasizing physical fitness, confrontation and mental attributes, adopting the overall strategy of pressing high and then turning to the bottom of defense, on the basis of doing a good job of their own defense, find the opponent to play a quick counterattack or disrupt the opponent's backfield by suddenly tightening the high defense, in order to create chaos in the opponent to win goals.
At least in my opinion, Jankovic's tactics are in line with the actual situation of Chinese football at this stage, which is the appropriate way to give Chinese players strength and Asian ranking. Just like what Peilan did in the Asian Cup in 15 years, he boldly used players such as Wu Xi, Sun Ke, Ren Hang, Ji Xiang and other players from Jiangsu Shuntian, the mid-table team of the Chinese Super League at that time, to position the national football team at the level of "Chinese Super League mid-table", formulate simple and practical tactics, do not pursue subtlety but emphasize discipline, and finally achieved good results.
The future Chinese team is even less likely to support too complex and high-end tactics (the current personnel reserve is worse than 15 years), can only adopt this kind of diligent and clumsy kicking, based on defense, more use of the body, physical output, disrupt the opponent, first let the opponent win you is very difficult, before you can think of winning others, will be the way out for the Chinese team.
In fact, to put it mildly, I think the current strength of the Chinese team, Jankovic, who is not very famous, is quite suitable.
04 The beginning of a new era?
Each person is a cross-section of an era.
In 2023, the little-known Jankovic is likely to become an important figure in Chinese football, and he may also become a sacrifice at the turn of two eras.
The historical trend is unstoppable, the "golden yuan era" of Chinese football has come to an abrupt end, the "clean-up storm" in the football field at the beginning of this year is also dizzying, the new era of low input and low output of Chinese football has arrived, and reaching the quarterfinals of the Asian Cup and the final stage of the World Preliminary Round is already a goal that needs to be worked hard for.
The new era of the national team should be opened by the Serbs, Jankovic needs time to polish the team, and Chinese football also needs to focus on how to go in the future, which is an important thing for the public to consider.