Interview with Antonio, the national youth manager: The biggest star in this team is the five-star red flag on your chest

Reporter Jia Yanfeng reported that for so many years, it seems that no national team can still be respected by fans without completing the "task", moreover, the senior management of the football association also greeted the airport, but the national youth who just finished the U20 Asian Youth Tournament did it.

Spaniard Antonio, as the head coach of this national youth team, he knows everything about this team, including the gap between Chinese and Asian football, etc., in an exclusive interview with this newspaper, he said that Chinese football will definitely get better and better, but "before really taking off, we must do some of the most basic things well." ”

◆"Football": In the impression of Chinese fans, there has not been a national youth for many years - even without entering the World Youth Championship, it can still receive so much recognition and praise. In your opinion, how can the national youth capture the hearts of a large number of fans?

Antonio: Thank you to the fans for their recognition and encouragement, and thank you to my players for really doing their best for the honor of their country. I am the head coach, and in addition to the fighting spirit, I also see the spirit of not admitting defeat and the sense of national honor. After taking over this team, I have always attached great importance to team spirit and patriotism, team spirit is not only reflected in the training ground, and patriotism can not only be reflected in words, there must be practical actions, and really fight.

Never judge the fans, review yourself, and if the fans don't recognize our efforts, it's that we didn't satisfy them. From my past experience, in fact, Chinese fans at this time, in addition to good results, also want to see a good attitude, tenacious fighting spirit and fighting spirit. It's already disappointing not to get the desired result, but if you don't see hope, over time, it will form a constant blame against the players.

◆You used to be the head coach of the U16 national youth, and now you are in charge of the U20 national youth, why can you take over two youth national teams in a row?

Before taking over the national youth team, I served as the 04 national junior manager, and I originally planned to lead the team to participate in the 2020 Asian Youth Championship in Bahrain, we were generally not optimistic to advance to the finals, the Chinese Football Association was quite satisfied with my work during that time, but due to the impact of the epidemic, the tournament was cancelled, and the 04 national junior team was disbanded early. After that, the Football Association signed a new job contract with me to take charge of the 03 National Youth Championship in preparation for the World Youth Championship.

◆You led a team in Kuwait, did this experience help you coach in China?

Very helpful, at least to give me a clear idea of the general level of Asian football and the culture and thinking here. When I was coaching in Kuwait, I led the team to play some AFC-wide continental competitions, including the AFC Cup, and also participated in some competitions in Southeast Asian countries, and in the process, I knew enough about East and West Asian football, so I am full of confidence to take on this job with the Chinese Football Association.

◆You used to lead an adult professional team, why didn't you come to China to bring the national youth army?

European countries saw the rise of China and were shocked, for us, to be able to teach in China and see everything about this great country with our own eyes is not only a job, but also an honor and a challenge. I want to challenge the past, when I was younger, I was the main player of the Spanish Under-16 team, and I believe I have enough ability and experience to help Chinese football.

◆As a Spanish coach, you emphasize team and patriotism, and it is easy to understand that you attach importance to team spirit, but I heard from the players that you often say that you must do your best for the five-star red flag, and you must go to the game with a determination to die on the field even if you die, and you can't have any reservations in order to defend the honor of the five-star red flag. If these words came from the mouth of a Chinese coach, I would feel normal, but... As far as I know, it seems that promoting professionalism is more common. Or rather, even if patriotism is emphasized, it seems that it is not in this way ...

As a player, I played in La Liga at the age of 16 and 148 days, and I was the record holder for the youngest starting age in La Liga, and later, I was selected for the Spanish U16 national junior and U20 national youth, and when I played for the national brand, the moment I heard the national anthem sound, all that came to mind was the words I said, even if I die, I will fight for the honor of the country. The honor of wearing the national team shirt is not obtained by money, social status, fame, and only by real strength, so this is an extremely precious honor, and there can only be a very short time in a life to have such an honor.

My father said that the national team robe will not belong to one person forever, unless there is a circumstance where you die fighting for the country, then you will always fix yourself there, and this honor will always belong to you. In fact, it does not mean that we must die, but we must carry a determination to defend our honor without fear of sacrifice, so that we are worthy of the national team's shirt and worthy of the glory and trust that the country has given us.

◆Do you think you can understand this with the players born in 00 years? Or can they really go to their hearts? How can you be sure that they will follow the requirements?

Verbal education alone is certainly not enough, it must be implemented in every detail of training and life. I have a very good coaching team, they have given me maximum cooperation, I and Jiayi (team leader Shao Jiayi) are good partners who have worked together for 4 years, and he is even better than me in terms of "squeezing" the mental combat effectiveness of players. And my Chinese coaching staff, who played an extremely important role in the performance of the team.

◆In what ways do you "squeeze" players?

On a large scale, such as the punctuality of the collection, the uniformity of hairstyles and dresses, the standardization of diet, and the propriety of speech and behavior; From a small place, when acting alone, you must fully consider the needs of your roommates and teammates, respect and understand each other; Then there is the fairness of physical fitness standards and tactical training implementation standards, for a team, the scale must be unified and cannot be special. Only on the basis of these specific requirements can they truly become a team when they get on the field. The team is not talking, but a unified combination from spirit to form, and if the team members cannot fully recognize each other, it is difficult to achieve tacit understanding. These requirements are not only for the players, but also for the coaching staff.

◆"Football": Before you, there were many big-name coaches from Spain who coached in China, such as Camacho, Benitez, etc., but they did not leave too good results, it can even be said that everyone has doubts about whether Spanish coaches are really suitable for Chinese football, what do you think, is there a lot of pressure?

Antonio: At the moment, Spain has about 800 coaches, including managers, assistants, goalkeepers, strength and conditioning coaches, who coach at different levels and in different types of teams in the world, and I am just one of them. But no matter where you coach, football coaches are stressful. Personally, I don't want to completely copy everything in Spanish football to Chinese football, I hope to use Spain's relatively advanced and developed concepts and experience, combined with the foundation and characteristics of Chinese players themselves, to help Chinese football grow, improve themselves, rather than become others. In fact, not only Spain, but also coaches of other developed football countries, as long as they are in line with the concept of helping Chinese football become a better version of themselves, it is not suitable or unsuitable.

◆In your opinion, what are the characteristics of Chinese players? Where is the gap with European players? How to make up for it?

There are many talented and playful players in China who have given a lot to become professional. As a team, the players have done a very good job in the three points of tactical execution, overall pressure and offensive and defensive conversion speed, no worse than the opponent.

The weakness of Chinese players lies in the inability to quickly understand the complex and changeable situation on the field, and then make the right choice - this understanding, not individual but whole, there is and only the whole, there is a threat, for example, when the opponent sets up a formation to attack, how the players make collective cooperation choices on the spot without rehearsal, according to the general principles of usual training, these choices may be a series, complex, switching back and forth between attack and defense, changing the difficulty and frequency, It is often related to the level of the event and the strength of the opponent. Chinese players do a good job of executing some established tactics and prescribed moves, but fall a little short in the face of uncertainty. Compared with European players, the overall level of understanding of changes in the situation on the field by Chinese players is not high, which may be related to the accumulation of Chinese football culture. But it does not mean that Chinese football cannot play well, as long as it is more rigorous and correct training, progress can still be made, and because of this, the tactical discipline and execution of Chinese teams must also be better.

◆Assistant coach Du Zhenyu said in an interview that the tactics you formulated for the U20 national youth team have been basically determined since taking over the team, according to the characteristics of the main opponent Japan and South Korea Isha, abandoning the traditional Spanish foot pass control tactics and adopting a steady counterattack style of play, just like the U20 Asian Youth Championship, why did you formulate this style of play?

In fact, the tactical play of football can never be separated from two basic scopes: first, who you are and how capable you are; Second, who is the opponent and how is the style of play? There are national teams that are completely self-centered, but very few, and not what Chinese football can currently achieve. The foundation of Chinese football is relatively weak at present, so we think more about the possibility of winning, and as long as there is a glimmer of hope, we will do our best. As I said, the Chinese players are not so adaptable, but they have very good tactical execution, and they have enough physical confrontation ability in Asia, and the four opponents we said are better than us, but we are not much worse overall. Therefore, our tactical idea is to play whole, fast football, and our counterattack tactics are not as simple as the outside world seems, but it is not convenient to disclose the details, on the whole, this is a way of playing that I think is more suitable for the strength and characteristics of this national youth team at this stage.

◆Our close neighbor Japan, for many years, has always emphasized ball control, why they can do it, but we can't, this is more entangled and difficult for Chinese fans...

Before I came to China to coach, I often saw Japanese youth teams at all levels go to Spain to practice and play, this time the Japanese U20 national youth, they first went to Europe to play 3 warm-up matches before starting this Asian Youth Tournament, including 3-2 win Slovakia, 1-0 win against Spain, 1-2 loss to France. As far as I know, since the youth team, Japan's strength and technical and tactical proficiency can already be compared with most European teams. Although everyone is surprised to see Japan's performance in the World Cup, if you know the performance of their youth team in Europe, this surprise should be less, in fact, the Japanese team has already left Asia and entered Europe.

What you care more about is the Japanese team's pass-and-control play, which is not isolated from reality, and no team will give up the pursuit of victory in pursuit of possession or good looks. It was precisely because Japan figured this out that they made a major change in tactical thinking at the World Cup in Qatar. In terms of possession, Japan and Spain have a gap, but not as big as the game presented, Japan just chose a more suitable tactic, more confident defense and efficient counterattack. Japan do not fall behind against European powerhouses, provided that they improve counter-attacking efficiency, accuracy and speed, which in itself has a lot to do with their super high passing ability. However, Japan has Japanese characteristics, and China should also find Chinese characteristics.

◆Did our tactical play this time also borrow from that Japan?

When I developed the tactics for the national youth, it was still far from the start of the World Cup in Qatar, and I could not predict the change of the Japanese team in advance, so it was not a reference, and if I saw that the Japanese team was successful and changed, it would be too late. But the adjustment of the Japanese team can indeed confirm my judgment to a certain extent, increase the confidence of the players, and make each player more determined to execute. In fact, there is no good or bad tactics, only suitable and unsuitable, and the excitement of the game process is not measured by the number of passes and shots, I think that tenacious and rigorous defense is also a kind of football beauty, like the goal we scored against Saudi Arabia, I think the cooperation is also beautiful. The beauty of football is not the only one, nor can it be limited to one model, I admit that Spain's Tiki-Taka is beautiful, but not the only beauty.

◆Before hitting South Korea, it is said that you gave an impassioned speech, if only from 90 minutes, we did it, there was no obvious fall...

Yes. I told the players that many people thought we should have gone home a long time ago, but we persevered until we qualified from the group and met South Korea; There are too many people who say, we must not be able to beat South Korea, well, let's not think about the result, I carefully analyzed the video of the two sides, and said to you very responsibly, in terms of physical fitness, tactics, offensive and defensive conversion speed, South Korea does not have obvious advantages, so don't be too afraid, just play normally. South Korea may have more experience than us, but they can't beat us easily.

◆After the first match, some fans said, "Although the score between the Japanese team and the national youth team is only a gap of one goal, judging from the content of that game, it may not be able to catch up with Japan in another 50 years"...

The Chinese nation is a remarkable nation that has created many miracles of modern civilization. I can understand the mentality of Chinese fans who want to be leaders in the world of football, but football is not so simple and easy to do. I firmly believe that Chinese football will definitely get better and better, but before it really takes off, we must do some of the most basic things well, and don't rush to compare with anyone, which is unfair to Chinese football. My suggestion is not to rush to compare the results with Japan and South Korea, but with them the structure and integrity of the entire development system, as well as the corresponding football facilities, the export path and quality of professional talents, if it is closer at these levels, I believe that the gap between the strength of the two sides will not be as big as it is now.

◆"Football": In this Asian Youth Tournament, many overseas players were not selected, why?

Antonio: When selecting players, I did not deliberately consider who is overseas and who is domestic, and the whole coaching staff has the same view, which is to select the players who best meet the overall tactical needs and have more team spirit. Football is a team sport, individual ability is important, but football is not the result of 11 "1s", but must be carefully screened, players complement each other and promote, if only based on individual ability, then the combination of the effect is not necessarily the best. Therefore, there is no deliberate choice of who or no one to choose.

◆ A Chinese coach said that he needs a player who can integrate into the whole team, not a star who is independent of the system. But in the end, it was simply and crudely interpreted as that he did not need stars, and it has not been accepted by Chinese fans so far, thinking that Chinese football can win without stars. So, how do you see the relationship between the star and the team, and what is your attitude towards the star?

National teams can have stars, and no one will refuse quality players. But it depends on what this star means to the national team, if he can integrate his outstanding ability into the overall tactical needs and contribute to the overall performance, then such a star is needed. But if a star can only realize self-worth, cannot give help and encouragement to teammates, or even be independent of the system, such a star really does not mean much to the national team. I once told the players, none of you should think it is a star, the biggest star in this team is the five-star red flag on your chest. This is what you should stick to and follow. No one can be above the collective honor and interests, self-centered stars, do not put the collective interests first, how can they pin the honor and interests of the country on them.

◆Team leader Shao Jiayi was an idol star when he was a player, can you talk about the details of your cooperation?

Jiayi and I seem to have been friends for many years, and we have this feeling when we start working together, he is very smart, he has a deep understanding of advanced European football concepts, he knows enough about Chinese football, he is a good partner, we communicate with each other as equals, but he respects me very much, and I respect him very much. During the special period, when I can't return to China for some reason, he will fully implement my training plan, and will have a video conference call with me every night to communicate, so the quality of our training is fully guaranteed. He is humble and a good example for the players. I thank him for his support over the years, and he is an important factor in my confidence in the future of Chinese football. I know that with a force like him, Chinese football will not always be at the current level, and with their efforts, it will definitely get better and better.

◆In this Asian Youth Championship, there are many players who performed well, can you comment?

Sorry, I never comment on any one player alone, because it's a team sport, and everyone's good or bad is not independent.

◆So can you tell me which of these team members can stay in the ocean? Which leagues can they choose?

It is certainly a good thing to go to a higher level of European leagues to exercise, but if there is no absolute competition for the main force or the certainty of the main substitute, just to observe, the effect is not necessarily better to stay in the country to play in the Chinese Super League. I can't say which of these players will play in Europe right now, but I can be sure that some of them will become the main players of the national football team in the future.

If they want to go to Europe, they must first find a stable foothold in China, become an absolute workhorse in the Chinese Super League, ensure a stable appearance rate and excellent performance, and then go to Europe, at least the game experience and self-confidence will not be so bad. You know, looking good and powerful, does not mean that you will be able to play in Europe, in addition to personal ability, you want to integrate language, culture, ideas, socialization, values, food and other aspects. The reason why Japan has so many overseas players in Germany is because the way of thinking and behavior logic of the two peoples have a lot to do with it. Therefore, I am not against players staying in the ocean, but they must be cautious and not blindly obey.

◆Your contract with the Chinese Football Association has expired, what are your plans for the future?

I want to take a break to spend time with my family. For football coaches, for me who loves Chinese culture, the door is open to Chinese football at any time.