People | He considers himself Guardiola's godfather, and he is Gua Shuai's soul mate
Why does such a coach with a modest resume make Guardiola fall in love?
Pep Guardiola, who underwent back surgery, will miss City for the next two games, with deputy manager Lillo taking his place. Some may have noticed only then that Lilio's half-familiar name had returned to Guardiola.
As we all know, Pep Guardiola began preparing for coaching at the end of his career. On his last leg before retiring, he went to play for Dorados in the Mexican league, in large part to learn from his compatriots who coached the team. The 57-year-old has had nearly 20 coaching appointments in his lifetime, including Qingdao Huanghai, the tie-top trophy he has ever won in the Central League One. Why does such a coach with a modest resume make Guardiola fall in love?
The fate of the two began on September 1, 1996. Bobby Robson beat Oviedo 4-2 on his league debut in charge of Barca, when the 25-year-old captain Pep Guardiola knocked on the door of Oviedo's dressing room after the game and asked to meet the team's manager, Lillo. Lillo is not very famous, leading Salamanca to La Liga a promotion a year ago, becoming the youngest manager in La Liga history at the age of 29, but still playing a small role in football. Pep Guardiola admired him: "They run well in attack and defense, they have the courage to attack and play. I was on the field and like, 'Wow, I like it. "Guardiola said he wanted to talk to me because he enjoyed watching my team play, he had been following me for a while and wanted to keep in touch in the future," Lillo recalled. ”
In this way, Guardiola met his later mentor and then Gao Shen. In his year in charge of Barca's second team, Guardiola also communicated with Lillo a lot: "We used to call and he would watch some games and then advise us on what to do. ”
Many people tend to underestimate the role of teaching assistants, but just as Klinsmann relies on Loew to develop tactics, Rijkaard's success is inseparable from Tencate, Faria has made great contributions to Mourinho, Guardiola is so beautiful, the credit of assistants cannot be ignored. His former deputy Mikel Arteta moved to Arsenal midway through the 2019-20 season, which was the Blues' worst season in recent years, at one point being left 25 points away by eventual champions Liverpool.
Pep Guardiola and sporting director Begiristan learned their lesson and approached Lili before the end of that pandemic-cut season. Over the next two years, Lillo was credited with Manchester City's winning streak of Premier League titles. His close relationship with Guardiola, as well as his mentor and friend, allowed them to talk about everything, and Lillo could share any business point of view to his superiors without any concern, and Guardiola was happy to hear Lillo's objections.
Lillo has said that he and Guardiola are like father and son. Lilio is only 5 years older than Gua Shuai, and Gua Shuai does not like this metaphor very much, "I have a dad, a good daddy, one is enough." But, saying that Lilio is his teacher, Gua Shuai will not object, "He can see what others can't see, he knows the ball incredible." He has always inspired me a lot. His wisdom and humanity make him a very special person in my life. We have similar thoughts, he is my friend, my colleague, my source of inspiration. ”
After hanging out with Guardiola for a long time, it has become a fashion for Nuovo to be the number one. This summer, last season's two main assistants moved at the same time, one to become manager and the other to become director. Guardiola was helpless, "I don't know what happened to my teaching assistants. I took good care of them, but they left me. "This is an important prerequisite for Lillio's return to Manchester City.
Lillo also "betrayed" Guardiola, assisted him for 2 years from 2020 to 2022, and then went to Qatar to take over the Saad coach and became the successor of Xavi. However, Lilio has been the number one in this life, and assisting Gua Shuai twice is the only exception. In comparison, Arteta is the ultimate dragon into the sea, he assisted Gua Shuai after 3 and a half years to leave, and now he has become one of Gua Shuai's main opponents in the Premier League.
Before the boss, compatriot Torrente sat next to the boss for 10 years, from the Barca second team and the Barca first team to Bayern and Manchester City. Torrent moved to New York City in 2018 and has since been whipped by Flamengo and Galatasaray, but the latter two jobs were left in less than half a year.
Torrent's long-term support made the assistant team quite stable during his time at Barcelona and Bayern. But in the past few years, his team has changed frequently, and each new teaching assistant has its own unique strengths and characteristics, which has led to the coach always having to adjust his work accordingly.
In June, before Guardiola went on holiday, he assigned some tasks to the club, and the signing of Rice was not done, but Lillo invited him back. Lillo has long been unhappy with Sade's coaching environment and returning to Manchester City is exactly what he wants.
At the end of last season, Lillo visited Pep Guardiola several times and even offered advice on preparing Real Madrid for the Champions League semi-finals. In the Istanbul final, Lillo and former Manchester City captain Fernandinho were also with the team. During the training session before the first leg with Real Madrid, Guardiola dragged Lillo to another field, away from the team and the media on the sidelines, dancing for 15 minutes and demonstrating something with body movements.
Guardiola told the top that Lilio is important to help him better analyze problems and calm down when emotions are too high. After Arteta's departure, Guardiola had a vacuum period of high-level assistants, and he felt that the bench lacked a high staff who could help him identify problems and provide solutions, which Torrent could do before. That's why Guardiola pushed for Lili in 2020.
Lillo 's English has so far been less brilliant, but the individual coaching of the players has been fruitful. Lillo can also help Guardiola maintain locker room harmony. In his first tenure, the Premier League experienced the pandemic, morale in the Manchester City squad was at its lowest point in many years, and several players were unwilling to bear Pep Guardiola's high demands. Despite this, with the help of Lillo and his close friend Fei Bird, the team worked together to regain the Premier League title in 2021 and reach the Champions League final.
Lilio was close to many players and his disciples appreciated his teachings. Fei Bird once described Lilio as "the most South American European", and many in the team said that Cancelo evolved from a mismatch to one of the best full-backs in the Premier League, with Lilio taking the most credit. 1 year ago, Lilio left and Cancelo was in free fall.
Overall, Guardiola is a hands-on tactical manager. Some managerial managers are not highly accomplished in tactics, and the proportion of assistant coaches designing tactics is extremely large, and the manager certainly does not belong to this category. But it is worth noting that Lili, who is also a tactical maniac and revered as the "father of 4231", has quietly changed his football thinking, and I wonder if this will also have some impact on Guardiola.
During last year's World Cup, Lillo "deeply reflected" on the negative effects of modern soccer rocket science techniques and tactics in a column on Athletic.com, "The best players get together to play for the national team, and thank God they are not tied down by the almighty coach because the national team has limited training time." At the World Cup, coaches have limited ability to change games. At the club, the influence of the coach is too great to be tolerated. We have our own minds, we say, we help everyone understand football better. Fart! It is the players who really understand football. ”
Lilio was concerned about the assembly line production of players, "In the club field, you go to Norway and South Africa to see training and you will find that it is actually the same. The breakthrough master has disappeared. Our coach didn't realize what a mess we had made. We've globalized our methodology and that permeates the World Cup: if you ask Cameroonian and Brazilian players to exchange jerseys at half-time, you won't find it. Maybe you can tell it in the tattoo or hairstyle, but not in the performance. It's all about touching the ball. The players are trained to tackle the ball with two feet. I say these words as a former advocate of this football methodology. I was like a remorseful father. If there's anyone I want to dispute the most right now, it's myself 25 years ago. ”
Lillo wants to see more "disobedient" players, and he is full of praise for Tottenham new signing Madison, "He is a real footballer, more a street football product than a Academy product. He had the courage and the coach asked him to do A, but if he thought B was the right choice, he would do B. I like it. Any idea in Madison's head is a hundred times stronger than what you find in a coaching session. ”
The rocket science tactics of football and the templated production of players, objectively the main promoter is Guardiola. So, will such a strategy persuade the coach at some point not to set up so many tactical boxes and give players more freedom? Pep Guardiola has won three Champions Leagues and Carlo Ancelotti has four, the first man in history in this ranking. And Ancelotti once had a common directive at the training ground, which can be used as an argument when the outside world praises him or scolds him: Just play!
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