Compared with the controversy caused by the disturbances caused by being a player, Li Yi's coaching experience is not complicated: after retiring in 2011, he studied under the French coach Trussier as an assistant coach of the Shenzhen Red Diamonds team, began to serve as the head coach of Shenzhen Red Diamond Football Club in 2013, and led the deep foot to 8th place in the Chinese League One in the 2014 season. Until April 2015, the Shenzhen team issued an official announcement announcing that coach Li Yi had "transferred his position" and changed from coach to "technical director", and everyone knew that Li Yi was out of class.
After leaving Shenzhen for a period of silence, Li Yi worked as an assistant coach in Huaxia Happiness, Hebei Province for another year. In July 2020, he became the coach of Sichuan UBTECH, which is now Sichuan Jiuniu. In fact, Li Yi's second online popularity also stemmed from his experience coaching Jiuniu in Sichuan Province – in more than a year, the shouts of "Li Yi got out of class" sounded several times. Backed by the famous city group, many fans are full of expectations for this team, thinking that Sichuan football, which has been silent for many years, may take off, and the common goal of "three years of rushing, five years of AFC Champions League" has naturally become their goal.
However, the entry of the city group did not bring immediate changes to the team, and the team's performance has been hovering in the middle of the middle of the first division. As a result, Li Yi's "fame is greater than strength" head coach has become the object of fans to vent, rigid, self-conscious, poor communication, tactical rigidity, coupled with the contradictions with the team veteran Wang Song open, so that Li Yi is facing the crisis of class several times.
What's more, during his coaching period, Li Yi also almost offended the fans in Sichuan because of his "amazing remarks": in a Match of the Chinese League One on October 11, 2020, Jiuniu conceded two goals in stoppage time and was killed. At the post-match press conference, Li Yi actually "ridiculed" the team's yellow jersey as too "obscure", and wore it to almost never win the ball. As we all know, since the Quanxing era, "Yellow Wild" is the representative of Sichuan football, and Li Yi's "forgetful" remarks have naturally triggered strong dissatisfaction among fans. In the end, the club issued an announcement, deducting Li Yi's one-month salary and suspending him for a week, which slightly calmed the anger of the fans.
According to rumors, before the start of the Chinese League A this season, the club once wanted to resign Li Yi, but it was only because it was unwilling to pay the liquidated damages that it finally gave up. However, the "made-up" manager has gradually shown his characteristics this season. Although they are in the ninth place in the league, although they have no hope of overtaking, they are basically the embodiment of their own strength, and the defensive counterattack system created by Li Yi for the team has performed well in several hard battles.
Winning the "Sichuan Derby" twice in the league and the FA Cup has made him countless fans. If this time, he can break into the final four in the FA Cup, Li Yi will definitely become the leader of local young coaches. Speaking of his ups and downs coaching experience, Li Yi's answer is still full of the unique style of "the emperor": "In China, to be a coach of a professional team, you must first have a strong heart, otherwise you can't survive the public opinion." The technical and tactical level is not even the most important, you need to practice your heart first. ”