Bilic Interview: Early Bird Gets the Worm, Guiao's Future is Promising
Bilic stepped onto the pitch early on Saturday morning and had breakfast with his assistants around 9 a.m., as has been his habit since returning to Beijing. For the 11 a.m. training session, he greeted the Chinese coaching staff early, deployed the training and waited for the players to arrive.
Despite the break, the training volume is unabated. Bilic's training sessions are nearly 100 minutes long, with intense confrontation, mostly led by assistant coaches, with Bilic speaking only at key moments. In training, he always wears a hat, after coming to China, shade seems to have been not the only reason. When the team was in Suzhou, he changed his hat after the team's consecutive victories, the hat is still worn by him.
After four rounds, Guoan has two wins and two losses, with six points. The opening two consecutive losses were a surprise. For the newly appointed Bilic, the debut was not satisfactory.
After two consecutive defeats, the skepticism rose, and he also faced sharp questions at the conference. But the Croatian has long been accustomed to big waves, the ups and downs did not seem to shake him. The club's internal support is an important reason for him to remain calm. Fortunately, the subsequent two games Guoan all win, the team gradually find the right track, Bilic also through the difficult times.
Four games, it is difficult to define the new season Guoan. The team's lineup is unstable, with the return of Augusto and Fernando undecided, the international players in poor condition, and consecutive injuries to Biela, Yu Yang and Wang Gang. Similarly, it is difficult to define Bilic. Technically and tactically and in terms of manpower, Guoan under Bilic's rule still has traces of the past, with limited changes and a slight increase in confrontation intensity.
Bilic's image was also not in line with expectations. One would expect a passionate, rock 'n' roll skipper, but the reality is that he is stoic and introspective, gets along with his players like a brother, doesn't exaggerate in calling games, and isn't a hot-blooded model in the locker room. He is more like an old bass player who has closed down the mountain, with only his earrings as proof of his passionate years.
"Let's talk about soccer." Bilic said, stopping short of mentioning music, rock and roll.
Soccer: Hello! Do you come this early every morning?
Bilic: I don't know how early you mean by this early. It's just a habit for me because it's normal for me to be at work two hours before practice. It's been like that since my first day as a coach.
It reminds me of the saying in my country that the early bird gets the worm.
Yes, we have similar words there, it's a worldwide consensus, isn't it, that whoever is hardworking, whoever is willing to go the extra mile, is bound to succeed, relatively speaking, without too much difficulty.
Let's talk about soccer. What is your overall impression of the Chinese Super League after four rounds of competition?
This year's league is another special season, due to the epidemic, the league are in a closed situation, but also divided into several sections, but in general, China's league arrangements, arrangements, and related operations are very detailed, in place, and well organized. The league is divided into two groups, each group is a strong team, slightly weaker team intertwined, no matter whether it is a strong team or a weak team, it can be seen that our technical and tactical requirements are very high, kicking the competition are very structured.
In addition, due to the constraints of the world tour formed by the epidemic, the entire Chinese Super League does not have a team is not affected, more or less will be affected, coupled with the individual salon's own problems, formed a few teams perhaps the last moment to form a team to participate in the league, so perhaps they were also affected by the impact of the larger. However, in such a difficult situation, the final competition shown on the field, each team's tactical content is still very high, no one competition is particularly easy, even if the so-called title contenders, to deal with the weak team, to get points is not very easy.
FOOTBALL: Which of the four games was relatively satisfying, or perhaps which clip from which game was closest to what you wanted?
Bilic: Maybe after the second goal in the game with Wuhan, that ten minutes, I feel that our whole team is completely relaxed, completely playing the soccer they want, in such a short period of time to invent three absolute opportunities. In fact, what I like most is that we have this kind of continuous transmission and circulation style of play, even in the game we lost to the harbor, except for the first few minutes when we conceded the ball, most of the time after that, we still have this shadow.
FOOTBALL: Do the wide receivers need to be adjusted?
Bilic: This is the internal affairs of the salon, I have been talking to Mr. Li (Li Ming), including the boss, Mr. Zhou (Zhou Jinhui), we will comment every day, every day will touch to understand, to ask, we are now definitely in the area of foreign aid some shortages, but the general environment, not only is the problem of salary limitations, as well as epidemics, the world tour of these constraints do not allow us to go too much money to do this thing, it is very important for us to do. Perhaps in the short term we only need Bakambu and Sosa, but if we feel the need to enhance the strength of our team, then we may consider new candidates, such as the introduction of another one, or perhaps.
