If not for the raging epidemic, if not for the many teams dropping out of the competition, there might not have been a Chinese B team in Shanxi Longjin. They were born precisely at the beginning of the year from the recurrence of the Chinese Champions League. Former manager Gao Chao is famous for being an international footballer in China, while current manager Zhou Lin, his best roommate and teammate during the National Olympic Team, is also his most trusted partner. Zhou Lin, who is over 40 years old and has been retired for several years, was once the most trusted backbone of the defense under Coach Shen Xiangfu, who eventually chose to retire from his career from Huandao in the A-A era to Evergrande later in his career.
The reason why this newspaper pays attention to Shandong Longjin, on the one hand, is because of the upper management team of this team, Gao Chao is the general manager, Zhou Lin is in charge of the coaching whip, and Wang Sheng is the chief assistant coach, who are the main force of the national Olympic team that attacked the Athens Olympics in that year; on the other hand, Shanxi Longjin has achieved a 14-game undefeated record in the first stage of the game, and they have been relegated in the last season, they are undefeated in the current season, they have rushed into the group of charging the first division. If the team can be brought to the Central League, it will undoubtedly become a good story.
Recently, the reporter interviewed the head coach Zhou Lin, who is actively preparing for the fight for the first division, and listened to him talk about the bits and pieces of leading the team into the first division.
Q: Soccer: Shanxi Longjin, as a team that was handed on to the Chinese B, but was able to enter the first stage of the list of 14 undefeated results in the first group, this is the beginning of the season to think about it?
Zhou Lin: I still have confidence in this team, first of all, I have the full support and understanding of General Manager Gao Chao behind me. This achievement is not mine alone, it belongs to Gao Chao and also to our whole coaching team. Now we don't know if we can make it to the Central League, of course we have always had this goal, but ultimately whether we can go to the platform of the Central League, but also depends on how our next efforts and destiny add up.
Q: How did you pick to coach this team? Is this the first time you've led a professional team officially in the league as a head coach?
Yes, this is the first time I personally lead a team to play a league game as a head coach. Even if it's in the second division, this is a very valuable opportunity. I have to thank Mr. Gao Chao Gao for coming to this team, it's his trust and support, as well as a certain amount of decentralization that made my job go smoothly.
Q: Why did Gaochao ask you to coach this team? What was your work experience like before coaching Long Jin?
Mr. Gao and I have been the best teammates, friends and brothers since our National Olympic days. We have been roommates in the National Olympic team, so we can talk about everything, and our understanding of soccer and our outlook on being a human being are relatively close to each other. Besides the two of us, Wang Sheng is also our good brother, so it can be said that we have been playing since childhood. Gao Chao was leading his own team last year, but he needed to both find funding and lead his own team into battle, which was too difficult.
I've been leading the team in Chongqing before, in fact he wanted me to come in the second half of last year, but I have a work contract with Chongqing and can't do things by halves, so it's all accounted for there and communicated well before I came out. I have been with the U17, also have their own team, Wang Sheng has been working with me, I also have a young assistant coach, there is a technical analysis plus goalkeeper coach. This time I came with a team. Our leader, Mr. Tang Pengju Tang, was also invited by me to sit for our team.
Q: I saw the material and realized that the entire staff structure of the team has changed a lot from last year, is this staffing change also led by you?
Speaking of which, I'm particularly emotional and want to say more. When I was playing soccer, I didn't have much of an impression of China B, but this year's China B has been a dream landing spot for many players. Those who wouldn't even look at the place before are now desperate for a chance to settle down.
Because of the team's poor performance last year, I also watched a lot of game video, so I have to adjust the personnel structure, coupled with this year's attraction policy as well as the general environment on the adjustment of personnel is also more favorable, for me, the team's original players and newcomers are in fact the same, but the original team members are willing to stay must be given priority. However, the selection process still surprised me, you can not guess how many people came? I got 120 resumes requesting to join! 120 resumes! We are still a team without much fame and stayed in the second division as a replacement, so it's hard to find a job nowadays.
The first thing I did was to let my technical analysis, all the resumes with the material verification method to run through, the material fake first sieve out, so the first batch of brush off more than 40, there are still more than 70 remaining. Then these 70 people we divided into three batches of trial training, a batch of more than 20, just to be able to score team. In the end, from more than 70 people selected more than 10 to stay.
With regard to the Chinese B, this year, want to choose the person is not difficult at all, before is people can come on good, now is we can pick and choose. Not to mention the second division, even some of the teams in the Championship that have the strength to make it to the second division are also big favorites, and there are a lot of players who want to join them. I can feel that the crisis brought about by the general environment, players are really too difficult to find a job, not to mention whether it is a good job or not, there is a job is quite good.
Q: Is it because your team's compensation package is pretty good? Maybe the sponsor has potential, so we are optimistic about the value-added after joining?
I haven't done any comparisons with other teams in terms of pay packages, and as far as I'm concerned, I feel that our players are now on par with the average, just by looking at the total amount, it doesn't look like it's a professional player's income. Our top salary is 15,000 per month, which also includes a portion of the performance portion that is tied to results, and there are only 3 people on that top salary, and the rest of them are 10,000, 8,000, and so on down the line, which is pretty much the same as the average office worker. Yet all of this is also money that is based on the premise that our team will always be around and players will play and not get injured.
I support the policy of attacking the inflated salary of professional players and squeezing out the bubble, but in fact, when the bubble is squeezed out, it is really too difficult for many players who really rely on working soccer to support their families. Our team many people are not actually rushing to the salary, they are still more a kind of love about soccer, as well as some expectations for the future, expect to wait until the situation improves, wrestle a future.
For example, Sui Weijie was called by me, his age and experience is not at all necessary to come here to get this amount of money, but he is on the one hand friendship, on the other hand is also the real love of soccer, and he is also equally involved in the whole trial selection process, and also does stay by strength. The fact that we had such a good result in the first half of the season is also inseparable from his performance. He's been a big brother in the team, and he's also played a certain role as an assistant coach at times.
Q: Soccer: What was the whole selection process like? Did you make all the decisions in the end?
Zhou Lin: Yes. Gao Chao and I agreed at the beginning that he would leave all the work of the team to me, that is, all the internal work, from selecting players to form the team, negotiating contracts with each player, deciding the number of years to sign, how much to pay, and who to keep or not to keep, he was not involved in any of it. He just told me the total amount of salary and let me allocate it, and he also told me the standard of operating expenses, he was in charge of the economy and I was in charge of the soccer affairs. So I handpicked everyone in the team to stay. There is also a young player I brought from Chongqing who is not yet 17 years old, but has already started and scored two goals. I hope that CSL B can be a growing ground for young players, and I am willing to give more young players a chance without affecting the results.
Q: You are the first time to lead the team, the general manager of the General Manager Gaochao actually know more about many situations, why he did not come together to assist you with ideas? Why didn't he assist you with ideas?
We've talked about this, this kind of working method is not not help me, precisely is the biggest help to me. We have both been players and then coaches, for a head coach, no matter how high level of coach, if there is no certain authority and voice, many ideas can not be implemented, the team can not be brought, not to mention whether it can be brought good.
Q: How do you mean you can't carry it?
An example, perhaps more representative of the Chinese Super League. If a team hired an international coach, before the experience is very good, but the club has a say in many aspects, or perhaps, with a method we can see to intervene in his work decision-making, then the beginning of the honeymoon period of time may be all right, we will consider the new official three fires, but over time the results will be divided. At the beginning of the honeymoon period, maybe it's all right, we will take into account that the new official has three fires, but after a long time, the results show faltering, the team will be divided. If the manager's opinion is different from the management's, the players will choose to listen to what's good for them. In this way, the manager's team can't be brought up because what he says is no longer implemented 100%, so how can the results be good?
Many famous marshals at the beginning of the results are good, must be the level and discourse can not be separated; later results are not good, is not necessarily completely the level of the problem, many of us can not see the elements may be the real problem. Therefore, the high general said, at any time, can not give the players a feeling, between you and me there will be any space to ride the wall, you say can not be do not have to come to talk to me again, I will not persuade you to change anything, otherwise it will be time-consuming and waste of opportunity cost. For us, we have to produce some results this year. Efficiency and cost are everything. This is also our way of working in the future.
Q: You just talked about picking 10 or so to stay out of the 70 or so tryout players, so how did you pick them?
We did this by playing intra-squad teaching matches, grouping the trialists together and playing cross format matches. Speaking of selection, I'd like to thank the chairman of the football association of Hejin, which is part of Yuncheng City in Shanxi Province, who provided great assistance and support for our entire selection process, and something happened during the process that touched me and made me feel very emotional - he discussed with me whether it would be possible to have some of the referees trained by Hejin's football association to play the matches. He discussed with me the possibility of having some referees trained by the Hejin City Football Association to officiate at our selection matches, and together give the fans some opportunities to watch the matches, as they were told that many of our players were coming down from the homework team, and that they seldom had the chance to see the real professional players play - and I agreed to do so.
Those tryouts were really unforgettable, and Sui Weijie said that after so many years of playing in the Chinese Super League, he had never felt this kind of excitement from the bottom of his heart, and was completely moved and ignited by the Shanxi fans. We were cheered and applauded like heroes by the fans watching the game, and some players were not blamed for their mistakes, they kept shouting "It's okay, come on, good job! We also felt that the referees were serious and trying their best, but we were very accommodating regardless. The referees came down and said that it was really enjoyable and that professional players are different. When you think about it, just such a general internal teaching match can bring so much joy to the local fans, and the players involved in the match were excited, and so was I. This is perhaps the most basic and simple side of the sport of soccer.
Q: You have been a youth coach before, so what is this difference now that you take the adult team to play in the league? Is it also necessary to take the youth team before coaching the adult team?
The difference is really too big. I think it's really good to take a youth team after a player retires, to be able to sharpen his heart and temper, and to understand more about the young people's ideas, and to frustrate more the sharpness of his character when he was a player, which I think is quite necessary. When I was leading the youth team, the coaching team adopted a democratic management method, we all talked and finally summarized our opinions to do things together. But now I have changed this idea, in the professional team, the first team, there can only be one voice, that is, the voice of the head coach, all the decisions and directions have to be centered on the thinking of the head coach, otherwise there will be problems.
Take me and Wang Sheng for example, I never take him as an assistant coach, he is my good brother and my best partner, I am equal to the relationship between us, so in the youth team When I was in the youth team, there were times when I listened to me and times when I listened to him. However, when I arrived at Long Jin, I realized that this method was not possible. For example, I asked for a 45-degree diagonal pass, but the player didn't do it. I asked why, and he replied that Wang said, 30 degrees is fine, the important thing is the opportunity and pass over it. Then you see, we have a disagreement, the players so say it seems a little flavor is not right.
This is a small matter, but over time, once the results are bad or the players' performance deviates, they put the blame on our disagreement and we really have nothing to say. So I talked to Wang Sheng all night, and I was a bit worried that he wouldn't be able to accept my one-word approach, but when I reasoned it out, he was very supportive. There is a high degree of consistency between us now, and it is impossible for any operational player to hear different voices from our entire team.
Q: Football: do you give off bad vibes that way? Bullying? Monolithic? Director Tang is older than you and he can't voice his opinion?
Zhou Lin: Tang is the leader of my time in the National Olympic team, he and Shen finger (Shen Xiangfu) in our hearts like a father, the heart has always been grateful for their dedication to our group of bears, so that we can grow up, and now can lead the team as a coach. Mr. Tang is the one I specially invited to sit in on the team, and it's a bit like having a father and son in the same family.
I remember once I could not make up my mind about something, and then I wanted to ask Director TANG for his opinion so that he could help me make a decision. Director TANG asked me for my idea first, and asked me to finish all my considerations and hesitations, and then he analyzed it for me, and in the end, I figured it out on my own, and I knew what I should do. Tang said that he didn't come to make decisions for me, he came to help me analyze the problems together, so that I could be independent and grow up. Not only Tang, but also Shen, they have given me so much assistance throughout the process of leading the team, no matter whether it is on matters or spiritually.
Q: How often do you communicate with Coach Shen Xiangfu? What is the first thing you communicate? Can you reveal some of them?
The main thing is business, that is, my feelings about the game, and I watched a certain game in the European Cup, which I think is particularly good, I will do business discussions with Shen, often video calls for three or two hours. I think outsiders don't know Shen very well, in fact, he is really a superb coach, he brings players not for a while, but for a lifetime. As long as he has taken care of the players and those who trust him, he will always give them guidance.
I said the European Cup Germany's game, I see Germany now many playing style and requirements, in fact, is also the year Shen pointed to ask us, but unfortunately we did not do Germany so perfect. Shen's soccer philosophy for us to play or coach in China, I think it must be enough, but he is not good at it.
