Conte and the typical japanese mind thinking of hardwork is highly compatible. Plus he is good at turning coal into diamond and make a competitive team from nothing. But I think he is not interested in coaching a foreign NT atm especially so far from Europe.
I wonder if Wenger didn't want the job outright or if there was a breaking point somewhere? Wage demands possibly? Because I imagine it's a job he'd have a soft spot for, I wonder if he's just waiting for a big club to come along Edit - ah ok I understand now I just read an article on it there, so they've had talks but no terms discussed yet. Very interesting! It would probably be one of the biggest moves in Japanese footballing history, the attention that would put on Japanese football would be huge. He'd create a team capable of beautiful football, he'd give chances to young players, and he wouldn't be dealing with ridiculous egos either. I'm sure Nakajima would go straight in the team! This is exciting stuff, but still probably won't go through
I'd prefer Moriyasu or another Japanese coach mainly cause I think tactically there's enough cleverness at home and the communication/cultural barriers. But can't deny I'd hop on the hype train if Wenger came aboard.
When it comes to local coach that I feel are good enough, other than Moriyasu, I can only think of Kenta Hasegawa. Other options like Teguramori, etc. are a bit lacking imo. If Hiroshi Nanami and Toru Oniki can continue to develop, I feel that maybe they can be options for the JNT by the next WC cycle imo. I feel that they are not really bad options imo.
That's a bit generalizing isnt it? There's certainly room for improvement in terms of tactical ability, but this goes for pretty much any league and J.League isn't necessarily any worse than leagues in Europe. You mentioned Sapporo and Kawasaki, which I agree on, have a very obvious gameplan which they try to follow. What Ange is doing with Marinos is also very exciting, and like with Brisbane Roar and Melbourne Victory, there definitely is a tactical gameplan in place. If he's there next season as well Marinos could very well be a contender for the title in 2019. Yoon at Cerezo has his own ways which he follows, and it's worked very well both in Sagan and Cerezo although he is yet to fully capitalise on it in the league. Would Hiroshima have been 9 points clear if Jofuku didn't have a good tactical plan in place? It's not like the players he has at his disposal are amazing, and I don't think there is a single pundit who had them in the top 4 ahead of this season, or even top 10. Culpi at Gamba is naive defensively, but offensively there are few managers who are more tactical astout. The balance of his team this season is for him unfortunately awful, so things aren't looking too good though. Cho at Shonan might be a bit naive in the sense that he sticks to his tactics no matter the opponent, but that's more a case of over-estimating his players than anything. With better players at hand Cho could easily be a title-winning manager imho. Cause he certainly knows what he's doing. Shimizu's Jan Jönsson is one of the best tactical coaches from Sweden so don't agree with you on that one either. Of course, on the other hand you have managers like Kato at Reysol and Kazama at Nagoya who doesn't seem to have a clue about what they are doing but you can list managers like that in any league in the world. ----- More than tactical training, I think Japanese players are in more need of mental training. We have talked about choking on this forum before, and the Japanese league is unfortunately full of it. The Japan NT as well, like against Belgium. Pretty much every single weekend you see teams give away a seemingly safe and controlled lead, and then end up losing it in the end. You also have what some refer to as the kamikaze-factor, where teams throw everything forward at a late draw to try to chase the winner. In Europe you only see this is if a team is trailing by 1 goal, but never if a draw (unless on special occasions). This might be related to how the league was set up before, with draws going into extra-time etc, or it could also be a cultural thing.
I was hoping that the new manager would have been announced by now. In any case, the new boss needs to be not afraid of teaching the Samurai Blue when and how to park the bus in international matches. During the World Cup, I was watching how the French were that good at hunting and retrieving the ball. The next Japan manager should show videos of that to his players on the very first day.
Japan simply CAN'T park any bus. But, for example, keeping the ball with fast passes would have been enough against Belgium.
Belgium had the fresher legs plus they have deeper squad depth than Japan, they would not be able to keep the ball with fast passes with Belgium's pressing and deal with their physicality also. Unless, it is like Spain-Russia whereby Russia is content to keep Spain pass the ball slowly among themselves. Anyway, I don't think it is fair to say that Japan can't park any bus. Okada Japan managed to keep a good defensive display during the 2010 WC but then they had Tulio/Nakazawa back then who despite not being as good as Shoji and Yoshida, are more well suited to Okada's tactics. Nevertheless, Moriyasu from what I have seen, is more of a possession type of manager, maybe he knows how to keep Japan's defence tight and disciplined so that they would not concede silly goals. The main priority now is to find Kawashima's replacement. Japan is really not producing enough good GKs.
I don't think so, There's some league which have largely tactically interesting team, Look at Bundesliga, there's vast number of teams that plays an interesting football, not to mention a various approach of a tactical PoV. Heavy Pressing team, by Ralf Rangnick schooled coach like RB Leipzig under Hassenhuttl, BMG under hecking, new generation of laptop coach who like to mix positional play with more vertical play like Hoffenheim under Nagelsmann, or Schalke under Tedesco, or Frankfurt under Kovac, we could add Favre with his well organized man-oriented pressing in BVB and Adi Hutter with his heavy pressing approach at Frankfurt this year, not to mention even Hamburg now playing an aesthetically brilliant football under Christian Titz. Spain, despite somewhat Barca and Real have spell under an conservative coach, there's some team who tactically strong like Atletico, Girona, Eibar, Getafe, Betis. Even BPL went berserk with their money and invests it wisely, hiring first class coach from continental Europe to boost their HG players tactical wise. Look at England under Southgate who reeks of Pocchettino's approach at Spurs. mid table team like Burnley also tactically strong. I disagree with this one, Postecuglou looks like plays possession football for the sake of possession, Yoon maybe good at motivating players, but tactically, he's not that strong, there's flash of brilliance from Cerezo this season, like in the Super Cup, but it's not consistent enough that i think it comes from moment of brilliance of the players not a well drilled move by the coach, Jofuku, well he's been awful throughout this career, fluke does happen, i'd be happy to be proven otherwise, but so far, i don't see something special out of his team. I didn't watch Gamba that much this year so i can't say a thing I like him, hope his project at Shonan goes well. Darn, i completely forgot about him, make it three then, Kawasaki, Sapporo, Shimizu Of course mental is important, but tactically, i think there's a very huge number of issues to address with Japanese coach. It's like BPL in the last half of '00s to early half of '05s. It's too much blind long balls, blind crosses, blind runs, blind spatial utilization for my liking. Football play nowadays is more about creation of space via cohesive movement, and i think although it's very well known, no coach in Japan, as far as i know, have the grasps of this.
Some valid points here for sure! I think it's a bit wrong to compare Japan to EPL etc though, as they can as you say, attract the best managers from all over Europe. If you compare J.League to Eredivisie, The Scandinavian leagues, Belgium, Austria etc I think we'll see less of a difference. With that being said, a lot of the Chinese teams now have and have had top European or South American managers. But it's not like it's resulted in Japanese coaches having been outclassed or outcoached in the various ACL meetings over the last years. On occasions maybe, but that happened before too. Hori at Urawa last year for example, did extremely well also vs the Chinese teams. Of course, Evergrande have been a force and in a league of their own, but that's more to do with the money than tactical ability of the coach imho. So even if you put a Tedesco or a Pochettino in charge of a team like Sagan Tosu, it's not like they automatically would revolutionize the league with their "modern" coaching and tactical approach. But I'm all for more diversity in the league, but I think we got a pretty good mix at the moment with some good Koreans, one of the best Aussie managers, a tactical mastermind from Sweden, A very experienced Serbian stalwart, a few highly-rated Brazilians + a pretty decent group of Japanese managers. I'm looking forward to see what Miyamoto can do at Gamba. With his coaching degree coming from Europe, he might bring something new into the league ( a mix of Japanese and European). Gamba have been awful this season, and it might be too late to save them but I hope Miyamoto will be given a proper chance. About Jofuku, I think he has a pretty good record from earlier. He's only won a cup and a J2 championship, but he deserves a lot of credit for transforming FC Tokyo into a decent team in his first spell there. And with the resources at hand, 3 years at Kofu were also very impressive imho. Which also goes for Hiroshima now.
just my 2 cents but from what I've seen, Eredivisie and Belgium are a bit better than Austria and the Scandinavian leagues. I wouldn't really put them in the same pot, nor I would put JLeague anywhere on par. I don't have any particular expectations now, but can't wait to see what Moriyasu will be able to do anyway.
Yeah, by all means, I'm not comparing them directly either. And especially Holland are famous for world class managers and coaches, so even though their league isn't as strong as it used to be they definitely have one of the best talent pools when it comes to managers. On the top of my head, I can't come up with any particularly good managers from Austria or Belgium though.
Does anyone still get aroused by all the clones of Guardiola popping up nowadays ? Building from the back was a novelty in 2009, not anymore. Every single manager tries to do that nowadays. I appreciate Japan didn't go for a dreamer but someone who considers football in its entirety.
My gratitude to Nishino having a successful World Cup as a Japanese coach can't be expressed. If we f**ked up Moriyasu probably wouldn't have had the chance and we'd end up with some clam whose only qualification is being born in Europe.