Rafa Márquez: A New Era Begins

Discussion in 'Mexico National Team' started by Hecho en Chivas, Jul 6, 2026.

  1. OG Junglist

    OG Junglist Member+

    Jul 21, 2005
    El Jebel, CO
    Club:
    CD Chivas de Guadalajara
    Nat'l Team:
    Mexico
  2. Philip J. Fry

    Philip J. Fry Member+

    Mexico
    Jun 12, 2013
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
     
  3. la fresa

    la fresa Member+

    Oct 31, 2005
    texas
    Club:
    Serbian White Eagles
    Crazy, tbh I don’t know shit about him but he very recently coached man city in the premier league when pep was out according to wiki. He replaced arteta as the assistant, also was an assistant to chile under sampaoli, where he was in charge of transitioning the youth players to the senior squad, apart from that he has a ton of coaching experience, a lot of 2nd and 3rd division teams and a lot of being fired
     
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  4. la fresa

    la fresa Member+

    Oct 31, 2005
    texas
    Club:
    Serbian White Eagles
    I also wonder if this means Guadado won’t be there, I didn’t realize he hasn’t formally been offered the job according to media reports
     
  5. Philip J. Fry

    Philip J. Fry Member+

    Mexico
    Jun 12, 2013
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    Not necessarily. It's quite probable that Márquez wanted a veteran voice in the staff and the ties are there.
     
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  6. Hecho en Chivas

    Hecho en Chivas Member+

    Apr 22, 2004
    Chulajuana
    Club:
    CD Chivas de Guadalajara
    Nat'l Team:
    Mexico
    I’m guessing Guardado is waiting until after the World Cup and stepping away from Telemundo before saying anything official
     
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  7. Salmos

    Salmos Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 26, 2010
    Club:
    Pachuca CF
    Nothing is really going to change in terms of mexico's wc aspirations. You could maybe win 1 or 2 knockout matches, consistently even, but soon enough you're going to face a team with exclusively top league players. It's an impossible barrier for our talent pool. It's cool to see a project like this. But they need to get way more creative with their solutions. Shit subsidize an offer match when euro offers come in for players who also have offers from the regios or america. Anything, imperfect/weird solutions are better than what we have now.
     
  8. Philip J. Fry

    Philip J. Fry Member+

    Mexico
    Jun 12, 2013
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    Owners would never, ever agree to this, but there should be a cap to rescission clauses when it comes for European leagues, or at least select ones, either a hard number (say, 10 million) or a percentage of the player's salary (let's say no more than a 75 or 80% of that salary).
     
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  9. la fresa

    la fresa Member+

    Oct 31, 2005
    texas
    Club:
    Serbian White Eagles
    Seems like the govt funded academies are a good start, if it’s true rafa’s vision is to create a system top to bottom that will be another huge step forward. We’ve excelled at the youth level for a few decades now but making that leap is more difficult since, not only do our coaches tend to really love past their prime veterans, but our young players love to stagnate in liga mx. Cordova is another prime example about to play for his fourth liga mx team. How is this so desirable? Pizarro, chiquito, etc endless list of players who love this path. I’m hoping along with the restructuring that Rafa helps influence players to go to Europe earlier, maybe a plan of action and actual willingness to implement and integrate the youth as important components will help propel this forward, especially once they start winning regional tourneys and creating hype. maybe Lillo can help with this too with his vast experience, once he starts working with these players on a regular basis.


    I don't feel our talent gap is astronomical. anything can happen in a World Cup and more times than not, in my lifetime, we have lost as a result of a coaching decision rather than being vastly outplayed. all it takes is a few good cycles to make or break a team, look at Italy and Germany vs Japan and Morocco.

    someone needs to dress up as a billionaire tycoon from texas to go have a meeting with these club presidents and explain to them if they sell a lot of players for cheaper they will make more than selling one player once in a lifetime. you're right, that's the main thing holding us back, and Japan apparently has a rule capping player sales very cheap. these players need to stop being coaxed into re-signing at a much higher release clause because its the way to do things with 'integrity,' these clubs like cruz Azul and Pachuca straight up lie to these players and try to make up laws to scare them, its horrible.
     
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  10. Sanchito

    Sanchito Member+

    Jul 15, 2005
    an island in my mind
    With Liga MX permanently eliminating promotion relegation there will be very little moments of true high pressure situations in Liga MX. it’s going to be a very mediocre league for the foreseeable future. Quality will likely drop to MLS levels. Depressing ass day.

    Even more pressure for our players to leave.
     
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  11. la fresa

    la fresa Member+

    Oct 31, 2005
    texas
    Club:
    Serbian White Eagles
    It’s crazy how the parasites learned from each other, there’s a lot of rumors that the reason Poch experimented with so many mls players was due to mls owner influence to make the players more marketable, classic liga mx move. And we’re eliminating relegation and continuing to cater to stupid ass all star games and leagues cups and champion of champions etc endlessly. They’re happy pretending to be each others greatest rival in this region like that means anything
     
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  12. Hecho en Chivas

    Hecho en Chivas Member+

    Apr 22, 2004
    Chulajuana
    Club:
    CD Chivas de Guadalajara
    Nat'l Team:
    Mexico
    While true, about the only silver lining here is that more young players will be making the leap to the first team of their respective clubs. With no relegation, it’s less pressure on the clubs to risk it with young Mexican players. At least I would hope this is the case
     
  13. DGreat

    DGreat Moderator
    Staff Member

    CD Guadalajara
    Mexico
    Oct 5, 2007
    El Ombligo
    Club:
    CD Chivas de Guadalajara
    Nat'l Team:
    Mexico
    If there is no incentive to do so I highly doubt that will be the case.

    the only way I can see LigaMX staying competitive is by bringing in quality foreigners that raise the level of play.
     
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  14. Salmos

    Salmos Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 26, 2010
    Club:
    Pachuca CF
    This will all help, but right now I'm not convinced there's anything more important than getting better at developing actual athletes. I think the fact that Mexico has had so much youth success is a great sign of this problem. There's a healthy amount of talent, it's not enough to overcome the immense athletic disadvantage our players clearly have in the pro ranks. A lot of talented youth players have a really hard time even adapting to the physicality of Liga MX, which isn't an athletic powerhouse to begin with. Pachuca tried selecting for size for a while. It didn't work. The dudes coming up were just as unathletic as before, just taller and less talented on the ball. So long as we don't have athletes, everything seems secondary.
     
  15. Sanchito

    Sanchito Member+

    Jul 15, 2005
    an island in my mind
    We don't see great athletes in Spain or Argentina. We see a buncha 5'9 players beating superior athletes through structure, quick decision making, and cohesive team play. I don't know that we need to be taller and faster. We need to be able to play under high pressure and make better decisions when pressed.
     
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  16. la fresa

    la fresa Member+

    Oct 31, 2005
    texas
    Club:
    Serbian White Eagles
    That’s what I always fall back to as well. Even when Guardiola started to win premier league titles, he always had some short midfielders. Even scholes who dominated the premier league for so long was only 5’6”. It’s possible, I think we need to play to our strengths for sure
     
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  17. Salmos

    Salmos Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 26, 2010
    Club:
    Pachuca CF
    #42 Salmos, Jul 17, 2026
    Last edited: Jul 17, 2026
    The height i agree with. As for speed, that doesn't encapsulate everything, but what I will say is that in a rivalry that has become a lot more competitive in terms of the individual matches, whenever a liga mx team that has been whipped into shape by a serious physical trainer faces an MLS team, which if nothing else has good athletes, the games look like this

     
  18. Salmos

    Salmos Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 26, 2010
    Club:
    Pachuca CF
    I agree with you guys to begin with though. The intensity is nonexistent in liga mx. But sadly it doesn't answer why then our own academy players have a hard time adapting to an undemanding league.
     
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  19. Sanchito

    Sanchito Member+

    Jul 15, 2005
    an island in my mind
    I think there's something to what youre saying. Mental quickness and IQ decay with fatigue. Fitness and strength offset that.
     
  20. DGreat

    DGreat Moderator
    Staff Member

    CD Guadalajara
    Mexico
    Oct 5, 2007
    El Ombligo
    Club:
    CD Chivas de Guadalajara
    Nat'l Team:
    Mexico
    Because they don’t get enough time to adapt. Most will debut, but hardly get the chance to develop over the season
     
  21. DGreat

    DGreat Moderator
    Staff Member

    CD Guadalajara
    Mexico
    Oct 5, 2007
    El Ombligo
    Club:
    CD Chivas de Guadalajara
    Nat'l Team:
    Mexico
    We have more Mora, Montiel etc out there, it’s a matter of letting them play
     
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  22. Salmos

    Salmos Moderator
    Staff Member

    Sep 26, 2010
    Club:
    Pachuca CF
    I think these are all aspects of the same problem. They move up, they have a hard time adapting, they stick around on the squad for a year or two but playing catchup on several fronts they don't really light it up in training or whenever they get minutes. Eventually some with have a drop in form and we know the rest. What I've heard from people that should know, is that it all stems from them being poorly trained throughout their academy years in the first place. Staff occassionally make the same point. Paiva a couple of years ago made a comment about the regla de menores being a top down solution, which is obviously true, and he was criticized for it.
     
  23. Philip J. Fry

    Philip J. Fry Member+

    Mexico
    Jun 12, 2013
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
     
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  24. la fresa

    la fresa Member+

    Oct 31, 2005
    texas
    Club:
    Serbian White Eagles
    I was thinking this after watching the game yesterday, specifically with Lillo and Marquez’ experience in Spain. I feel we were always quite special at passing quickly but have moved away from it with the modern game and the over reliance on lateral crosses from people who can’t cross. Should be very interesting for sure
     
  25. Philip J. Fry

    Philip J. Fry Member+

    Mexico
    Jun 12, 2013
    Club:
    Borussia Dortmund
    #50 Philip J. Fry, Jul 20, 2026
    Last edited: Jul 20, 2026
    And we do have several. Mora is a good passer, Brian is capable as well. Marcel pre injury was a very good one as well. Montiel and Obed too. There's prime material there.
    However, they're gonna need to rebuild the wings, specially because we'll probably have to move Quiñones to CF to replace Raúl, (and quick if Santi doesn't revive his career and Hormiga doesn't take the next step).
    At least there are, in theory several young-ish wingers who could be, at least, decent future options (Lainez, Ozziel, Huerta, Jurado, Efra, Sandoval, Chicha, Alexei, Árciga, Padilla), we'll see.
     

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