Hawara-Nasser Sadiq
Salzburg coach Jesse Marsch set a record as the first American to lead a team to the group stage of the European Champions League, as he managed his team to be notoriously drawn to him after his strong performance and embarrassing the champions (Liverpool) in his home ground at Anfield stadium. Al-Jazeera Net met during a team camp in the Qatari capital, Doha, and the following dialogue took place.
How did you manage to build the strong Salzburg team that caught the eye of its rising stars during the Champions League matches this season, even though the Austrian League is not one of the major leagues?
In short, the club has good financial capabilities and a distinctive exploration strategy that depends on selecting the best young elements and developing its talent and refining it, and I think we have succeeded in doing so thanks to the good group of young people, in the evidence of our results and our performance in the Champions League, and the clubs rushing to the stars of the team who moved from Erling Halland (19 years ) To Borussia Dortmund, and Takumi Minamino, 25, to Liverpool.
On the occasion of the mention of Liverpool, was Salzburg's impressive performance against the European champions at Anfield, the loss with difficulty of 3-4 was a coincidence, and that you ventured into not playing a purely defensive way and succeeded in that?
Liverpool have been considered the best in the last decade, but my team includes a group of players who do not fear any team and have great ambition, of course we knew that we are facing a great challenge we bravely fought against a team that includes some of the most prominent football stars in the world and plays in a difficult way for high-pressure competitors everywhere The stadium is almost the speed and performance and the transition from defense to attack, and this is our way as well, we applied it and we succeeded in it, we scored three goals at Anfield and we lost by the experience of the experience of the Reds attack trio because we also have a group of distinguished players.
| Hwang Hee Chan dodges Van Dyck before scoring the first goal for Salzburg (Getty Images) |
Do you think the Reds attack was his greatest strength?
Of course, yes, with evidence that the trio of Mohamed Salah, Sadio Mane and Firmenio are among the best players in the world today, and they represent a striking force that is difficult for any team to stop its gravity, because they are characterized by speed, strength, skill and harmony, which makes their role in Liverpool very important, and look at how many games this trio settled In favor of his team and brought him three championships last year.
As a coach, what do you explain to Liverpool's amazing strength and performance?
There are several factors that led to the success of Liverpool, the first of which is that it is a successful institution with a clear philosophy and a stated goal is to climb to the podiums, and I think that the most prominent strength of the Reds is that it has a distinguished group of players in all lines that suit the level of the club's ambition, and they were employed well by the coach Juergen Klopp, finally showing the very good team that we saw on the field.
Korean Huang defeated Liverpool defender Van Dyck .. |
After the departure of the most prominent stars of your team: Halland and Minamino. Do you think your adventure is over and it is difficult to repeat your same achievement by qualifying for the group stage in Champions League next season?
Of course not, for two reasons. The first is that the team has many stars remaining among its ranks, including, but not limited to, South Korean Hwang Hee-chan who scored the first goal in Liverpool's goal after a wonderful dribbling to Van Dyke, and the second is that my training style revolves around the team's collective performance, not individual. For players, a philosophy that relies on teamwork for performance and the strength of the team as a whole, which makes it so much better than the strength of its individuals as players.