Luis Núñez-Villavearán
Updated Thursday, March 7, 2024-22:39
"You're in charge here," Luis Aragonés
once told
Xavi
Hernández
.
After those words, the best Spanish team in history arrived, the only one that has won the European Championship, the World Cup, and the European Championship consecutively.
The
Wise Man of Hortaleza
knew that the key to the team's game was in Terrassa's small midfielder and he let them know that.
Football, today, owes a lot to a position from which there is a special knowledge of the game.
"I looked at my midfielders, I just had to look at them and they put me on the team."
It is
Juan Antonio Anquela
, 'Anquelotti', the coach of that wonderful Alcorcón that surprised Real Madrid in a Copa del Rey with a colorful game who praises that position and launches the thesis of reasoning: "Normally, they are the connection with the coach ".
Carlo Ancelotti
,
Pep Guardiola
,
Xabi Alonso, Arteta, Simeone
and the aforementioned
Xavi
, among many others, were "connections with the coach" in their playing careers.
Now, they occupy the main benches in Europe, some with more success than others.
We are in the era of midfield coaches.
Ancelotti in the match against Leipzig.EFE
"Perhaps the position does allow you to better understand the phases of the game," begins the great organizer and today coach,
Rubén de la Red
.
The former footballer for
Real Madrid
,
Getafe
and the Spanish National Team had to leave football very soon.
He was 25 years old when he announced his retirement due to health problems, it was 2010 and from that moment on he already got his coaching cards.
He tried his hand at being a television commentator, but he quickly realized that the benches were his thing.
"Being in the middle forces you to better understand the situation of each of your teammates, there I do believe that we have a plus when it comes to being coaches," says
De la Red
, although he does not believe that the fact of having been a midfielder will give you become a good coach
per se
, but it takes a lot of "work and the ability to adapt to new situations."
These characteristics are those that are praised in the Coaching School of the Royal Spanish Football Federation of which
Pep Sansó
was director.
"Being able to understand the game is a differential point," highlights Sansó because it is what will later allow you to "create your own game idea."
The midfielders do not play only by intuition but rather add knowledge of the game and that, "without being an essential requirement, helps a lot to later become a coach," appreciates the trainer.
Simeone watches the match against Sevilla.EFE
Raúl
,
Xavi
and
Xabi Alonso
, among many others,
have passed through the school during the time when Sansó was director .
"Special students", the trainer describes them based on the experiences they have had in their career, but divides them into two types: those who arrive with a fixed idea like
Xavi
or
Guardiola
and those who adapt to the team or the idiosyncrasies of the club in the one they land on.
"Xabi Alonso has drawn from many sources and that influence is evident in his potential as a coach," highlights Sansó.
The San Sebastian native has passed through the hands of
Mourinho
,
Benítez
,
Guardiola
and
Ancelotti
.
Almost nothing when it comes to expanding his tactical wealth on the benches.
Because that, the style or the idea, is what defines the coaches beyond what they have been in their careers as footballers.
However, as the Spanish proverb says, the goat shoots the mountain, so many coaches have a way of playing, normally, similar to the one they developed on the field.
"
Look
at
Cholo
or
Xavi in the duel against Granada.AP
Another thing that benefits midfielders when it comes to becoming coaches is their ability to "speak, command and correct", as
De La Red
highlighted from his time as a player.
That personality helps carry templates, which is no small part of the coach's job.
"The most difficult thing for a coach is to manage the locker room and make the players believe in what you tell them," says
Anquela
.
It cannot be said, precisely, that
José Mourinho
is a bad coach.
However, the message stopped getting through to the Roma locker room.
Daniele De Rossi
arrived
and the Romanista team obtained 4 victories in its first five games.
The defeat was inflicted on
Inter Milan
, the outstanding leader of the Italian Serie A.
"I am a footballer's son of Spalleti, he says: 'if you play well and lose, it means you have done something wrong," said the former midfielder and captain of the Italian capital team.
Majority in LaLiga
Xavi
,
coach at LaLiga EA Sports.
Íñigo Pérez , former midfielder for Athletic Club and Numancia among other clubs, is
Francisco
's replacement
on the
Rayo Vallecano
bench .
Midfielders are in fashion on the benches.
Nine LaLiga EA Sports coaches have spent their playing careers in that position.
There is an anecdote that
Sansó
tells in some evaluation days for the new coaches in 2018, in which
Luis Enrique
joked that no more coaching courses could be held because there were 800 applicants for only 40 professional benches.
Fortunately, as the former director of the school says, "the Spanish coach is highly valued around the world" because he understands the game very well, which opens the door to other parts of the globe.
If he has also been a midfielder, in these times, it seems that the possibilities multiply.