First Day
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Today was my first training session as Shanghai Shenhua manager. As I parked outside the training ground I felt nervous, would I be successful or would I flop? I knew that I had to make impressions with my first job and do well, or else nobody would ever hire me! I sat back in my car with the sun glaring off my bonnet. This was it.
As I walked into the reception area I was greeted by the Owner Zhang Yulian of whom I recognised from when he met up with me in a hotel in Beijing to offer me the job. "Welcome to sunny Shanghai Mr Nesta!" he almost shouted in a fairly over-excited voice. "It really is a pleasure to have you take over as manager!"
"I'm pleased to be hear to. This is a nice training ground yo have Mr Yulian, I can't wait to take over my first session." I said back trying to match his enthusiasm. "Where are my new lads?"
They are out training with Yin Xifu, your assistant. He has claimed that he will agree to mutual termination of his contract if you wish to bring in your own assistant." he said as he grabbed a clear plastic bag off a coffee table in the corner of the room. "This is your training kit, get changed then go out and join up with Mr Xifu"
As I watched the team train my assistant pointed out weaknesses and strengths of my players and I got to find out who my star players will be. They all worked hard to impress me and there was definitely a lot of good stuff on show.
27 year-old Colombian striker, Giovanni Moreno was the first to stand out. He looked to me as the most clinical striker I had. He was incredibly tall and scared defenders trying to mark him. Whenever he was in the box I always believed something was going to happen and 9 times out of 10 he scored. A long with this was his leadership, he was able to get players around him to up their work rate whenever they looked sloppy and players (literally) looked up to him. Giovanni will be my captain.
At the back there was 32 year-old Korean, Cho Byung-Kook. This guy would never let anyone past him and looks like a wall at the back. He can keep hold of a striker and pocket any balls that come near him. Although he is very good at keeping close to a striker he is easily done by any pace, being 32 means that he isn't the fastest guy in the world but I don't think that will be a problem in the Jia League.
In midfield Chinese 29 year-old Liu Jian looked very lively. Liu is a great team player and could probably link up one-two's with an Elephant. He is constantly near the ball and is always open for a pass be it in defence or attack. His passing is usually accurate but one or two can go astray and so I think we need to work on that.
I also had a wonder over to watch the youth teams play and I had my eye caught by 18 year-old
Abduani. This kid is fast and goes past defenders easily, his finishing is usually good but he has it in him to miss clear chances and this will need to be worked on.
I gathered the lads round in the changing room at the end of the day and explained to them the tactics in which I will be using, a narrow 4-2-3-1 with 2 attacking midfielders moving out wide and providing width to any attack, but also able to stay inside and add men to the midfield. We will play quick and direct football and we will try and shoot mainly inside the box. Our 2 wing-backs will try and push up and add cross balls in to Moreno, but will be able to drop back and defend if we have pressure on us.
