Shao Jiayi realized that behind this seemingly "comfortable", there is actually the hard work of all the members of FC Bayern.
"Some of the fans may have found the game too tame, but I enjoyed it. Because in the competition, I witnessed the continuous self-improvement and improvement of the Bayern players, who, even with all the honors they have received, are still hard on themselves. That's why the club hired Nagelsmann to coach them." Shao Jiayi said in an interview with Stimulus.
In his opinion, Bayern's season has not been a smooth one and will still suffer ups and downs. There was a time when Dortmund narrowed the points gap to a minuscule amount.
As described by Shao, Nagelsmann has conducted a series of experiments on Bayern's tactical system since taking over, including trying out a three-back formation, which has sparked a lot of buzz in the media and among fans, and which reflects Bayern's self-reinvention.
"[The three defenders] not only disrupt the opponent's formation, but the players also need an adaptation process. Sometimes there are small mistakes on the pitch, but I think it's normal."
However, the unexpected defeat against Villarreal in the Champions League, without reaching the quarterfinals, also reflects that Bayern still has room for improvement: "The players' preparation for the La Liga team was really inadequate, and they didn't look brave enough in the two matches, and they felt that there was a lack of new ideas. Perhaps it was after the Champions League defeat that Bayern realized that they had to make changes in the future, including looking for combinations that could bring new energy to the team."
The National Football League is going through a rough patch
As a well-known player who has played in the Bundesliga, Shao has always paid attention to the Bundesliga, and in addition to the giants such as Bayern and Borussia Dortmund, he also enjoys watching the matches of many of the smaller teams: "Because each of their teams is very well-balanced, the matches are a pleasure for me. Their tactical requirements in the game are very clear, the players execute well, and the way they play is becoming more and more aesthetically pleasing."
At the same time, as the U19 national football team leader and assistant coach, Shao Jiayi also hopes that our players can gradually approach the high level of international soccer.
For young goalkeeper Liu Shao Ziyang, who previously signed for Bayern and was subsequently loaned to Austria's Klagenfurt, Shao Jiayi expressed his best wishes, "Liu Shao Ziyang is a young player with great potential, outstanding in every aspect, and can be considered a role model for young players in China. If he is able to maintain consistent competition opportunities, I think his future is unlimited."
In the face of the current economic crisis suffered by many domestic teams, the current situation of the national football field performance is not satisfactory, Shao Jiayi also has his own insights.
"This can be considered the most difficult period that I have personally experienced. Because there was a period from 2004 to 2005 when (the national soccer team) was not doing very well, but I didn't experience it personally in Germany during that time. Now, from the year before to now, (the Chinese soccer team) did experience some pain."
"Because Chinese football is developing, if you want to change, the pain is definitely needed, which will affect the efforts and dedication of many players and coaches. But this is the problem of the environment, I still firmly believe that China's football will be very good in the future, the various clubs are now also in the share reform, I believe that it will certainly develop in a good direction." Shao again emphasized the importance of "good" youth talent.
The need for more youth "excellence"
How does the future of soccer in our country move forward? Shao Jiayi believes that the key lies in the youth. In particular, the focus should be on how to make the limited number of talented children can be "excellent".
"In my opinion, even though we have a huge population, not many players are really talented in soccer or exposed to these soccer concepts. It's like our country is a big cycling nation, but we're not a powerhouse in Olympic cycling."
"At the same time we have very few good coaches and coaching staff. In this regard, I think we should take our limited, talented players and coaches and put them to good use by tilting our resources toward them, so that we can tilt the best resources toward the best players in the short term. We all talk about popularization, but we still need to move forward after popularization. Otherwise maybe after a few years, a good player will also become an ordinary player." Shao Jiayi confessed.
"If there are 100 good players in each age group, that's 1,000 in 10 age groups, and although in our country, (relative to) our base (we would think) 1,000 isn't enough, it's really impossible to pick that many good players."
"Maybe there are 10,000 good players in Japan and Korea in the same age group and we only have 100. But if we really compete together and those 100 get a good education, we won't be too bad in the future and will still be able to compete with them."
Sustained investment over time will yield results
In Shao Jiayi's opinion, due to the gap between the soccer foundation and culture, the youth training of Chinese football wants to benchmark Germany is not realistic, but the experience of the German national football team is also worth learning from.
For example, support at the management level: "For example, the Bundesliga has some hard and fast rules, how much percentage of the league's revenue should be invested in youth training centers and hardware equipment, I think this is the current stage of China's football needs, if you don't have a good hardware equipment, you can't attract more players or maybe people from the community to go on the soccer field."
In addition, Germany will also be long time to invest in coaches and youth training centers to support, to ensure that young players time to accept the latest concepts of soccer, get the best help and training, which is also worthy of Chinese football learning.
At the same time, Shao Jiayi also frankly admitted that some of our "unique" form of cultivation, such as soccer schools, also has the significance of existence: "Perhaps in the big cities, we will say that we have to go home, we have to contact the community, contact with the school, contact with the family. But many of the third and fourth-tier city children, soccer atmosphere is not very good, and there are not many excellent coaches to support, so it is necessary to go out, to some professional football school training."
In the future, with the progress of society, including the improvement of soccer hardware equipment and culture, the future of Chinese football is still worth looking forward to: "We are now after more than a decade of investment has also left a lot of valuable assets. For example, some foreign coaches have left us advanced things, and now many young coaches have grown up and absorbed many advanced soccer concepts from Europe and the United States, and the ability to learn is also very strong. In the future, it will definitely be able to inject new vitality into Chinese football."
