New Japan soccer coach Aguirre outlines simple philosophy

“The ball is important. It is our common language,”

Is he going to wave a ball at his players? If they can't find a Japanese coach (how about Nakata?) then they should find someone who is prepared to learn Japanese.

Agreed, if you can't communicate your ideas quickly and effectively to the players it tends not to work - arguably it only has once. It should be someone who has played or coached in Japan and also understands the players culture and mentality.

“The ball is important. It is our common language,” he said.

He could of said "winning is important. It is our common language" and it would have sounded just as daft. Oh well.

It should be someone who has played or coached in Japan and also understands the players culture and mentality.

Nah, they need someone to inject new ideas, not someone adapted to the Japanese game that will just try to cover up their weaknesses.

Nah, they need someone to inject new ideas, not someone adapted to the Japanese game that will just try to cover up their weaknesses.

Hmm. Covering up your weaknesses doesn't seem like a bad idea to me. Their best WC performance was under Okada. Injecting new ideas from, say, La Liga, where this guy had his best days, also rarely works. Successful teams seam to develop their own style rather than import.

Aguirre is an excellent coach. He will certainly bring a lot to the team. I agree the language should not be an issue. For a spanish speaker, learning Japanese won't be difficult if he decides to so.

El Vasco, as he is called in Mexico, has experience and has shown to have clear horizons. Japan will certainly show progress.

this man looks like an embarassment...he insisted on bigger pay and even had his son employed as part of the deal but otherwise he doesn't have anything to bring on the table. Maybe a Japanese coach is much better

Their best WC performance was under Okada.

Best result, not performance though. They played without a forward most of the time and most of the matches were extremely boring. Like it or not, Japan is not going for the heavily defensive-minded performance anymore.

"Run fast, play hard, and win!"

Wow, what a genius philosophy. I think 'wishful thinking' would be a better term to describe it if you're just going to collect a fat pay-cheque while waiting for this to happen. The team can get a new coach every time if they want, it won't change the outcome until they change themselves. Yes, as was pointed out, the team achieved the best RESULT under Okada, but the one thing I respected the man for for more than anything else was that he said, "I could have been away or it could have been another coach and they would have done the same".

The team is just not ready to move ahead.

@therougou

"Japan is not going for the heavily defensive-minded performance anymore."

How do you know ? Are you a personal friend of the new coach ?