A true believer of 33 13, is he a genius or a madman? Guardiola: He is the best coach in the world.

Stand up, pace, squat, and fiddle with the hair that has grown to the back of your head. After a few seconds of silence, I stood up, paced and squatted down again. ...

In June 2002, 47-year-old Belsa was always seen repeating this slightly weird behavior in the World Cup finals in Korea and Japan. It and the wet mark under Camacho's jersey became the most impressive picture on the coaching bench that summer.

But there is no doubt that Belsa's Argentine team is more focused than Camacho's Spanish team. This is not only because Belsa has the title of "madman", but also because he swept South America with a weird set of 33 13 in the World Cup qualifiers, and won with 13 in the 18 qualifiers, with a winning percentage as high as 72%, leading the second Ecuador by as much as 12 points-compared with Argentina.

▲ Argentina, which rode the dust in the qualifiers, suffered an embarrassing defeat in the World Cup, which made Belsa questioned.

Excellent qualifying results have made Argentina an inevitable favourite. After Nigeria's first battle of 3 1 shot was completely suppressed, the expectation of Pampas eagle rose to the peak. However, the Argentines fell to the altar like a meteor: they failed to win two consecutive matches against England and Sweden, and Belsa's team failed to complete the action. They stayed in the Far East for two years, but they only stayed in Asian land for less than half a month.

The voice of questioning 33 13 becomes higher with the decline of grades. In Belsa's football system, 33 13 includes two flanks and two flanks, and the personnel arrangement of attacking forces on the flanks far exceeds the mainstream tactical cognition. Opponents questioned that when Sorin and Sanetti frequently inserted attack forces in the restricted area, 33 13 widened the attack width, giving the full-back space to go straight up and down, but it also made the team easily lose the balance of attack and defense. Belsa's seemingly retro style of play is easily reminiscent of the 235 era when the inside line was rampant, and the development of modern football is far more complicated than this. At least in the game system dominated by the defensive concept, Belsa's approach seems to be difficult to work-the evidence is that his team has not scored a sports goal in three games.

▲ Belsa, who was eliminated from the group stage, created the worst World Cup record of the Argentine team since 1974. Buddy's tears became the sad memories of many fans that summer.

Therefore, Belsa won the title of "theorist". In the eyes of opponents, the football picture described by the Argentine coach is wonderful, but it has a fatal shortcoming-it is not practical. His emphasis on high-speed conversion and blind attack was not in line with the older Argentina team at that time, nor with the hot afternoon competition climate in the Far East. He included 36-year-old caniggia in the World Cup squad, but the "son of the wind" didn't take part in that game and only got a red card.

▲ Although Belsa didn't get a very decent honor as a coach, his football concept had a far-reaching impact on a group of Mesozoic coaches in today's football, including Guardiola.

Although he got Belsa's contract extension in August 2002, he missed the chance to get to the top. In the 2004 Athens Olympic Games, he led his team to win the most weighty medal in his coaching career-Argentina won the Olympic champion, and then disappeared from public view for three years.

Interestingly, the defeat in 2002 was not the most painful one in Belsa's coaching career. After that, his word of mouth became a watershed: "paranoia" and "madness" forgotten by the public became "peerless genius" and "best coach" in the eyes of the younger generation of coaches.

"Belsa is not always understood by people," said Gilian balague, a famous football journalist. "He used to be the teacher of many new football players. He makes you realize that tactics are changeable in football. "

▲ The biography "Crazy Quality", which records Belsa's teaching career, has been highly praised by many professionals.

Tim Ritchie, the author of Crazy Quality: The Life of Marcelo Belsa, mentioned his influence on Guardiola in his book: In Rome, batistuta instructed Guardiola that if he wanted to be a football coach, following Belsa was the best choice. June 5438+October 2006 10, Guardiola, inspired by Batty, met the Olympic champion coach who had been idle for two years at Belsa Ranch near Rosario.

This meeting will have a profound impact on Guardiola's subsequent coaching-Guardiola even listened to the management details that Belsa did not interview, and applied them to his coaching career. At a deeper level, Belsa's football philosophy, including his understanding of the artistry of football and his paranoid preference, seems to be confirmed in Guardiola's coaching style.

▲ Pochettino and teammate Simone, who made mistakes against England in the 2002 World Cup, are considered to be influenced by Belsa.

Compared with Pochettino and Simone, who are regarded as Belsa's disciples, Guardiola is more like the inheritor of Belsa's style and ideas. Although in Pochettino's eyes, all his achievements are attributed to Belsa, his football style and attitude are not directly copied from his mentor.

The manager of Manchester City has obvious traces of Belsa in many aspects: he is picky and cautious when choosing his owner, he pursues details deliberately, and he is obsessed with tactics and sticks to it ... Even the eccentric recognition of the outside world is strikingly similar to that of Belsa.

Belsa said: "If robots are allowed to play football, then I will win everything." This is why Belsa is hard to understand: it is an indisputable fact that football can't completely control everything with rational thinking. Belsa specializes in his own ideas, trying to make football an art that can be accurately controlled through simple tactical design and a large number of actual combat drills. This kind of thinking has deeply influenced Guardiola-it seems that only Guardiola, who is equally obsessed with football and paranoid, can really understand the ideological connotation of "madman".

▲ In Leeds, Belsa often cited a lot of documents and data to illustrate the problem when explaining tactics.

Everything must be carefully planned and prepared, and no accidents or changes will be accepted. This is another criticized content in Belsa's philosophy, which can be easily understood as rigid thinking. During the period of leading the Chilean national team, the flank attack practice of the five-person special group is an important content. The focus is on the deep direct pass, the cooperation between the attacking players and the running drill. When the offensive combination is pressed, both the winger and the receiver need to form a tacit cooperation, and find their own offensive position according to the situation when the team plays on the side.

▲ Belsa's tactical training involves repeated drills of many details, and this training design has also been applied by Guardiola.

This kind of repeated training was brought to West Yorkshire by Belsa and achieved initial results. The Argentine coach scored 157 points in 85 matches in Leeds, averaging 1.85 points per game. If stubborn Belsa refuses to adjust his main force according to the actual situation in the second half of the season, the White Legion may have succeeded in overtaking this season.

▲ Belsa's transformation of Leeds was quite successful. Leeds United, which was in the middle of the Championship two seasons ago, has grown into an important overtaking force.

However, considering the position of Leeds United in the British Championship two seasons ago (season 17- 13), you have to admit that Belsa's training has been very effective. No wonder Leeds fans will make a bronze statue of him and regard him as the best candidate to lead the team forward-the charm of Belsa is not only to drive the experts in the ivory tower crazy.

Never lacking warmth is another charm that Belsa loves to give fans. In the epidemic situation, he suggested that the club reduce his and his assistant's salary to avoid dismissing 272 staff members because of the pressure of the club. This is as amazing as the hotel he built for old boys, New Wales, and it also brings the Argentine coach who seems to be out of touch with reality on the football field closer to reality.

▲ Leeds fans made a bronze statue of Belsa and expressed their love for the Argentine coach.

If the tournament can be successfully restarted on June 6th, it may be a harvest season for Belsa. The physical bottleneck in the sprint stage last season will no longer be a stumbling block to the team losing a good game. The White Legion is expected to realize its vision of returning to the Premier League this summer.

The wonderful connection between Belsa and Leeds doesn't stop there. The title of "White Rose" given to this club by China fans seems to be very suitable for Belsa: it is delicate and charming when blooming, but it is picked with annoying thorns. When white roses are in full bloom, Belsa must be the most admired one.