午夜剧场

Whether it is football, baseball, or rugby, when people talk about a "manager," their "tactical command" is immediately brought into question. This refers to the work of analyzing opponents, deciding the starting lineup, and making substitutions. If a substituted player performs in a way that secures victory, it is praised as a "masterstroke."

However, that is only a small part of a manager's job. Players are flesh-and-blood human beings; they are neither shogi pieces nor video game characters. Their performance specifications vary greatly depending on their physical condition and psychological state on any given day.

Managing the players' physical condition, appealing to their emotions to help them perform at 100% capacity, and building an organization that includes staff such as coaches are also important tasks for a manager.

Since Hans Ooft (Netherlands) became the first foreign manager of the Japan national team in 1992, the year before the J.League began, 11 managers (12 in total, as Takeshi Okada served twice) have led the Japan national team to challenge the World Cup, up to the current Hajime Moriyasu.

The 11 managers, with completely different nationalities, backgrounds, and personalities, were each unique, and their coaching methods were diverse. Many readers likely remember Troussier with his eccentric personality, Zico, whose coaching style sparked debate over whether it was "freedom or negligence," and Osim, who captured the hearts of listeners with philosophical topics.

How did each manager aim to strengthen the national team? And why did they succeed (or fail)? As a journalist, I fought alongside them and sometimes clashed with them. In this book, I critique the work of each manager based on those memories and evaluate them on a scale of 100.

Based on that past, let's conduct an interim assessment of Manager Moriyasu.

After finishing as runner-up in the Asian Cup in January 2019, Manager Moriyasu prioritized the discovery of new talent over team building. As a result, the team's completion was delayed, leading to a crushing defeat in the U-23 Asian Championship in January. While this may have been within the manager's expectations, in any case, he must now hurry to build the team for the Tokyo Olympics in July and the final World Cup qualifiers from September onwards.

Let's see what he can do.

Takeo Goto

NHK Publishing Shinsho

256 pages, 850 yen (excluding tax)

*Affiliations and titles are as of the time of publication.