Hajime Moriyasu, the head coach of the Japan national team, took the stage for the public recording of the Yomiuri Shimbun podcast "Pitchside: Exclusive Stories of Japanese Football."
The supervision style will shift to a management type. What is Coach Hajime Moriyasu conscious of in team building?
"As a coach, I must present the team concept and guidelines to the players, and I must make decisions regarding player selection, but it's the players on the pitch who are actually playing. I want to incorporate the players' perspective as much as possible and put it into practice so that the players can perform to the best of their abilities, even if only a little."
It has been seven years since taking office as the head coach of the Japanese national team in 2018. At Qatar, they reached the Round of 16. They will aim for victory and compete at next year's World Cup.
Compared to the previous tournament, has there been any change in the way the coach approaches his job?
"As for the representative supervisor, there are two phases: the first phase (up to the Qatar World Cup) and the second phase (the American World Cup to be held next year). In the first phase, I did quite a bit on my own and then received support from the coaches. Even so, from the middle of the first phase, I had the coaches take charge of their respective parts and convey tactical matters. It has changed from a head coach type to a management type, and the training menu has also changed significantly.
"Currently, the director decides the overall theme, but the coach proposes and implements meetings and practices."
The players must shine
It is said that there is something that Coach Hajime Moriyasu always tells the team staff.
"For the team to win, the players must shine. We always share this in staff meetings. The head coach and all team staff will think about what they can do to enable the players to play boldly. If the players play boldly, the chances of winning will increase, and I think the supporters will feel, "The players are shining and playing boldly."