Leading Harbour to sweep the Chinese Super League, what is Muscat's secret?

The reporter reported coldly After beating Meizhou Hakka 7-2 on the evening of the 9th, Shanghai Port scored 80 goals in the 23 rounds of the Chinese Super League, with 7 rounds left in the league, and they are only two goals away from Guangzhou Evergrande's single-season scoring record in the Chinese Super League (82 goals in 2018), there is no suspense about breaking the record, and as of the first 23 rounds, the Port team has scored 5 or more goals in a single game in the league as many as 8 games. In addition to Wu Lei's breaking the single-season goal record of the Chinese Super League, Wu Lei and Gustavo will also become the first striker combination in a single season of the Chinese Super League to reach 20+ goals, and Oscar will become the first assist king of the Chinese Super League to assist 20+ in a single season. Shanghai Port extended their winning streak to 16 games in the Chinese Super League, and Muscat's side have been a degrading blow to attack this season.

Muscat's high-pressure offensive football has become an unprecedented phenomenon tactical style in the Chinese Super League, with high-intensity sprinting, high-level pressing, and high-frequency offensive and defensive conversion, which is one dimension higher than other teams. As early as when he was coaching Yokohama Marino, Muscat developed this concept of extremely high-pressure attacking football. Muscat's football philosophy originates, how it was formed, how it develops, and his interpretation of it may give us a more comprehensive understanding of Shanghai Port, which has been "ascending" this season.

In Muscat's two full seasons in charge of Yokohama Mariners, the team scored the most goals in the J1 League, but because the J1 League was more competitive overall, it did not show the same cliff advantage as this season in the Chinese Super League. Muscat's coaching J1 and the Chinese Super League football philosophy is exactly the same, that is, high-intensity high pressing and never slacking off, even if the Yokohama Mariners were frequently injured last season and the reinforcements were not effective, he still insisted on an attacking football style, only making minor adjustments when necessary, and the style is very similar to Brighton in the Premier League.

As for coming to coach Shanghai Port, Muscat emphasized at the end of last year that it was because Shanghai Port provided a long-term plan of three or four years to establish a new technical and tactical system and complete iterations, so that he could establish the ideal offensive football style in the new team exactly as he wanted. Shanghai Port's high pressing combined with a multi-faceted attacking style of attacking football, Muscat was very mature when he coached the Yokohama Mariners. Muscat said in an interview last year that his style of play stems in part from Postecoglou, the former coach of the Yokohama Mariners. Although Muscat inherited the technical and tactical legacy of his previous coach, he had to repeat the attack to improve in order to make the team more distinctive, and constantly challenge himself every game to improve his attacking power.

As Muscat emphasized after Shanghai Port's 8-1 victory over Nantong Zhiyun: The team will continue to attack after taking a big lead not to break the record, but to show the football concept, because every attack is a process of continuous learning and hard work of the players, and the team's attacking power will continue to improve.

Muscat's philosophy of football can be summed up as "spiraling": "There are many ways to win, but the important thing is to have a clear idea and be able to repeat the goal. "As with Yokohama Marinos, Muscat always requires his players to keep attacking, and the same attacking lines are repeated to improve, which is a spiral of understanding and experience.

Muscat places great emphasis on bridging the gap in players' understanding of technique and tactics, and when he coached Yokohama Marino, he famously said, "True diversity can only be achieved when there are no longer differences in perception." "The most effective way to diversify your attack is to keep attacking and deepen your understanding over and over again through the same offensive lines. Looking at Shanghai Port's relentless and varied attacking routines, fans should understand where Muscat's success comes from.

The success of Shanghai Port is not only a change in technical and tactical style, but also inseparable from Muscat's excellent management of the team. Muscat was interviewed by Randstad Group, the world's second-largest integrated human resources services group at the end of last year, and the Australia coach explained his football philosophy comprehensively, including integrating into the local culture, strengthening team building and increasing offensive tactical diversity through repeated high-pressure football. Through this interview, one should understand why Muscat has made such a huge change to the port of Shanghai.

Understanding the customs and customs of the country where he coaches is a very important factor in Muscat's coaching process, and he believes that it is the foundation of a coach's success. While in Yokohama, Muscat took advantage of various opportunities to learn about Yokohama's local culture and club traditions of Yokohama Mariner as a prerequisite for getting acquainted with the players, developing targeted training plans, and building teams. The same is true at Shanghai Port, where Muscat and the club's senior management visited the Chongming Genbao Football Base and visited Xu Genbao to guide him. Later, he participated in the Suzhou Creek Half Marathon in Shanghai with his translator, which he saw as the most direct way to get to know the city in depth. At the pre-match press conference between Shanghai Port and Meizhou Hakka in April, Muscat said that he knew that Wuhua was a traditional Chinese football town and the former residence of Chinese football king Li Huitang. In June, he watched the Suzhou Creek City Dragon Boat Invitational Race and boarded the boat to try paddling.

Muscat's football philosophy is closely related to his personal upbringing. Muscat was born in the United Kingdom and immigrated to Australia with Malta parents before he was a year old, where his father was his football initiator. Growing up in Australia, where immigrants are culturally diverse, has also sparked Muscat's keen interest in other cultures. Whether as a player or as a coach, this value of actively integrating into the local culture from an early age has been the foundation of Muscat's success.

Muscat's strong interest and in-depth understanding of Chinese society, culture, customs and customs also helps him to understand the thinking patterns of Chinese players in a short period of time and make targeted technical and tactical training.

Muscat has a clear understanding of the use of foreign aid, only a few teams in the J1 league will use up all the foreign aid places, and the Chinese Super League is generally overly reliant on foreign aid. Finding a balance between the two is one of Muscat's challenges in coaching Shanghai Port. Whether in Yokohama or Shanghai, he treats both local players and foreign players equally. Muscat has coached the Yokohama Mariners for more than two years, and the team's internal and external reinforcements are basically the main stable. When he played in the AFC Champions League last year, he said that of course he wanted all foreign players to play, but the conditions did not allow it. In the 2022 season when Yokohama Mariner won the J1 championship, only striker Matteus was not the main force of the six Brazil foreign players, and the remaining five formed the team's Brazil central axis, and Ceará and López were still tied for the Golden Boot in the team. Looking at Shanghai Port this season, is there a shadow of the Yokohama Mariners back then? Muscat makes the best use of foreign players, especially in the midfield, so as to form an absolute dominance advantage over other teams, which is one of Muscat's imprints.

For the management of Asian players and Brazil players, Muscat also varies from person to person. Both Chinese and Japanese players are more disciplined, while Brazil players are more lively. Combining two different styles of players into a team that supports each other and each has its own strengths is what makes Muscat so successful. Muscat is very strict about technical and tactical discipline, but it does not restrict the players from playing freely on the court. It can be said that Shanghai Port is a replica of Yokohama Mariners, but the large gap in the strength of other teams in the Chinese Super League has caused the Port to take a cliff-like lead in attack.

In addition to the intrinsic drive of a keen interest in different cultures, the belief in competitiveness and a bitter hatred of defeat has always been at the root of Muscat's attacking football style. Muscat has said he has a way to improve his players' technique, fitness and on-field performance, but he can't expect a 50%-60% improvement. Individual player progress is always limited, so it is important to encourage players to maintain a strong desire to win and activate the potential of each player in order to form a team that complements each other's strengths and minimizes weaknesses.

Tailoring his skills has been an important factor in Muscat's ability to transform the team at a deep level, and he has talked about how he has uncovered the potential of his players. In the season of leading the Yokohama Mariner to the championship, the players in the team ranged in age from 20 to 37 years old, and there were 6 foreign players, each player had a wide range of skills, physical fitness, experience, ability to read the game and personality, and his secret was to treat both equals and differently - equal treatment refers to all form-only theory, and training and game status are the priority elements in evaluating whether players can play; Differential treatment means that some players need guidance in more areas of thinking, while others need time for them to understand. For example, Brazil players are trained more to integrate into the team because of the commonality of their growth environment, and for other players, it is more based on the mastery of individual strengths and weaknesses, and then try to play to their strengths and avoid weaknesses, but everyone has to serve the team. In Muscat's eyes, players are different individuals first, and athletes second. In Muscat's view, players are more like puzzles of different shapes, and only by finding the most suitable piece of the puzzle can the whole picture be completed.

Muscat is not only looking for success as a team, but also as an individual player. During the Yokohama Mariners era, he discovered many Japanese players who successfully stayed abroad due to their outstanding performances. Muscat has brought to life the characteristics of Brazil players who are good at individual play, Shanghai Port has five Brazil foreign helpers, plus Argentina winger Vargas, are given the freedom to fully display their talents in the game, and the local players in the middle and back are more given guidance on technical and tactical thinking and execution, so that they can also play at the level they deserve.

Muscat is very willing to promote new players, in his opinion this is also a risky "freshness", in the Yokohama Mariners, in Shanghai Port too, he has given Liu Zhurun, Wei Zhen, Wang Zhenao and Li Shuai opportunities, the latter two have been selected for the national team many times, this summer window port in addition to signing Brazil striker Pope to continue to maintain the strength of the midfield, from the echelon of four new recruits Zhao Zhichen, Chen Yang, Zhang Jifan, Liu Kai, Muscat hopes to copy the Yokohama Mariners model, accelerate the team's metabolism.