Roberto Martínez (Balaguer, Lleida, 1973) has become one of the most sought-after technicians in the world. It sounded for Madrid and in recent days also for Barça. He focuses on the Nations League on what his first title with Belgium can mean. Spanish method, but with Premier influence.
The million dollar question: three centrals or a line of four?
It depends. I would say what best suits your players. My first game with Belgium was with a line of four in a friendly against Spain and we did not give the level. We did an internal reflection. We had four spectacular center-backs and we were missing full-backs. So to empower our players we bet on 3-4-3 and since then it has been really good for us.
However, two years later, against Brazil in the World Cup, he returned to the four defenses and left a match for Belgian football history.
You have to be flexible. The philosophy as a team does not change, only the strategies change. It doesn't matter if you play with one drawing or another. Nor is it the same to have Brazil in front of you than to be the favorite. In any case, the important thing is to be faithful to a style rather than a scheme. I started using the three centrals in 2009 with Wigan. We were the only Premier League team that played with that drawing! Now, in the last four or five seasons, you are seeing a trend to use it. I am convinced that it will change again. The trends are like this. That's why I don't believe in using players according to a scheme, but in using a scheme according to the players.
At least he had time to invent a lane in Carrasco.
It was the way to see Hazard and him together on the same plot. Carrasco's first game with us was from the far right. Its ability to overflow inward was lost and we were clear about it. The only way to make him cohabit with Hazard on the other side was by using him as a lane. His adaptation was very good and his personal growth, too. It was more the presence of the player himself that made him grow, not his position.
“Cruyff was my reference; influenced football like no one else has “
What were your references as a technician?
The first, shocking, Johann Cruyff. It was a drastic change. It introduced concepts that were not seen before. He influenced football in a way that no one else has. There are many figures who have influenced a current or a sector, but he did it in all: those who followed him and those who tried to counteract him. He was a major force in the game, in defending with the ball, in numerical superiority exercises, in the technical quality of the player … He brought something that influenced me a lot. And other coaches have always fascinated me for moments or places in which they stood out: Toshack, Maturana, Sacchi …
As a Cruyffista, are you flattered that Barça thinks of you?
Look … I've been away from home for many years. There are not too many fans who know about my career, or that I was seven years in a row in the Premier. This makes me laugh. I think there was a change in the 2018 World Cup. We had the affection of Spanish fans, I noticed it right away. For me, it was a great illusion. From there, the coaches are always in the rumors. When the team wins you dream for other projects and when the team loses you are on the verge of cessation. You get used to it and you live apart from all this.
“I do not consider if it is Barça is an opportunity. The technicians are always in the rumors “
Is going now Barça an opportunity or a brown?
I haven't really thought about it. I have been thinking about the Nations League for a year and a half and that is what worries me now. My opinion would be quite misaligned.
How did you experience the departure of Messi from Barça and the great signings that there were?
Like one more fan. The COVID situation affected the clubs and the issue of the Super League helped make everything more abnormal this summer. Normally, elite football has a consistency and everything is quite calm, but we have experienced things that surely we would not have seen without a pandemic.
Doesn't the club bug bite you? He is young to be a coach and not so young to have not even debuted in the Champions League …
I also thought that a selection was the end of a journey. I had the expectation that over the years it is better to use the experience and perspective that allow you to train a few times a year, not daily. My situation was atypical, yes, but this Belgium was also very atypical. I could sense that a great project was being created, in addition to enjoying unique moments such as participating in World Cups and Euro Cups.
Why have you never directed in Spain?
I'm not the one who decides that. I always go to a project if I look into the eyes of those who offer it to me and I have time to be able to work and settle on it. I believe in that human relationship within the project. Once like that, you can coach in any league and in any facet. But trust me I'm very bad at planning ahead (laughs).
Tuchel, Klopp, Nagelsmann … Is there a 'Germanization' of football?
If it can be. Everything is born with that healthy arrogance of being able to give very young coaches to powerful teams. German football is very well structured, with a healthy league, and it has helped us focus on what teams do when they don't have the ball. We come from a culture where we think more about what to do with it, not without it. There he has developed a type of coach prepared for high pressure, to open matches, to be dynamic… This is good for football in general.
Why Belgium? That a country of 11 million has such different players intrigued me “
What intrigued you about Belgium?
I was managing three Belgian players at Everton (Fellaini, Miralles and Lukaku) and no one would have said they came from the same country. I wondered: “How, being only 11 million, they can produce such diverse players and with such different styles of football.” In other teams there were also exceptional Belgian players. It was a spectacular generation. I was learning more about them: their education in three languages, which allows them to adapt faster abroad, their quick draft in the changing rooms, in the big teams …
Does this generation need a title?
Need it is a very harsh word. In football things are deserved, they are tried. This generation has done just that. He has improved through his club philosophy, rather than selection. He has been committed and has grown. If you are a club manager, you realize that you can grow on a day-to-day basis; in national team football this is different. There is no time. That is why we value what this team has done. It is a special generation. It would be nice, and I think they deserve it, a tournament that liberates them and the future of Belgian football.
Is there a Premier culture in all of you?
Yes, and note that it was something unexpected. The work starts after Euro 2000 and Dutch and French influences, not English, are sought to create a Belgian footballer DNA and style. But what nobody plans is where the player is going. And there came a time when all the good Belgian players went to the Premier. That allowed a very technical type of footballer to develop, but in a physical and transitional league like the Premier.
He says there are 11 million Belgians, it is almost like the Uruguay of Europe. How is it possible that so many talents emerge from among so few?
So look. There are 24 clubs, 6 or 7 academies of a good level that you can easily visit, that of Bruges, that of Anderlecht … There is a very good relationship between clubs. That helps. And then there is the human side. Three languages coexist in Belgium and the country's environment is very diverse. The mentality is open and respectful for what is different. For this reason, the players are very well prepared – without being aware – to go abroad.
Is Lukaku the example of this?
Yes, definitely. At 16 he was ready for the elite and entrusted to be the reference for a team like Anderlecht. But where it has really grown has been outside the country. I was able to enjoy him at 19, first on loan and then as part of the most expensive transfer in Everton's history. He was always obsessed with goals. He is a 9 who can play on his back, penetrate spaces, who has a great physical condition, but above all the great talent of his scoring ability. Their figures prove it.
“It is a matter of time before we see the best version of Hazard in Spain”
You are still a faithful defender of Hazard …
Eden has had two very tough years of injuries. Sometimes reasons are sought for this and there simply aren't. We analyze it from another perspective. I have seen Hazard win the league in France, the Premier with two different projects, mark differences in the overflow and the one against one, shine technically in a league as physical as the English one … And then, at the national level, Hazard is unique . It's a shame not to have seen Eden happy or playing more in the last two years. He has not been able to be at his best at Madrid and the great potential he has has not been seen.
Do you see him frustrated or wanting to claim?
He is very calm. It gives normality to everything, that is why he understands that the footballer is injured. He also has a character that makes him get up fast. He is a leader, the captain of Belgium, and he has been a very important influence for this team. On a human level you can trust Eden and on a football level there is no debate. It is a matter of time before we see the best version of Hazard in Spain.
“Courtois is on his way to being the greatest legend in a country with a great record of goalkeepers”
I want to ask you about Courtois. How can you be one of the best goalkeepers of the last decade without mastering your footwork –something so in demand now–?
Phew, I don't agree that he's not good at footwork. Upside down. For a person of such height and presence, he has very good coordination. He has a great ability to understand the ball exit. He can be more stylist or less, but when you have a team that wants to play from behind, Thibaut knows how to do it perfectly. At the 2018 World Cup he was the best goalkeeper and is now consistently in the top two or three in the world. At his age, that means that he still has a lot ahead of him. He is a reference in a country with a very good historical level of goalkeepers, even with legends, and he is on his way to becoming the greatest of all.
His father was a player and coach, Roberto.
Yes … I had no other way out than football (laughs). We sat down to watch games. It is something I will remember forever. Rather than seeing them as a hobbyist, he viewed them from a tactical point of view. He was very much to blame for all this.
In the time of the Guardiola, Zidane, Simeone … does it hurt other coaches like you not having been a renowned player like them?
I do not think so. What's more, I would say that for a coach who has been an elite footballer it must be frustrating to see players who cannot do the same as they did. The coach is born at a time when he must carry out disciplines that have nothing to do with what he has done before. It depends a lot on how you want to lead a group, how to organize it in the field… they are two such different roles that it is difficult to say if it helps or not.
Hazard said of you that you are a “Spanish style” coach, but the truth is that you spent 21 years nursing football in the UK.
I am a victim of my experiences, really. I was born into a football culture of possession, of technique, of wanting to play. And then I grow into another that is the other way around: throwing the ball allows you to go further, the divided ball is an opportunity to take it away … The great advantage is that I started in a way of understanding football and they immediately led me to the opposite . You quickly understand that there is no right and no right. You must break down what you are good at and what you are not so good at. Diversity is what has helped me. It is very difficult to describe myself as a coach because I have a mixture of my experiences.