{"id":22019,"date":"2020-02-04T22:31:09","date_gmt":"2020-02-04T13:31:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/?p=22019"},"modified":"2020-02-04T22:31:09","modified_gmt":"2020-02-04T13:31:09","slug":"five-positives-from-akira-nishinos-first-six-months-as-war-elephants-head-coach","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/2020\/02\/04\/five-positives-from-akira-nishinos-first-six-months-as-war-elephants-head-coach\/","title":{"rendered":"Five Positives from Akira Nishino\u2019s First Six Months as War Elephants Head Coach"},"content":{"rendered":"

Obb Deewajin<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n

Football Tribe Thailand<\/p>\n

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Six months have passed since Akira Nishino was appointed as Thailand’s head coach, and the War Elephants are already reaping the rewards of his experience, man-management ability, and tactical nous. Here are the five major positives of the Japanese boss’s time in charge so far.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n

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Opportunities For New Players<\/b><\/h3>\n

Akira Nishino made it clear right from his first game in charge that younger and fresher faces would be the way forward. Phitiwat Sukjitthammakul was handed his debut against Vietnam while attacker Supachok Sarachat also made his first competitive start with the senior squad in the same game.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Arriving after a disappointing 2019 Kings Cup, the young players added a positive vibe to the senior squad. By mixing new and more experienced members together, Nishino succeeded in creating a competitive, yet still upbeat, environment within the training camp. Ekanit Panya and Nitipong Selanon repaid Nishino\u2019s trust in them with a stellar performance in the UAE victory.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Former Chiangrai United president, Miti Tiyapairat, has spoken of increased motivation and hunger from his players after returning from international duty with Nishino. He also observed that the improved mentality from players such as Phitiwat and Sivakorn Tiatrakul has rubbed off on the entire squad, aiding the club to their historic league title.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

This speaks volumes of Nishino\u2019s impact by just leaving the national team door open. <\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Contact With The Selection Pool<\/b><\/h3>\n

Following on from the previous point, there is more drive for players to improve themselves if they know the door to the national team is open - and this includes those in the selection pool who didn\u2019t make it to the squad as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nishino arrived on short notice and was short of preparation time ahead of his debut match against bitter rivals Vietnam. To make up his opinion on players, Nishino attended Thai League clubs' training sessions.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

One player who has come out and praised Nishino\u2019s willingness to get to know the Thai selection is Sanrawat Dechmitr. Last season, the left-footed playmaker has fallen out of favor with the national team and his club side Bangkok United. Still, Sanrawat revealed that Nishino complimented his playing style, even though he couldn't offer him a return to the national team setup is difficult due to Sanrawat\u2019s limited playing time.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

In the past, conversations between the National Team head coach and players in his wider selection pool has been rather little. Sanrawat is not the only one who appreciates Nishino\u2019s effort to explain his squad selection. And it seems this communication between the national team staff and plays is the way forward.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Always Open to New Solutions<\/b><\/h3>\n

When you\u2019ve got an impressive CV like Nishino, fans come to some sort of tactical mastery in every game - and so far he has delivered in that area.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Under Milovan Rajevac, the first head coach to be appointed in Pol. Gen. Somyot Pumpanmuang as FAT president, Thailand played in a rigid 4-2-3-1 formation with some failed tactical tinkering in some friendlies. Replacing Rajevac after the Asian Cup defeat to India was Sirisak Yodyadthai whose biggest quality was simply that he was not Rajevac.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Unfortunately, that honeymoon period didn\u2019t last long. Soon complacency and tactical negligence surfaced at the 2019 Kings Cup. Yodyadthai resigned and Nishino became the third head coach in this regime.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Since then, Nishino has pulled off many tactical surprises, especially when it comes to his starting XI. We\u2019ve seen Thitipan Puangchan fielded and a \u2018forward-destroyer\u2019, bulldozing past the opponents, on the right side of a front-three system. Theerathon Bunmathan excelling in his inverted fullback role. Sorawit Panthong, an injured Muangthong United backup player who spent the final leg of the season on loan at second-tier Police Tero, is now one of the country\u2019s most exciting central midfielders after Nishino moved him inside from the left-wing.<\/span><\/p>\n

National team coaches often have little resources to work with, therefore, Nishino\u2019s eye for solutions and bravery to change is like a breath of fresh air after years of meager experimentation.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Right Balance of Discipline<\/b><\/h3>\n

During Rajevac\u2019s reign, the players were very unhappy with the football they are playing. Sanrawat Dechmitr was open in his criticism of Rajevac\u2019s pragmatic approach at the AFF Suzuki Cup 2018 while right-back Tristan Do cheered publicly after Rajevac\u2019s dismissal, saying the Serbian had sucked the fun out of the squad.<\/span><\/p>\n

But like we\u2019ve mentioned previously, Rajevac\u2019s successor, Sirisak Yodyadthai, couldn\u2019t take the side to the next level. His \u201cmister nice guy\u201d personality was unable to keep the team focus and before he knew it, freedom and creativity had turned into complacency.<\/span><\/p>\n

In spite of that, things completely changed for the Thais following Nishino\u2019s appointment. There were reports of much better discipline and professionalism within the training camp. Influential squad members who usually got away when taking things slightly slow (or as we Thais call it, \u201cJai yen yen\u201d) are now much more focused.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

According to reports, the players and staff were extremely impressed with how Nishino had outlined his plans. The team was won over by the former JFA technical director from their first team meeting. The players bought into Nishino\u2019s vision right away and the result is a sense of self-discipline within the team.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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\u00a0Man For the Big Occasion<\/b><\/h3>\n

Football is a results business. Nishino was bought in to take Thailand to the next level, and so far it looks like things are heading in the right direction.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The triumph over UAE was a massive result, plus that was one of the best performances from the Thai team in quite some time. The War Elephants may have been slightly unlucky to only picked up two draws against Vietnam but that was always going to be a tough game.\u00a0 Indonesia was there for the taking and the team got the job done. <\/span><\/p>\n

Failure to make it out of the group stage at the SEA Games may have upset some fans but the boss more than made up for it in the AFC U23 Championship. Putting a thrilling style of football on show, the Japanese boss took Thailand to the quarter-final rounds, only to be edged over by eventual runners-up Saudi Arabia.<\/span><\/p>\n

Nishino\u2019s only fault so far is the away defeat to Malaysia but other than that, overall results are pretty encouraging. Particularly in games where Thailand really needed the result.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n

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Obb Deewajin Football Tribe Thailand   Six months have passed since Akira Nishino was appointed as Thailand’s head coach, and the War Elephants are already reaping the rewards of his experience, man-management ability, and tactical nous. Here are the five major positives of the Japanese boss’s time in charge so far.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":22011,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26,38],"tags":[1411,95,68],"class_list":["post-22019","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-southeast-asia","category-thailand","tag-akira-nishino","tag-slider","tag-thailand"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22019","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/90"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22019"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22019\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22020,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22019\/revisions\/22020"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22011"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22019"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22019"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/football-tribe.com\/asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22019"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}