Slaven Bilic: The Turning Points

Having the quality

He says he may not have been the best player in a team, but he was a player that teams and coaches wanted. He contributed to teams who may not have been the best, player for player, but they succeeded because of the strength of the collective.

"You have to have a quality. If you don’t have a quality, then sometimes it happens that you win this and that. When Leicester won the Premier League, that was a miracle. That was one-off, but they had a quality, especially the spine. They have maybe that year the best goalkeeper in the league, Schmeichel. Then they have Kante, the best midfielder in the league, best winger with Mahrez, and best goalscorer with Vardy.”

Coming from Croatia has gone some way to instilling that quality in Bilic himself, he thinks.

“No matter who is the manager, they always have that spirit. And that is what makes the difference.”

“I try to shape and to create my, not unique, style, but my way of doing it”

He points to his experience as Croatia’s national team coach, when after a tournament and six weeks in camp, he saw a group of his players leaving the airport together.

"I asked, ‘Where are you going, guys?’ They told me, ‘We’re going for lunch together.’

“I said, ‘You had lunch for 60 days!’ Now they go again together for lunch! That’s what makes Croatia different than others. They are mates. They are not in contact only when there’s an international break.  They are best mates even when one of them is playing for Man City and the other one is playing for Real Madrid. I bet you that Kovacic and Modric are texting or whatever each other on a daily basis.

“That’s not enough - but [it is] if you add that to talent and if you add that to some kind of a responsibility.” 

Croatia’s high expectations

Bilic took over as the senior team’s manager in 2006, having been appointed as under-21 coach two years previously.

“The expectations are high everywhere, and in Croatia, they’re sky high,” he said, admitting that the senior team had been in a decline since the retirement of striker Davor Suker. 

"I took over [as manager], and I was very young. I was 37. After prime minister, it’s the number two position in the country. Football is very important. The [domestic] league is not the greatest; the national team is the beacon of the football.”

Bilic led his team to a famous 3-2 win over England at Wembley in European Championship qualification in 2007, with the result and the roles with which he trusted his players creating plenty of comment around his courage.

“On the one hand, yes,” he said, “but what I wanted to say [to the media] is that I knew [the players] because I managed them in the under-21s. It was much easier for me because I knew what they could do. I even spoke to them, in the under-21s: ‘Maybe you can play there?’

That meant he was fully aware of the abilities of players at his disposal such as Niko Kranjčar, Luca Modric and Eduardo.

"I knew they were going to do well. They were special characters. They’re very strong, and they had a quality. Throughout my career, I love young players, and I think all the coaches in the world will tell you that they love young players because young players, they bring you something. They’re not afraid. They are positive. They take on the players. They think the glass is half full. They never think the glass is half empty. They are very brave. You know? They are not afraid. They are not afraid. They don’t want to stay in a comfort zone.

"That’s great when the game is going good. But the game is like life. It has some turning points; there is turbulence in every game. Then the key is to have experience and a safe zone.”

He gives another example from his time at West Ham, pairing the 16-year-old Reece Oxford alongside the veteran Mark Noble.

"Young players, they have their ups and downs, and they need help, and they need to be nurtured. You have to look after them. You have to spend time talking to them.”

Playing good football

Although Bilic has a preferred system of play – or as he puts it “the way I love the most” - he is always willing to adjust.

“Your tactics, the way of play, your philosophy, it depends on the players you have,” he says.

“My philosophy throughout the years, how I like football, my teams to play: I want to put as many players as possible on a pitch that are good on a ball, that are good players.

“Harry Redknapp was like that. Even when he was managing West Ham and we were not the greatest team, he always put as many good players on a pitch as possible. That’s because if you don’t have that, then you don’t have a chance, and you can’t play good football. If you have that, you have a chance.”

Of course, when winning is the priority, something has to give.

“I always want to play attractive football, but it’s my job to organise them, to make them responsible, to make them die for each other, to do the dirty work and everything. That’s my job.”

And that job is the same no matter what country he is coaching in.

“I love football. You have to respect the habits and the culture. You don’t copy paste the way you train in UK when you go to Saudi Arabia.

“I always want to play attractive football, but it’s my job to organise them, to make them responsible, to make them die for each other. That’s my job”

“Let’s say [you compare] Everton and Sevilla: same value, same players, same everything. In Liverpool it’s 15 degrees to 20 degrees when you’re playing, ideal conditions to play football, raining every day a little bit. In Sevilla, it’s 40 [degrees]. You have to know when you train, how you train - it’s different.

“But football is football. It’s still the same. Your principles: you want to train good, you have to have your team energy, there has to be intensity and energy in the sessions.

“The key is to be consistent and to be fair to everyone. If you are fair, still no matter how the world changes and what the players say, they will respect you.”