Martinez talks PSG, Madrid and Club World Cup surprises

• Roberto Martinez is part of FIFA’s Technical Study Group at the Club World Cup
• Portugal coach arrived days after winning the UEFA Nations League
• Martinez spoke to FIFA about a couple of title contenders and what’s surprised him in USA

On 8 June, less than a week before the FIFA Club World Cup™ kicked off, Roberto Martinez lurched off an emotional rollercoaster.

Having just watched his team win the UEFA Nations League, this after twice coming from behind to force a shootout against Spain, the Portugal coach was as exhausted as he was elated.

With a major triumph to bask in, and no fixtures to oversee until September, it would have been understood – expected even – if Martinez had spent the ensuing weeks surrounded by loved ones, scenic surroundings and cold celebratory drinks. As it was, the Spaniard hopped almost immediately on a translatlantic flight and reported for a month-long, 63-match assignment.

Joining FIFA’s Technical Study Group for the inaugural 32-team Club World Cup might not have seemed an obvious choice for a man so recently immersed in high-stakes matches against the Nations League hosts and European champions. But this role, as Martinez explained, is part scouting mission, part labour of love.

“The next step for Portugal is obviously to try to qualify for the World Cup, and [with the USA co-hosting] I felt this was a unique opportunity to be able to see and experience the conditions here,” he explained. “It’s also something I just really enjoy: watching football, and analysing it in a way that you can be relaxed and neutral.

“I started doing this in 2010, at the World Cup in South Africa, and I always like to commit to a tournament. Following it from afar is one thing but it's very different when you get involved on site, watching 60-plus games. As a coach I’ve found the best way to keep myself stimulated, educated and learning all the time is following tournaments in this way - seeing everything from the inside.”

This close-up view has certainly afforded him a unique perspective on the Club World Cup, and Martinez shared his opinions in this exclusive interview.

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FIFA: Roberto, can you please tell us what you’ve made of the Club World Cup so far?

Roberto Martinez: Well, it's been fascinating because I keep looking at comparisons with my experiences at the World Cup with national teams. And you’ve got dynamics here that happen in a World Cup. But there are also aspects that are totally, totally different.

I think in general it's a competition that has brought three types of teams: the teams that arrived in the middle of their season and are in a level of competitiveness. [We’ve seen that] especially with the Brazilian teams. Then you've got the teams that are in pre-season, especially the Europeans, and with them you’ve seen a big difference between game one and game three. Then you've got another group of teams that have a new coach and they’ve maybe had just four sessions to prepare their first game. That's where you can see a lot of similarities with what happens with national teams in a World Cup.

So it's been fascinating so far. Great games. And probably the best is still to come.

You spoke to FIFA Training Centre before the tournament about your expectations. Have those expectations generally been met, or has anything surprised you?

I was surprised about was how clear the difference was initially between those groups of teams I mentioned, and the way they arrived in the tournament. Now though, I think we’re getting to a clearer understanding of where every team sits.

Probably the biggest surprise has been the substitutes and changes between games. Before the tournament I didn't expect to be so different – for example, between Manchester City, who changed 11 players after the first game, to Al Hilal, who made no changes to their starting XI in any of their first three games. Between these extremes, you’ve got teams with the capacity of using large squads where anybody can play, teams that can make big changes from one game to another, other teams that maybe have a more consistent XI but have five players on the bench that can really influence and change the way they finish games. And then you got other teams who don’t have the same opportunity to change the game with their substitutes. It’s going to be interesting to see whether that has a big bearing and a big say on which team wins the tournament.

You mention that a number of teams came into this tournament with new coaches. Are you seeing interesting things what those coaches are trying to do?

Definitely. With Al Ahly, I was very, very impressed with the way that the new coach arrived and, within a very short period of time, developed an identity that you recognise in the team when they play. I was also very impressed with Mamelodi Sundowns - the way they were so confident the way they played, no matter the opposition. They probably didn't get the results their performances deserved.

With Real Madrid, it's been fascinating to see Xabi Alonso because he knows the club inside-out. I think he’s shown an understanding of where the team was and is starting to evolve it step by step. He hasn’t come in and changed things drastically. I think he's trying to, with little tricks, find out about his players. The third game was the first time that we saw his preferred [3-4-3] tactical system, the one he used at Bayer Leverkusen, and that suited a lot Real Madrid players who had never played that system before. It’s been really interesting the way that Xabi Alonso has arrived - with a very clear flexibility, with a very clear focus of building a team quickly but not without paying respect to the process that is needed. I think the next few games will tell us a lot more about that fascinating journey for him at Real Madrid.

You’ve experienced World Cups on this scale, and know very the challenge of managing a team off the field with everyone in each other’s pockets for weeks on end. Is that challenge different for club coaches?

I think if this happened ten years ago, it would have been a massive shock. Now it's not a shock for the big clubs at least because in pre-season normally you've got a trip to Asia or the United States, so you tend to spend a lot of time together anyway. When I'm looking around, I see a lot of coaches here who have experience as players in World Cups, and you can see that they're managing the players’ downtime very, very well. I think it's a big aspect of being a club manager you have to find a way to give normality to the players, and give them a bit of time to switch off.

That side of things has been interesting because it’s clear the players in general are enjoying the experience and enjoying being with each other. We've seen some teams are at the end of their cycle, with some players who will leave at the end of this tournament and have a unique opportunity to finish their time [on a high]. And then we've seen other teams that have new faces and it's a fresh start for everybody, with players who want to impress each other.

With those new players you mention, do you feel this tournament is almost accelerating their integration?

Totally. When a new player arrives in a team, the technical, the tactical and the physical aspects are the reasons they’ve been signed. But that arrival - the way you cope with the expectations of the new club, your new team-mates, how you perform in games - is so important. I think there are many players that you could mention here, from Dean Huijsen at Real Madrid to Jonathan Tah at Bayern Munich, that - by playing in a (Club) World Cup straight away - are really advancing in that settling-in period with their new club.

PSG clearly came into this tournament on a huge high after their incredible UEFA Champions League final win. What have you made of their development under Luis Enrique?

I think they've been a reference and an example. I don't think we've seen a scoreline like the one they had against Inter Milan in the Champions League final, and there’s a reason for that scoreline. It's the way that they grew in the season, winning the domestic titles, finding a way to use the quality they have. [They have developed] a very fluent way of using the midfielders, using a lot of pace in the wide areas, and something that we all love - that talent in one-v-one situations. They’re also a team that creates a lot of opportunities because they’re very well drilled in defending quickly, high, and they recover the ball very quickly.

It's a team I know well because they've got four players from Portugal, and I've seen a big development in those players themselves. Clearly they’re a team with a lot of confidence, a lot of belief, and once they qualified [from the league phase] in the Champions League - because that was a period of difficulty during their season - you saw that they went to a different level and probably became unstoppable.

In Luis Enrique and a few other coaches here, do you see some kindred spirits in the way they view and look to play the game?

That's normal. The coach’s position is a lonely job at times but you've got different backgrounds, different stories behind every coach and those ideas allow players to be used in different ways. In the end though, it's always comes down to the same thing: a coach should empower players to be at their best, to grow and to be able to enjoy the football pitch. There are many ways to do that as we've seen in this tournament. But I do feel that we're going to see the best games dictated by those coaches that you mention in the quarter-finals and semi-finals.

What have you enjoyed about the teams from outside of Europe and the ingredients they’ve brought to this Club World Cup?

I’ve enjoyed the aspects that are very unique to those teams, or aspects that come more from their confederations. For example, the average age of the goalkeeper in the CONMEBOL teams is 35 and above. I think that’s a cultural aspect, and a belief that the goalkeeper should be an experienced player who helps his team-mates with his performances. Then you've got the contrasting aspect in some European teams, with the likes of Salzburg, where the goalkeeper is just 18.

The Brazilian teams have been interesting. You look at Palmeiras and Botafogo playing against each other: two back fours with two No6s, very structured, very well organised and very defensive. That’s something that we haven't seen in the European teams as much, and it’s a different way of defending. I think that's interesting because, when you are in a tournament like this, teams and coaches stimulate each other. That’s what's been so rich at this Club World Cup: sharing different philosophies, different cultures, with teams that are competitive in different ways.

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