On January 5th, Beijing time, Beijing Guoan has officially assembled in Haikou to start the second phase of winter training preparations for the new season. Since the end of the first phase of physical fitness reserve stage of winter training on December 28 last year, the main task of this Haikou winter training will shift to team lineup integration and tactical drills. At the same time, the foreign coaching team led by the newly appointed Spanish head coach Quique Setién will join the team, and Setién will officially begin his coaching career at Guoan Club.
Setién completed his signing with Guoan in December last year before returning to Spain to deal with personal affairs. He arranged for his chief assistant coach Ramio to stay behind to lead Guoan through the first phase of winter training. As a coach who has coached La Liga giants Barcelona, Setién is undoubtedly the most prominent coach in the current Chinese Super League (CSL).
In recent seasons, Beijing Guoan has experienced frequent changes in foreign coaches, but the team's performance has not improved. After finishing only fourth in the CSL last season, this forced the Guoan management to make another coaching change decision. The controversial former Portuguese head coach, Suárez, left, and was replaced by the more famous former Barcelona coach Quique Setién.
The opinions on Guoan's new coach selection are mixed. The 66-year-old Setién is a professional coach trained by the Spanish football system, with a rich coaching resume. His coaching style is typical of the possession and control technical flow route favored by Spanish coaches, which perfectly aligns with Beijing Guoan's pursuit of possession, quick advancement, and technical style in recent years.
Although Setién has a history of coaching a giant team like Barcelona, in fact, his seven-month short coaching career at Barcelona was not a successful experience. He led Barcelona in 25 games with only 16 wins, 4 draws, and 5 losses, including a painful defeat with a big score of 2:8 against Bayern Munich in the Champions League knockout stage. However, during Setién's tenure at Barcelona, the team was facing a financial crisis, with morale scattered and its combat effectiveness greatly reduced.
However, with Setién's coaching ability, he can easily handle the CSL. After taking over as the head coach of Guoan, Setién is also full of confidence, and he is confident about Guoan's future. Upon his return to Beijing, he immediately demonstrated his decisive side as a European coach, quickly meeting with the senior management of Guoan to discuss the winter training plan arrangements and the new season's transfer work.
He also made an unexpected decision to meet with Serginho, the team's newly introduced midfield core. Setién couldn't wait to have a face-to-face talk with Serginho to convey his coaching tactical requirements to this new midfield core. He hopes that Serginho can fully follow his tactical guidelines to organize and sort out the midfield work in the new season. Setién's goal is to transform Guoan into a Spanish-style football powerhouse.