A special chemistry

This is an interview from How to Win the World Cup: Secrets and Insights from International Football's Top Managers (Bloomsbury) by Chris Evans

In my first press conference as Croatia manager in 2017, I said I’d resign if we failed to qualify for the following year’s World Cup.

It’s just how I felt. There were only two days before we played Ukraine in our final group game. If we lost that match, we’d have been out.

I believed in myself, though, and I believed in the quality of the team. I wanted to show the players that I was there for them – not for myself, my contract or money, but to help them achieve the great things they were capable of.

Managing a national team is the highest honour for any coach, so money and contracts were not important to me at that point. I just wanted to qualify for the World Cup, because that generation of players deserved one more chance of a big result at a major tournament.

With open communication and talking a lot to the players, both collectively and individually, we quickly created a positive atmosphere within the Croatia camp. It’s normal in football to feel down after some negative results. When I took over for the match in Ukraine [predecessor Ante Cacic had won just one of the previous four World Cup qualifiers], I felt the team needed some optimism, positive thinking and confidence.

I just tried to show the players that I truly believed in them and that, if they showed what they were capable of, they could achieve great things.

Two days later, we beat Ukraine (above) to finish second in our group and qualify for the playoffs. Just over nine months afterwards, we were playing in Croatia’s first ever World Cup final.

"many of the players dreamed of receiving a huge welcome home from the croatian fans. they remembered the 1998 team"

Beating Ukraine in an important qualifier was particularly significant for us, because Croatia’s great side of the late 1990s had to do the same thing as part of their journey to the World Cup semi finals in 1998. It was a very important bit of motivation for our players – especially the older ones, who remembered the 1998 World Cup.

Many of the players said on several occasions that they had always dreamed of going to Croatia and receiving a huge welcome home from the Croatian fans after producing some great results. They remembered that ’98 team (below). It gave them the self-confidence that a small country such as Croatia could go far in a major tournament, but also the motivation to experience something like that themselves.

We used that to our advantage. I always repeated to them, and to the media, that I truly believed this group could do something similar in Russia. I tried to get that into the players’ heads.

Our preparation wasn’t all straightforward, though. There were some negative headlines after I agreed that some of the players could go home early from a training camp in the United States three months before the tournament.

I understood that our players were under a lot of pressure from their clubs, who pay them a lot of money to play well in big matches. International week in March isn’t very popular among clubs, especially when you’re playing friendlies at a time when clubs are competing for championships and in the knockout stage of the Champions League. I knew our trip to the States wasn’t ideal for many of our star players, so I wanted to be flexible and allow some of them to leave early.

However, it was also important for us to start preparing for the World Cup. Obviously, it wasn’t a great situation when some of our key players missed the second game of that tour and instead went back to their clubs. But, again, communication is very important. I tried to use our subsequent good performance in that second game, against Mexico, to send a message that nobody was irreplaceable. We had other players who could step up into the first team.

"young-against-old matches in training are always competitive and bring out a good chemistry"

In the end, everything worked out well. As long as we had good communication and understanding that all of my decisions were made for the benefit of the team and not any individual, I didn’t expect major issues.

Luckily, the atmosphere is always good in the Croatian national team. Of course, bad results can influence that, as it did during that qualifying campaign. In general, though, our players really get along well with each other. We’re a small country and most of our players have known each other from a very young age. Many of them started their careers at the same clubs.

Playing for the national team is always a great honour, so we rarely had any issues with behaviour. It’s easier to build a good atmosphere when players like spending time with each other.

When we’re together for a training camp, we always look to provide the squad with a good games room where they can spend time with each other – playing darts, table tennis, table football and other games.

We also try to make training sessions fun when we can. They particularly liked playing ‘young against old’ matches in training – they are always very competitive and engaging games that bring out a lot of good chemistry among the players.

Finally, it’s very important to pick good, positive, fun people among the staff – people such as physiotherapists, trainers and doctors – because they spend a lot of time with the players. We want the players to feel like there is a genuine family atmosphere within the team.

"kalinic did leave the group. i didn't want to speak too much about that then, and i won't speak about it now either"

I know everybody says that, but there’s a difference between saying it and living it. During that World Cup, we truly lived as a family. We didn’t need any team-building exercises; we just let our love for the national team build good chemistry naturally and organically through open communication and a relaxed approach. When it came to work, we were serious – but we relaxed when it came to spending time together.

In the 60 days that we were together, there were zero fights of any kind and no verbal disagreements between any players or staff members. It doesn’t happen often that 50 men are together for so long and get along all the time.

Throughout the entire tournament, we didn’t have a single game where we didn’t have every player available. That shows we were prepared very well in terms of conditioning, but also that our players were focused, that our medical staff was great, and that everybody was willing to sacrifice their body for the benefit of the team. That was a huge factor in our success.

At the tournament, though, Nikola Kalinic did leave the group [after he refused to come on as a substitute in the team’s first group match against Nigeria (above)]. It was the hardest coaching decision of my career, because I valued Nikola’s quality and I believed he could contribute to the team during the tournament.

However, I had to make that decision because he wasn’t ready, at that moment, to contribute to the team. I didn’t want to speak too much about that then, and I won’t speak too much about it now either. The details are something that should stay in the dressing room.

The players were so important to me throughout the tournament. I would have been a fool not to use their knowledge, experience and football intelligence. We had four players at that time who had won the Champions League – Luka Modric four times, Mateo Kovacic three times, Ivan Rakitic and Mario Mandzukic once. Two more – Dejan Lovren and Ivan Perisic – would go on to win it after the World Cup.

"surely it was helpful to get some advice from rakitic on how to keep lionel messi in check?"

So, we had players who had played on the biggest stage, and who already had a lot of international experience with Croatia. It was only normal for me to talk with them a lot – not just to seek their opinions, but also to pick their brains about our opponents, our strengths and our weaknesses.

For example, surely it was helpful to get some advice from Rakitic on how to try to keep Lionel Messi in check when we played Argentina? Or to talk with Vedran Corluka, who played for Lokomotiv Moscow, about Russia’s team. We all knew the final decisions were mine, because that’s my job, but I truly valued their experience and knowledge.

One of our star men was Luka Modric, who was named player of the tournament for his role in getting us to the final. Luka is just a world-class player and he showed that during the tournament, but he also has proven it before and after with Real Madrid.

While he’s a key player on the pitch, for me it was just as important to have him as a leader in the team. When your best player and captain works so hard in practice, prepares so well for every training session, takes care of his body, respects everybody, from players to every staff member, and just has such a professional approach to football, the whole team follows that lead.

More than anything, that’s the reason why he won that award (above) – and all the awards after that. It’s a reward for his whole career, because he’s an example of somebody who gives everything for the team and works hard each day to get better. Even at his age, you can see that some aspects of his game are still improving. That is unbelievable.

During the World Cup, we looked at each game to see how we could use Luka in the most effective way. Sometimes he had more freedom in a more attacking position, and sometimes we felt that he and Rakitic could control the midfield on their own.

"luka always has a solution. he is always several steps ahead of everybody else"

Luka is just a brilliant player. He always has a solution, he is always several steps ahead of everybody, and he has great ball control, technique, vision and passing ability. More than anything, he has football intelligence. Luka’s just a great player to have in the team, because he truly makes everybody better.

We went through the tournament game by game, because each opponent was very different. Once we progressed past a certain phase, our preparation for the next opponent started immediately after the game. Often, that was on the plane to the next destination.

We always wanted to play to our strengths, while also neutralising our opponents’ main strengths. It doesn’t always go like you planned, and in the knockout stages we conceded the first goal in every game we played: against Denmark, Russia, England (below) and France.

We managed to get back into all of those games and, except in the final, to win in extra-time or on penalties. You can’t plan for that, but you can prepare the team physically, tactically and – most of all – psychologically to be ready for any scenario.

We won two penalty shoot-outs during the tournament. People say penalties are a lottery, but I believe that good luck is earned by working hard.

Nobody works harder than Luka, and he deserved every bit of luck he had with the two penalties he scored against Denmark and Russia. You can practise them as much as you want, and you can analyse the opponents as much as you want, but you’ve still got to convert the penalty when the time comes. That depends on a player’s character and his calmness, but also on some luck.

"croatia had lost an important shoot-out against turkey at euro 2008. maybe that experience helped them this time"

It must have helped our goalkeeper, Danijel Subasic, that we had done good analysis of the penalties taken by Danish and Russian players – but it was still up to him to save those penalties. Croatia had lost an important shoot-out against Turkey at Euro 2008, in which both Modric and Rakitic had missed. Maybe that experience helped them this time – or maybe the football gods gave them something back after that game.

There are a lot of factors that go into penalty shoot-outs, and I’m just happy we had the guts to win both games. For that, I give all the credit to the players and their execution.

Once we got to the final, there was no need for any special motivation. We tried to keep the players’ feet on the ground and to relax them as much as possible. The media hype, ticket requests and seeing all the videos from Croatia with unreal celebrations – as well as the physical exertion of playing extra-time so many times – can really influence your performance on the pitch. We tried to stay relaxed and focused on our task, which was our next game.

Looking back on the tournament, it’s clear we have quality in our team, but so did a number of other nations. What was key for us was this unbelievable togetherness, unity, brotherhood and belief that we could overcome any obstacle.

That’s why I will forever be proud that I was the head coach of such a special team.

Click here to order your copy of  How to Win the World Cup: Secrets and Insights from International Football's Top Managers, which is out now and includes exclusive interviews with the likes of Luiz Felipe Scolari, Roberto Martinez and Geoff Hurst