The goalkeeping coach spoke to Flashscore Spain Country Manager Oliver Domínguez ahead of the friendly between the Balkans and Spain.
How will Serbia approach the friendly against Spain?
"This is going to be my second FIFA window, as in the previous one we played the last games of the World Cup qualifiers, and unfortunately, we didn't qualify.
"On the one hand, I was very happy when we saw that our opponents were Spain, but this wasn't foreseen. Our opponent, in Doha, for the Qatar Football Festival, was going to be Saudi Arabia, but unfortunately, with these incidents of the war that is going on, it was impossible to hold that event. On the other hand, we have come out ahead in terms of the rival, in terms of the importance it has, in terms of the excitement it gives us, that's the first perspective.
"Secondly, we know their potential, we know the Spanish national team very well and the Serbian player is at a very high technical and tactical level. He has a spectacular ability, and we know that we have to go with everything, that we have to go there not thinking that it's a friendly, not thinking about enjoying the atmosphere we're going to find at La Ceramica, but thinking that if we don't give 100%, we could have a bad time."
You mentioned the friendly changed to Spain last minute since they were going to play the Finalissima in the Middle East and everything fell through. How did you go through the process of organising this friendly match?
"I was in Madrid, where I also teach at the Spanish Federation, at the UEFA GK Courses for goalkeeping coaches, where I am a tutor, and it was there that I met Miguel Angel Espana, who is the goalkeeping coach of the Spanish senior national team, and there the news came out that Argentina had problems changing the venue for the match, I didn't think it was a very neutral venue to play in Spain and there were a lot of problems.
"Right there, when we were at the Spanish Federation, our name came up, Serbia's name, and we both talked about it. It will be the first time that Miguel Ángel España and I will play against each other in an international match. Once it was confirmed, it was time to start analysing what the Spanish national team is, the individuals, set pieces, etcetera."
How did you land your job with the Serbian national team?
"Everything happens for a reason. I was in Saudi Arabia, at Al-Ittihad last season with Laurent Blanc as a coach. We won the league and the cup, we started this second season, and on matchday four, one defeat and we were out. In the end, the Saudi world doesn't expect much in terms of long-term results either, and when we lost to Al Nassr at home, that was a bit of a debacle and confirmed my departure from Al Ittihad.
"While I was still in Jeddah, Paunovic, who had just been sacked at Oviedo, was setting up his new coaching staff, he didn't have a goalkeeping coach, they had spoken to him about me and before we met in Madrid, before we met in person, the option of the Serbian national team came up, they contacted Pauno, and well, after that everything went quite quickly, and very well, very happy."
What does your day-to-day life consist of in the Serbian national team?
"Very calm. At the end of the day, the work on the field, preparing training sessions, studying the opposition, it's not daily, it's a lot of scouting, watching a lot of video. There are about 183 Serbian goalkeepers in the big leagues, not all of them are playing, but we have to keep track of them, try to get to know all of them, or most of them, and monitor those who are the most outstanding and the five or six possible goalkeepers who could be with us. We monitor the youth categories, the U-21s and U-19s.
"We watch the matches that we can see, all the training sessions that we can get when the youth teams have training camps here, and so we wait until the next FIFA window, which is when we meet here, in Stara Pazova, in the city of football in Belgrade. So the day-to-day is very similar to a pre-season; we are concentrated in the hotel, double training sessions, lots of video, coexistence, very similar to a pre-season."
Can I ask you about the differences between working as a goalkeeping coach for a national team and a club?
"Here we work with a lot of data, with a lot of video, we have a lot of time to prepare, evaluate and analyse that data, until we get, as I said, to that FIFA window in which we are going to do the training. It's not a very, very high load because the player is already coming from high loads. Normally, the first day they come here, they've either played the day before or two days before. We have to do a lot of recovery work, more activation.
"In those almost 10 days that we're here, that's our handicap, we focus on recovery and activation with a lot of tactical content, but very little training, we can't put excessive loads on them, we don't do explosive strength work, so it's more about conditioning, in my case, the goalkeepers, prevention work, and once they're out on the pitch, we adapt them to the game model and keep them at the technical and tactical level they already have.
"We find the best version of the player. The player, when he comes to the national team, already feels important because he has been selected, and here he wants to enjoy living together, training, and representing his country, so he is at his best."
What are Serbia's three goalkeepers like?
What is Djordje Petrovic like, the goalkeeper who was at Chelsea and is now at Iraola's Bournemouth?
"I love to value the person, and as a person, he is exceptional. He's a guy who also loves to work; we have to slow him down a bit, and tell him to be calm, to stop, that if he wants to do some extra work in goal, whatever it is, we do five minutes on our own, 10 minutes maximum.
"He's a sponge, he asks a lot of questions, he wants to learn, he loves it, he's constantly learning. It's a bit like the profile of the three goalkeepers we have in this squad - Vanja Milikovic-Savic, Rajkovic and Petrovic - who are also in this process of restlessness, of continuing to learn. They are not comfortable and self-important goalkeepers; they are humble, and it's a pleasure to work with them."
Vanja, for example, is an established goalkeeper in Italian football and is a star there.
"That's for sure. I also think that, in the context in which we have arrived here, under Veljko Paunovic, it helps. He already worked with this generation of players and they won the U-20 World Cup. Although I don't know how the previous coach worked, what his methodology was, I see the players with a sense of excitement, not just the goalkeepers, but everyone in the Serbian national team, that Paunovic is here with them.
"It's like they are remembering those successes they had in the past. And maybe that's the point that humility blossoms, that they want to keep learning, that they want to remember those successes they had in the past. They work with absolute normality and very good work within this selection."
And the third keeper, who many Spanish fans will remember because he played for Mallorca, and you also know him from Al Ittihad. What is Predrag Rajkovic like?
"Well, Rajko is a 10. I met him this season and last season at Al Ittihad, and he was very, very good. He is a goalkeeper who stands out in the Saudi league, which seems to have a slightly lower level, but it is very demanding, and he has improved a lot in recent years.
"Rajko, last season, he had a brutal performance. Thanks to him, of course, for those saved goals, but also for the goals we scored with the strikers we had; we won both titles. In fact, the last title, the cup winner, he played with a ruptured rectus. He was between cotton wool and he wanted to play, and he didn't hit a single shot with his right foot because he had a torn rectus.
"He hit all his shots with his left leg; he is right-footed, but he has very good technical execution with his left and we managed to win the final against Al Qadsiah, who were coached by Míchel at the time. The MVP, if I'm not mistaken, was Rajko. Imagine how he performed even when he was injured. He had surgery on the injury after the end of the season."
Now, talking about the Serbian head coach, what is it like working with Veljko Paunovic?
"The truth is that he is very comfortable. He is a modern coach who knows how to manage and delegate responsibilities and competencies to the rest of his staff. I love it, and he does it both in offensive situations in which the goalkeeper is a participant and protagonist in that offensive phase, and in defensive actions in which he asks the goalkeeper to be positioned in a certain way, the way we see it, the way I see it in this case, as a specialist.
"And also how we can train him so that the goalkeeper is prepared for this type of defence of space, of the ball behind the back, of situations of outside play, etc.
"And then also, which is something I like a lot, which I have already practised at Espanyol, is the analysis of set-pieces, especially in defence, which is when our goalkeeper is important, because there he also gives us the value of being able to communicate, to demand, to delegate in the creation and development of that set-piece."
Time with Blanc in Saudi Arabia
Looking back, how did the opportunity to go to Al Ittihad come about?
"Well, the option of Al Ittihad. The sporting director is Ramon Planas, who was at Espanyol; the director of methodology at the academy is Jaume Bartrés, who was a physical trainer at Espanyol; and I spent 14 seasons at Espanyol; he was a physical trainer for 12 of them.
"Al Ittihad's coach was Gallardo, who finished the season and was sacked; at that time, there was no coach. With him, the goalkeeping coach left and then I received a call from Jaume, where he told me that they were waiting for a new coach, and that if they didn't have a goalkeeping coach, they would show him my profile.
"First, they contacted Pioli, but at the last minute it wasn't possible and the one they signed was Blanc. We met, we had a meeting in Alicante two days before the start of the pre-season in Spain, and he agreed with my way of working in line with what he wanted.
"When Laurent explained to me his methodology, his model of play, I told him that there was no problem; it was an absolute adaptation. It was a new experience, I had never left Spain until then and the truth is that it was a very positive experience."
How was the experience of being there with players of such a high level? Because, at the end of the day, big stars have arrived there.
"Yes, at Al Ittihad, the most famous was Karim Benzema, who was the absolute reference point in attack and as the image of the club and of the nation itself, of Saudi Arabia itself, which uses Karim's image, as well as Neymar's when he was there at Al Hilal or Cristiano Ronaldo's, who continues at Al Nassr. That summer Moussa Diaby, Steven Bergwijn, Danilo Pereira, Fabinho, ... I don't want to leave anyone out, but there are quite a few.
"And then there is the Saudi potential, in the end Al Ittihad is one of the best teams, I would say the best, especially in terms of the fans in Saudi Arabia. The Saudi players in the team are all internationals, so it's going to the best team in a league. It was a very important step and I did it with a lot of enthusiasm and also with peace of mind, because the truth is that the people there are wonderful and the players behaved exceptionally. In fact, some of them even shed a few tears when we were dismissed from there, so that shows how important our time there was and how important it was for us to have those players."
We have mentioned Laurent Blanc a couple of times, a very iconic coach, who as a player also played for a lot of teams and was at Barça for one year in the 90s. Because he's a person who has always transmitted a certain hermeticism and seriousness.
"He's not serious as a person. The truth is that it went very well. It was very easy to work with Laurent. I think I've worked with a lot of coaches. Imagine, 14 seasons at Espanyol, and then I was part of Vicente Moreno's staff. At Espanyol, they changed coaches every year. I think he would be in the top five of the best squad managers I have worked with. There is a lot of talk about Ancelotti's management at Madrid during the years he was there.
"I think Laurent Blanc is at that level. Just like in the dressing room of Real Madrid, FC Barcelona, in the dressing room of Al-Ittihad or Al Hilal there are huge egos, and you can't imagine the normality with which he dealt with and the normality he received from those people who have won practically everything in Europe or in other leagues. And he arrives in Saudi Arabia and competes to the maximum, performs to the maximum and with a very high level of demand."
With Vicente Moreno at Almeria and Espanyol
You had a very brief experience at Almeria. How was it?
"Yes, there were seven games at Almería. I left Espanyol to go to Almeria under Vicente Moreno, as part of his staff. We did the whole pre-season and on match day 7, we were sacked. In the end, these are football things.
"The truth is that the team played very nice football, very dynamic, but in the end, the ball didn't go in as expected. And if I'm not mistaken, I think we drew two or three games out of those seven matches. We didn't get any wins and on matchday 7, against Sevilla, we lost there and on the way back they told us that we had been sacked.
How did you work with Vicente Moreno?
"Very well. As I said before, I have worked with a lot of coaches. Not all of them have been at Espanyol for a long time. I worked with Vicente during the first season that Espanyol was in the second division. We were promoted that same season, and then we stayed in the first division.
"Those coaches, when they left Espanyol, many of them contacted me to try to get me to join their new projects in other clubs, but the only one I felt it was clear to leave Espanyol with was Vicente, because of the potential he could have, because he is young, his model of play fitted me a lot, he is very similar to Paunovic, that type of delegating to the rest of the staff.
"I felt very comfortable both with him and with the physical trainer, who is Dani Pastor, the assistant coach Dani Pendín. It created a very nice bond. When he left for Al-Shabab, they made me a proposal, but I had renewed my contract with Espanyol for two seasons and there was a big penalty if I left.
"The following season, he was only in Arabia for one season. That's when he went to Almeria, he called me again, and that's when I said yes, I was going there. It was a very good experience.
"The fact of leaving your comfort zone after 14 years at Espanyol. You start with those expectations of what's going to happen and then in the end you end up moving to Saudi Arabia. If I hadn't taken the step, I probably wouldn't have experienced what I'm experiencing now."
Speaking of those years in one of the best youth academies at Espanyol, how would you sum it up?
"Brutal learning. I came to Espanyol at youth level. I was a goalkeeping coach at the Centre d'Esports L'Hospitalet, in Segunda B, in Group 3, and there I received a call from Tommy N'Kono and the goalkeeping coordinator at the time, who was Josep Pascual, who had seen me work. I had also worked in different clubs in Terrassa and in Mollet. I've always been responsible for the academy's methodology, for the goalkeepers at the grassroots level, and that's when I got the call from Espanyol because they wanted me to join them to be in charge of the infantile and cadet stages.
"And to be the goalkeeping coach for the two infants and the two cadets. I started, if I remember correctly, in September, and in December they promoted me to Espanyol B. And the same day I trained with Espanyol B, the next day I trained with the first team, helping N'Kono, and it was an absolute learning experience.
"It was the first time I was training first division players. I remember Cristian Alvarez and Kiko Casilla, who were the goalkeepers at the time. It was absolutely normal for them to see me there and with Tommy N'Kono we shared, imagine, all those years. He was like my father. Until 2017, when I joined the first team 100%, under Quique Sánchez Flores, and there we were both in tandem, but I was more responsible for the training and the conditioning part, the tactical part too, and then I was responsible for the methodology of grassroots football."
One of the discoverers of Joan Garcia
You also worked with Joan Garcia, who is now perhaps one of the best goalkeepers in Europe, and who may be Serbia's opponent in Friday's friendly. What was it like to train him? What was he like as a goalkeeper going up the ranks and when you trained him?
"We signed Joan from Damm. I remember the reports when we went to see him. We already highlighted his physique, his speed, things that we still see today. But once we got close to him and saw that he was a very intelligent goalkeeper, who controlled his feelings very well, he didn't express any nervousness on the outside, even though inside he might be nervous.
"When we detected those kinds of determining factors for high performance, at the age of 17, he started to move up to the first team, as a second-year youth player. I coincided with him for four seasons in the first team, and we had a lot of talks, learning, biomechanical positioning, impulses, etc."
There is also Angel Fortuno, a goalkeeper who is much talked about, but who hasn't been given a starting place because of the arrival of Dmitrovic. What is Angel like?
"Angel is very similar to Joan. It's true that he doesn't have Joan's height, but he has those abilities, too. He's a bit more explosive still, he has brutal speed. The height thing is a factor, as many coaches find it difficult to go for a goalkeeper, firstly, who is as young as Angel, and secondly, who doesn't have the height and wingspan that Marko Dmitrovic has right now, or that Joan had in his day, when he was there, this profile of a big goalkeeper, solvent in the air.
"But what Angel does have is that he drives with spectacular strength and perhaps makes up for those five or six centimetres that he would need to reach 1.90m with an important leaping power. I would say that he is one of the goalkeepers at the grassroots level who had the most jumping power. As a person, I always value the person; he is an exceptional kid. If we had to do three sessions, he did them; if he hadn't had a day off and he told Ángel if he wanted to go up to the first team, he was delighted. Very good in terms of character, in terms of demand, in terms of performance, very good.
Are there any goalkeepers from the Periquita youth academy that you think are going to arrive soon, apart from Angel, obviously, and make an impact, that are going to attract a lot of attention?
"I can't afford to follow the whole squad. Think that it's been three or four seasons since I left there. Llorenç Serred had brutal potential. I don't know what level he is now because I don't follow the reserve team, but he has certainly evolved and grown in an incredible way. Angel himself, the coach who dares to give him the opportunity, will be delighted. And I can't tell you more because I haven't followed the youth teams very closely."
