As the Asian football world settles into the reality that one of their own is now at the helm of a major European powerhouse, Ange Postecoglou’s former right-hand man is setting Japanese football alight, having made an exceptional start to life at the helm of J2 side Montedio Yamagata.
When Peter Cklamovski took the reins at Yamagata back in May, the club was struggling just above the relegation zone, six weeks later and they’ve shot up to seventh having won six and drawn the other of the seven league matches played since the Australian coach was appointed.
There is only a small number of teams in such a rich vein of form anywhere in the three tiers of Japanese football and few playing in the eye-catching manner that Montedio are.
Over that seven-match run the club, from a mountainous and picturesque prefecture north of Tokyo, have scored 13 and conceded just twice and as remarkable as it seems, a run at promotion is not out of the question barely two months after Cklamovski was brought in with an immediate mission to ensure that the team didn’t slide down towards J3.
More impressive than the raw numbers is the way that the team, hardly blessed with the deepest or most talented squad in the division, has been transformed and how quickly they’ve taken to the progressive footballing philosophy that’s the trademark of both Cklamovski and Postecoglou.
Watching the team train and then watching them play it’s not hard to see why as there are demands for excellence at every turn: no moment wasted, a constant desire to find and manipulate space and movement, a fierce drive to train and play at a cyclonic tempo and underlying defensive principles over positioning and numbers that are non-negotiable.
Asked to drill his underlying philosophy down to a couple of core principles Cklamovski, talking exclusively to The Asian Game in Yamagata, offered the following: space, tempo, distances and movement.
“With all that aimed at scoring goals,” he added with a smile.
The 42-year-old worked as Postecoglou’s trusted lieutenant for close to a decade and they share many of the same traits, with a dogmatic insistence on not wasting a single moment in preparation, an unswerving commitment to playing positive, possession-based football and a penchant for focusing only on the here and now, knowing that hard work today is a pebble on the pathway to future success.
“Consistency in everything we do is ultra-important and that’s with all aspects of the game, defensive principles to make them as clear as possible, attacking principles again that’s fundamentally to make that easy to understand and as clear as possible,” he said.
“Then to make it consistent so you do it every day and you do it better every day and keep evolving the game and that’s what I’m passionate about and that’s what we’ll continue to do.”
Given that when he took over the task was far more about looking down than up, when asked if the exceptional start has given him pause to consider an unlikely promotion push this year, he smiles, shakes his head and says I should know the answer to that.
“I can’t help it but I just don’t focus on those things,” he remarked.
“It’s the day for me and getting the most out of the day which is a bit of a life philosophy that I instil to my family as well in getting better every day.
“For the players I want to make sure that we enjoy that hard work of getting better every day and see where that lands, so I just concentrate on what I do and enjoy it and see where it takes me.”
The footballing mantra for Cklamovski is the same as that adopted by Postecoglou and it’s simple: play consistently, play good football aimed to dominate in all aspects of the game and results will come rather than approaching things from a results-first mentality.
The pair’s style of play too shares many similarities with a steady and patient build-up from the back, rapid transitions, aggressive pressing when not in possession and manipulation of space all tied in with tempo and play speed and Cklamovski knows it’s that style of football that will bring consistent results.
“I’m ambitious and I want to get the team to J1 as quick as I can,” he said. “That’s the mentality I’ve got and I’m not afraid to dream big but the only way to do that is to get the day right and to work hard and that’s where we’ll really keep concentrating on and nailing our next couple of games and focus on continuing to get results.
“Getting back to J1 is the ambition of everyone, when I first walked into the club the discussions were more around avoiding relegation but again I don’t concentrate too much on that.
“For me, it’s just get the work right, get the preparation right, get the week right, get the drill right, get the day right and don’t waste a second and do that the best you can and see where it lands.”
That kind of approach was one that saw Postecoglou take his storied coaching career from suburban Melbourne to the hotbed of Glasgow and in the move to Celtic, Cklamovski feels both pride in his former mentor and a sense of opportunity that pathways may now be opened to other AFC coaches.
“Firstly, I’m super proud for Ange to get the opportunity, he deserves it and I think it suits him the club, a massive club such as Celtic.
“I’ve always said that he’s one of the best managers in the world and he gets his opportunity now and I’ve got no doubt in my mind that he’ll prove himself to be a top-class manager like he is and I’m just really proud of him and excited that he’ll do a good job.
“Sure, I hope this opens the door for other coaches in Asia but at the same time, Ange has done it for a long, long time – 20-plus years of coaching – and has had success everywhere he’s gone so everyone else has a long way to go.
“I’m sure though that Ange can be the pioneer and I know that it will inspire every Australian coach out there to keep going and work hard and I know there will be more that will follow Ange because there’s a lot of good coaches trying to do that as well.”
If Cklamovski can continue to lead Yamagata to success then it’s not out of the question at all that he could be the next success story for AFC coaches looking to move for Europe but you get the sense it’s not those kinds of things that drive the Australian. It’s far more about the present, not wasting a single moment in a constant striving to evolve himself, his players and his club as he aims to pilot Yamagata back to J1 for the first time since 2015.
Listen to TAG EXTRA as Scott McIntyre sits down one-on-one with Pete Cklamovski in Yamagata
