Emirhan Topçu and the Beşiktaş Lesson: Equal Preparation for Every Opponent

In Istanbul, on a Süper Lig evening, the noise from nearly 50,000 spectators is enough to swallow every instruction issued from the technical area. Emirhan Topçu, Beşiktaş's young defender, says he could still hear Vincenzo Italiano's voice throughout the 90 minutes. In a conversation given to Sabah Spor, the player described his Italian coach in a way rarely seen in a personal interview: 'He lives the match with us.'

What is worth pausing on is that a rising player chose to talk about the team's working method rather than about himself.

Behind the national-team call-up

Emirhan Topçu has become one of the names Beşiktaş can hardly replace in defence this season, and a call-up to the Turkish national team is the accompanying reward. Behind that leap lies a new coaching cycle: Vincenzo Italiano took over with a staff described as meticulous, demanding and constantly intervening during matches.

In the interview, a few signals keep repeating.

Italiano prepares for every match the same way: 'Whether it is an Anatolian team or a derby, Europe does not matter... the same enthusiasm.' He corrects his players' mistakes during and immediately after matches. He holds the view that no one is complete: 'No matter how great a player you are, for him you are not complete.' The dressing room, according to Emirhan, is a group mixing local and foreign players who eat and go out together, and who see that togetherness as the thing that lifts them.

Financial, transfer and competition-rule information barely appears. This is a conversation about working culture, not about money.

A standard, not a formation

What Beşiktaş is trying to build under Italiano is not a specific formation, but a standard of attitude: equal preparation for every opponent.

This is where Vietnamese football should look closely. In the Süper Lig, the chronic disease of the big clubs is playing exactly to the 'level' of strong opponents while sleeping through matches against Anatolian sides. A new coach repeating the equal-preparation message is most likely a direct response to that disease, not a nice-sounding line.

Based on my experience watching matches in the V.League, the same pattern recurs quite consistently: the same team's pressing intensity and number of duels spike against a big opponent, then collapse in the following round against a lower-ranked side. The problem lies in motivation, not in quality. When a coach publicly says every match is the same, what he is fighting against is exactly that mentality.

The error-feedback loop also deserves thought. Immediate correction only works when a staff has a match-analysis system and a dressing room willing to be dissected. On my podcast, I once rebuilt classic matches using passing maps, and the most obvious thing was that the same data can be read by a dressing room either as a tool or as an accusation. At many Vietnamese clubs, video review is still treated as an obligation, so the lesson never turns into reflex before the next match.

The remaining point lies with the player himself. Emirhan says he suffered from concentration problems last season, and this season he has worked more to fix them. That confession is worth more than any praise.

Where I would be wrong

There are three places where it is easy to go wrong reading this story.

The interview is a single source, and it lands right when a player has just been called up. It serves image-building for both the player and the coach, and a dressing room that is united through self-reporting is not a dressing room proven to be united. Every debate has a layer of data that has not yet been turned over.

The togetherness described also orbits Italiano's personality. Saying 'he lives the match' makes the group dependent on one man. When results dip, this kind of cohesion reverses faster than people expect.

The confession about concentration is a two-way signal. It could be the explanation for a completed turning point, or it could simply be a fragile breakout in a first season played inside the right system.

Players create moments, systems create players. But a system is only proven when it survives a second season.

What will be tested

A young defender just called up is an appreciating asset, and at Beşiktaş an appreciating asset usually carries the risk of being signed away by a bigger European club within two transfer windows. Emirhan's contract, for now, has not been disclosed.

Whether Italiano keeps the same preparation intensity as the calendar thickens will be the real test of his philosophy. The club plays domestic league and European competition at once, and this is where every equal-preparation statement has to pay its bill.

Finally, Emirhan's individual data — error count, duel success rate, clean sheets — is the translation of this story into a verifiable language.

Football does not need you to believe; it needs you to verify.