Safet Susic has entered the history of national football in 2004, when he was declared Bosnia's best football player of all times, and his performance was well known outside Bosnia as well. As a coach, his best success is 2014 World Cup in Brazil which he made possible with current national team. We talked about everything with him, now that plans and preparations for the most famous football event are being made.

As a player, you went to the World Cups, and now you have a chance to prove yourself as a coach. Is is harder to succeed as a player or as a coach?

"It depends on a team. I've played two times at the World Cup, and we had a pretty good team back then, so it wasn't a surprise. We even went to be the first team in the qualifying group, against Italy which later became world champion. Perhaps it was easier back then to come up with a better team since the players from entire Yugoslavia were there and the choice was maybe easier."

Job as a coach is no easy. Do you learn from your own experience, or could you perhaps point out someone who influenced you as a coach?

"There was no particular outside influence, and you should not strive to copy someone, but there are people I value extremely. I't point out Ivica
Osim who was my coach at the 1990 World Cup in Italy. There were other experts as well, such as Muzurovic who was one of my first coaches, Ivic who trained me in PSG, an others. You can learn something from all of them, but one should make his own way without copying others."

During the qualifications, we had one of the most efficient teams. How much your tactics had to do with that?

"I've always preferred offensive football, besides I played at center-forward, and later at attacking-midfield positions. My goal was to score more than our opponent, and so I started that way with our national team, but my choice of players was poor. I had two excellent players, Dzeko and Ibisevic, without whom the team would not be complete, and we played almost every match with two attackers, which is risky, because if you can't score at least two goals, it's not a guaranteed victory."

Do you have a favorite tactics and/or formation?

"Not in particular, but as I see it, I prefer 4-4-2 and 4-5-1. However, when you go with 4-5-1, you have to have at least three offensive players in the middle, who can determine the outcome of the match, besides the top-notch attacker. We played throughout qualifications with 4-4-2 formation, and it remains to be seen if I'll stick with that in Brazil. I probably will because I can't imagine the team without Dzeko or Ibisevic. However, should I lose one of them, I could go back to 4-5-1."

Are you satisfied with our players' shape, and are there some possible new players you are considering?

"It's great when our players play good, and every time I meet someone on the street, he talks about how Dzeko is in top-notch form. However, it's still early, and I'm not crazy about the form or shape. What's more important is that players are healthy, and regular in their clubs. Form can vary from game to game."

What can we expect from our opponents in Group F?

"First of all, we must be realistic, well I am, and I'm sure most football fans are. We have a team in our group who will finish first, and that's Argentina, especially with Messi on board. We have to fight for second place with Nigeria and Iran, who by the way finished first in the qualifying group. Everybody assumes this will be a fight between Nigeria and us, but we should not underestimate Iran. I think four points and solid goal difference will be enough to advance to the second round."

What are our strongest advantages?

"The whole team. Throughout the qualifications, there was someone who stood out, but you can't say the one or two players got us to the World Cup. Sometimes it was Dzeko, sometimes it was Ibisevic, Pjanic, Misimovic, Spahic or Begovic. I think one or two of them alone can't make the difference, you have to have a strong team, substitutes and ambience. I hope we will have a great support from our people at the stadiums, even though Brazil is far away. I'm sure there will be several thousand of our people chering for us."

What do you think are favorite teams to win World Cup?

"It's hard to put aside one team. There are at least five teams with equal chance of wining the competition. There's Brazil, Spain, Germany, Argentina and Netherlands. I think one of them will be a world champion this year."