Nees Wants Warriors To Win In Style
In his first public remarks since being appointed as the new head coach of the Warriors, Michael Nees said he will instil a distinct playing identity in the national team.
However, the coach acknowledged the limited time available to implement his desired philosophy before the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations (AFCON) qualifiers commence.
Speaking during his official unveiling by the Zimbabwe Football Association (ZIFA) in Harare on Thursday, August 22, Nees expressed his commitment to ensuring the Warriors have a well-defined playing style that will deliver the desired results. He said (via The Herald):
We need to embark on a good start. We can have quantitative objectives to say we must have a win or a qualitative objective which is how you play, with what energy, with what discipline, and with what style.
If you come out of a game and you can say you did everything in our power to give a good performance then the quantitative objective or the result will follow.
We must not separate that. We must play decent football with confidence, with discipline, with passion to have the results. First is to apply that and then the other things will follow.
The time is very short, we must admit. We are under time pressure, absolutely but I think I have the experience of working in association football mostly.
Nees explained that unlike club coaches who have the luxury of around six weeks of pre-season training before the start of a new campaign, national team coaches do not have that same time frame. He said:
A club coach always has a lot of time; they have six weeks of pre-season; they have this and that. But when you work in association football with federations there is always a lack of time and time pressure. So, I have to make use of every minute available.
I have developed my strategies, and my training. It starts even in the training. When you have a team for six weeks together, yes you can do whatever you can, but when you have only three or four sessions before the game you must probably think what can we do which is related to our formation?
I think I had to learn the hard way because I have always been under time pressure because I have worked more in association football, and not so much in club football.
I am very confident that I can say that I can use time very efficiently. But of course, we are also a brand-new team.
The staff and the players don’t know me so we must get the message very quickly over to them and that is not easy.’
The German tactician also warned Warriors fans against setting unrealistic targets or demanding quick results. He said:
We are under a lot of time pressure. The ideal case would be we go into camp tomorrow with the local team until departure and then I will have a week to assess the players.
I will probably make a preliminary squad of 40 players like other countries, but I don’t think you will be happy with a squad of 40 players right now’.
That is not feasible, the local league has to continue. We have to work all in one direction. We must be realistic about what time we have available.
We have no time to waste, that’s for sure. We must go straight to business.
More: Pindula News
