PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad (CMC) – Jack Warner has warned that a shake-up is forthcoming in the way football is coached in Trinidad & Tobago.
The regional football boss fears that the Soca Warriors may have stagnated after making the World Cup four years ago in Germany, and a new approach to coaching may be necessary to breathe life into the national team programme.
“When a team is at its greatest, the coach receives the accolades, the same principle applies to a badly performing team,” said Warner at the start of a five-day training course for coaches staged by the T&T Football Federation.
“The time has come for us to review our coaching structures and techniques in T&T. We cannot only hope to have efficient administrative structures, leagues, and competitions, but our coaching systems and techniques are in dire need of an overhaul.”
Warner bemoaned the recent form of the men’s national team, which has struggled in a series of warm-up matches ahead of this year’s Digicel Caribbean Cup.
“It is no secret our men’s senior team has not been performing well,” he said.
“Our journey to the 2014 World Cup cannot continue along this path. There must be changes. The T&TFF president and his executive understand the need and the urgency to reverse the team’s fortunes.”
The training course will consist of a number of “on and off” the field exercises, and is being conducted by former Dutch international striker Ruud Gullit.
An extensive analytical workshop to review the games of the recently concluded 2010 World Cup in South Africa is also scheduled.
During the session, the 24 coaches from across T&T will take part in a number of advanced coaching clinics, which will deal with match analysis and match-related training.