Super Eagles assistant coach Salisu Yusuf has spoken to AfricanFootball.com on his experiences and thoughts after he recently visited Scottish club Hearts FC to understudy their organisation.
He talked about his experience and way forward for Nigeria football.
The Interview:
How do you feel about the opportunity to understudy a coach abroad?
It’s a good development for me. I saw Hearts train for three days before they went for the away game where they got a draw. I appreciate the facilitator of this trip and the club. They gave me all cooperation I needed to make my stay at the club great. I met the fitness coach, director of football, the club’s data collection was great and educative.
How much of an impact has this trip made on you?
A great impact. I learnt other things. It showed me how a professional team should be organized. They have specialist in every sector needed for a team to do well. They make coaching so easy with assistance from specialists.
With your experience at Hearts, how can you relate coaching a Nigerian club to doing same in Europe?
They are very different. We lack proper organisation at Nigerian clubs. They have people like fitness coach, data collector who helped coach with information about the opposing team. They have scouts, a psychologist, who works on players’ state of mind. In Nigeria, a coach does everything on his own which has made the job a lot more difficult.
You have coached at both club and national team levels, which is tougher?
At club level, it’s a bit easier because we have flexibility of time to operate, to prepare the team, make mistakes and make corrections. There is time to discover and nurture talents at club level as well.
All these are not the case with the national team, where we have to assemble a team within few days. The players are coming from different clubs, different leagues with different style of play, they have to be put together as a unit in few days, it’s tougher at national team level.
What was the fans’ reaction at Inverness when they failed to beat visiting Hearts?
They were calm and went home peacefully because they know it’s football. Nigeria fans are learning fast on that and there is room for improvement. There has been improvement in Nigeria league since last season where teams go away to win well and draw games.
What’s the way forward for Eagles after missing out on qualifying for the AFCON back-to-back?
We need to have a strong home-based team. It will help us to build a very strong team. We need to continue to work hard to get a solid team.
People believe Nigeria lack quality players unlike was the case between 1994 and 1996.
We have good players but not same level with the 1994 squad and that if 1996. We have young players all around the world coming up, they actually need time to mature.
What do you hope to achieve as a coach now going forward?
To get to greater heights, continue to research and build on my capacity.
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