AfricaPress-Tanzania: TAIFA Stars Head Coach, Etienne Ndayiragije has urged players, especially those who are regularly in the national team pool to take the individual training sessions provided by their respective clubs seriously.
The Burundian tactician said the sessions will help them keep physically fit during the season break because of the Coronavirus pandemic.
Ndayiragije said that the team’s technical staff is currently finding ways to monitor the players individual training regimes.
He warns that if players don’t take the training seriously it will reflect in their physical state when their respective teams and even the national team regroup after the pandemic is eradicated.
Ndayiragije also highlighted the attributes of a good football captain. He said that good captain in football is the one who is able to convince fellow players on the pitch to do their utmost on behalf of the technical bench.
The coach, who replaced Nigerian Emmanuel Amunike at the helm of the country’s senior team, reiterated that not every player has abilities to execute captaincy responsibilities.
“He or she should have good communication skills and have an extra knowledge of the game such that they can convince their colleagues to change the pattern of play during a match,” he said.
He added that a good captain should be able to advise the coach on what to do in the particular match, saying as coaches, they too require feedback from the captain.
“When preparing for a game, a captain should have an idea about the opponent side and share it with the coach and the entire technical bench on what he thinks should be the approach of the encounter,” he said.
Moreover, Ndayiragije pointed out that discipline is another criteria that determine, who should be a captain for the team, insisting that football and discipline are inseparable.
Again, the coach disclosed that in most cases, captains are usually goalkeepers or defenders because they are better placed to watch the movement of the game than any other segment of the team.
“For goalkeepers and defenders, they face the game and do not let the match to unfold behind them and also, they run short distance in comparison with other players on the battlefield,” he said.
On his part, a popular sport analyst in the country Ally Mayay was on the same page with Ndayiragije, saying a captain as a leader of the team in matches should have the power to convince others on the field.
“He or she should be an example to the colleagues in terms of time management, hard work and most importantly, highly disciplined.
“Another criterion is experience, meaning that a player who has stayed at a particular club for a longtime has an added advantage to be chosen as a captain because he/she knows the culture of the team better than others,” Mayay, the former Taifa Stars and Young Africans captain remarked.
Also, another decorated ex-captain Nadir Haroub said a captain should be able to create an atmosphere to be respected by members of the club and supporters.
“Apart from other popular qualities, you need to be loved by people through doing what is right since to be picked a captain is not something to be taken for granted,” he said.
