The interview of Adino Mustedanagic, the Croatian head coach of Sabah's U-19 team, to Idman.biz
- You won the title of Azerbaijan champion. How would you evaluate it?
- I must say that league is very diverse. All teams play differently and you have to be focused and motivated. If U dont enter game 100%, game can go wrongly and then its hard to recover. One of the moments I will remember was when it was 1:1 against Araz first game we got two red cards. We managed to play well and score last second of the game. Games against Gabala, Sabayil, Neftchi and Qarabag were very interesting. What I am proud of is that we have positive score against all our opponents till now
- What do you think is the level of our young players?
- Azerbaijani youth players below 15 years are on similar talent/performance level. I am looking forward to tournament in Antalya in May to check this again, as our u14 & u15 will play strong tournament against teams from all over the world.
- What are the main problems in children's football in our country?
- The problem, or better to say, development decrease happens from moment they go to big / 11v11 pitch. Based on analysis we did in Sabah, it goes around these main topics: Too rapid change from small to big pitch. It needs to be more gradual. Going from 7v7 half pitch to 11v11 full pitch puts talented players in survive or dissapear mode. Gradual increase of number of players and pitch size ould secure for all talents to have chance to adapt. For example to play u12 9v9 , U 13 box to box, u14 penalty to penalty etc… This will create correct context for football development. Now its wrong context where development is decreased as low level decision making is rewarded- football is team sport where communication (verbal and non-verbal) is of the highest importance. Shortest we can explain communication in football context is - ability to solve the problem as collective. Azerbaijanis are very talented nation in individual sports, where they win lot of medals. Even in futsal (5v5) they also do great results - but in 11v11 communication, their decision making abilities drop, due to relying too much on individual and near the ball space. Usually people misinterpret communication with tactics, but tactics is just a tool to develop it, there is much more things coaches can do to emphasize communication - Decision Making - there is more to football action than what naked eye can see. Football is not just kicking the ball, Decision players make are of higher order, because there was study that more than 80% wrong passes is because wrong decisions and we dont coach it enough. We even misinterpret coaches telling players what to do with players decision. Football is players sport and coach should keep quiet while players are playing. But., coach should posses knowledge and abiltiy to trasnfer it to player. To cut long story short., there should be emphasis in coach education what Communication and Decision Making is, where it belong in Football Action and that Football Action is not only kicking. There is more to football than what eye can see. Azerbaijani players play very intensive football, which is very good. Problem is in maintaining this tempo for 90 minutes.
- Are there any other shortcomings?
- Also, because of low infrastructure levels, players are exposed to bad pitches and increased numbers of injuries, which reduce training time they have comparing to European kids. I am not happy with type of food most of young footballers eat. IT is low in protein and their muscle mass is very low. Culturally what I can feel being here is that football context is not good for youth development. It is not survival of the talent, but survival of the strongest. Lot of things constantly change and players unconsciously are mostly focused on themselves and short-term. They choose to be in comfort zone. It is job of all of us in Azerbaijan football to create safe environment where they can be in uncomfortable situations where they can improve.
- Are there guys you can advise the clubs you will work with in the future in Azerbaijan or other clubs in Croatia?
- Yes, there are many interesting players in Azerbaijan. We send every year some of them to Dinamo Zagreb to see where we are and always Dinamo is happy with them and would take them in their teams if paperwork could be done. For older players - European clubs watch which games he played. Even in Dinamo Zagreb only players who played European and National team games are interesting for biggest clubs.
- Sabah will represent Azerbaijan in European Cups. What is needed?
- Having a UEFA Youth League adds extra intrigue to the AFFA Youth League, so everyone wants to win that league. Because everyone wants to perform in Europe. We will be proud to represent Azerbaijan in the best possible form and I think we are ready for it. Of course, we understand our responsibility. But realistically, for some of our players, this will be their first experience playing in Europe. We wanted them to show their maximum and, as I said, represent Azerbaijan in the best possible way.
Idman.biz
