Coach Ronny van Geneugden\u2014 frustrated by his Malawi\u2019s Flames\u2019 indifference to his coaching regime\u2014will switch to more technical players in his selection for forthcoming assignments.<\/p>\n
However, it is doubtful if the Belgian will find such technical players, who according to definition, must be able to buy themselves time and space, play in tight areas, improvise, have a strong touch, skill and imagination.<\/p>\n
The Belgian observed the technical deficiencies when his charges exited the African Nations Championship after losing by 1-0 margins to Madagascar over two legs; the latest being last Saturday at Bingu National Stadium.<\/p>\n
Van Geneugden Tuesday told Football Association of Malawi (Fam) website that he now wants \u201ctactical players with special qualities\u201d.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor instance, we had about three to four good chances which we could have easily put away, but we failed to make them count,\u201d the former Genk coach told www. fam.mw. <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cSo, I want to try and see more tactical players with specific qualities. In this regard, we will be watching at least two games per week starting this coming weekend and I will be engaging club and developmental coaches very often.\u201d<\/p>\n The coach, 48, was at pains to single out stand-out players in Saturday\u2019s match.<\/p>\n \u201cIt is difficult for me to say because you win and lose as a team. Nevertheless, I would say, defensively organisation was strong and I suppose the outstanding players must have been in the defence,\u201d he explained.<\/p>\n Van Geneugden was handed a two-year contract to deliver the goods with the Flames in the short term and in the long haul, instil a distinct playing philosophy.<\/p>\n The Belgian will submit a report to Fam Youth and<\/p>\n <\/p>\n Technical sub-Committee summing up the Flames\u2019 displays in the last three games, including the friendly in Kenya.<\/p>\n \u201cThere is good stability. The attitude has been positive. I think in accordance with the game-plan, we played well in Kenya and Madagascar although we conceded a late goal.<\/p>\n \u201cBut honestly, I expected more in Saturday\u2019s [return] match, but we didn\u2019t play well. The attitude and performance during training was encouraging, but I noticed that they appeared to be under pressure in a game situation.<\/p>\n \u201cThe plan was to stick to possession and play a more passing game while being offensive, but [instead] we played a sort of kick-and-rush type.\u201d<\/p>\n Flames Assistant Coach, Gerald Phiri Senior, told last Saturday\u2019s Weekend Nation <\/em>edition that van Geneugden has observed local players\u2019 shortcomings.<\/p>\n \u201cRonny has been honest in his assessment of our football. He told me that the players in Malawi are technically and tactically not good enough. This is an area he wants to work on so that our players are sharp technically,\u201d Phiri was quoted as saying.<\/p>\n Work is cut out for the Flames coaching panel as Malawi will, next month, kick-start the Afcon qualifying race by hosting Group B members, Comoros Islands, followed by matches against Cameroon and Morocco.<\/p>\n The Flames will also compete in the Cosafa Castle Cup scheduled for South Africa from June 25.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Coach Ronny van Geneugden\u2014 frustrated by his Malawi\u2019s Flames\u2019 indifference to his coaching regime\u2014will switch to more technical players in his selection for forthcoming assignments. However, it is doubtful if the Belgian will find such technical players, who according to definition, must be able to buy themselves time and space, play in tight areas, improvise, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":45460,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-45618","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45618","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45618"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45618\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":45622,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45618\/revisions\/45622"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/45460"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45618"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45618"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/archive.times.mw\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45618"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}