Newly-appointed Abahani Limited coach Australian Nathan Hall is confident that the club can return to glory after the disappointment of last season.
The 29-year-old Australian took charge of the Dhanmondi-based outfit on Sunday and spoke with local media at Abahani Club on the same day. He said that the job would be a challenge for him but he had a clear idea about sub-continental football, having worked with United Sikkim FC in India last year.
‘It’s a new challenge for me. I spent the last season in India and it was a good eye-opener for me in many ways coming from Thai Premier League, which I would say, arguably, is the most professional competition in this region,’ said Hall.
‘I’m coming here very eager, very open-minded and I’m excited to get on the training ground. Preparation time is not long,’ he said.
‘Abahani is a club which demands success and I also demand success.
‘I’m looking forward to making sure that at the end of the season this club achieves its targets. I guarantee one thing: we’re going to work our socks off and put every ounce of our energy into making that happen,’ he added.
Hall, who got married in Thailand, also said that he had a weakness for the region.
‘My wife is Asian. I’ve been around this region for long, I knew the culture. I knew that the conditions in India and Bangladesh, the infrastructure, need to be better. But it’s not my job to change that. My job is trying to win matches for my club,’ said Hall.
Hall described his coaching philosophy and compared his experience to that of another young coach, Andre Villas-Boas of Tottenham Hotspur.
‘I know that historically in this region a lot of teams play very direct football, a very route-one style. I’m not like that. If I am a fan and I pay money, I want to see good football, attractive football with the ball on the ground,’ said Hall.
‘I demand energy from my players and I expect them to be at a very high fitness level. I want to dominate teams, I want to dictate matches and hopefully with that comes goals.
‘[Villas-Boas] was never a great player. He is a student of football and he’s worked with some incredible mentors. We both started at a very young age, took our first team in 21 years of age.
‘We both had sports-science backgrounds. The difference between me and him is I never really had a mentor like that in my life.’
-With New Age input
