Bangladesh national team coach Lodewijk de Kruif on Wednesday pointed out that the inability of the players to concentrate for the 90 minutes of a game is the main reason behind the national team’s recent failures. Bangladesh conceded a lot of goals from set-pieces and corners in the dying moments of the game in recent past, which left the Dutchman concerned ahead of their next month’s Asian Cup play-offs qualifying matches against Tajikistan.
Bangladesh have bitter memory against the same opponents during their World Cup qualifying match at home last year, when they conceded a goal in the 83rd-minute from a set-piece to share one point with the visitors.
‘We are giving some extra-attention to the corner kicks, free-kicks against us and also when we get some of them,’ said Kruif before a training session at the Kamalapur Stadium on Wednesday.
‘You know in the past I was not very happy with the attitude of the players from set-pieces. We conceded a lot of goals, especially in the last 10 or 15 minutes. It was because the players lacked concentration and quality.’
Kruif, however, now appeared to be happy with the recent progress of the players in the training camp but he demanded more improvement from his charges in the next few days.
‘We are training very hard, in fact we are training two times a day,’ said Kruif, who was appointed exclusively for the matches against the Tajikistan, scheduled on June 2 and 7.
Kruif added that he will wait till the last day before announcing his final 23-member squad for the Tajikistan encounter.
‘The final 23 players are already in my mind,’ said the coach, adding that, ‘It is always a concern for the coach because when the players train two times a day they have more chances of getting injured. So, let me wait till the last day to announce the final one.’
-With New Age input
