Bangladesh national football coach Robert Rubcic professed himself impressed by the calm environment at the Bangladesh Krira Shikkha Protisthan in Savar, but confessed that the players still had a long way to go to impress him at the end of a 12-day training camp at the country’s lone sporting institute.
The Croat has reportedly shortlisted a 20 man squad for the Asia Games in November, late on Monday, with five players as standby. Sources said that the three senior players who made the list are goalkeeper Aminul Haque, striker Enamul Haque and left-back Wali Faisal.
But of the 32 players originally picked for the preliminary camp, the Croatian coach stated that only seven players had impressed him enough to force their way into his starting eleven. The rest of the spots, he says, are up for grabs.
“My first objective is to form a good eleven and then ensure an alternative for every position. I have already chosen seven players for the starting eleven and I am trying to pick up the remaining four to complete the lineup,” said Rubcic at the BFF House yesterday. The Croat however declined to disclose the names of the seven players who had impressed him.
The national footballers were released on Saturday for club duties ahead of the Federation Cup and Rubcic was supposed to visit both Abahani and Mohammedan yesterday to run an eye over training sessions.
Unfortunately both giants skipped the afternoon training session and the coach instead spent some time at the football headquarters.
The Croatian hinted that he was a fan of energetic players who had enough stamina to last throughout the 90 minutes game and could show good off-the-ball movement.
“I need such players who have good running and can play untiringly for the entire game,” said Rubcic. “Because, you will be unable to achieve something until you can fight from first to last.”
Rubcic also said that he would have to work on the players’ mind in a bid to make them more competitive on the pitch and he thinks that one-year is not a good enough time to build up a strong national team.
The soft-spoken coach is also thinking of forming a strong B team comprising of the young players, who are between 19 to 22 years in age as he believes Bangladesh have talented players.
Rubcic, who only came to Dhaka on September 8, took charge of the players after the Eid vacation and has so far spent just 12 days with them. With club commitments beckoning, he will now have to keep a keen eye on club training sessions and maintain significant liaison with the club coaches.
