PORT OF SPAIN, Trinidad, CMC – New Trinidad and Tobago head coach, Tom Saintfiet, has reiterated the importance of churning out instant results at the expense of style, in the country’s upcoming internationals in January.
T&T are set to take on Caribbean Football Union sides Suriname and Haiti in a three-nation qualifying series, the winner of which will face the Central American qualifier for the final 2017 CONCACAF Gold Cup spot.
And not for the first time since his appointment, the 43-year-old Belgian stressed he was willing to sacrifice style for what would be much needed results.
“In this situation I came to the country which had this year maybe not such a good year, two victories over St Vincent and the Grenadines and one against Dominican Republic, the only victories in 2016 so my first aim is to try to get a tactic to get points,” he said after completing his first training sessions with the national side here Friday.
“Maybe it is not the most attractive tactic but playing good and losing 4-3 doesn’t bring anything at this moment. We need results immediately for sure against Suriname and Haiti so my tactical choice would result oriented based on our quality compared to the opponent.”
Saintfiet had his first stint with the national side when he presided over a training session at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Thursday and then again on Friday at the Manny Ramjohn Stadium.
The training sessions were the first in preparation for the two international friendlies away to Nicaragua later this month, which will help prepare the side for the January playoff games.
Saintfiet, who replaced Stephen Hart who was sacked last month, said he was pleased with what he had seen of his players in training.
“I was very happy that we had a big group of players here. I felt a huge commitment of the guys with a good atmosphere. For me the connection between coach and players, staff and players is very important,” he noted.
“A national team coach has not so much influence on the physical part of the players because I train normally only five days, maybe a little bit longer with the group. We don’t have so much influence on the technical part because making players better takes much more time.
“My biggest influence can be tactically and psychologically and I think if you play for the national team it has to be first of all an honour to be selected.”
