The Burundian tactician reveals his main focus now is on individual skills of domestic players in the Mainland Premier League
Tanzania coach Etienne Ndayiragije says he is focused on checking the individual skills of local players in the Mainland Premier League to help him build a strong national team.
The Burundian tactician has revealed he is already satisfied with the performances of players in the top-flight since it resumed on June 13 but maintained his main focus now was on individual development.
“As you know, most of the teams which are doing well in the country have a mixture of foreign-based players as such, for me, I cannot hail the success of the entire team but rather how Tanzanians in such teams are performing,” Ndayiragije is quoted by Daily News.
“I congratulate Simba for being the champions but my concern is not on them but the work rate of domestic players in the team.”
Ndayiragije further pointed out that he was a keen supporter of foreign players playing in the local league because they give challenges to the domestic players to do even better.
“At the moment, I am working closely with the Tanzania Football Federation (TFF) to create another generation of national team players especially considering the fact that most of the current players are nearing to retire from football,” Ndayiragije continued.
Meanwhile, Ndagiragije is finalising a list of the U-23 players which he will name in due course and further thanked the coaches in the top-flight, saying it will help him come up with a good squad for the Taifa Stars.
“Now, many teams are not afraid to give youths a chance to play which is a positive thing and previously, when a team from outside Dar es Salaam came to play here, they were being beaten with many goals like six goals to nil but now, they fight and bring much resistance than before,” he added.
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“This indicates that football has grown.”
Tanzania were due to take part in the African Nations Championship (Chan) competition before it was called off owing to the effects caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
The Taifa Stars are also in the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers where they are drawn in Group D alongside Guinea, Namibia, and Zambia.
