3-mob.com 
The new Zimbabew men’s national team head coach Micahel Nees has been unveiled to the media by the Zimbabwe Football Association (Zifa).
Here are some of the things he had to say:
On the need for stability
I wish we can all work together in One Direction. I think you had in the past too many coaches. I think that was 20coaches in last I think you had in the last 20 years. And that’s of course a little bit, a lot. And I hope you can embark in a new journey. That’s a little bit more stability and Together in all in one direction.
On working with local coaches
I really enjoyed working with the local people, and I must really say that. I didn’t have the opportunity to travel with five, six, seven staff, I must admit, but I do not regret a single day where I had to work with local staff in all the countries, because I made a lot of friends, a lot of good relations And if you believe in it, a lot of experiences of loyalty. And I really enjoyed it. Of course, there are always instances where the one or other overstepped authority. That I also experienced, and I can really say that. But overall, the experiences were very good with local staff. And you can make their research wherever it was. At the end, I think the local football benefited.
On dealing with player agents who want to impose their players
Even in my previous jobs, which is not exactly how it’s in Wikipedia written, because Wikipedia has a lot of gaps. I had to deal with a lot of representatives of players. It’s now a fact that players have managers or agents, but they do not make the selection. You have to select the best possible team, for your upcoming challenges. And I had so far no problems with them. I think it made it crystal clear to them always, there’s a line which shouldn’t be crossed. And there’s no chance. The player must perform on the pitch. He must show what he’s able. For a team, he must show commitment…
And sometimes we must also a little bit, how do you say, there is a lot of myths around, In football, this makes a selection, that makes a selection, he makes a selection. My experience was in a certain way different. If you make it clear to the people, yes, you listen. But if you have a certain line, it shouldn’t be crossed. And I had good relations with the representatives of players. Yeah, but for me, the performance on the pitch is decisive. Nothing else. And I have no family relations, no kinship relations here. So you can be assured, I can be objective.
On player selection and if there is enough time
Well, the time to select is enough. I think I did my homework. To be frankly honest, while I was still in Germany, I checked really even for the interviews I had to prepare myself. I don’t go into interviews without having a knowledge of Zimbabwe players. Last week, I checked all the players from outside,
which were representing or called up for the Zimbabwe team. I found each individual, I think 25, plus two or three. I found all of them and asked how they are. The one is injured, the one has no club. Yes, we have some good players who have no clubs at the moment. It will be difficult if you have no club to be selected for national team. You need match fitness, you need a regular outcome. And it’s a little bit hurting, because among them there are some very, very good players.
And the local players, of course, I could follow them from the Cosafa games. Also from the other matches which I watched, there were many of them selected. In total, I think you selected, let me think, it was 19 and I think over 40 players, 45 around were selected in the last year for the national teams. Locals, half of them locals, half of them from here. And at least of them from the outside. For sure, watching a game from distance, it’s a different than when you know the perso, the player presently, his character. That I cannot really assess from distance. There I rely a lot on the people who work with them, who knows them. If a player would fit now in the plans for these games.
But one thing is for sure. A player should never, even if he’s selected now or not selected, a player should never get big-headed and think now he’s in the team. And the others who are not selected should not throw the towel. Football team changes dynamically, even when you look at the tournament. the big tournaments. It’s very seldom that the team in the first game is the same like in the last game. It’s changing. There will be a group of players we need to develop, maybe three players on each position which understand in the long run what we expect from them, that we really can react in case of injuries, of yellow card suspensions, or other reasons when a player is not available. The team will be, in most cases, a mixture of the 10 provinces and the international players. It wouldn’t make sense to select 23, 25 players from outside. I don’t believe in that. We also have to look who is available here, who can contribute. Sure is, some of them play on a very high level outside your country, which we cannot ignore this fact, and that must be remembered. It’s not expected when someone plays on that high level, but the door is for everybody open.
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