All Whites coach seeks improvement
All Whites coach Danny Hay hopes his players will be able to build on the foundations laid in November when the team reassembles in the Middle East next month.
New Zealand Football has confirmed a pair of away fixtures, against Oman on March 26 (March 27 NZ time) and Bahrain four days later, for the next international window. They will likely be the last fixtures against opponents from outside the Oceania region until June 2021 at the earliest, with the Nations Cup and World Cup qualifying coming up.
Hay’s first matches since taking charge last August were in November in Europe, where the All Whites lost to the Republic of Ireland and Lithuania.
Hay and his staff have combed over the two matches since returning home from that tour, picking out examples of things they were pleased and not so pleased with.
‘‘That’s the nice thing about being an international coach – you’ve got so much time between games that you can thoroughly review everything,’’ Hay said.
‘‘The players all got their individual footage sent out to them and we worked hard to put a pretty comprehensive review package together for the group, where we got some really clear messages through to them.
‘‘My expectation leading into these next two fixtures is that we will really push on and learn and develop . . . I’ve been really clear that we are trying to implement a different way of playing from what All Whites sides historically have tried to do and while that’s going to take a bit of time, I am expecting to see some big improvements in the areas we identified from those first two games.’’
Front and centre for Hay is players’ positioning in his 4-3-3 system and the roles and responsibilities that follow.
‘‘I certainly can’t be too harsh on them around that – we had two training sessions leading into the Irish fixture and then one light walkthrough leading into Lithuania – but the learnings taken from those fixtures will be the biggest thing.’’
The All Whites have played Bahrain five times previously – winning three, drawing one, and losing one.
They have played Oman six times, winning four, drawing one, and losing one.