Hudson’s eyes on stars
All Whites coach works graveyard shift to monitor form of his overseas-based players, writes Liam Hyslop.
Sleepless weekend nights are norm for Anthony Hudson.
The All Whites coach keeps a close eye on his overseas players, especially captain Winston Reid and Chris Wood when they turn out for English Premier League clubs West Ham United (3am NZT today) and Burnley (2.15am tomorrow) respectively.
That became more important than ever this week after his assistant coach in England, Peter Taylor, was named interim manager of Gillingham, moving from his director of football role after the sacking of Ady Pennock.
It left Taylor with a lot more on his plate, but Hudson said he had a team of people in Europe to monitor his players, while he would be taking in as many games on television as possible.
‘‘We watch as many as we can live, then Monday morning in the office our meetings go on for about five or six hours,’’ he said after naming his squad for a friendly against Japan in Nagoya this Friday. ‘‘The priority goes on players you’re making a decision on or are not sure about, then it’s just about keeping tabs on the others because when you’re in camp you need to be talking about things and addressing things.’’
Reid’s match for West Ham will garner the most attention from both Hudson and All Whites fans.
The skipper has been cruelled by injury before ahead of international windows. The last time he played for the national team was in October, 2016.
Hudson should be crossing all his fingers for his captain to make it through the match unscathed the We watch as many as we can live ... because the Japan game is the last chance to test his squad before they take on the fifth-placed team in South America during November’s World Cup qualifying intercontinental playoff. Currently, that is Lionel Messi’s Argentina, with Chile and Peru also in contention.
Hudson said the world No 40 and four-time Asian Cup winners Japan would provide a good guide of what they November.
‘‘They’re a team that are incredibly similar to the South Americans, probably a little bit more structured and rigid. They’re explosive, they’ve got pace, they’re dynamic, they’re incredibly strong out wide. These are the traits of the South American teams.
‘‘So, this will be a good test for us. Good preparation. They’re a top team and they’ve got their strongest squad more or less, bar one or two.’’
But it’s not just on the pitch where Hudson and his staff need to get things right in November. Much of their preparation is about can expect come getting things spot on off it.
Which is where Steve Hansen comes in. The All Blacks coach was asked by an Argentinian journalist in the leadup to their test in Buenos Aires this week what, if any, help they offered their round ball counterparts.
‘‘We share a lot of our time with everybody back home, in all sports, we think that’s important and we’ve got a really close relationship with Anthony Hudson the coach.
‘‘So what can we offer them? Probably not too much, other than [show] what we do and it’s for him to take away what he thinks he can put into his environment.’’
Hudson agreed that there wasn’t too much they could offer for a specific match, but paid tribute to Hansen and his staff for their openness.
‘‘As an Englishman here in New Zealand, not only do I feel incredibly privileged to have this position, but ever since I’ve been here, never have they [All Blacks coaches] ever been resistant to opening the door or sharing information and just being available.
‘‘I’m always very respectful as well of them. I don’t want to speak publicly about the information I get from them, but what I can say is they’ve been first-class really in terms of opening the door to us.’’