“I Am Not Under Pressure From Anybody”-Coach Smith



Wednesday, 06 June 2012 02:40

Written by Our Senior Staff


Monrovia-The head coach of the Senior National soccer team of Liberia, Lone Star, Kaetu Smith says he is not under pressure from anybody to carry out his duties, after Liberia’s 3-1 defeat at the hands of Senegal in the Brazil 2014 World Cup Qualifiers over the weekend.


Coach Smith said he is not a civil servant, meaning, he can be fired by the Liberia Football Association (LFA) at any given time if he fails to produce the needed results.

Addressing reporters at the LFA headquarters in Monrovia Tuesday, Coach Smith said he takes full responsibility for the 3-1 thrashing of Lone Star, noting that the team created too many goals scoring opportunities, but was able to find the back of Senegal’s net once. He added that such performance is not good for the team if they are to qualify for the 2014 world cup slated for Brazil.

Coach Smith explained that one of the reasons for which Liberia lost to Senegal was because the players did not understand his tactic which was used during the match.

“We did not respond to the tactic that was used well and so we lost the momentum of the match, it took us too long to respond to the game, but the overall performance of the team was encouraging. The fact is, the job of a coach is to work to improve your team, but not to grade your players”, he stressed.

“We need to improve our style of play and so we are embarking on things that will help the players in front of goal, and we will be working on the midfield and defense as well, they need to improve a little bit”, Coach Smith asserted.

He added: “We were not patience and so we conceded a penalty, two yellow cards, one red card and three goals, and so we are currently working on the defense and other parts of the team to be able to improve ourselves for Sunday’s match against Angola”.

The Lone Star Boss further stated that there was no misplacement of players during the match as the 4-4-2 system has nothing to do with the lost, disclosing that there is no plan to call for additional foreign based players. He stated that a coach should make use of the players that he has, and that is what he is doing right now.

Meanwhile, the Lone Star Coach said Sekou Jabateh Oliseh and Tonia Tisdell are responding well to treatment and they are expected to be fit for Sunday’s encounter against Angola in Monrovia..