By MARTIN CHAWANZI
Chipolopolo coach Sven Vandenbroeck says he is willing to stay on as Zambiatrainer beyond his five-match contract.
During a media interaction session at Garden Court Hotel in Kitwe, Vandenbroeck said it would be unfair to judge him purely on results without looking at the other aspects of the game he has helped improve.
“If you ask if I want to continue, I say for sure yes because I see potential, I see commitment, I see also the ambition from the federation to make changes. They allowed me to bring the GPS, bring the new style, even backed me up in Mozambique after losing,” he said.
“I feel that everyone is involved in making steps forward. That is what I think and that is the road we take.”
He added: “I do not have a problem when people judge me but I have a problem sometimes, they judge me just on the result. There is much more than the result. I think the way we started to play in September to October, you saw changes, most of the guys are happy with the changes, they play in Europe and the new guys want to pick up.”
Vandenbroeck said he had revolutionized the training regime and also the medical aspect by aligning it with global standards.
He said that it would be fair to be given a longer period that would see him target 2022 World Cup qualification and also have a go at the 2021 Africa Cup of Nations.
“I think logic would say go until the 2022 World Cup. I think that is a logic project. There are two Africa Cups one you can already eliminate, but there is U23 AFCON next year and Olympics. I think that is a beautiful project to work with although I cannot step in with choices but we will there to see what is happening,” he said.
“Sometimes you have to go through a bad period to recognize what you need to do to make a plan for a four year project.”
He said he had done a lot of work with the Chipolopolo.
“We introduced GPS, we introduced new technology we have a good group everyone is committed, working hard but the result was not there. In the end that is where we come to a point where everyone will judge us and me especially. I do not have a problem when people judge me but I have a problem sometimes, they judge me just on the result. There is much more than the result. I think the way we started to play in September to October, you saw changes, most of the guys are happy with the changes.”
Vandenbroeck said he had struck a good working relationship with the players that could be built on for future success.
“I have to say from the start that I had a good relationship with everyone and a good feeling even until now. I will give an example, many people were warning me for some guys and I will mention a few, Kalaba (Rainford) and sometimes Fashion Sakala that he can be selfish but although Kalaba did not play all the games and on the bench, his behaviour was good, no complaining,” he said.
Vandenbroeck said there was need to give clubs a mandatory quota for fielding at least two U20 players as an investment into the future.
He expressed concern at the number of foreign players especially defenders in the local league.
Vandenbroeck said he was concerned about the limited game time some of the foreign based players were having at their respective clubs.
The coach said some of players should consider moving to other clubs if they did not get enough game time.
FAZ unveiled Vandenbroeck on July 10 with a nine-month contract that was tied to Africa Cup of Nations qualification.
He started the campaign with 1-1 draw away to Namibia before beating Guinea Bissau 2-1 at home and lost away by the same margin.
Zambia lost 1-0 to Mozambique to effectively lose out on qualification to the 2019 Africa Cup of Nations.
The Chipolopolo will play Namibia in March next year in a dead rubber fixture.
