Maziya Sports and Recreation Club’s game plan cannot be changed all at once, says Serbian coach Risto Vidaković.
Vidaković was appointed Maziya’s coach following the resignation of Mohamed “Nizambe” Nizam, on January 3.
Under the Serbian coach’s instructions, Maziya was able to win their first ever match in the Dhiraagu Dhivehi Premier League (DDPL), against Super United Sports (SUS), with a 3-nil score.
Speaking to the press prior to their match against TC Sports Club on Friday evening, Vidaković highlighted that Maziya players were able to play 80 percent of the first half against SUS, as desired. However, players were unable to play how they wanted to as they loosened the ropes slightly after the 3-nil winning score, during the second half.
Stressing that the team requires a lot of improvement, Vidaković noted that they are working to “be more compact”, adding that the coach does not like changing radical, since it poses dangers to the team’s game plan.
A resilient Vidaković went on to express his respect for all opponents as they are very close to the top, and stated that Maziya players have to lock themselves in a challenging battle with each and every club.
I don’t like to change radical, because it is very dangerous if we change radical because the team has a way how they play and we have to go step by step, little by little, we cannot change everything in one moment, it is very difficult to assimilate that, because the players, they cannot assimilate many information. So I am going step by step, maybe we have to improve, if we are more compact we have to change somethings, if we know how we have to defend, how we have to attack, from there we can change other things but for now we have to, first we have to improve that.”Risto Vidaković, Maizya’s coach
Shedding light on the importance of coming together and playing together as one for all the games, Vidaković said that it was important for him, to remain in the ranks as space within ranks will pave opportunities for opponents to play.
Declaring every game to be dangerous and sacred, Vidaković stressed on the importance of giving the team’s “all” in every game they play, as the opponents will always be motivated to play against the team to their best efforts.
I think we are progressing relatively very fast coz the players assimilated they did very good in the first half and because of the 3-0 we relaxed a little bit in the second half and then we didn’t stay together. But I think in the first half we did really good job.”Risto Vidaković, Maizya’s coach
Further speaking to media ahead of its game against Maziya, TC Sports Club Coach Mohamed Shaazlee noted that Maziya is the "ultimate" football club in the Maldives.
Shaazlee expressed hope for players to claim the match against Maziya, with the win against Valencia in a previous match, despite being in the face of some challenges.
TC is in the fourth spot of the league table, with six points won in five matches played.
TC and Maziya are scheduled to go head-to-head at 4pm, on Friday.
