Jamie Day wants more international fixtures to move up in the ranking, and also expressed his desire once again to give the national booters highest playing time in the club.
The Bangladesh head coach said this after meeting the top BFF officials Saturday before going to England for a short vacation, along with assistant coach Stuart Watkiss.
The English coach is expected to return by the end of October to catch the knockout stages of the season opening tournament, the Federation Cup, from where he wants to pick the players for November’s international friendly. The opponent is yet to be finalised though.
After talking about Bangladesh’s big improvement in performance in the Saff Championship and the Bangabandhu Gold Cup, Day added, “The job is for us now to find a way how to keep going up in the ranking, keep this level up. We need to increase the level. We need work out how we can achieve that. It’s not going to be easy.
Palestine emerged as the new champion of the six-nation Bangabandhu Gold Cup in their debut appearance in the tournament after beating 10-man Tajikistan 4-2 in the tiebreaker in an exciting final at Bangabandhu National Stadium in Dhaka Friday eveninghttps://t.co/nwVR3rogdA#BFF
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) October 12, 2018
“We can say our target is 180 [in the ranking] but if we aim and try hard for 150, it would obviously be an improvement even if we get to 160, 170 or 180.”
Day held a courtesy meeting with the BFF president Kazi Salahuddin, national team management committee chairman Kazi Nabil Ahmed and other BFF officials at the BFF House in Dhaka Saturday.
“I want to play as many games as possible. The more games they play the more experience they get, the players will get better playing in international level. Looking forward to November’s friendly,” Day informed.
Day’s two coaching assistants Mahbub Hossain Roksy and Masud Parvez Kaiser left the national team for Bashundhara Kings before the Bangabandhu Gold Cup while there were no fitness coach and goalkeeper coach during the six-nation event.
The semi-finals of the Bangabandhu Gold Cup were the biggest international matches in the beach city of Cox’s Bazar and it became a cosmopolitan fete as many Rakhaine and Rohingya people joined the party.https://t.co/JbZCXThKxK#BANGABANDHUGOLDCUP #BANGABANDHU #GOLDCUP #ROHINGYA
— Dhaka Tribune Sports (@Sport_DT) October 12, 2018
Day hoped those gaps would be covered in November and pledged to move forward with whatever he got at his disposal.
The 38-year old however, reminded once again how important it is for the national players to feature for their respective clubs regularly.
“It’s a long term plan, how we get our national players playing regularly, every single one of them. As national coach, I want every player from midfield to defence play regularly. That’s how it gives experiences, that’s how we learn, how to score goals, how to cross, make clean passes,” said Day.
“Again on the other hand, if I were a club manager I want the best player, best foreign players because I want to win the games,” he added.