Eric Gerets arrives

October 26th, 2010 | by: Xavier | Comments Off

Arriving in Morocco earlier this week Eric Gerets held his first press conference on Tuesday night. With the direct manner many are accustomed to from the Belgian headman, Gerets described his plans for the young Atlas Lions. Finally free of all ties with Saudi club al-hilal, coach Gerets speaks of the beginning of a new life and adventure in the Maghreb.

“My first contact with the President of the Moroccan Football Federation went very well, I sensed in him a great desire to work together as a team,” said the former Marseille boss, who saw his loyal assistant, Dominique Cuperly, take the helm for the first two games of the 2012 African Cup of Nations Qualifiers.

“I think it’s a good start, unfortunately we did draw against the Central African Republic. But we won the second away game in Tanzania so if we achieve a good result against our Algerian friends at our next competitive match, it will be a good series of events,”Gerets surmised. “My main goal is to win titles, I think I was born to collect trophies. I certainly gained a lot of them as a player, I led teams that were also very honored, but I now want to win titles with this national team of Morocco.”

To achieve this, it will take “some time”, says Gerets. “The game plan that we are trying to introduce (myself and Cuperly) is a bit new,” he added. But the will is already there and the quality should be there and if they manage to follow the philosophy that I want to instill, then we’ll see some very strong results. “The friendly match on the 17th of November, against Northern Ireland will figure in this process. “The main objective is to test players who have not participated in other meetings or who have had little game time. Moreover, we want to tryout players who are still reluctant to choose between the Moroccan jersey and that of the nation of their birth. So a lot of work, we do not have much time but we’ll get there, “summarized the coach. A rousing speech that Marouane Chamakh and his partners will now look to translate into victories. Let’s hope its so…