Ivan Vukomanovic was recently announced as the new head coach of KBFC, making him the club’s 12th coach in the last seven years. During an interview with the YouTube channel of the Kerala Blasters, the Serbian coach shared his initial thoughts and feelings about the team and the fans. Here’s the full transcript from the interview.
What attracted him to the KBFC job
“I have to say that it was a pleasure to meet with the director and all the people from the club. The professional side, the honesty, and everything impressed me during our first contact. This project was very interesting to me and this was my first opinion.”
Preferred style of football
“Every coach has his style, and every coach has his idea about how to play, and how to improve certain things, but it always depends on the quality that you will find in the dressing room. If you look at modern football today everybody likes to see fast football with lots of transition, a lot of attacks, and lots of goals. I like offensive football and scoring more goals, but there are many things to see like how everyone is involved.”
Read more about Ivan Vukomanovic here
Talks and discussion so far with the club and director
“Yes, I am very satisfied because from the very first contact everything was positive and correct. And like I said, the professional side and the approach of all of them, if you speak about the director, Karolis, the owner, and everyone who is involved in this story was very impressive. For me, it gave me a positive influence and a positive signal and I liked everything. So up, until now it’s all right.”
His opinion about the potential in the current squad
“Let’s say there is a lot of talent here. There are certain things that I liked a lot. And it looks that there is a lot of talented voices over there. And especially if you speak about football in India, it is great. So I think that with the correct word, and correct improvement, I think that all these boys can become better. So there are many positive things about the squad.”
His thoughts on the level of competition in ISL
“I saw many games. Many games of Kerala blasters from last season. As I said, there are certain things like playing style and the improvement in football never stops. Even if you have a great season there is still space to improve, there’s still space to become better. I was positively surprised by seeing many good things. In football, there are always good and less good things. So actually I was positively surprised and I am really happy to become a part of this project.”
His thoughts on KBFC squad in general
“There is a quality, I have to admit that. There are lots of players who have shown quality in the last season. What is important is the character, commitment to the team, positive attitude, and body language. All these things are very important if you speak about modern football today, besides talent, these are the starting basics of a football player. If one player possesses all these additional things like we just mentioned it gives him a possibility to become better. It gives him the possibility to improve and to go to a higher level. So we’ll work a lot of, that’s for sure because I’m hard working guy. I like to work a lot in football.”
His expectations from the upcoming season
“I am a coach who likes to win, and I will try to give that something extra with that mentality to our team. If you speak about the club, like Kerala Blasters, with everything going around this club, it must be the same as well. They must have a winning mentality and will to improve and to achieve something extra. I like to win titles and trophies. But we can never promise certain things, but we can promise hard work and trying to improve trying to make this team better, and trying to be as high as possible.”
The qualities he looks for in the players he wants to sign
“First of all, they have to be a good person. And second of all, they must possess certain qualities to bring something extra to the team. They must have strong body language, a positive attitude, and strong character. They must be able to become better and give something extra to the team. So all these qualities will be needed if someone wants to be a part of the Kerala Blasters.”
His thoughts on homegrown players and reserve team players
“In my coaching methodology, it doesn’t matter if the player is young if he is 17 or 18. It doesn’t matter if a player is good or not but he has to have a positive attitude, a character, if he has a correct body language, if he’s committed to the team, he is willing to give everything to his team to win, then it doesn’t matter how old you are. So I will always give them space to improve and opportunity to play. So if one player is quality enough to be part of the team, he will get the chance. I hope that many of them will have that commitment and be ready to show themselves, and will be able to be a part of the first squad.”
After being involved in the restructuring of Belgian Football Grassroots, the KBFC coach tells how the ideas and experiences obtained can be applied to Kerala Blasters
“Yes. Why not? If we speak about talent then it’s only 5%. Being talented means that you have the quality to be a part of the group. After that, there are many different things that you have to achieve and that you have to show. It means like we just said commitment to the team, positive attitude, and character. All these things are needed for one young player to become good. All these things that I just mentioned are what I observed during my period in Belgium.
The stars of football currently are not good because they were born like it. They’ve been working hard. They had a certain talent but they had to, later on, work hard and had to improve every day. And when you possess all these qualities, it becomes an impossibility to fail.”
On being an important part of the close-knit KBFC family
“I have to admit that from the very first contact with the director and with the people from the club I got some information and then I informed myself about everything within the club and around the club. And I have to admit that after I saw the positive attitude and energy from all this army of fans, I was quite sure that I would like to become a part of this team, this group, and this project. And so, for me, it was immediately, yes.”
His message to the fans
“I can tell that we will work very hard to make them proud and to make them happy because they deserve it.”
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