The prospective Bangladesh national football team’s Dutch coach Lodewijk de Kruif is positive minded with the philosophy of attacking from the very beginning, said his former pupil Udeh Damien Chigozie on Tuesday.
Udeh, a midfielder of Bangladesh Premier League side Mohammedan Sporting Club, played under Lodewijk for two consecutive seasons in the Nigerian Premier League club Heartland FC during which time the club won the Nigerian FA cup twice.
According to Udeh, Lodewijk always takes the field to win and he always tries to take an early lead to dominate the game putting their opponents under pressure.
‘He is a nice coach. He likes victory and never plays for a draw or narrow loss, no matter how mighty the opponents are. I am sure he will introduce the attacking and total football theory in the Bangladesh team,’ Udeh said.
The Nigerian also explained how the Dutch coach can solve and overcome the scarcity of strikers in this country in order to execute his attacking strategy.
‘It is not true that Bangladesh do not have enough quality strikers. I saw a lot of potential good strikers waiting to be encouraged and to be polished,’ Udeh said.
‘I believe Lodewijk has the ability to encourage players and bring the best out of him. I am sure there will be a lot of new strikers in the national team if he works here for a certain period of time,’ he added.
To exemplify the good motivating capability of Lodewijk, Udeh narrated a story of his time under
the 43-year old Dutch coach.
‘In 2010, which was my first season with Lodewijk, I was not playing according to my merit because of my mother’s serious illness. Than the coach called me personally to his room to counsel me and cheer me up. He is not only a good coach but also a good manager I believe,’ Udeh said.
Lodewijk, meanwhile, had a meeting with the Bangladesh Football Federation president Kazi Salahuddin at Hotel Ruposhi Bangla in the morning before he went to the Dutch embassy in Dhaka to become a member of the Dutch club here.
He will watch the Bangladesh Premier League match between Abahani Limited and Team BJMC today later he will travel to Sylhet on Friday to have a look at the BFF academy.