No Player Is Untouchable -Milo

With 9 points from 3 games, Milovan Rajevac is more than a happy man with a dream to steer the Black Stars to yet another World Cup tournament in South Africa on course after registering three wins out of three games. He was initially dubbed “Milo who?” and came under a barrage of criticisms from the media and the general public alike, and many wondered if the FA hadn’t erred in placing our World Cup destiny into the hands of an unknown Serbian who was yet to handle any national side. The man of very few words shared his thoughts with 90 MINUTES newspaper before he boarded a flight to his native Serbia to take a little breather away from football.

90 Minutes: Congratulations! Two wins in two difficult away games. How does it feel? MIlovan Rajevac: Certainly it’s a wonderful experience especially with such away victories. We couldn’t have asked for better results in such games. South Africa 2010, are we there yet? Theoretically we are not there yet. We are at half time with three more matches to go but we have taken a big step that has seen us very close. We must however concentrate and continue the good run of results that has seen us top the group. How close are we? Very close! (Chuckles). We have three more matches to play and we have to continue with what we started and hopefully, we would book our tickets to the finale very soon.

What will happen to youngsters like Kwadwo Asamoah and Opoku Agyemang when senior players such as Appiah, Muntari & Laryea Kingston return to the team? The future is bright for them and shows that Ghana has got a lot of enthusiastic talented youths who can be relied upon whenever the need be. It would be nice to have the senior players back into the team but I must caution that, we would choose players who are on form on match days and players who are capable of fulfilling the roles assigned to them.

Is the technical team capable of dropping the big names for the unsung heroes in the team? Of course yes. It’s the sole prerogative of the coach to determine who plays depending on the game and tactics that would be used. It’s however important to have a very good and competitive atmosphere in the team. We have to realize that we all have a single mission to qualify for the World Cup. We have instances where players who are not with the Black Stars now offer encouragement and morale support to their fellow colleagues underlying the togetherness in the team. Especially with the captain (Stephen Appiah), he has been with us in spirit all the time offering morale support to the young ones as well as the seniors.

The Prince Tagoe that we know normally loves to lead the attack. But he played at the right side of attack in the games against Mali and Sudan respectively. What is new with his role at the Black Stars? Well, it’s a tactic that we employed when playing away and it paid off in the matches against Mali and Sudan respectively. With such tactics, we have three players attacking the opposing team which makes them open up their defence wide thus enabling our midfield to press forward for us to get the goals. Would we be looking at certain players to beef the team inspite the fact that we are winning?? Yes of course. We could be looking at certain players but the most important thing would be the current form of the player since we could have a whole new set of players from goal to attack. The monitoring of the players for me has been very good as one of my visits led to my discovery of Kwadwo Asamoah who has been a wonderful addition to the squad.

Do we have “untouchables” in the Black Stars? Not at all! There are no untouchables in the Black Stars. As I said earlier on, it depends on current form and that would determine one’s ability to get a game. I don’t want to mention any player but as you are aware, Mensah (John) had been sidelined through injury but on his return, he has proved why he needs to be in the team with some remarkable displays. The most important thing is one’s ability to deliver. Else when we follow such logics as untouchables, we would probably have Abedi Pele still playing for the Black Stars because he is such a big hit at Tamale with a huge statue of him erected over there.

The FIFA Confederations Cup which preludes the World Cup is currently going on in South Africa. When you watch these games, what runs through your mind? I have been watching some of the games though I have not had enough time to watch all. I must confess that I am really impressed with the way Spain are playing. The have been solid in all departments of their game from defence to attack. I am trying to let my team play as superbly as the Spanish as most of their play is from the midfield. When you play such an opposition who have not lost in more than 30 games, you would need to put in an outstanding performance to match them.

What is your biggest headache with the Black Stars? I would not be in a position to tell you now since that is more or less a thing for the technical handlers to elaborate on. Before I arrived to take charge of the team, I had been studying the Ghanaian team a lot and was able to pencil some few positions that we had problems that we are still working on. To be honest, we still have some few positions in the team that we need to improve by finding solutions to. But before we qualify for the World Cup, we hope to have a solid team in place that would be able to compete with the big boys at the highest level. For the positions, I would keep that to myself in order not to dampen the spirits of those players to avoid the discussions that it would generate.

With Ghana being so close to South Africa 2010, what are you doing to make such a dream become a reality? There is still a lot to play for since we have made a huge step in qualifying for the finals in South Africa. Remember that I said it’s half time and we have three more matches to play. We would continue to work hard and bring in some players in to enhance our chances of qualifying. We haven’t closed our doors to any player as that would make it easier to make the South African 2010 dream possible.

You are enjoying praises and adulation from the fans..…how do you take it in your stride? Well, I am not really getting into much of that because I only want to focus on my job in taking the team to higher places. With this job of ours, you get praises when you are doing well and get criticisms when you perform badly. On a personal level, I have been proud of the results at the CHAN and the results of the World Cup qualifying campaign but honestly, getting the job done is what is of much importance to me now.

Your final world to Ghanaians…. Ghanaians have clearly showed that football is part of their lives and for me to be part of the history making is something that I am proud of. I would call for support for the players through their difficult moments to help us win our remaining matches in order to be in South Africa 2010.