‘Kuwaiti players have great abilities’

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Milos Velebit, 36 years of age, is from Republic of Serbia. He started as a youth national team player in Serbia. He stopped to play at an early age because of some problems he had with his heart. At 21 he started to train as a coach. He completed a BA degree for Sports and Physical Education in the University of Belgrade, and started to work as a coach with the youth team of a football academy in Belgrade. After that he worked at the National Federation of Football for the youth where he became the assistant coach for the under-17, under-19 and under-21 teams. He also became the head coach for all under-17 national teams. He worked as an Assistant Coach in a lot of clubs in the first league in Serbia. He moved out of Serbia to Jeddah where he worked as an Assistant Coach in 2008 from where he moved to Kuwait as an assistant coach to the National Team, under Mr Goran but he was with him for just one competition in 2012. Velebit went back to Serbia to work as a Head coach in the first team, then a stint as director in the academy of one of the big clubs in Serbia for two years. He has also worked as a professor in the school of coaching education as an educator. Now he is here in Kuwait, came in last August, 2015 and started coaching Al-Shabab Football Club.

In an exclusive interview with the Arab Times, the coach shared insights into his style of coaching, the differences he sees in team training between Al-Shabab and his previous teams he trained outside Kuwait. He said things are a bit different in the Arab world but he has adapted to this type of life and football. He stated that Kuwait has a lot of young talented footballers and all they need to do is go professional to go places. He stated “what I can say is that Kuwaiti players have great abilities, endurance and motivation. When they play, they give one hundred percent, no chance to expect less from them. But a little bit, they need more focus and concentration especially in the tactical aspect of the game. If you are able to enforce discipline and tactics, then you would make a good job of the team.”

Have a feel of what he had to say.

Question: What differences do you see in the team training between this team and those that you trained previously outside Kuwait?

Answer: You know, I have little experience with teams and players in the Arab world, things here are a little bit different, but I have adapted to this type of life and football. What I can say about Kuwaiti football is that they have a lot of talented, good, young players, but I know this league is not professional. In my opinion if Kuwait football starts to be professional, they will go places. You know I adapt for this style, and I know it is normal here and the mentality is a little bit different and I try to push my players to be a little bit professional but not so much because I know they have work and other obligations. I know they give their best and push themselves up to be a little bit professional. But what I can say is that Kuwaiti players have great abilities, endurance and motivation. When they play, they give one hundred percent, no chance to expect less from them. But a little bit, they need more focus and concentration especially in the tactical aspect of the game. If you are able to enforce discipline and tactics, then you would make a good job of the team.

Q: Does your team have a youth academy, if no, what plans are there to open one?

A: Yes, we have a youth academy, the Al-Shabab Youth Academy. They have all the selections, under-15, under-17, and under-19. What I see from now, we have excellent infrastructure for training, and there are two training venues, one around the main stadium where we have two pitches, one small pitch for training for the youth category and the others for the seniors. Al-Shabab has very good conditions in place to make young players grow.

Q: What is your philosophy for coaching?

A: You know how I see football; I see football like a lifestyle. For 24 hours I think football and always try to find new solutions. Football is dynamic and complicated, you know. You must think about a lot of things, like technique, tactics, psychology, fitness and the motivation of players. But there is not much time to work on all of these separate components of football. You must spend lots of time to make good training sessions, mixing all of these separate components in one training session. As far as my philosophy for coaching goes, I think I don’t like defence, I like to attack, no matter against which team we face. I know here in Kuwait there are five or six big teams; for example Kuwait, Qadsiya, Salmiya, Jahra, Arabi, and Kazma. And there is another part of the league which is different from the quality of these big teams. But I don’t care about all that. My club, Al-Shabab is the best team in the Kuwait league, to me. We always try to play, but maybe we don’t have results but I am happy the way they play and behave on the field, for me this is more important. My philosophy is that if you want to defend, you must get the ball in your legs and push forward, period. If you don’t want to be seen struggling for the ball you must have the ball in your possession. This is my style and thinking about football.

Q: How did the team fare last season?

A: Even though I wasn’t here last season, people have talked to me about it. Al-Shabab always hovers around 10th and eleventh positions on the league table. We have started very well this season, playing in the Federation Cup, six matches with four wins and two losses against Kazma and Kuwait. We had very good results and showed very good quality football. After that we passed three rounds in the Crown Prince Cup then after that we lost against Khaitan. In this first part of the season we played good football with very good result. When the VIVA League started we continued to play very well but without good results. We have just eight points, lying before the last position. But we showed lots of quality games and we haven’t been lucky. We had four penalties and missed three in very difficult moments of the games. With a little bit more luck, we will have good games and good results. For now I am just happy that we are playing but not happy about our results at this moment.

Q: How are the players recruited into the team?

A: In the team, there is one group of players who were in the team from last season before I came in. We have three professional players; some players come to practice with us and we make some selection to include them in the team. The team is a new team. It is actually the job of management to bring in new players into the team.

Q: Where do they start and how do they move to the national level?

A: You know if somebody wants to play in the national team, he must first have the capability. I can say that we have three, four very interesting young players who have the capability to be in the national team one day; we have Younus, Nawaf, Nefer and Ibrahim. These are young players who have great ability. They are very young and now they’ve started to have big roles to play in our team, and they improve after every match. If they continue to work very hard, strive to be present at every training, every exercise, every match, they can be part of the national team in future.

Q: What are the biggest challenges for the players?

A: The biggest challenge for the players is for them to try to be more professional. To try to live outside the stadium, a sportsmanly life, think more about football, spend time outside the football field like professionals. To think a little bit about their fitness, their bodies, their health and something like that. But they cannot change like this, they need help. And this help must come from somebody who can make the VIVA League try to be more professional. I understand the players 100%, because they have families, they have jobs. After work they immediately come looking very tired. It is not easy to work eight hours and come to give your best. Like I said, they need to be more professional but with the help of somebody.

Q: What are your greatest challenges as the coach of the team?

A: Every day is a challenge, every game is a challenge, and I look at this job as one big challenge. Everyday there is a new challenge to fix. You know here in Kuwait, there are lots of problems, when you fix one, another comes. But it is typical of our kind of job. If you don’t have problems you’d be bored. It’s a great thing in football that there are always problems and you must find ways of fixing them and move on. I always tell my players these things. Football is like life, you must know how to fix problems, how to handle a losing situation, how to behave when you win. Football is part of life.

Q: How do you envision the future of football in Kuwait?

A: Kuwait has a very good future in football, but the level of professionalism needs to be worked on. You know this is most important for the future of football in Kuwait.

Q: What changes would you like to see in Kuwait football to make it better?

A: You know I’ve been here barely four or five months. I cannot talk much about these things. This is a question for people who work in the National Football Federation. All I can say is that Kuwaiti football players have a good future.

Q: Describe a typical work week for a head football coach.

A: Kuwait has a lot of games; we have four competitions, the Federation Cup, the national league, VIVA League, Crown Prince Cup. This is too much matches and sometimes it is difficult to analyse your schedule between two games. Sometimes you have three days between two games, sometimes you have seven days and sometimes you have five. In the first two days we do some exercises, and with these exercises we want to fix some problems we had in our last game. About fitness, we work with more intensity on speed and aerobic endurance in the first three days and in the second part we train on how we want to play against our next opponent team and we try to fix problems we think we will have in the upcoming match. Nothing is typical in the training, because you must make some new exercises to come out with the best strategies against your opponents.

Q: Who are your role models in coaching and why?

A: I don’t have idols in coaching. I try to respect all good coaches and try to find what the main philosophy of football is, and recognize some very important things in their football style and think about them and try to implement them in my philosophy. But you know your philosophy and style of game quality depends on the quality of your players. You cannot play for example like Barcelona if you don’t have the players. You must have one big mind and a lot of styles and philosophy about your players and they can deliver your required results.

Q: What are your best and worst memories in coaching?

A: You know I have lots of good memories as a coach. When I see young players I coached playing in Newcastle, Liverpool, it makes me happy and proud. Yes, I have a lot of good memories and bad memories, it is football life. When you lose a game, you think that this is worse for you but after two or three days life becomes normal and you forget and continue to work.

Q: How would you deal with a player that complained about the head coach or his program?

A: You know I am a young coach with fifteen years experience. I try to make connection with players who must respect me as a coach. But I want to be friends with them, give them advice. You know in coaching problems do crop up in the team but what I see for now is that they accept my programs and relationships are excellent. I must say here in Shabab I have a group of players who like football, like to train, accept everything. I hope if things continue like this, we’d have good results.

Q: What person and or event has had the most influence on your life? Why?

A: It is my father. He influenced my life with football. He was a football player before, but stopped playing when he became a medical doctor. His first love was football so after practicing medicine for some time he stopped and became a football coach. Because of his background as doctor, he tried to introduce a lot medical science into football, especially fitness. After that he worked as a professor in the University of Fitness and ended up writing a book about fitness in football. He has had the most profound influence on my life.

Q: What qualities would you look for if you were hiring an assistant?

A: First of all he should have three very important things. He should be good, honest, in all cases I don’t like somebody who would continue to agree to all things I say. I want to listen to all people who work with me. I am a head coach who makes decisions but always I am open to talk about everything on the field and around the field. Of course he must know his job.

Q: How has coaching affected your life?

A: You know I am young and already have gray hair. Football is my life so I give it 100% of my body and mind. There are two parts totally opposite each other; one part being the adrenalin which is inside me when I think about football and talk about football. It is something without which I cannot think. For fifteen years I have had no break at all, always working on football. Everyday I have a job and thank God for that. Football brings to you a lot of good things; new relations, you meet a lot of good and like minded people and that is something nice about football. Secondly, football is something that commands billions of followers who are crazy about it. I am a coach and part of these crazy billions. On the other side, a lot of stress, when you give your 100% and not have the required results, you ask yourself whether to continue. But because we are sportsmen, we have inside ourselves something that pushes us to continue more and more to be better.

Q: How would you promote a positive energy with your team through both positive and negative situations?

A: Like I said, football is life, you must continue, one day, two days you are stressed, without energy, but think that this is normal in football and you must continue. Find more energy and be positive minded, remember if you are positive and think positive, your team will be positive.

Q: What books or movies are your favourites and why?

A: I like history movies and books. He who doesn’t know history cannot know what to expect in future. If you want to be one step ahead on current events, you must know what happened before. I like documentary movies too as well as biography books. I like comedy movies too. I don’t have the patience to watch a full length movie.

biography

Professional qualifications

1998-2006: University of Belgrade, BA in Physical and Sports Education

2005: UEFA A-licensed coach

2011: UEFA PRO-licensed coach

Professional specialization

2009: Seminar for UEFA youth team coach, Trondheim, Norway

2009: UEFA seminar for lecturers at the School of UEFA coaches, Italy

2010: UEFA seminar for instructors, Coverciano, Florence, Italy

2011: Seminar for UEFA youth team coach, Wroclaw, Poland

2014: Seminar for UEFA youth team coach, Madrid, Spain

Professional Coaching Career:

Coaching practice

2001-2003: Coach of Football Academy Mondial Belgrade (ages 7-15)

2003-2005: Director and coordinator of Football Academy Mondial, Belgrade

2005 -2007: Assistant Coach of Serbia National U17 team (1990)

2007-2008: Al Ahli SC, Jeddah, Saudi Premier League, assistant coach Asian Champions League 2008

2008-2009: Head coach FC Banat, Zrenjanin, Serbia second League

2009-2010: Selector (instructor) of FA Serbia all selection U16 team

2010-2011: Head coach FC Sloboda PS, Užice, Serbia Premier League

2011-2012: Coordinator Instructors department of FA Serbia

2012: A National team Kuwait, assistant coach

2012-2013: Head coach FC Smederevo, Serbia Premier League

2013: Head coach SPFN Serbia, Tournament FIFAPRO, Nyon Swiss

2013 – now: Director of Football Academy FC Jagodina, Serbia Premier League

2014-2015: Assistant Coach of Serbia National U19 team (1996)

Lecturer

2006 – Now: Lecturer in school of FA SCG for acquiring UEFA PRO, A, B and C licenses

2007 – Now: Lecturer in school of Serbian Football Association for acquiring UEFA PRO, A, B and C licenses

2010 -Now: Member of the examination committee UEFA/FA Serbia school of   coach B,A licence education

Guest lecturer

2007, 2009: Seminar – ZNT Football Association of Slovenia for acquiring A license (Ljubljana, 2007) and PRO license (Velenje, 2009)

2009: Seminar – Football Association of Montenegro for acquiring A license (Tivat, 2009)

By Iddris Seidu – Arab Times Staff

This news has been read 5460 times!