NNL: Insurance Coach Laments Slow Shape of Club

Adibe Emenyonu in Benin City

Ahead of the commencement of the Nigeria National League (NNL), season scheduled to kick off on March 3, Bendel Insurance FC Head Coach, Monday Odigie, has revealed that his team does not have the capacity to challenge for top honours yet.

The coach, gave this hint when he spoke with journalists after Insurance’s 3-1 victory over Delta Stars of Ughelli in a friendly last weekend in Benin City.

Odigie said he was still in the process of trying to come up with a team that would prosecute the 2017/2018 NNL season from the 40 players at his disposal.

According to him, “We are just staggering, the team has not taken a solid foot yet, we are still staggering to where we think will be good enough before the season starts.

“Our mode of preparation is still in process, we are not ready yet. It is always an ideal thing with sport, you don’t have a perfect team until the competition begins.

“We are still not what we want to be, we are still preparing towards where we want to be, we are however making progress but we are not set yet.”

Odigie who was unveiled as Insurance handler in January, said the friendly games being played were meant to ensure he builds a holistic team that will compete favourably with other teams for the promotion to the elite league.
The weekend friendly game made it 11 wins from the 11 of the friendly matches the club has played since January.
Speaking on the latest win, Odigie said, “It was a fair one, it should have been better though. First half, we saw some measure of good football played by both teams.

“I think all clubs should try play good football and hope to win afterwards, and not just come with the mind to win without playing good football.

“We need to be able to create goal scoring opportunities, string passes together, so that people who are watching will have something to come back to when your team is playing,” he said.
According to him, “All we have been doing is practice and training with these matches and trying to get better with each of this session.

“We are not after the results, but playing to improve the team in every department, players individually and the team collectively.

“Hopefully, we have about 14 days to the commencement of the league, a lot can still be done between now and then”.

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