Show me respect! Furious Firat says after backlash from Mali thrashing - Capital Sports
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Harambee Stars head coach Engin Firat during training at Nyayo National Stadium. PHOTO/Raymond Makhaya

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Show me respect! Furious Firat says after backlash from Mali thrashing

NAIROBI, Kenya, Oct 10 – Harambee Stars head coach Engin Firat has fumed at the lack of respect he has apparently witnessed since the team’s 5-0 thrashing at the hands of Mali in a World Cup qualifier in Morocco on Thursday.

The tactician was bashed for his tactics and poor decisions that led to Kenya’s heavy defeat, essentially putting the 2022 World Cup dream in jeopardy.

And now, the tactician, who is on a two-month contract has lashed out at his critics who he says have chosen to pick just one side of his career, a disastrous spell with Moldova that saw him stay on the job without a single victory.

“You can criticize me, but don’t question my pride and loyalty. I am not young anymore. I have coached many countries and I don’t need anyone to tell me whether I am good or not. I have my self confidence,” the tactician fumed.

He added; “Some people want to make dirty news and the public listens to them. All the time they are talking about my record with Moldova. You want to judge me by just one job?”

“You had foreign coaches before. Where did they coach in Europe? Youth Teams? Reserve teams? And You want to compare me with them? Criticise what I am doing here but stay away from manipulating the public. I show respect and I also want people to show me respect,” added the coach as he fumed.

Stars suffered one of the biggest and most embarrassing losses in recent history and the defeat was hugely hinged on the decisions the coach took especially in terms of fielding.

And, the coach has owned up to the mistakes and apologized, promising to do better.

“I want to apologise to the people for the loss in Morocco. It was a tough start but on the other side, I got good lessons. The things I didn’t know, now I know but in a hard way. It is no excuse but I don’t do mistakes twice,” said the tactician.

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He hopes he can make better decisions on Sunday when he leads out Stars for the return tie which will be crucial in as far as the World Cup campaign is concerned.

“We had a few days together and we have tried to analyze and see what we did wrong. We have put that defeat behind our backs and look forward to the next game. We can’t change everything but we have to go in with a positive attitude. We did one bad job but it cannot determine everything,” further added the coach.

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