By Daily Sports on November 22, 2016

Kitted in a handless lemon sports shirt on top matching lemon boots and black tracksuit, Rangers International of Enugu Chief Coach Amakapabo Imama was a busy man. Venue was the lush green artificial turf of the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium in Benin City and the occasion was one of a preseason training session in the ancient city.

He introduced every technical drill by giving examples himself. A player throws the ball to his feet, he jabs back and gets ready to receive and return the ball with the other. Next were sprinting drills with the ball, among other demanding drills of about two minutes each.

The players on this hot Monday evening certainly had got a confirmation of the message. They weren’t in Benin City for jokes. Just more than a month after their trophy parade after winning the Nigerian Premier League, the very demanding hard work had started again.

Imama sounds unwearied from the battle of winning the league last season for Rangers. It was a title that the club and the people of Enugu had craved for decades and many were even tempted to launch into the superstitious thought that the club was jinxed and couldn’t get back to the heady days of the ’70s and early ’80s when the Flying Antelopes were a top force in not just Nigerian football, but also in the continent.

“We’ve had enough time to recuperate and we’ve got our mojo back for work,” he enthuses.

Imama’s status in the premier league circles has always been positive right from his playing days (as an accomplished Premier League goalkeeper) and as chief coach of Sharks of Port Harcourt (a club that has now been subsumed into a wider outfit known as Rivers United). Players and league followers talked in quiet admiration about his attention to coaching details and now speaking in the loudest tone is his achievement of leading the eastern giants into winning the NPFL once again after about 32 years of drought.

As Rangers continue their preseason preparations, the task for them now is two-fold. Retaining the league trophy and winning Nigeria once again the prestigious CAF Champions League.

Ever since the swashbuckling two straight wins of the competition by another eastern outfit Enyimba of Aba in 2003 and 2004, no Nigerian club has come anywhere near winning an African continental title, let alone the Champions League. It wasn't the case, even before Enyimba, that Nigeria has had a respectable appearance in the continent's table of club champions in the CAF-organised competitions. The opposite is true.

Now Rangers have their eyes set on winning the Champions League they have never won before. Their last continental victory came in 1977 in the now defunct Cup Winners Cup. They reached the final of the Champions league in 1975.

Imama avers that winning the Champions League is a priority for Rangers and that they have to do certain things right in order to achieve the goal.

“It’s within us (winning the Champions League). For the first time (in a long while) everyone can see that we are worthy winners of the league. We need to give the country a strong representation in the continent and our preparation has to be top notch. Having said that, I think there are things we need to get right, like exposing our players, for example by playing international friendly games with clubs from outside our country. That’s important to build the players’ mentality and educate them on how clubs from outside (like francophone clubs) play, because how they play is different from how we play here,” Imama says.

Apart from improving the playing side of the team, Rangers management have to be strong in the administrative politics that go with the continental game. Clubs and country FAs are known to come up with antics to stymie their opponents in the continent. But Rangers are no slouch judging from their reported intelligence in smothering the possible antics of some clubs in the league last season by pushing for many matches to be beamed live on satellite TV.

Talk about a coach with a brilliance of ideas, and Imama fits that description. He gets excited when the issue of tactics comes up and his repertoire of tactical knowledge is infectious. He’s an attack-minded coach and like many modern coaches in the international stage, he emphasises the importance of high pressing and ball dominance.

“I want my team to retain the ball as much as possible. So no matter what we do, we want to keep the ball safe and press the opponents high when we lose it. Formations come in different categories and I adjust my formation with regard to the opponents we're playing against. I played the 4-1-4-1 in most of our away games last season, but we've also played the 4-3-3 and the 3-5-2. Our formations may vary, but we keep the same ideals of pressing and ball retention all the time.”

Last Friday, Rangers had their first preseason friendly against Edo FA cup winners Inneh Stars of Benin at the Samuel Ogbemudia Stadium. Rangers featured mostly players on trials with the club and won 1-0 (courtesy of a first half penalty) in a game that was pretty much a damp squib. The trialists struggled to gain a foothold on the game and seemed to lack, or perhaps were too nervous to show, the quality associated with a top notch club. The guess is that most of the trialists would not make the cut and that Rangers would need players with the very best of quality to get signed.

What is going on for them at the moment is continuity. All the top players are expected to stay and form the fulcrum of a more blended unit as they seek more honors.

Talking about continuity, perhaps the biggest statement Rangers has made is the retention of Coach Imama. It’s not a rarity to see a switch of coaches in the Nigerian league even after a successful league-winning campaign. But Rangers have trodden the intelligent path and have moved with celerity to tie down Imama to a fresh contract. The coach agrees it was an important move by the club

“I think for every football club continuity is key. (Retaining the services of the coaching crew) is a big plus for Rangers and for me because we've got a better understanding of the board and the management as well as a better understanding of our players and what we need to do achieve an even better future.”

Though retaining the league and winning the continental cups are no easy jobs, Imama feels Rangers have earned the fear factor again to triumph at least domestically. “Whenever we are coming in to town now, I believe we’re going to be invoking phobia into teams,” he said.

Don’t rule out coach Imama and this Rangers management out when it comes to finding the right tactical and organisational balance to conquer Nigeria again and Africa.

•Photo shows Rangers coach Amakapabo Imama.

Source Daily Sports

Posted November 22, 2016

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