Former national striker now coach Dwight Yorke is not going to reinvent the wheel.
On day two of a live-in camp in Balmain, Couva the former Manchester United player held his second training session with the support of his full staff at the Ato Boldon Stadium on Wednesday beginning under the rays of the scorching sun before a heavy downpour failed to stop both players and staff, all of whom have set their sights on qualification to the 2026 FIFA World Cup to be hosted jointly by Concacaf nations- Mexico, the United States and Canada.
The stocky but miniature figure of Anthony Crea, the strength and conditioning coach who came in on Tuesday night, completed the coaching team. Yorke, who has worked with them all before, assured that once they can all move together in one direction, they will have a fighting chance.
There was no real difference in the composition of the squad chosen under his predecessors Angus Eve and Derek King, only that Gary Griffith III added to the anxious presence of the 30-plus players bidding to wear the red, white, and black of T&T when they next face St. Kitts/Nevis in June next year.
The players, not unusually, were taken through some attacking and defensive drills, while Ross Russell, another former national goalkeeper, gripped the attention of the goalkeepers. The day's activity though was concluded with a scrimmage, which Yorke pointed out showed many positives, though there was still some work to be done.
Yorke's work has been partly done and could now only entail adding the final touches to work started by his predecessors. "It's been two days into the camp. It's been fantastic. The response from the players has been good; it's been positive. There's a lot of energy here, which has been expected, so I couldn't have asked more from the players."
According to Yorke, "It's all about a confidence thing here. We're trying to build a culture here—a winning mentality in and around the national team. What Angus and King have done, we're trying to build on it. We're not trying to change too many things there. These guys have done a fantastic job in keeping the team and getting good results, so we're just coming in to implement our ideas on top of what they've already built."
"It's my job to implement that and ensure that the players are moving in the right direction by being a little bit more positive and a bit more forward-thinking and having a little bit more self-belief in what we're doing; this is part of my philosophy going forward. It's early days yet, so there's still a lot of work to be done," Yorke said.
The T&T Football Association had hoped to secure an international friendly match for Yorke's first assignment, but the intricacies of the Nations League and other qualifiers prevented this from happening. Yorke said, however, that development would work out in their favour.
"We've got pretty lucky that we didn't get a game this time around, so it gives us a little more time to work with the players and get a little bit more insight on what we're working with. We're still in that getting-to-know-you period, and they're getting to know us, our philosophy, and our playing style."
"We're getting to know them as players, so all these things take a bit of time, so you've got to understand that when you play international football you only have these players for a certain time, so it's really intense, it's compact, but you still got to get your ideas over. So limited time to bring them forward, but we expect people to move a little quicker than they normally would. If you're playing with your club, then you can take time and implement all your ideas, and you work on a day-to-day basis, but we have a seven-day window, and on some occasions maybe three or four days, so it's a little bit different. Once the players understand that, the message is to make sure that when they come here, they're ready to go and there's no luxury time," Yorke explained.
