
Tamas Szalai, who is preparing our team for the league game against DVTK with the help of Gabor Kesedi, revealed that it was a great honor for him to accept this role, which also comes with a huge responsibility.
- You have been the coach of Vidi for almost 4 years, you have also helped the work of three head coaches in the last years, and now you are preparing the team for Saturday's league game against DVTK. How did it feel to you to be asked to take on this task?
It is a great honour for me to be able to prepare the team, albeit temporarily. I signed as a player for Vidi in 1987, I spent almost 20 years here as a player, this club means a lot to me. In my own city, however, at my own club, such an invitation also comes with a huge responsibility, but I didn’t hesitate for a minute to accept it. We’re not in an easy position, as the team have been experiencing more serious ups and downs, so I tried to put together a weekly training plan to include as many elements as possible that we can use to shake the players up.
- You only had a few days to prepare the team for the DVTK game, so I think the main focus was not on tactical things, but on keeping the team mentally strong.
I think it’s important to shake the players out of the mental state they have been in because of the failed results. At the same time, we can’t ignore tactical things either, but I don’t want to talk about that before the game, on Saturday evening everyone will see what tactics we will play with. On the other hand, it is true that we have placed more emphasis on psychological preparation, we have talked a lot with the players together and separately in recent days. I speak in the plural sense because I am thinking in a few words and it is no secret that I asked Gabor Kesedi, the head match analyst for the current - transitional - period, to help me..
- As a player, you too have gone through a period with Vidi when the matches didn’t go as well as you would have liked. Do you remember the methods that the Vidi coaches of that time tried to shake the team up with. Perhaps now you too can use something from those coaching methods, or do you have your own ways?
So it's true, as a player, I also went through a weaker period with Vidi, and I remember from the perspective of so many years ago, that we always tried to cling together with my teammates as a team. It’s hard to remember exactly what coaching instructions we got when we had our ups and downs, and on top of that, you experience these things completely differently as a young player than you do as a coach. Today, I am aware that football is not just about tactical things, but also about pedagogy. People who need to be talked to a lot need to be addressed, they need to be built up not only individually but also at a team level. I consider communication to be a very important thing, fortunately I notice that the players think similarly and are partners in this.
- Diosgyor, who are fighting for their life, will visit the MOL Arena Sosto on Saturday afternoon. What kind of game do you expect against them?
This is correct but it is not only DVTK that are fighting for their life, but so are we. Clearly this will be the match of the year for us, a huge fight is expected in the 90 minutes. We definitely have to keep the 3 points at home and I have maximum confidence that the team will be able to do that. I know that we are facing a busy period, as we will have a cup match against Ferencvaros next week, but we are not really dealing with it yet, we are only preparing for Saturday's game against DVTK.