Talgat Baisufinov: “Every player will get playing time”

“We watched the match between Namibia and Comoros together as a team. Comoros have players who play in Europe. Nevertheless, we are ready for tomorrow’s game. We only had two days to prepare for the first match, but now we have had five. We are building our playing style, and the players are getting back to the kind of football we played last year. We will play to win. We will try to give our fans something to cheer about and aim to win for ourselves as well. We are also working on tactical aspects.

Namibia showed their game both against us and against Comoros. They did not allow us to play our football. It was the same against Comoros – in the first 25–30 minutes they created a lot of chances and should have scored one or two goals but failed to convert them. Namibia held firm and then imposed their style of play.”

We also started to analyse substitutions from the second half. Comoros made only two changes. It will be interesting to see what line-up they choose tomorrow. In general, any team performs better at home. In the FIFA Series standings, we currently have three points, Namibia have two and Comoros have one. Of course, everyone needs a win.

At the previous press conference, I said that our goal is to win the Nations League in the autumn. This is the first stage of preparation for that. We have two friendly matches scheduled in June. In September, in the Nations League, we will play four matches in 12 days.

We have also called up new players to the national team. Alexandr Mrynskiy joined us and showed his qualities. We are pleased that he understands the team’s style – he is performing well both for Kairat and in the Champions League. These are the kind of players the national team needs. However, in the match against Namibia, many players performed as they are used to in the Kazakhstan league – there was a lack of speed and decision-making quality. We are addressing this now, and we can see progress in training. But we were not satisfied with the team’s tactical performance against Namibia. From day one, we have stressed the need for consistency in our play. Of course, every player will get playing time.

We understand that both we and Comoros will play only for the win tomorrow. If we play defensively, we will not win. The young players in the squad inspire each other and aim to play attacking football, which brought results last year. Now we see that some players have moved abroad but are not getting enough game time – the players themselves understand this. We will call up those who are in good form, ready to play and free of injuries,” said Talgat Baisufinov.