Trinidad and Tobago captain Dwight Yorke says he will be banking on an upbeat performance from the “Warriors” in Wednesday’s warm-up against Alianza Lima following two days of intense training which allowed the to get acquainted with head coach Leo Beenhakker.
The former Manchester United star rated Beenhakker after their first meeting on the pitch this week and expects that the T&T players will respond well to the Dutchman.“I’ve been very impressed with the way things have gone so far,” Yorke told TTFF Media. “I have been fortunate enough to work under good managers before and I think he’s right up there with the best and now he’s here to take charge of us and my first impression was a great one.”
With the exception of striker Stern John, the rest of the team trained under the heat at the Larry Gomes Stadium on Tuesday morning with Kenwyne Jones, Wrexham’s Carlos Edwards, Dennis Lawrence and Hector Sam along with Real Salt Lake duo Marlon Rojas and Leslie Fitzpatrick all being active after arriving home the previous night. John was scheduled in on Tuesday evening and carded to meet with Beenhakker at the team’s base at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, Port of Spain.
Beenhakker went on for two hours in the middle as he seized the opportunity to work with the players he had requested for the live-in camp. The locals like Anton Pierre, Densill Theobald, Aurtis Whitley, Glenton and Anthony Wolfe, Atiba Charles, Gary Glasgow and Arnold Dwarika all went through their paces. The overseas-pros such as Cornell Glen, Avery John, Brent Rahim, David Nakhid, Chris Birchall all pushed themselves under the eyes of Beenhakker and assistants Theo De Jong and Wim Rijsbergen. While goalkeepers Clayton Ince, Jan Michael Williams and Daurance Williams had their hands full with ‘keeper coach Michael Maurice
Yorke mentioned that it was important that the “Warriors” give a good account against the Peruvian club champions which arrived on Monday night and trained at the Hasely Crawford Stadium on Tuesday.
“I think this game is an essential part of our preparations. The one thing we have to do is try to get onto a winning mentality and once we can get our confidence going with a win on Wednesday then we can build on that,” Yorke said. “We still have two weeks before the serious game but every game at this point should be addressed as if it’s the game against Panama.”
Yorke also touched on the decision by close friend Russell Latapy not to take up the invitation to return to the team as a player.
“It’s a difficult situation for Russell who obviously is someone very close to me and we always speak in very deep conversations. It’s s delicate situation for him. Russell sees himself as a retiree from football and he sees his future as a coach. As much as we will all love to see him here with the team, he still feels he wants to come back in a managerial capacity. The people are bound to be disappointed with him not being here but I think they also have to see it from his side as well,” Yorke said.
Beenhakker meantime hinted that he was not set on a particular formation for the team, hence the reason for the current warm-up schedule in which he intends to give as much players a run. His squad was expected to be finalized by Tuesday evening for the affair with Lima.
“We will see if it’s 3-4-3 or a 4-4-2 system depending on the condition of the players and what the best position might be for each player. This is of course a good training match for us just as I got a lot of answers from the game last week, the same will apply for this one on Wednesday. Everything we are doing now is related to the match against Panama. Of course you always play to win but that’s not the most important reason for us now. Right now are main focus is to find the best position for each player and to play it right as a team. We have had some team meetings and we discussed how important it is to get on with the job as a real team and once again the players have been very professional and they are doing everything they can do to be in the best shape for June,” the former Ajax Amsterdam boss added.