James Thomas, the newly appointed Trinidad and Tobago women’s national team head coach, is trying to make his way to T&T as soon as possible despite difficulty of travel. The Welshman said, however, that though he is still on the other side of the Atlantic, the work has begun.
“I’ve done a lot of work in terms of further looking at players. Looking at their strengths (and) areas of development that we are looking at,” he said.
“I’ve started to speak to some of the senior national team players as well,” he added. “Started to have some brief conversations with those and I hope to spread that amongst the extended players list.”
Thomas said the message gathered from the players thus far is their passion to play for the country and their eagerness to get back on the field, after playing no football since October 2019 when drawing goalless with Dominican Republic in an Olympic qualifier.
Thomas is holder of both a UEFA A-licence and a UEFA Elite Youth A-licence and has worked with the Under-17 and Under-19 age groups in Wales. The former Wales women’s team assistant coach and performance analyst came out top candidate from 195 applications.
Thomas has also been working with the T&T Football Association (TTFA) technical department on mapping this year’s programme.
“I also started to speak with the locally-based staff that will be coming on board with us as well.”
Thomas said his first focus is to get his national players back on the field and to convey to them the philosophy of how he would like his team to play. He explained that his overall strategy will be based on doing what is necessary to win matches. Thomas will also reach out to T&T’s overseas-based players and a few others that may be qualified to play for T&T by virtue of ancestry.
“First thing is for the domestic players, to get them training again,” working within the parameters offered by Government’s Covid-19 restrictions.
Thomas continued: “It’s trying to get that local programme up and running, really create a pathway for these players that are domestically based. It might be difficult with the numbers we have available to us because of the restrictions.”
SOURCE: T&T Express