UEFA.com has featured an interview with Macedonian manager Chedomir Janevski.
Chedomir Janevski has been in charge of Macedonia for under six months but is already seeing signs of his team playing the “modern football” he craves.
Less than six months into his tenure as Macedonian coach, Chedomir Janevski is pleased with his team’s progress.
Macedonia have made a steady, rather than spectacular, start to 2014 FIFA World Cup qualifying, picking up four Group A points from their opening four fixtures. Those were gained courtesy of a draw in Scotland and a home win against Serbia – proof, according to Janevski, that his side are on the up.
“I really think we have some quality players because they play in good European leagues – like [Goran] Pandev who is in Italy, [Ivan] Trichkovski who is in Belgium, [Goran] Popov just transferred to England, and [Nikolche] Noveski is in Germany. We have [Agim] Ibraimi at Maribor, who were [Slovenian] champions. We also have some young players who are coming through, so I think the balance between experience and youth has to be seen on the pitch as well.”
Janevski succeeded John Toshack in August last year and swiftly set about implementing a change in culture while also attempting to steer Macedonia towards their first major international tournament since independence. “My plan was to change the current style of play and start playing modern football, despite the difficult group,” he said. “We have good organisation, discipline and a good way of playing, so we don’t play that defensively any more, we play more offensively.”