Maruful doing his homework

Maruful Haque is yet to officially take the charge of the national team, yet the veteran tactician has already started his homework regarding Bangladesh's opponents in the upcoming SAFF Championship.

Bangladesh, who were eliminated from the group stages in the last two editions, have been pitted alongside defending champions Afghanistan, former champions Maldives and Bhutan in Group B of the apex regional football tournament, which will be held from December 23 to January 3 in Kerala.

“I have already collected the opponents' video footages of the World Cup and Asian Cup qualifying matches and I have been watching those for the last one week,” Maruful said. “I will adopt a strategy in each game considering the opponents' strengths and weaknesses.”

Maruful has targeted a winning start against holders Afghanistan in the opening match as he is apparently setting his sights on clinching the title.

“My first target is to catch Afghanistan. I believe it is possible to beat Afghanistan if they take the same squad which has been playing in the World Cup qualifiers,” Maruful said. “We will need two wins to make it to the quarterfinals. I think we can do it as our target is big this time.”

Maruful, who worked with most of the national team players at club level, informed that he would work mostly on strategic plans in three weeks of preparation.

The just-appointed coach has also started thinking about his possible squad as he has instructed players like Zahid Hossain, Zahid Hasan Emily, Sohel Rana, Nasiruddin Chowdhury and Rezaul Karim, who were out of the most recent squad, to follow off-season training charts to stay fit.

“Four to five days ago, Maruf bhai phoned me and asked me what type of training I was doing. Then he instructed me to follow off-season training chart,” Emily said. “I did not understand initially why he was saying that but I have been following the training chart since then and later I learnt that he was going to take charge of the national team.”

Maruful is supposed to meet the National Teams' Committee today to finalise the terms and conditions of his appointment as well as placing his requirements for the team.

Maruful said he wants to start the training camp with 25 to 30 players, which will be finalised in today's meeting. The national team is scheduled to return home from China this afternoon.