Troussier had his first training session with the U22 team on Wednesday night. The session ended at 11 p.m. and just 11 hours later, the team hit the training ground again for the second session.
Forward Nguyen Van Tung said Troussier is meticulous and has high standards, which he has shown this session. The French coach instructed and set up the exercises for the players himself.
After a quick warm-up, Troussier revealed the exercises to the players. He divided the team into four groups wearing jerseys with different colors.
For 1.5 hours, the groups practiced passing, counter-pressing and build-up play with the goalkeepers. The intensity also increased compared to the first session. Troussier often paused the training and was not holding back when the players did not follow his instruction correctly.
Phan Du Hoc (C) tried to dribble instead of looking for passing options, which did not sit well with Troussier.
Troussier did not use a whistle. When he wanted to pause training, he used his four fingers to whistle.
The group in green jerseys was requested to stop as they did not follow Troussier's instructions and had to watch the other groups train.
In another play, Le Van Do (R), received the ball but did not have a proper technique to keep it, so Troussier made him do it again.
He made it clear to Do that these are small but really important details, and so the players must take note.
Troussier said to counter-press, the players need to stay in a convenient position. When one player is pressed, others must support him to get the ball to a safe position.
The coach was angry when one player had a pass that put his teammate in a difficult position.
"Why did you make that kind of pass, when Tien Long can't dribble past 13 players?," Troussier asked Duc Hoang.
What the coach wants is for the players to use their body movement to put themselves in a comfortable position when receiving the ball, while at the same time making the correct passing decision.
Troussier constantly reminded the players to play football with the head and with passion from the heart.
In this training period, Troussier will evaluate every single player and shorten the list of 41 players that he called up in preparation for SEA Games 32, which will take place in Cambodia in May.
The whole team stayed focused during the session and there was very little laughter. The team will maintain a schedule of two training sessions a day during this period.
