Our focus is to change Team Melli’s style of the play: Dragan Skocic

Tehran Times – TEHRAN, Dragan Skocic, head coach of the Iran football national team, has talked about his ambitions from the very first days he came to Iran as the coach of the Malavan Bandar Anzali football team.

“Naturally, everyone has dreams, and I dreamt of coaching the big teams. My love for coaching makes me want to pursue my career and my dreams anywhere. From the day I took charge of Malavan, I believed in my football knowledge and spent all my experience to help my teams reach their peak potentials,” Skocic said in a lengthy interview with the Iranian football federation’s official magazine.

The Croat was named as new head coach of Iran in early February as a replacement for the Belgian coach Marc Wilmots but he has not led the team in a single match for more than seven months.

“If you search, you may see my first interviews in Iran, which I said at that time my goal was to lead the Iranian national team,” he added.

Iran national football team will play Uzbekistan on Oct. 8 in a friendly match in Tashkent and four days later they will face Tajikistan in Tehran.

Skocic says that he will try to build a new team with new players in the squad, but he will use the players who were already in the national team as well. “Right now, our focus is mainly on changing the style of the play of the National Team,” the Croatian coach said.

He also talked about his experience of working in Iran as a person has lived here for many years.

“Although I’m not an Iranian, I have spent many years in Iran. I know the problems of Iranian football and I believe that the country has very talented players who have football DNA but they need to change their mentality about tactical football. I think Iranian football needs coaches who increase the motivation of the players to fight.

“In my first interview in Iran, I was asked what would happen if we did not get the result? I replied: ‘what happens if you get out of here and have a car accident?’ I never think about negative points. Rather, I think positively and do not let my mind is preoccupied with problems. I work hard and other people also have to think about doing their best in their jobs and the good things will follow,” he concluded.