With just weeks to the fourth edition of the African Nations Championship (Chan), the hosts Rwanda have hired two performance analysts.
The English duo of Darren Wiltshire 32, and Alex McCarthy 25 joined Rwanda’s Irish coach Johnny Mckinstry and his backroom staff on Sunday at their camp in Rubavu.
The two are expected to pay focus on in-depth analysis of both Amavubi training sessions and matches played as well as the technical analysis of opposition teams.
Will talking to www.newtimes.co.rw. McKinstry showed his gratitude for the arrival of Wiltshire and McCarthy.
We are very pleased to welcome Alex and Darren to our team for the upcoming tournament, their expertise in performance analysis will spice up everything in camp
Rwanda’s training sessions will be recorded and put into video highlights of specific things for the benefit of the coaching staff and players.
We are looking at, it’s a lot of work, but we now have two experienced people on only that. Players can review videos and then discuss with coaches, it gives them a better understanding of their performance on a daily basis, and therefore allows them to highlight areas of improvement session by session.
McCarthy and Wiltshire come to the Amavubi camp with a lot of experience, the former is believed to be working with English Premier League side, Bournemouth while the latter has spent the last decade with football analysis company Opta.
Analyzing players is an area of the game that many African teams undermine. Often, coaches purely focus on the practical coaching but go to any top team such as Barcelona, Bayern Munich or Manchester City and you will find performance analysis departments with 10 to 20 people
Rwanda is drawn in group A alongside Ivory Coast, Morocco and Gabon in the 3-week competition. The tournament’s opening game will pit McKinstry’s Amavubi against the Elephants of Ivory Coast on January 16 at Amahoro stadium.
AFRICAN NATIONS CHAMPIONSHIP
When: January 16 – February 6
Where: Rwanda
POOLS
Group A: Rwanda, Ivory Coast, Morocco, Gabon
Group B: DRC, Ethiopia, Cameroon, Angola
Group C: Tunisia, Guinea, Niger, Nigeria
Group D: Zimbabwe, Zambia, Uganda, Mali
Opening group fixtures
Saturday, 16 January 2016
Rwanda vs Ivory Coast (Amahoro Stadium, 15:00)
Gabon vs Morocco (Amahoro Stadium, 18:00)
Sunday, 17 January 2016
DR Congo vs Ethiopia (Huye Stadium, 15:00)
Angola vs Cameroon (Huye Stadium, 18:00)
Monday, 18 January 2016
Tunisia vs Guinea (Kigali Regional Stadium, 15:00)
Nigeria vs Niger (Kigali Regional Stadium, 18:00)
Tuesday, 19 January 2016
Zimbabwe vs Zambia (Rubavu Stadium, 15:00)
Mali vs Uganda (Rubavu Stadium, 18:00)