BY: Media Officer Foday Jatta

Head Coach Bye Malleh Wadda recently sat down with the club’s media to discuss his side’s improvement this term and why they’re playing better after ten games in the 2021/2022 GFF League season.

Wadda returned to the coaching role after replacing Ebou Jarra midway through last season and could only get Real de Banjul to a 3^rd-place finish last season. In that season, the City Boys could only score just 25 goals in 26 league games and did not top the league table since losing to the eventual league champions Fortune FC on match-day 3 of the 2020/2021 GFF League season.

Bye Malleh was then given the chance to coach the 12 times league champions from the start of a fresh season. He had the time to oversee a proper pre-season with the team, going on to beat Coup De Senegal champions Casa Sports 4-0 in Ziguinchor in an international friendly before starting the season with a win, beating the reigning champions Fortune FC 4-1 in the 2021/2021 GFF League season opener.

After 10 games of the season in the current season, Real de Banjul sit on top of the league with 21 points, scoring 21 goals, 4 goals less than the team managed the whole of last season (25 goals), and losing just once.

The gaffer sat down to give us a run-down of how he was able to transform his side’s fortunes and its massive improvement this term.

On his side being on top of the league table and scoring in every game…

“I think I had time to really improve the fitness of the team and also, we’ve had some time to bring some scheme of play on the attacking side and I have been working on improving the attacking side of the team. We are able to score goals from that. So I think we had time to work with the attackers to get the team to think and play a little bit more positive.”

 On his side scoring 21 goals in 10 league games…

“Yes, I look at the numbers and I have seen that almost over 85% of our goals are scored in the box. We have been working on schemes where our attacking players get in the box and that is creating opportunities and not just getting into the box but getting into the space which is very difficult in football and for players to think and observe these things but if you drill them enough on these things, they tend to improve on them. I think because of that, it has created a lot of chances. For instance, Modou Lamin Demba, we’ve been working with him because we think he can score 15 to 20 goals a season, but he needs to be composed in the box and that is paying dividends and his movement in the box has also improved.”

 On goals coming from the departments of his side…

“What we are trying to get our players to understand and appreciate is that when we have the ball, any person in the team has an opportunity to score. It’s not just the strikers and the attackers but everybody in the team is drilled to score and that is improving our opportunities and goal scoring. I think football is evolving in the sense that it is not just the attackers but any player on the pitch, as long as we have the ball have an opportunity to score. We are working a lot on possessing the ball and creating chances for different personnel. It is a team mentality that we are developing on that aspect.”