New FK Partizan Head Coach Srdjan Blagojevic held his first press-conference since joining the club on the 1st of January.
“First of all, I would like to thank Predrag Mijatovic and Danko Lazovic to whom I spoke mostly, I`d like to thank them for their faith in me. It`s a great honour being a Partizan coach, looking at all the great names before me. It`s a massive challenge in my career too. I`m full of pride and motivated and I think I have a great experience after everything I went through in my career. I also think it coincides with what Partizan is looking for and we`ll do everything possible for the benefit of this club”.
Blagojevic on mid-season winter preps.
“We start today officially but we were preparing for everything ahead of us for the past four to five days. First training session is on from 3pm today, we will meet the players and let them know what is expected from them. Our plan is to move to Antalya camp from 10th of January for a two-week winter preps. We have four friendlies arranged while in Turkey followed by a week`s training back home and a first league game against Spartak”.
New boss was then asked what made him sign for Partizan and what is it that made him stand out from 12 possible candidates for the dugout?
“What made me accept Partizan offer without any doubts is that I am the type of a coach club presented to me as something they truly want, I found myself in everything I heard from club reps. I`m sure Mijatovic and Lazovic did a detailed research on all my characteristics, finding out I have everything they want. I am very motivated and I believe Partizan is the biggest challenge in my career, regardless of my work with clubs who won number of domestic titles and played CL competition. It`s a great honour to be able to work in your home country and I have no doubts Partizan will help my personal development as well”.
On coaching staff…
“My first assistant is Dejan Fijala while fitness coach will be Sasa Semeredi. Marko Jovanovic will remain part of the coaching team as someone who did well during this transition period, as stated by the club management. Dordjije Cetkovic stays, Lazar Tomic as well, goalie coach Jovsic and Misa Filipovic as another fitness coach will remain at their respective posts too”.
Blagojevic did current Partizan roster analysis.
“Our coaching team did thorough analysis of the period behind us and we made our conclusions. There are good things around but we have our priorities regarding things that need to be changes. Regarding new signings, we talk about and we`ll make those decisions together. We are aware of the situation we are in and we cannot talk about star signings, it`s all about corrections and refreshing the squad. But, whatever the roster is, we are not going to back down on what our targets are. Even if don`t get any newcomers, we have to believe that we are able to do what we want at this moment of time”.
It`s only a six-month initial contract for Blagojevic.
“As for the duration of contrat, it`s the result of respect both contracting parties have towards the situation Partizan is in. Current management is here on a caretaking basis, until the month of June, therefore people who run the club now and myself included show responsibility and conscience regarding this job, so we came up with 6-month deal. We can talk about possible extension afterwards”.
Finally, Blagojevic revealed what fans can expect from him regarding his coaching style.
“What I would like is for Partizan supporter to see team that dominates with or without possession, playing proactive game with our build-ups depending on our aggression, discipline and organization, for people to see what we want at all departments. Finally, we want to be a persistent team with continuity, regardless of the things that happen on the pitch itself. We have a task to create such team. I wouldn`t go into playing system analysis too deep but that our first and foremost task”, said Blagojevic.
