Changes are expected in the starting X1 when Jamaica take on Haiti in their second game of the CONCACAF Nations League A Group B fixture inside Kingston’s National Stadium on Tuesday.
Game time is slated for 7:06 pm (EST).
Jamaica lead the six-team zone with maximum three points after their narrow, lack-lustre rendition against Honduras last Friday.
Earlier that day Haiti and Cuba played out a 0-0 result, while Suriname and Grenada ended 1-1.
Jamaica will play away games to Haiti and Grenada during the next window and Head Coach Heimir Hallgrimsson would like for his team to produce a much better display on Tuesday.
And while he has indicated that changes would be made, he refrained from getting into details about his tactical game plan.
“We’ll do for sure some changes but I’m not going to say how many or who or something like this, but we always plan to see some players play, we always plan to rotate some positions in the team, and it also depends on the performance of the last game,” the Icelandic coach told a press conference on Monday.
Regular captain and ace goalkeeper Andre Blake returned to training after missing last Friday’s game due to flu-like symptoms.
Also, the team lacked punch upfront in the centre forward area with Shamar Nicholson coming off the bench in the second half after having joined up with the team much too close to the game.
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Teenager Dujuan Richards and Bobby Reid were deployed centrally but neither offered any consistent threat or helped to connect with the passes, except for a goal scored by Reid which was disallowed for offside, and a shot from Richards which slammed against the far upright.
Nicholson could return to the starting side and there could also be a shuffling of the midfield players, especially after neither Kasey Palmer nor Joel Latibeaudiere proved effective in the central midfield roles.
During last Friday’s game against Honduras, Hallgrimsson’s charges lacked creativity in the middle of the park and the team failed to connect with passes for much of the game.
The coach admitted to the flaw but believes there will be improvements in that area come Tuesday.
“Last game maybe the pitch had something to say but a lot of things that we can improve. We’re working on that, talking together about that, especially on the ball, a lot of things we can improve and hopefully we can show that against Haiti, and we need to because in our opinion Haiti is a stronger opponent than Honduras.
“They have more physique in their team, they have better individuals, so they will for sure be more likely to punish us if we make the same mistakes that we did against Honduras,” Hallgrimsson added.
He continued: “The biggest talking point since our last game, our attacking game, our build-up game was not good, so we’ve been addressing these issues just thinking what we can do thinking together, some new players with us now, so it’s natural that they don’t get it first …”
Still, Hallgrimsson believes the team has been prepared “as best as can be. The players have been pretty good after the Honduras game, of course we’re happy having three points, Honduras is a good opponent but we are not happy with some of our tactical things.”
Without the ball the Reggae Boyz did fairly well against Honduras and for that the coach was a pleased man as he believes that is an indication of a team on the improve.
“On the other hand we were quite happy with our defensive shape, the positioning of the players and even though we were not happy with the performance, to keep a clean sheet and to win… that’s the sign of a healthy team in the making that can have a bad game and still win games.”
The Haitians have made significant changes to the team which contested the CONCACAF Gold Cup tournament earlier in the summer.
Nonetheless the French-Speaking country has retained players capable of scoring goals in the form of Duckens Nazon who has scored 28 goals in 54 games; Carnejy Antoine with 12 goals in 19 games, and Frantzdy Pierrot with 19 goals in 28 games.
In the Gold Cup Haiti opened with a 2-1 victory over Qatar, before losing 1-3 to eventual winners Mexico and 1-2 to Honduras in the group stage.
Veteran defender Adrian Mariappa expects a tough game, as always from Haiti.
“Obviously important to get off to w winning start in Nations League, three points, clean sheet, so plenty of positives, but we are not satisfied, we know we can improve in a lot of areas and that’s what we’ve been working on and having meetings on as well and working on the training pitch, so we are looking forward to the next game, it’s going to be a tough game as it is always against Haiti.”
