Interview with the NT coach

Does he really need any introduction? He's been around in Al Iraq for a long time, first he was a (defenders) scout, but for the past season he has the honor and the pleasure of being the NT coach.

But who is the man behind the screen name Fieldy84? Does he have a social life now that's he's the coach of 4 teams? Does he like being the NT coach or will he be glad when the new elections start after next season? What does he think he can accomplish? ...

Let's find out in the interview! I hope you will enjoy reading it!

1) Tell us a bit more about yourself?
I am Fieldy from Germany. I live in Essen, the fourth biggest city with a population of approximately 600.000 people among Köln, Düsseldorf and Dortmund in Nordrhein-Westfalen. I am 32 years old. In my leasure time I like to do sports e. g. tennis and football, meeting friends and love travelling. And of course, one of my favorite games is hattrick.

2) How did you start playing Hattrick?
In October 2007, I have started to play with my first team Schwarz-Weiß Essen. In this time, I gained my first experiences in hattrick and discovered my preferences for NT-players. ;) My first potential NT-player, his name was Kiwan, came from Al Iraq. I bought him from a German manager, Buxtehuder. We are friends since then. I formed him to an Iraq NT-player and this was the beginning of my first contacts with the ht-nation Al-Iraq. Later, I was a member of Al Iraq federation and did the job as defence scout of Al Iraq U20/NT for several years. I feel a connection with this ht-nation, so my second team SWE Iraq Thunderbolts and my third team International Eagles United are here.

3) Why did you want to become the NT coach?
My biggest goal is to achieve the qualification of the WC with our NT. Therefore, I want to help in creating a strong NT in the future. In the past, I helped in the position as a scout, now; I am NT-Coach and get involved into the team much more than in previous times.

4) Have you always wanted to be an NT coach?
Yes, I’ve always wanted to do this job. As soon as I started to work as a scout of Al Iraq, I was sure that I would like to become an NT-Coach. In the past I did not always have time so I was not an applicant in previous elections. I was totally aware of spending a lot of time in doing this job. The fact of time is always underestimated by applicants. In my opinion one of the biggest requirements is to have a lot of time and of course the knowledge about hattrick.

5) What are you planning to achieve in the WCQ?
In this WCQ we will propably not reach the qualification of WC. There were some unfortunate defeats, so we would like to gain as many points as possible. The main focus is on the next WCQ with our young lions. So I am very happy that they gained experiences in this round and we achieved nine points. This is a reason why I am looking forward to the next WCQ. Hopefully, we have a strong team by then and get more points as in this round.

6) How happy are you with how things are going right now?
I am quite happy about the results in this WCQ. It was grate to gain 19 points with such a young team. I am proud that we showed a good performance in every match.

7) What would the worst that can happen during this campaign?
The worst case would be if I were unable to do the job because of an accident, illness, or something else. But I take care of myself. ;)

8) What does a “normal” day as a NT coach look like?
Actually, the biggest part of my work is the scouting of Iraq players. Every day you have to communicate with owners of potential NT players about training/ plans, check the database, and arrange transfers... This is a big difference compared to previous times when I worked together with scouts. At the moment, I try to establish a network of reliable managers for the training of our NT-players... but it is still a long way to go!! You will see the results in a couple of seasons.

9) Are your teams suffering from the fact that you are an NT coach?
I really spend a lot of time as an NT-coach. But there is still enough time for my other teams. In general there is a minor risk to neglect the teams because you have to spend more time as an NT-coach compared to a normal team manager.

10) How much different is it from managing your own team?
It’s a totally different world. You have differences in tactics and systems. It depends on the form and stamina of your players in every week. But you don’t control it, it is in the hands of the owners. So I think the relationship to the owners is very important to ensure the best training in combination with the right training staff (form coach, assistents…), especially during the WCQ. The biggest work is at the beginning of each WCQ, when you have to do a lot of decisions for the selection of players. In this time, a lot of long dialogs with the owners of potential NT-players take place. Other issues are the decisions of what kind of system you would like to play, who should play (here you have the choice between the systems that were played from the former coach) and the preparing of threads.
It helps if you can consult staff or persons who have the experience in this work to talk about tactics/systems and preparation of WCQ. In this occasion thank you very much KurdBoy and berti.

11) Being a NT coach is much more than selecting some players and entering match orders for a match on Friday. What else do you need to handle?
As I said before, the success of our NT depends on the owners of our NT-players. That means that we have to ensure the right training together with the owners. In my opinion it only works if both work together. Then it is a win win situation. Therefore, it’s important to know what interests the owners have and what our plans are. Finally, we will have a match and a plan for a training of each NT-player.
Actually, I mentioned it a couple of questions before, the biggest part of my work is the scouting of Iraq players. I benefit from my work as defence scout, because I know what a player needs in his position to become an NT-player. In this case I determined that there were some potential NT players with the wrong training. Small ht-nations suffered from this case because we haven’t a lot of alternative players with a big potential.

12) Al Iraq is not particularly the most active community. Is this something that concerns you?
Yes, this is a sad fact, especially, when you know, how the participation was in previous times. This is also visibele in elections, where election campaign started in previous times.
I have to try to increase the activities in the community, but the comments/feedbacks were low. I noticed that a lot of people follow the NT and were happy at our last victories (most of feedback I got via ht-mail), but just not in the community. In my opinion we will get more participation if more local managers and owners of second teams will train Iraq NT-players. Most of the teams in the Al-Dawry Al-Momtaz league haven’t any NT-player.

13) Al Iraq being a smaller country, how much does this affect the chances in the WCQ?
I think with the establishment of second teams we have not disadvantage anymore. The difference is that we have not a lot of talents in comparison with big ht-nations. But now we have the opportunity to train young lions with the youth academies. The most important thing is in the case they will be sold that they will come into reliable hands and get the right training. Otherwise, the damage will be very high in thus small ht-nations.

14) You were elected with only one vote, ex- aquo with two other managers. The fact that you are the NT coach is because you have been playing longer than the other two. How does that make you feel?
First of all, the fact that I won the election with only one vote I cannot do anything about this. But there is a high risk that someone will become the NT-coach on a fast way if the participation in this election stays low. In the past we had such a case and the NT suffered from this. I can remember a lot of managers sold their NT-players, because they don’t have the feeling that they are treated well. Later, the scouts left also the sinking ship and the good work of previous seasons was away.

15) As far as I can see, you didn’t have a speech. Was this intentional?
Yes, it was intentional. I didn’t expect to win the election. Like in previous seasons Kurdboy was the favorite as local manager and former NT-coach. So I was really surprised about the result but it is an honor for me to do this job. In this period I will build a strong NT with our young lions to reach the goal, hopefully already in the next WCQ. I can promise that I will have a speech in the next election because I would like to continue the job as NT-coach again.

16) This is your first try as a national coach. Is it what you had expected?
I didn’t know that it will determine my life in that way. I am engaged in doing this job every day, but especially when the match day arrived I get very nervous. Before I wake up on Friday mornings, I check the form of my players. Then I posted a short comment to the match in the thread, before I have breakfast. After then I rack my brain all day long between work, meetings and something else which tactic, system and players I will select for the match in the evening. By the way I am happier about a victory of our NT as my own teams.
I love this job in spite of having a lot of work. I do not regret it. Thank you very much to my voter for this chance.

17) Anything else you would like to add?
Yes. I can conclude that there is a lot to do but I am confident that we are able to manage and improve our NT now and in the future. This generation will give us a lot of pleasure, I am looking forward to the future of our NT.

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