McKinstry believes African football has improved

Uganda Cranes coach Jonathan McKinstry believes African football has improved in terms of tactical approach as compared to past years.

The Northern Irish tactician believes the introduction of foreign coaches in the continent has done good to football development in the continent.

“I definitely feel now in more recent years, you have started to see teams develop a lot more tactically,” the 34-year-old McKinstry told Career magazine.

“Yes, there have been foreign coaches, but there have also been great African coaches who have come in, the likes of Senegal, Nigeria, Ghana and even DR Congo with Florent Ibenge.

“They have really started to develop a style, it is because they have given coaches time – it is not just one or two years. These are guys who have been in their roles for four or five years that have been able to develop tactically.

“They are still some nations who give coaches game-by-game contracts, how can you hope for a coach to develop a playing style when he knows that if he loses a game, he doesn’t have any security?”

On three different occasions, African teams have managed to go past the quarter-finals in the World Cup. In 2010, Ghana was close to making it to the semis but Uruguay eliminated them in the shoot-out.

However, the tactician believes the African Cup of Nations gives majority teams a chance to show what they are made of.

“I know that was a big selling point at the time in the corridors for Fifa but am not sure that the World Cup had any tangible benefit to football in say, Sierra Leone, for example.

“If you asked people their general opinion of the Africa Cup of Nations 10 or 15 years ago, they would have said; individuals, exciting lots of goals, quite poor defending. There were really exciting football and really talented players but the joy of watching the Africa Cup of Nations 15 years ago was for those individual moments.”