Training camp Q&A with Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar

The Halifax Wanderers have entered their third week of training camp, the start of the CPL regular season just on the horizon.

Josh Healey of The Wanderers Notebook recently sat down on the first day of camp to speak with Wanderers head coach Patrice Gheisar. The conversation ranged from his expectations for this year, changes in Halifax's leadership group and who will step up amidst the departures of Dan Nimick and Massimo Ferrin, the club's top scorers from last year.

JH: Patrice, how are you feeling on the first day of training camp?

PG: Feeling great. Excited to see all the returning players and also excited to see new guys and seeing how they're able to meet our returning players. It's been great.

JH: Fantastic. Can you kind of walk us through the next few weeks of training camp? I know there's a trip to the U.K. in there for a little and obviously, (BMO Soccer Centre) will be your home for the next few weeks as well. From a coach's end, what can we kind of expect?

PG: Listen, I just think we have such an unusually long off-season. I think, for us, to consider it's a long season (means) we want to slowly get going and you don't want to jump the gun too quick. The players will feel the fatigue. I think it's really about sharpness, making sure our players are feeling comfortable about what's being asked from them, in regards to a message and a consistent message, and making sure that the new players fully understand the way we want to play and what's expected from their roles.

But probably, if I had to say one thing, I think the most important message is the level of competitiveness everyday and the commitment to be excellent as much as you can, in your own way, everyday, over the day before.

JH: At the end of last season, you and I talked about some of the changes you guys were going to make this year on the defensive end. Can you talk about some of the players you brought in like Thomas Meilleur-Giguère or Rayane Yesli to shore up the backend?

PG: Yeah, listen, two years ago we had one of the best backlines in the league statistically. I still think last year we just made a few mistakes but those mistakes, we paid for badly. When you think about it, Josh, one, it's individually we wanted to improve certain things but more importantly, it's also about our actions further from the goal. The defending doesn't start just with having great defenders, it starts with our attackers having energy to stop the ball, it starts with our entire team responding when we lose the ball, our team stopping a forward pass.

But at the same time, I think the leadership of Rayane, Thomas and now Thomas and Nassim (Mekidèche) getting acquainted to each other, Jefferson (Alphonse) being back, Kareem (Sow) being fully healthy, Wesley (Timoteo) coming back for his third season for me and really being a big part, I think it's about growing their confidence and being familiar with each other.

JH: You mentioned that leadership piece. Obviously, Dan Nimick was a big piece —

PG: Huge piece.

JH: — and he's not here anymore. Does that fall on the new guys, as you mentioned, to pick up that mantle a little bit? Obviously, Meilleur-Giguère is the sort of profile you described that you guys were aiming for. How does that trickle down in terms of, you know, group responsibility?

PG: I think Dan was a fantastic player and a fantastic leader. I'm really sorry to see him go but we understand and we have to move on. We said to ourselves: 'How can we turn that negative into a positive?' And brining in Thomas, he has the same leadership abilities that Dan has but he's been in this league for five years. He understands the travel, he understands the standards, he's a little bit more experienced than Dan so we're looking at his experience of making everyone else better and instead of dealing with a problem that's in front of us during a game, being proactive and not allowing a problem to happen with command and communication.

Listen, when you lose some important leaders, it allows new leaders to be born. We have other people like Giorgio Probo, who I expect to step forward and speak more and I expect Ryan Telfer to take a bigger role.

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JH: You spoke about having players taking on a larger role. With Massimo Ferrin and Nimick going out the door, your two leading goal scorers from last year, who can you expect to pick that up on the goal scoring end?

PG: Listen, it's impossible to predict one guy but we have a great collection of attackers that will be able to do it. I am certain that if I was sitting here three years ago and told you Dan Nimick and Massimo Ferrin (would be our leading scorers), you would have said: 'Who?' We brought in two young players, two really terrific players, and they did great for us and now, we're looking to give opportunities to other players like Camilo (Vasconcelos), who's been waiting. I expect Sean Rea, with a full pre-season, to be a main, main, main guy that gets us going. Vitor (Dias) was injured a lot last year, we never saw his best but we saw flashes. Probo scored a few goals but important goals and I think Telfer fully getting a pre-season — he missed pre-season (last year) — and Tiago Coimbra, who I think is going to take a massive, massive step in the right direction.

JH: That was my next question: what can we expect for Tiago this year? He's training right now overseas. Can you talk about when he'll be back with your group and, with the No. 9 shirt, what he can expect for role?

PG: Tiago, we've really grown him organically. He's a young player who's had a few knocks with different parts of his body the last two years. We've done everything we can to prep him in the off-season to make sure he's coming in fully fit and healthy and now being with West Ham, he's working extremely hard there. We expect him to arrive (at camp) and be sharp.

Listen, his energy, his commitment and power is unmatched, unmatched. Now, we just need to put the right pieces around him and give him opportunities to succeed. I have no doubt that he will.

JH: Second last question. You've spent a lot of time, well, you've been around (Canadian Men's National Team head coach) Jesse Marsch a lot this season. Of course, we spoke about it for OneSoccer back in December and saw you and Jesse in January when he was here for his coaching clinic. What are some lessons you can take from your time around Jesse and the Canadian Men's National Team and apply to your training camp?

PG: Yeah, being around Jesse has been fantastic. I think there's so many good coaches around and you just need to find inspiration that applies to your environment. When I look at Jesse, you can see the new modern game and the way it's shaping up.

Whether you watch La Liga, Seria A, CPL, whatever, it really is about asking players to have the commitment to be energetic. We want to be a team that gets on the ball, everyone knows that. I don't think it's a secret anymore. We need to match that when we lose the ball to have the energy to get the ball back. I love Jesse' approach of keeping things light and fun for the players but holding them accountable with their actions. That's what we need to do.

Look, (last year) had some things we weren't proud of: ie. red cards. We just need to be better in managing our emotions and being accountable for our actions and having endless amounts of energy.

JH: That brings me to my last question. What are your expectations for this season? I know your first season, for example, you set goals of never losing two matches in a row, you wanted to make the Wanderers Grounds a fortress. What goals did you set for this year that you can share?

PG: You know what, I've got an easy one. Sure, we want to keep those things going: never lose two in a row, be good at home, obviously there's lot of conversations we've had around being not the best on the road and we want to fix that.

But if there's a message that we've spoken about with the team it's that we want to be the hardest team to beat. We are going to work every game and every day and we may miss a pass, we may miss a chance, we may give up a goal. All those things sometimes happen but we will have the highest level of enthusiasm and we will be the hardest team to beat because we're going to work to the last, last, last whistle. There's no bad attitude, that's our goal for this year.

Editor's Note: This interview has been condensed and edited for clarity.

Cover Photo Credit: Halifax Wanderers FC