The man with the magic touch

“Winning six league cups does not make me a magic man, I just do what I have to do to get what I want,” says Brian Isaacs.
Namibian Sun sat down with Isaacs to ask him how he managed to become the only Namibian coach to have won six titles with three different clubs.
Isaacs is the celebrated man behind the success story of Shandumbala-based Tigers FC, who won the Namibia Premier League with three games left in the season.

Recipe

Social media have been abuzz with people referring to Isaacs as “the magician”.
But he is a humble recipient of all this praise. “I will not really say I am a magician because there are a lot of factors that contributed to being successful and the major one is the cooperation from the management, players and the supporters.
“I am not a magic man but just an ordinary one with luck, and also one who sticks to what I want to get.”
Isaacs said as a coach introduced to a new club, his first job is to instil discipline in the players. “Discipline is my key priority because when you have players who are disciplined it makes your work easier and very pleasant.”
Once that is done, he starts assessing and evaluating the team, deciding what he wants to get out of the team and how far he hopes to take them.
Furthermore, Isaacs explores the opportunity of brining in additional players and consults the team management on what he wants get out of the team.
Isaacs does not spare his players and ensures they are not just disciplined but motivated too.
“When it comes to my players, I instil self-belief and self-confidence in them. Their confidence must be sky-high. Then at the end of the day they know that the coach believes in them and that makes it easy for the players to perform.
“I also make sure that when we play, we are determined to get what we want, and if we want the results we have to work hard in order to get those results, so I tell them ‘I want 90 minutes of hard work from you’,” he said.
He lastly ensures that his team is consistent. “That for me is important because it is not good that you have a team playing well today and badly the next day.”

Qualities
Isaacs said it is important that a coach has good knowledge of the game.
“Good knowledge of the game is one thing that counts in favour of coaches and experience is equally important because a coach with experience will always have that extra edge over a young coach without experience,” he said.
He added that how a coach manages his team also plays a crucial role. “You can be a coach with vast experience but when it comes to managing of players it is key because if you do not manage them correctly you will not get them playing for you or performing.”

Tigers’ success

Despite previously coaching the team before his contract was terminated, Isaacs indicated that he questioned the team’s management when they approached him to lead the team again.
“I was a bit sceptical about coaching Tigers because of what happened in the past, but the management assured me that it would not happen again and believed in me that I could take the team further,” he said.
After taking up the challenge, Isaacs said to his players, “People regard you as an ordinary team so I want to challenge you guys and prove them wrong because we are here to help each other.”
He added that from the beginning of the season, Tigers were a team with a common goal.
“Being part of this success is a wonderful feeling because it feels like I have made people’s dream a reality.
“Although people say my players are just “ordinary players” for me they are special, a lot of young players, energetic and disciplined,” he beamed.

Life in football

The joyous Isaacs embarked on a coaching career while in secondary school, before moving to a premier league club.
He said the coaching courses organised by NFA were the backbone of where he is now in coaching and giving back to the community remains his focus.
Isaacs has been involved in the senior Brave Warriors team as an assistant coach for years as well as the Young Warriors teams, an experience he says has been enormous.
Isaacs has won a league a title with Pirates and two NFA trophies, four league titles at Black Africa and now with Tigers.
KAINO NGHITONGO