> WITHE LOOKS TO STAY POSITIVE

SINGAPORE (Jan 17, 2007) – Peter Withe is looking to turn around the fortunes of Indonesia in the Asean Football Championship by building a more positive perception around the team

The English coach has had to come to terms with plenty of negative feeling during his two and a half years in charge of the Indonesian national side but says that he is working to change that attitude.

“I’ve always been a positive coach,” said the former England international striker.

“We have a problem in Indonesia with the Indonesian media and with the Indonesian people, to a certain degree, in that they are very much on the down all of the time.

“So the first question that they will ask you is a negative question, and they’re always negative, negative, negative. I’m trying to change that to be positive, positive, positive.

“So when I do press conferences and someone asks me a negative question, I try to reverse that and make it a positive question.”

For Withe, part of the task of building a positive attitude is not to look for excuses for poor performances. He admits that he was disappointed when it appeared that Laos coach Saythong Syphasay had thrown in the towel before his side’s 11-0 defeat to Singapore, downplaying his side’s chances of getting a result and boosting the opposition’s hopes of getting a result.

“Things like that relate to the players so as a coach, I’m always positive in what I do.

"We’ve had major problems in preparing for this tournament but I’ve said nothing about it like the coach of Laos, because if I actually said that, I’d be shooting ourselves in the foot and I’ve never tried to shoot ourselves in the foot.

“You are always trying to be positive about the games you’re playing.”

Source http://aseanfootball.org/afc/news_d.asp?id=51