Coach Maruful Haque (back) watches the Mohammedan booters stretch during a practice session at the BUET ground yesterday.Photo: STAR

Country's most successful club Mohammedan came up with a surprisingly ordinary squad last year to frustrate their huge fan base. The mediocre side, however, finished runners-up -- although a distant second -- in the B. League, the only competition held last season.
For a club of Mohammedan's stature, such a result is never acceptable and the officials this year geared up by signing a number of major national footballers like Aminul, Hassan Al Mamun, Rajani Kanta Barman, Arman Aziz to strengthen their bid.
In spite of assembling a formidable squad, the only question that bothers the critics is whether their new coach Maruful Haque would be able to handle the pressure.
Maruf may not have pedigree as this would be his first job for a top-flight team but he has already earned the respect of his charges who have tagged him as a 'technically strong coach' whose knowledge and ability to analyse the opposition are rare.
The first thing Maruf did was taking the black and whites outside Dhaka for a two-week conditioning camp and return for the final stage of preparation for the coming Federation Cup.
"I chose Comilla as the venue because it's isolated, and ideal for the conditioning camps with a good ground, open spaces and hills," Maruf told the Daily Star yesterday.
"Our emphasis was on fitness. After developing the basics in Dhaka for one month (the national players got two weeks), we went for aerobic and anaerobic training for endurance, that is, building strength and power. There had been lot of workouts including up- and down-hill running for specific and general conditioning," said the former Badda coach who returned to the capital on Thursday to resume training at the BUET ground.
Maruf, who has taken online coaching degrees -- Football Fitness Level 1 under the English FA and Football Conditioning under International Coaches' Association (US based) -- apart from getting AFC's B and C Licences, informed that even his senior players responded well to the hard programmes.
"There has been no mishaps and Mithu, the only case of previous injury, has been recovering.
"Two weeks is not enough although we trained in three sessions. My boys are 40-45 percent fit now and I hope they would be 75 percent of their capability before the Federation Cup and fully fit for playing the modern football I want them to show in the professional league.
"To me, modern football is not only entertaining but also effective. When my team will defend, 8-9 players will be behind the ball and when they will attack, we will try to take numerical advantage. We are working on that and hope to reach the pick by the time the B. League starts," said Maruf adding that he is feeling the absence of a quality striker.
The black and whites have signed two youngsters, Robin and Komol, and are looking for African forwards to cover the duo's lack of experience. Apart from talking with four Nigerians, the club officials have also contacted a midfielder from Egypt who are due in Dhaka shortly.
Maruf, who began his coaching career with Mymensingh Mohammedan in 1995, was with former Premier League club Badda Jagarani in 2001-02 and last served Bangladesh Army's Signal Brigade.
Aware of the questions about him due to lack of experience at top level, Maruf says he is not experimenting with Mohammedan. "It is a challenge because they are meant to be champions. The players realise this and they are positive. Besides physical training, we have also worked on the psychological part. I will tell the fans to keep faith in me because the team will not upset them."
Maruf, who prefers the 4-5-1 formation but said will be flexible, said that speed would be the element of surprise. "I am working on individual and team speed. When that goal is achieved, I will know that I am going the right way."
SQUAD
Aminul, Himel, Kamal, Jewel Rana, Rajani, Hassan Al Mamun, Saikat, Nasir, Munna Lyeamin, Murad, Arman Aziz, Sharif, Mithu, Maruf, Faisal Mahmud, Ripon, Pappu, Komol, Roni, Robin and Nehal.