Henry playing waiting game with MLS in limbo

Montreal (AFP) – Thierry Henry is adjusting to life on pause with the Montreal Impact as the Major League Soccer side awaits the end of the coronavirus shutdown.

Former France, Arsenal and Barcelona star Henry took over as manager of Montreal ahead of the 2020 season, but saw his reign effectively put on hold after just two games when COVID-19 brought sport in North America to a standstill last month.

Speaking on a video conference call on Tuesday, Henry said he is staying positive as he waits to see how the virus plays out.

Major League Soccer chiefs have said the league won’t resume until June 8 at the earliest, as they work through different scenarios which could allow the 2020 season to be completed.

“Nobody knows who is going to move when, what’s going to happen. We are waiting to see if we are going to play football again,” Henry said Tuesday.

“All we can do on our side is to be focused and prepare to whatever is going to come our way. They are going to take the decision and we are going to have execute whatever they want us to execute.

“But on my side, all I can do is try to keep my team, the staff, prepared to whatever is going to come our way. 

Henry admitted however that his work with staff had run into difficulties caused by the absence of fresh video footage. 

“I mean, one thing that’s weird is usually you tend to watch a game to see if you can learn something from other coaches, which is normal,” Henry said. 

“Right now, obviously there is no game on TV. You have no game. So usually, with the staff, we watch games and we are like, ‘Oh, that’s interesting, I would never have thought about whatever thing that you saw’. And you try to implement it.

“But yeah, that’s a tricky one, because you’re looking at old videos that we kind of went through already with the players individually or as a team.”

Henry however said he had been encouraged by the progress made within the squad since his arrival. Montreal were second in the Eastern Conference after two games before the league was halted.

“You know, I always mentioned Jürgen Klopp,” Henry said. “It took him three and a half years to do what he’s doing with Liverpool. It doesn’t happen just like that. So we were kind of getting somewhere. It was early stages. 

“Guys were starting to understand what we wanted and how we wanted to play and the intensity and the togetherness and the fight that we wanted to put into games in the right way, but then you have to stop.”