JAMAICA'S TECHNICAL director of football, Velibor 'Bora' Milutinovic, has been getting local players the kind of experience it takes to develop a nation's football.

The latest result of this has been an embarrassing 8-1 thumping from Iran, who are by no stretch of the imagination a 'big' team.

There is the argument, now running for the eight months 'Bora' has been here, that results don't matter and that the idea is to get some exposure for many of the youngsters in the team.

There is also the issue of playing a number of friendlies in an attempt to find the best mix of players for the upcoming World Cup qualifications.

I agree with all of this and I understand that along the way there will be setbacks, and some of the defeats aren't even setbacks at all.

However, I watched every goal scored against Jamaica in that 8-1 debacle and one thing concerned me.

Amassing experience has to take place while Jamaica try to get their players at the level necessary to compete in a World Cup qualifying campaign, but during that period I expect to see improvement. Teams trying, even if not successfully, to employ strategies and play to game plans.

On Monday, that was non-existent. I watched poor goalkeeping in parts, which I won't blame Bora for just yet, but more importantly I saw a team that had no idea of how to adapt to an opposition that attacked in numbers and who employed a slightly different formation.

Woeful

On more than the eight occasions that Iran managed to knock balls into the back of the Jamaican net, the marking in the team was woeful. I saw occasions where a player left his marker to make tackles on a player who was being tackled by two or more of his teammates.

The result was, of course, not flattering and the eight goals that were banged home were no surprise.

This leaves me to ask the question, what has Bora been teaching these youngsters?

What have they been learning over the eight months he has already been contracted for?

Now, I am not one of those who is quick to say fire the man, but I am one of those who say, I need to be able to tell, at some point, what the heck he's doing?

I am not doubting his abilities as a coach because Bora's track record speaks for itself. What I am doubting here is his knowledge of how much work has to be done to get a Jamaican side ready, just how much the players have to learn about the game.

Iran certainly showed them this on Monday.

Poor defending

For a long time in Jamaica the better players in a team played in attacking positions, while defenders were usually less competent in terms of ball handling, thinking about the game and things of that nature.

Recently, attackers have been more instinctual while defenders are the ones who have to keep thinking about the game.

Bora himself alluded to this when he said he wanted to use smart players in his team.

Until Jamaica get to the stage where their defensive players are less instinctual and more cerebral than their attackers there won't be great improvement, especially in the local talent.

Please don't think I am saying attackers are 'air heads' who don't think about the game. What I am saying is they are able to play more freely thanare defensive players because a mistake is not as costly - and free-spirited enterprise at some point leads to brilliance; this is never the case with defenders and Jamaica had eight clear examples of this recently.

Feedback:Paul-Andre.Walker@gleanerjm.com