You will never see Harambee Stars park the bus in the Afcon, says Sebastien Migne

Sebastien Migne has denied claims that Harambee Stars will play a defensive game at the Africa Cup of Nations (Afcon).

With only three strikers in his final squad of 23 players, a number of Kenyan supporters believe Migne will be defensive against Algeria and Senegal. 

“You will never see any of my teams trying to park the bus behind the box…never...not my team,” Migne told reporters after Wednesday’s training session in France.

“My philosophy is to make sure that we defend well at the back and attack as a team. We must try to stay strong at the back to avoid conceding and at the same time drive together to attack.

“We must have the willingness to defend as a team and also move forward, and that is what we have been deploying. I am very happy because my players are learning the style very well and if you watched us against Madagascar in the friendly, the system worked out very well.

“We also need to improve in scoring goals, we need to work on our set pieces because we can score goals from that position and that will be an added advantage to my team.”

The French tactician has also challenged his troops to work on their set-pieces.

“We must be a team that can compete for 90 minutes because against Madagascar we only played for 45 minutes, and then switched off, but if we are to compete with the best, we must play for the entire 90 minutes, show the fighting spirit until the end,” Migne continued.

On whether Ayub Timbe will start against Algeria, Migne said, “I am still waiting for answers from the player, He needs to show me whether he is ready to start or he wants to start from the bench.

“I am also waiting for answers from defender Joseph Akumu, he needs to show me now that he can step up and to fill the void left by injured Brian Mandela. I will start him against DR Congo (in the friendly) and he must be ready to show me what I have not seen before.”

Kenya will leave for Egypt on June 19. They also play Tanzania in the group stage of the competition.