Georges Leekens: The appropriate attitude is most important

"I'm curious to see how we start the year and what we're able to produce in these two matches in fornt of us", Leekens said. "We're starting from zero with our aim being to form as good a team as possible ahead of autumn's competitive matches. The most important is that we go onto the pitch with the appropriate attitude and want to win in friendly matches too. We need to cherish having the ball, we mustn't cramp ourselves (in small pockets of space) and we must do everything we can in the interests of winning. We will face two opponents of different styles but the most important is how we play in these games. Sometimes it is easier to play against the big teams rather than those ranked around or below you, so a difficult task awaits us against Kazakhstan. The Scottish are similarly strong mentally as in the past but have developed a lot in recent years in terms of their gameplay. My players need to stand ready, they need to believe in themselves and if they have the belief, soon positive changes in their performances will follow".

Our Belgian-born head coach also highlighted the positive atmosphere surrounding the national squad, using, as an example, Tamás Kádár who joined up with the squad and has boosted the squad's approach despite him carrying an injury which has been treated here.

"I will pay attention to the training sessions over the next two or three days to see what condition the squad members are in and how they perform in practice - using this information I will form my idea of my starting lineup. I pay attention to everything, for example, what my players do while they don't have the ball during a game too. The heart and the approach is important but there's no problem with these based on the experience so far. Currently we not at the level we'd like to be. To believe, to trust oursleves, to battle is necessary to take Hungarian football to where it deserves to be. I will always be able to accept mistakes bt if someone doesn't battle, that is unacceptable to me", Leekens concluded.

Also facing the cameras was Patrick de Wilde, the newest member of the Hungary team's backroom staff who had worked with Georges Leekens and so didn't pause for a second before accepting the offer to work together again.

"I'm just one member of staff and I will work together with Zoltán Szélesi so that the national team is as successful as possible. Georges Leekens is Belgian football's best coach and he laid the foundations for the current Belgium squad so I said yes to his offer without a second thought. We worked very well together in the Algerian national-team setup and I'm sure I can continue to learn a lot from him", de Wilde explained.