What are the differences between the team that went to South Africa two years ago and the one that is going to Equatorial Guinea?
It is a new generation now. We have a lot of young players coming through. The older players, your LuaLuas, they’ve all finished now. We have got new stars now. Now instead of LuaLua or Mputu, who’s not there this time, a lot of pressure is maybe on Yannick Bolasie, he is our main skillful guy up there to do things. I think it’s a transition, a new generation, a new captain, Mulumbu. It’s definitely a younger team and maybe we have more athleticism. A lot of young players want to run around and prove themselves to the world that you can handle it.
You have been part of the DR Congo set up for nearly a decade now. There are exciting talents like Firmin Ndombe Mubele and Chancel Mbemba and more established names like Dieumerci Mbokani and Youssouf Mlumbu in the current team. How would you rate this side amongst the DR Congo teams you’ve played in?
I’d see this one as the most exciting. Before you knew what to expect. You had LuaLua, who’s got all the tricks. You had Mputu, who does everything. You knew exactly what to expect. Whereas now there are players like [Ndombe] Mubele, a lot of the players don’t really know too much what to expect.
I think we have that surprise package now. We have players coming from nowhere., players people don’t really know much about. With Ivory Coast we know exactly every single player and what they do. With DRC we have a few surprises now.
One of the differences between the 2013 Cup of Nations and now are the coaches. You had Claude Le Roy in 2013 and now you have Florent Ibenge, who has done a sterling job with AS Vita Club. How would you compare their approaches as coaches?
Claude Le Roy is a legend. He knows exactly what he wants from his team. Tactically, he is probably one of the best managers I have been with. He is more of the old sort of mentality – respect and everything has to be done correctly.
With Florent I have found that he lets the attackers have more freedom than Claude. He just lets them get on with it and do what they can do in the other half. Whereas with Claude everyone knew their exact job and tactically we all had to defend as a team and attack as a team. They are two totally different cultures, but both their styles work for the team.
Yannick Bolasie was in one of those unstoppable moods in both matches against Ivory Coast, his nutmeg on Yaya Toure at one point sending the crowd absolutely wild. Does the expressive, over-elaborate attacking football under Ibenge suit you more as that’s what a Congolese crowd typically wants?