Liberia coach Kaetu Smith brushes off George Weah comments

Liberia (in red and white) have not qualified for a major finals since 2002

New Liberia coach Kaetu Smith has played down comments over his appointment from Lone Star legend George Weah.

On 8 May Smith was installed as the permanent successor to Roberto Landi, who was sacked earlier this year.

But Weah felt that it was a "mistake" not to give stand-in coach Thomas Kojo a chance after he won his only match in charge against Namibia.

"Mr Weah is entitled to his opinion and I respect that," Smith told BBC Sport.

"I don't want to make it my business to react to every criticism. Mr Weah has his opinion, I should respect that so I don't want to respond to that. In fact, I did not even hear the interview."

Smith's first match in charge of Liberia comes on Saturday away to Senegal in a Group J qualifier for the 2014 World Cup in Brazil.

While Smith insisted he has prepared his side thoroughly he also admitted that there is much he does not know about a new-look Senegal, who will be without the likes of Newcastle's Demba Ba.

"We went through a lot preparing for this game and we hope that will be fruitful in our execution against Senegal," said Smith.

"I know very little about Senegal because I understand they are trying to build a new team and they are quite different from the squad that represented them at the African Nations Cup.

"We also know that they had a friendly match against Morocco in Marrakech and they won that game 1-0, which means the task ahead of ourselves is going to be tough. Knowing that, we need to be mentally and physically prepared for the ordeal."