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Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
HIGHLANDERS coach Erol Akbay believes the domestic Premiership is suffering from a cancer of toothless forwards and this is even more pronounced at his club and their bitter rivals Dynamos.
The Dutch mentor says the best forwards keep being lured out of the country to play for foreign clubs because goal-scorers are always in demand.
The Bulawayo giants have lost three games in a row after being beaten by Triangle, Mutare City and CAPS United.
Since arriving at the Bulawayo giants at the start of the season, the gaffer has lost the duo of Knox Mutizwa and Bruce Kangwa to South Africa side Wits University and Tanzanian club Azam FC.
Yesterday, Akbay said he would be forced to change his style of play so that they don’t solely rely on forwards to bang in crucial goals.
“We have to change the style of play, especially with strikers, and make a plan,” he said.
“All of the good players are going out of the country. You cannot keep a good striker in the country and every club is having problems with strikers.
“Scoring is not easy for everybody but Highlanders and Dynamos have a bigger problem and if you cannot score you cannot win. We created many chances against Triangle but our problem is scoring.”
Highlanders lost 2-1 to Triangle at Gibbo while Dynamos were also beaten 2-1 by Border Strikers at Dulivadzimu on Sunday.
The absence of two strikers Prince Dube and Nhlanhla Ndlovu, through injury, has also weakened Bosso’s strike force.
And Akbay said Kangwa’s departure has badly affected his team.
Kangwa signed a three-year contract with Tanzanian moneybags Azam after a two-week trial stint in the East African country.
“We will miss Kangwa. We haven’t won a match since he left and we have not scored in two of our last three matches,” said Akbay.
However, the gaffer said the recent slump of form is only temporary and they should recover and continue to fight for the league title.
The former champions are third on the log, seven points behind leaders FC Platinum.
“We are still few points behind them (pacesetters), the earlier we get on track the better for us,” he said.
Before Sunday’s defeat, the Glamour Boys had gone for four matches without scoring a goal and midfielder Masimba Mambare ended that drought but goals by the Border Strikers duo of Clever Mutendebure and William Nyoni saw Dynamos biting the dust for the fifth time this season.
The Glamour Boys appear lifeless in front of goal.
Yesterday, FC Platinum coach Norman Mapeza also added his voice and said the challenge of finding prolific goal poachers has been obtaining for some time now.
He, however, believes the crisis is not confined to the local league only but is prevailing in other competitive leagues abroad.
“The challenge we have been having in this country for the past five seasons is we don’t have real goal-scorers.
“The crisis is not only here in Zimbabwe but even in Europe. Even if you look at our neighbours South Africa they have been crying about the same issue.
“Yesteryear teams used to have natural strikers even though some of them were not so skilful they had good anticipation.
“We are working hard as coaches to manage the situation and I am sure every coach has a training session on finishing but it just not happening but we just have to keep on working hard,” said Mapeza.
The former Warriors skipper also challenged other players in other departments to provide the goals.
“But I think we should not blame the strikers alone,” said Mapeza.
“I think we should start having defenders dominating the player of the month’s awards because it means they are playing very well and not just seeing strikers winning those awards.”
Online Reporter