adminGrace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
CAPS United coach Lloyd Chitembwe will hand former ZPC Kariba skipper Dennis Dauda his first start this season when they meet the Mashonaland West side in a Castle Lager Premiership league tie at Rufaro tomorrow.
The gaffer has been gradually introducing new players into the team.
Last year’s players have so far been dominating the Green Machine team leaving a number of newcomers to warm the bench.
But the coach has made it a point to make a change or two in his team after every match and yesterday he said he will thrust the tall defender into battle against his former team.
“Dennis, in as far as I am concerned, is a real talent, he has so much that he can offer to the team and when you look at his technical qualities and especially in his role there are few players that can match him in his function,” said Chitembwe.
“But when he came to CAPS United in his role there were probably four, five guys who are equally as good as him so it was only a matter of preference for a coach.
“I am happy with his response, he was so patient to wait for his opportunity and patience pays and has been rewarded for that.
“He is one player I believe will go places if he continues to work as hard as he has been doing in recent weeks and he is one kind of player I believe has so much to offer not only to CAPS United but even to the Warriors.
“But having said that, I also want to state it clearly that there is no template that says this particular individual must start in any football set-up, there is no template that suggests so, at the end of day it’s about what a player is doing in training, it is also about the preference.
“We need to be very practical when it comes to football issues, it is not written anywhere that a new player has to start even if he was playing in his previous team.
“My responsibility as a coach is to try and stimulate performance from that particular individual so that he does better than the player currently playing but if he doesn’t perform better there is no way he can be selected.”
The gaffer said they had put behind their 1-2 loss to How Mine where Simba Nhivi missed a glorious opportunity which could have helped them steal a point.
“It is not the first defeat of any one of these players, they have suffered defeats before and for me as a coach I have also had these kind of moments,” said Chitembwe.
“It is something that we expected, we knew that at some point of the season we would lose a game if not games and it is practically impossible for a football team to go all the way and play say 30 games without a defeat.
“We expected this and for me what was key was the response from the team after such a defeat and the response in training has been superb.”
The coach said last week’s result also prompted some of the changes he will make in this match.
“We are looking forward to doing well in this game and last week I thought the boys did very well, especially in the second half, and there are a lot of very good things we observed as coaches from the second half, so we just hope to continue from where we left in the second half.
“It wasn’t about the finishing but I thought our ball retention was not so good, especially in the first half, we were obviously surrendering possession in very crucial areas but during the course of the week I saw an improvement in that aspect and we are happy with the way we prepared for this game,” said Chitembwe.
ZPC Kariba are CAPS United bogey side and the Green Machine last season only picked a point in the two meetings, drawing 1-1 at home before Chitembwe and his charges were beaten 1-2 at Nyamhunga towards the end of the season.
“ZPC Kariba are a very good team and are being coached by an iconic coach, very good coach, so obviously it is not going to be an easy game, they have been doing well in recent games and I think we have equally been doing well in recent games so it is obviously going to be a very good game especially for spectators,” said Chitembwe.
Meanwhile, former Gunners director Cuthbert Chitima has been appointed the club’s acting chief executive following the departure of Joe Makuvire.
Prior to the appointment to head the secretariat, the career banker was serving as one of the club board members.
Online Reporter