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Bothwell Mhlengwe
I WOULD have loved to sing the same song with the rest of the nation and say we did our best. Unfortunately, or rather fortunately, something in me will feel betrayed, because this was a tournament for us to win. However, our technical team let us down right from the beginning.
Yes, right from the beginning.
The first two games ended in goalless draws with “our strikers missing chances”. I would put it differently and say we were found wanting in the attacking third, the ultimate and most important third.
We lacked creativity, movement, co-ordination and coherence to cause any meaningful threat to the opposition defence.
First, it was the players being played in wrong positions.
Ali Sadiki
Ali played as a second striker.
Look, the young man is injury prone, has had an injury that almost ended his career. It goes without saying that with the type of sports-related medical services (surgical, physio and rehabilitation) available in the country, the boy is still fragile.
In short, he is not the same “Gazza” we had before he broke his leg.
That means he will avoid contact as much as possible.
And to play him in a position where physical presence and contact is required is asking a bit too much.
The best position to play him is wide of the field where there is minimum contact and he normally gets the ball facing goal wards.
Moreover, he is one of the best (if not the best) left-footed ball crossers we have in the country.
Donald Ngoma
This guy, if the truth be told, should just be used as a destabiliser. He can’t score, he can’t dribble, he can’t pass, and he can’t control the ball.
All he can do is run, and destabilise defenders.
It defies logic when such a guy is played as wide midfielder.
What do you want him to do considering all his limitations? He even went on to block the roving Zvirekwi’s movements.
Pascal Manhanga
I had never heard of him until the last quarter of 2013 even from his team’s very vocal coach, Gizha.
Simba Sithole (Dynamos)
This guy is technically good, but one thing for sure is he lacks fitness, mainly match fitness and mental fitness. He has been very unfortunate with injuries and rejection. For any predatory striker to get goals, he has to be fit (physically and mentally) as well as lucky.
At the moment Simba (Dynamos) is not.
Kudakwashe Mahachi
This guy is talented, full of running but he lacks maturity – he still has a lot to learn. Nonetheless, with correct handlers, he is one for the future.
Now, these are the players who were supposed to make it happen in the attacking third and with such glaring shortcomings, there is no way we were going to score many goals, if any.
I understand that training is used to assess the preparedness of players.
After the first draw, all local newspapers were singing the same chorus that the only striker showing enthusiasm at training was the other
Simba Sithole (How Mine).
Unfortunately, the technical team had other ideas, to bring in Charles Sibanda.
And in comes Tawanda Muparati as the playmaker.
Gentlemen, Tawanda is known for grafting, box to box play and out-of-nothing spectacular goals. Not playmaking. The result was another goalless draw. Another failure in the attacking third.
The third game – As a last ditch, the technical team did what they were supposed to have done from the word go. Play Rio as the playmaker (though not so accomplished but he was the best among those available for the position), play Mambare on the right attacking midfielder, bring in the enthusiastic Simba Sithole (How Mine), play Mahachi on the left wide midfield.
Result – Movement in the attacking third, take-ons on both flanks and a goal.
Fourth game – One injury-induced change, bringing in like for like. And again goals came.
Secondly, although there were goals in the third and fourth game you could see the glaring shortcomings of our technical team especially system-wise.
One thing I picked is that we don’t have our own system – our own way of playing. We tend to react to how the opposition is playing.
Morocco played a fast paced game, we followed suit. We played Uganda and Burkina Faso. They played the physical kick-and-run, and we did like-wise.
Even our goals are not manufactured. If I may be a little theatrical they are the “ah, ah, ah goal” type of goals.
They just come from nowhere.
Now the game that really exposed the technical team was the semi-final against Libya. A team that came to defend. The worst of all the teams we played at the tournament.
All that was needed was to attack them from the flanks with crosses between the defenders and the goalkeeper.
Short passes in midfield, especially the last third. Twin centre strikers, one to destabilise and a sharp shooter to get to score loose balls.
All we needed were numbers in attack especially in the box. Beat them with movement and creativity.
What did our team do? Play a 4-5-1 formation with a lone striker and five midfielders.
Why use a lone striker when playing a defending team?
The worst part was when they allowed Ali to drift deep.
He ended up confusing Peter Moyo (eventually, he was out of the game) and left Simba Sithole lonely upfront.
When I thought they were going to correct that they bring in Ngoma for Mambare. For what?
What we needed was another central striker, one who plays closer to Sithole.
To my horror, they left Phiri continue pumping direct balls upfront when it was clear Libya had congested the central defence.
The only option was to use a lot of wing play with players who can get behind the defenders. Donald Ngoma is not one of them.
I hear they were left with no option when they brought in Sithole and Ngoma.
They had plenty. One was to move Ali wide, get Ngoma to partner Sithole. Another was to move Zvirekwi forward (a brilliant ball player and very creative by any standards) and bring in Machapa who likes to venture upfront as well.
They could have done the same with Milton getting him to play as a second striker at the same time bringing in Mbara who is comfortable going upfront.
I feel the technical team was found wanting on that front.
However, they should be applauded for the excellent display defence-wise. Their choice of Danny Phiri as cover for defence was spot on.
It’s my opinion and I am divinely entitled to it.
◆ Bothwell Mahlengwe is a banker and a retired Premiership footballer who started his career at Black Aces and played for Sporting Lions.
Online Reporter