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Lawrence Moyo in CAPE TOWN, South Africa
WARRIORS coach Ian Gorowa believes the strikers he has for the 2014 edition of the CHAN finals are the best there in Zimbabwe at the moment and has ruled out making wholesale changes for the game against Uganda tomorrow.
While the goalless draw against Morocco was a positive result, failure to convert chances was attributed, by critics, to the decision to bring strikers who were not even among the leaders on the 2013 Castle Premiership scorers chart.
However, Gorowa believes the only missing striker is Tendai Ndoro who was ineligible as he is now in the Absa Premiership while CHAN is exclusively for those playing in their respective countries’ domestic leagues.
“Remember these are the best players we selected from Zimbabwe. We chose the best 23 in my opinion, in the technical team’s opinion and obviously out of the best (23) players you’ve got to have the best 11 and I thought in terms of that we did what we had to do against Morocco,” said Gorowa.
“In coming up with the squad I also looked at the goalscorers’ chart and Tendai Ndoro was the top goalscorer but he is not here and that is the case.
“I do not know who was the second and third but remember we were working with Donald for a long time, we were working with Nelson for a long time, Simba also, I think he came to the party.
“With experience and what we have, I thought this is the best striking options which we have.
“Any other options I think we would be experimenting. There were some players, for example one who was playing for Buffaloes and scoring goals, but I don’t think he’s that kind of player which we would want.
“So for me these are the best options we have going forward.”
He ruled out making big changes to the starting XI.
“Not really. It’s just a mindset. Maybe we might change just one or two. Obviously when you didn’t win the last game you need to change but why do you change for the sake of changing?
“You change when mistakes were made but this game (vs Morocco), there were less mistakes. Yes the mindset has to change in terms of us going forward. So I guess the only change we might do is the mindset in terms of trying to score goals.”
Gorowa is happy with the manner in which his charges performed against Group B favourites Morocco in the opener on Sunday.
“Playing against Morocco you really have to chase, we chase them, disrupt their rhythm and close them down as quickly as possible and we had to come up with that strategy,” said Gorowa.
“That was our game plan, which I thought we did, particularly in midfield. Obviously going to the final third was our problem because we wanted to catch them on the break, attacking them as quickly as possible but we then lacked that cutting edge in front of goal because just one goal would have won us this game.
“Also when you look at that game, Morocco also had chances but not clear-cut chances because that they never had any one-on-one situations with our goalkeeper just shows how much we were solid.
“And also if their goalkeeper was the man-of-the-match that shows also that he kept them in the game.” On the issue of the fouls committed by Zimbabwe against Morocco, Gorowa believes the North Africans were clever and conned the referee especially in the first half when they won dangerous free kicks.
Now that the biggest challenge is out of the way, Gorowa will not allow the players to take the next game against Uganda lightly.
“I think Uganda are equally tough, it’s only that they play differently to Morocco. So we will have to plan differently against Uganda,” said Gorowa.
“Morocco can play, they move the ball quickly and play in between the lines, they go into spaces, something which mostly European teams do. So they play that kind of game which is difficult.
“Uganda, we saw them playing against Burkina Faso and it’s a little bit different game which they play. Our players know that we have to win. It’s a game that we must win and in the players’ minds they know we must win, they are eager. They want to go forward.
“So we have to plan technically, tactically. We just have to win.”
Yesterday the players spent the whole day at the hotel after being given an off day.
“We’ve given them an off day so that they relax completely and fully recover from the game on Sunday and then we start again our preparation for the game on Thursday.
“On whether today’s practice will be enough to prepare his charges for tomorrow’s must-win encounter with Uganda, Gorowa said:
“There is nothing more we can do now, we know exactly what we lacked so, yeah, we going to work on that that’s one thing for sure.
“That’s enough because you cannot do too much in a short space of time but obviously you have to highlight your shortcomings in the game against Morocco.
“Also Morocco and Uganda are two different teams, how we prepared against Morocco could be different to how we will prepare against Uganda.
“Again I think it’s ample time, there is nothing you can do. There isn’t enough time to try and rectify all the mistakes which we made against Morocco,” said Gorowa.
Gorowa clarified that the day’s rest had nothing to do with injury worries.
“I think it’s more energy, if you see the game we played against Morocco it was a high tempo game, so I think that takes away a lot of energy from the players.
“If they recover fully and we manage that then the next game against Uganda the players wouldn’t have recovered so I think it’s very important that they recover fully.”
Online Reporter