Online Reporter
Tadious Manyepo
Zimpapers Sports Hub
WARRIORS coach Marian “Mario” Marinica has a special prescription for his charges ahead of the Africa Cup of Nations finals scheduled for Morocco next month.
The biennial jamboree runs from December 21-January 18.
Zimbabwe will be looking to progress beyond the first round for the first time in six attempts.
For the first time, the Warriors will be led by a coach who has been there before, Marinica having led Malawi to the second round in the 2021 AFCON finals in Cameroon.
And the Romanian gaffer, whose resume speaks to football science, wants his players to analyse how their Group B opponents play and also work on their physicality.
Marinica was speaking soon after he landed at the Robert Gabriel Mugabe International Airport on his return from the Warriors’ friendly games against Algeria and Qatar in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia and Doha respectively.
Zimbabwe lost 1-3 to Algeria last Thursday in Saudi Arabia in Mario’s first game in charge but they bounced back to beat Asian champions Qatar 2-1 in Doha on Monday night.
While Marinica is happy with how his charges are adjusting to his style of play, he has admitted that there is still a lot of work that needs to be done before the squad plunges into the 2025 Nations Cup campaign.
Zimbabwe will open their Group B account with a showdown against Egypt, where they will also face South Africa and Angola.
And the mentor says all the players have a duty to look at these teams on their own so they could get an appreciation of how they play.
“Well, we have a very tough road ahead. I think we are probably around 40 percent of where actually I want the team to be.
“There are lots of things we need to work on, particularly on the tactical element.
“Also, players who probably need to shape up and do not work quite a lot on the physical element.
“We had a discussion after the match (against Qatar). We gave them some assignments, and we hope that everyone, including the local players, who we are going to be looking to include as much as possible, goes to the gym,” said Marinica.
“We have given them some assignments to observe the three opponents.
“From Egypt, from Angola, and from South Africa. This way, players are going to come very well prepared.”
Marinica himself has built his rapport on performance analysis, having worked with Crystal Palace and Arsenal academies as well as being the opposition analyst for Paraguay during the 2006 World Cup.
“We have a little bit different way to approach (things). Also, we have a little bit of time and we’ll have zoom meetings with players on a regular basis as we build for the AFCON.
“We’ll discuss with them a variety of things. We have to stretch our, you know, our network widely.
“We want to have as many potential good players to help us as possible,” said Marinica.
Vice-captain Marshal Munetsi didn’t show up for the two friendlies, so did utility star Jordan Zemura and Marinica said he has already had a discussion with the former while he will be talking to the latter.
“With Munetsi, we discussed and he was one of the first I had a discussion with.
“I understood his situation clearly, so I squeezed him to obviously not to take part in the games, the same thing like I squeezed Chirewa just to be in for only the first match, this way to be able to go to the club and try to sort the situation there.
“I think, obviously, we’ll be looking, you know, as much as possible to monitor the situation, to monitor their progress.
“With Jordan (Zemura) we haven’t discussed yet but, obviously, with my colleagues, we closely monitor the situation and we’ll probably be in touch.”
His methods had come under the microscope, especially with the mushrooming bloggers spreading hate speech about him.
“Well, I’m very happy. You know, sometimes people are very easy to criticise, very jumpy to anything to take on board.
“It’s a bit toxic sometimes because of this new media and everything has kind of become a custom.
“But if you have to look realistically, second half with Algeria, we were actually a very good side.
“You know, I think we were proud of ourselves, you know, how well we did play.
“And now, you know, in a space of three days, also to play against, you know, a very strong team that is a champion of Asia.
“They (Qatar) are in front of Japan, they are in front of South Korea, Iran and so many other countries.
“So obviously for us to do so well in particular, also again, you know, second half to play so well, it was fantastic.
“And remember, we haven’t had the chance to work on fitness. We haven’t had a chance to work,”.
Mario will now shift his attention to a camp for the local band of Warriors tentatively set for December 1.
That camp will enable the coach to have a closer loo at the players who have been plying their trade in the domestic league and may have been overlooked for previous Warriors selection.
