Online Reporter
Sports Reporter
NATHAN Mutasa, the 21-year-old Scottland forward, has been the subject of vicious criticism since the season opened.
Some of the criticism appears divorced from football but is rather personal and it comes largely from who he is and his family connection.
Mutasa has found himself at the heart of a tsunami of criticism, a lot of which bordered on hatred, not because he is a bad footballer.
Yes, he had a poor game for Scottland against MWOS but it is also true that he was cast into a role, as a false nine, which he simply could not play.
He wasn’t the only Scottland forward who had a poor game and, save for Khama Billiat and Kingsley Mureremba, everyone else was average.
Ironically, in the previous game against Chicken Inn, when he played on the right side of attack, he was his team’s best player in the first half and, when he was pulled out, a good number of the fans protested.
His inclusion in a Warriors team for the COSAFA Cup, which is largely developmental and is dominated by many who are of his age, has provoked outrage.
Hitman Billy Veremu, who is 24, has become a talking point for exclusion from a team which is made up of players who are largely 21 years or below.
Mutasa might struggle here and there in his first season in the Premiership but it doesn’t mean he is a very poor player.
His comfort should come from knowing that some of the game’s best players − Salah, De Bruyne, Kane, Ronaldinho, Zanetti, Yaya Toure and Zidane − were once rejected as not being good enough.
