NO JOY FOR NAKAMBA

Sports Reporter

THE arrival of new coach Unai Emery had raised hopes among Zimbabweans that midfielder Marvelous Nakamba would be back in favour at Aston Villa.

But, Nakamba was nowhere near the team sheet in Sunday’s 3-1 impressive win over Manchester United.

Nakamba is yet to feature for Villa this season.

He was an unused substitute in the few games in which Steven Gerrard, who was later sacked, named him in the Match Day squad.

However, the disappointment for Nakamba, and Zimbabwean football fans, continued on Sunday when Emery also dropped him from his first Match Day squad.

This was the sixth time the 28-year-old Hwange-born star has failed to make the Match Day squad.

Emery started the match with Douglas Luiz in the holding role before Boubacar Kamara was slotted into the battle in the second half.

A local football analyst said Nakamba still had a chance to break into the team.

“This is only the first game since the arrival of the new coach.

“The coach couldn’t just have dropped the team that was playing without assessing them in a match situation.

“But, soon, he will be trying to find new combinations so this is his time to prove his worth and work hard in training so that he commands a starting place in the team.

“Unai is still to choose his team so he should capitalise on this and get back into the team.”

He added:

“We know what he is capable of doing and we believe in him, the whole country loves him and is rallying behind him. “I know that we will see him back in the squad soon, but that is up to him.

“He should show the coach that he wants to play, so we can’t rule him out yet.

“There are still a lot of games to be played,” he said.