Ours is a very boring game

Bothwell Mahlengwe
FOR some time now, I have been bothered by the deterioration of the quality of our local football and I have been trying to figure out what was the real problem, on the field of play, that is.
I have been trying to find out why the game is so boring.
Interestingly, our performance at the CHAN finals gave me the answer — LACK OF GOALS.

Statistics will show that there has been a drastic reduction in (1) number of goals scored by the top goalscorer, (2) number of goals scored by highest scoring team per season and (3) total goals scored by all teams per season.

Looking at the life of PSL, from 1993 to 2003, the top goalscorer was averaging 23 goals while from 2004 to 2013, the average has gone down to 18.
Average total goals scored by all teams during these periods are 668 and 560 respectively.

The top scoring team averaged 63 in the first 10 years of the Premiership and that has gone down to 51 goals in the last 10 years.
Whichever way you look at football, it’s goals, or the promise of them, which brings supporters to the stadium.
Why are we coming short here? There is a lack of quality playmakers and our attacking third play is very poor.

The quality of our current playmakers, when compared to the ones we used to have in the past, leaves a lot to be desired.
These are the people whose vision and passing skills are supposed to be exquisite so that their passes, especially the final pass, creates opportunities for strikers to score.
The likes of Moses Chunga, Ronald Sibanda, Joel Shambo, Johannes Ngodzo, Joe Mugabe, Blessing Makunike, Lloyd Mutasa, Kennedy Nagoli, Farai Mbidzo are long gone.
I have been fortunate to associate with players, past and current, and the major difference between the two is passion and commitment to the game.

Just take a look at the group of people who loiter the most in town these days — local football players.
Attend their training sessions and hear what they discuss during breaks — music, movies and women. You rarely find a player working on his own to improve an aspect of his game. All has to happen during team training.

Outside training their brains switch off from football.
One thing shared by all the football greats in the world is their passion and commitment to the game — they literally eat football, drink football, sleep football.
I don’t deny that Zimbabwean players are hardworking, that is, during team training but for an athlete to be special you need to do more than hard training. You need smart training.

Communicate with your coaches and fellow players on aspects that you need to improve as well as those you are good at. Brutally review your past games and see what you did right and what mistakes you made.

I don’t think this is a huge ask for someone who has chosen football as their profession.
For us to have quality playmakers, and quality players in general, our footballers need to put their all into the game — looking for ways to be better, to be the best.
Without such a commitment the country will always struggle, especially on the playmaking front, because these are the people who are supposed to change the complexion of the game in an instant.

David Beckham would either arrive early or leave late from the training ground just to perfect his passing and free-kicks. The result — “Bend it like Beckham”.
Cristiano Ronaldo, after being told his physique was not good enough, subjected himself to, at least, 700 push-ups a day. The result — an imposing athlete and a complete goalscorer.

My worst fear is that such advice might not get to the intended recipients. Why? It’s either they don’t read the newspapers at all or they do not comprehend what they read.

My request would be for FUZ to, through some workshops, help our players appreciate the need to take their profession seriously and wisely.
Most, if not all, of our teams’ final third play (national teams included) is characterised by slow-paced, monotonous, unimaginative, dull and uncoordinated tactics. There is a clear lack of pre-training on movement and acceleration.

It is as if the players are playing together for the first time. The dribbling skills are pathetic, players struggle on one-on-one situations.
The blame falls on our coaches. You wonder if they are from the same pot just like some kombi crews. And their line of defence is the same — lack of resources.
What resources were there when Zimbabwe produced the likes of wizards like Boy Ndlovu, Mike Abrahams, Mandla Balanda, Stanley Ndunduma, Archford Chimutanda, Stanford Mutizwa, Tauya Murewa, Vitalis Takawira, the Ndlovu brothers?

The coaches drilled these talented players to reach a certain level of excellence. Sadly, we are slowly sinking into mediocrity.
It takes more than qualifications to be a good coach, let alone a great one. Guardiola, Mourinho and Moyes all went through the same schooling of football but their application is different. The first two have won almost all there is to win in football and the other has won nothing.

My take is what’s lacking is practical intelligence, that ability to take what you have learnt and improvise to make it fit and work for you considering the resources you have.

Some of our coaches have been using the same formation for years, same approach to different challenges.
Look at Mourinho and Guardiola and check the energy and enthusiasm they put in preparing for each game, the attention to detail they give to their team and the opposition, they practically know everything and prepare accordingly.

That’s practical intelligence.
Unfortunately, you don’t get that from the coaching clinics.

If you ask our coaches what they learn about how to create scoring opportunities, they will tell you that it’s fast-paced attack, swift movement, variation, precise passing and precise shooting in the attacking third.

These are all learnable skills acquired through consistent practice. So why is it not happening in the games?
They have the answer.

I strongly believe that if, and only if, we improve on our playmaking and final third play, goals will come.
That will make our football more entertaining resulting in more supporters coming to the stadiums. But it has to start somewhere – the players giving their all to the game and coaches using creativity and improvisation to help the players.

◆ Bothwell Mahlengwe is a banker and a former Premiership footballer. He can be contacted, for feedback, on [email protected]