dyton mupawaenda
Sports Reporter
JAIROS Tapera’s future as Manica Diamonds coach hangs in the balance after their third defeat in four Castle Lager Premier Soccer League matches on Monday.
Manica Diamonds lost at Ngezi Platinum to stay bottom of the league with one point from a possible 12 and they already trail joint leaders FC Platinum and Highlanders by nine points.
For a team touted as title favourites after finishing second last season, Manica Diamonds currently look clueless despite securing the use of Sakubva as their home matches for this season.
Tapera now finds himself in a must-win tie against Chicken Inn this weekend.
The leadership at Manica Diamonds is understood to be losing patience and might wield the axe next week if they fail to win at home to unbeaten Chicken Inn this weekend.
“The executive is not happy with the results that the team has had so far.
“His (Tapera’s) job is now on the line and the possibility of him being fired is now high if he loses the next home match against Chicken Inn this weekend,” said a source within the Manica Diamonds executive.
After watching a third defeat in four matches, Tapera sounded as if he was aware of the fate that awaited him.
“Football is always like that, you do not have to fear, you need to push and do whatever you can and if there is anything that comes in that is football.
“If you are a coach the next thing is to move whether you like it or not.
“You can move the day don’t like or you can stay doing nothing, but I can tell that I am a seasoned coach I know about football and all these things and it might be a setback but you never know what will happen tomorrow,” said Tapera when asked if he feared for his job after the Ngezi Platinum Stars on Monday.
As they search for their first win of the season, Tapera has attributed his team’s string of poor results to several factors which include failure to convert.
“As a team, we need to improve on defending set-pieces, because three-quarters of the scores that we have conceded have all come from set-pieces, corner-kicks, and free-kicks and we also need to improve on our conversion.
“We need to go back and start everything,” said Tapera.
Online Reporter