NAPSA Stars Football Club Head Coach Perry Mutapa says his team has a lot of work to do in the remaining first half matches, starting with tomorrow’s week-12 match against Green Buffalos FC.
The coach has added that it will be very disappointing to lose out on the ABSA Cup qualification as defending champions if the team will not finish the first half in top six.
Coach Perry was speaking during his pre-match press conference held via zoom with the media this morning ahead of tomorrow’s week-12 match of the MTN Super League to be played at Edwin Imboela Stadium.
Here’s how the coach has previewed this match;
Coach’s thoughts ahead of this match against Green Buffalos FC,
Local derby, difficult games to play, but obviously in the last two matches, from the possible six, we have picked up a point, so we are looking forward to the game.
Coach’s comment on how easy or hard it has been to reshape the boys after a loss, especially to help them forget about the last fixture,
The most important thing in football is the performance, if you see the way we dominated against Zanaco, it gives us hope going into this next game. If we reduce on the mistakes and make use of the opportunities, then we are on the right path. So, coming into this game, we don’t have to dwell too much on the bad things, football is about lessons. Yes, we lost but we also picked up positives. We needed to take the chances so that’s the lesson going into this match.
On how worrying it is that the team has only scored three goals in the last matches,
Yes, it’s a concern, but these are things we are working on in training every day. If you can see our recent games, we have tried to dominate and obviously the ratio of chances to scoring them is not encouraging but that’s why we go for training to work on these things and soon these will be the things of the past. We have to keep on encouraging the boys until we get better.
If the coach is considering trying out some other players that have not had much game time in place of the regulars,
Of course, that’s why we are a team of 30, everyone should contribute something. So yes, we have to try out other strikers depending on their contribution in training, and we might change the partnership in front.
Tomorrow’s game is interesting as you will be going up against your friend and someone who has worked with you as an assistant for a long time, I want to believe you both know each other well, will your tactics clash? I want to believe you have similar tactics, as a coach who likes tactical battles, are you looking forward to this game in this aspect?
Football is very dynamic and as a coach you need to have a plan. Yes, I have worked with Masausa for a long time, and he knows one or two things, but I always want to the best and not stick to one thing. We are always willing to change as a technical bench because we are a very dynamic bench, so it doesn’t matter what Masauso and I know about each other or about our teams, change is always there so we might pull up some other tricks.
In terms of consistency and looking at the stage the league is at, we are almost five (5) games until the end of the first half, in terms of consistency as ABSA Cup champions, how crucial are these remaining matches for you looking at how you’re currently outside the qualifying bracket?
Very crucial games and obviously being ABSA champion, we would like to defend the cup, but we are outside the top eight (8) and tomorrow’s game is very crucial for us that want to go back in the top six. It will be very disappointing, we won it in division one and we are in the premier league now, so it will be disappointing if we don’t qualify, but we have five games, so we look forward to winning most of the games to get our qualification.
On the development of Jimmy Mukeya, is the player developing at the rate you want?
This season I’m very happy with him, we missed him when he went to the national team. Last season he didn’t do well but this season we are very happy with his development. Of course, he starts some games from the bench, but we are very happy with his development this season.
Coach’s comment on the work coach Masauso Tembo has done at GBFC looking at the way they’ve performed so far and where they’re on the log,
They have done well; they’re in the top six meaning they have done very well. Any team in the top six means they’re doing well so they’ve done well. But we push for a victory tomorrow like I said football has three results.
On facing a GBFC team that has shown some consistency this season, being ahead of NAPSA Stars on the log; is this a worry for your team?
We are not going to be worried with other teams, they are in top of us yes, but we are planning on having a good game and get maximum points.
In the last two games you have only managed to collect a point, what can you say is the reason you have failed to collect maximum points in the last two matches?
Yes, the results have not been ok, but again, we will take that point from Buildcon because we were away and it’s not going to be easy for every team to beat Buildcon. The only result we are going to be worried with is the one against Zanaco because we dominated but didn’t get points, so it’s not losing form, it’s a setback and we are on the right path, we just have to do the correct things in tomorrow’s match, and we will be back.
In the last meeting with GBFC, they beat you, and the Head-to-head favors them more, do you think this is going to have any impact in this game?
What matters is we beat them in the last match which was the quarter-final of the ABSA Cup and en route to beating them; we went to win that tournament. So we won’t focus on the past, we have new players, new technical bench and everything, so we cannot talk about the past.
Injury concerns?
Austin still has a knoc, Simon Nkhata and Boster Siyoma still injured.