‘Current strikers lack precision’
LEGENDARY Highlanders’ striker Zenzo Moyo believes yesteryear top strikers have a big role to play in helping the country produce quality forwards.
Moyo, the 2000 Premiership Soccer Star of the Year and Golden Boot winner with 22 goals, said the present crop of strikers lacked precision and “proper” training. Moyo, whose illustrious playing career took him to Europe, heaped praises on 20-year-old Bantu Rovers’ captain Bukhosi Sibanda, who is the leading Castle Lager Premier Soccer League’s leading scorer with seven goals from seven matches.
Sibanda became the first player to register a hat-trick in the 2017 domestic season. The Rovers’ striker is just four goals shy of the 11 strikes that earned veteran Caps United frontman Leonard Tsipa the 2016 Golden Boot accolade.
“You rate a striker through the goals he scores. The present crop of players has no striker’s instinct and that’s why they struggle. This is why you see veterans like Ralph Matema, Leonard Tsipa and Mkhokheli Dube playing well and know how to make off-the-ball runs that you don’t see with most of these youngsters,” said Moyo.
“As a country we have a big problem when it comes to strikers because I doubt coaches really train their strikers well. Most people coaching now are former midfielders or defenders hence they make efforts to work on those positions. What is needed is for teams or coaches to engage ex-strikers as consultants so that they help their strikers. Maybe the reason why Bukhosi Sibanda is scoring for Bantu Rovers is because of the influence Agent Sawu is having on him. If that boy keeps his cool and hits double figures soon, he will take the league’s Golden Boot Award,” Moyo said.
Surprisingly, Sibanda belongs to a side that despite being third from the bottom has scored the most number of goals (11) in seven games and has a porous defence which has let in 17 goals.
Moyo also noted with concern the rate at which strikers miss point blank chances.
Despite hammering Yadah FC 7-2 on Saturday, Rovers wasted numerous other scoring opportunities, with Newman Sianchali guilty of fluffing most chances. The former Hwange striker has been among the most wasteful strikers and last week cost Rovers at least a point when he twice failed to beat How Mine goalkeeper Donovan Bernard in one-on-one situations.
Bosso’s Rodrick Mutuma has also been another wasteful striker, who has fluffed easy scoring chances and has only found the back of the net once in seven outings. Chicken Inn’s Ishmael Lawe came face-to-face with How Mine goalkeeper Munyaradzi Diya twice during his team’s 1-0 loss to the gold miners.
Moyo said these few examples of wasteful strikers could be attributed to the use of wrong techniques and indecisiveness.