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Seth Chigogora

Sports Reporter
FORMER Dynamos team manager Seth Chigogora has come out guns blazing in support of under-fire Warriors coach Callisto Pasuwa saying those who argue he failed at the 2017 Nations Cup finals in Gabon are insulting the good work which the gaffer has done to his country since taking over the job.

The 46-year-old coach has been roundly criticised by some analysts who believe his lack of experience and failure to simply read the game and a fatal trust in two assistant coaches whose pedigree is very questionable, was at the heart of the Warriors’ failure in Gabon where they finished bottom of their group.

Pasuwa’s men became the first group of Warriors to fail to win a match at the AFCON finals with his tactics and team selection, being questioned and blamed for the losses against Senegal and Tunisia which ended their campaign at the Nations Cup showcase.

But Chigogora, who worked with Pasuwa when he was the DeMbare team manager, says a lot of the criticism being levelled on the gaffer is unfair and cannot be supported by facts.

“There is a lot of emotional analysis, rather than factual analysis, of how Callisto executed his duties in Gabon and I think it is very unfair on the coach and the players who represented us at that AFCON,” said Chigogora, who is now based in South Africa.

“Firstly, a simple analysis of that group, the strength of the teams that we battled against, will show you that we were up against it from the word go and our case wasn’t helped by the fact that all our players were playing at the AFCON finals for the first time in their careers and what this means, is that this was a severe test for them.

“Secondly, I think a lot of people were fooled by our performance against Algeria to start believing that it would be an easy ride when a simple review of the AFCON or World Cup finals will tell you that the first group games, usually, do not give the correct picture of what will happen at the end.

“Yes, we played well against Algeria and should have won that game, but even that would not have guaranteed us victories against Senegal, who appear to have come of age and a very tactical Tunisian side that has blended well and in my opinion, should have beaten the Senegalese in the second half of their group game.

“We need to be realistic to ourselves that the quality of the players that we have, with our best player good enough for the Belgian league and our best defender playing in the Czech Republic, cannot be compared to the quality of the players that our opponents, especially in the group that we found ourselves, have.

“When was the last time a Zimbabwean club did well in the CAF competitions in the past six or so years? And that shows us the standards in our league and that is where we are picking some of our players while others are even going to play in Tanzania who, themselves, have never been to AFCON for years.

“So, the reality is that even if we had the best coach in the world, chances are that we would have been eliminated at the group stages because, technically, when the time comes to separate the men from the boys, when everything depends on what those people on the field can do and not what their coach can tell them, our boys are found wanting and there is a limit to what they can do.”

Chigogora said Pasuwa did his best in a very challenging environment and the country should help him become a better coach, since he is young and can learn, rather than dump him.

Pasuwa announced he had quit his job, but ZIFA said he was still their coach and a decision will only be reached once they hold a review meeting with the gaffer.

“The coach who was in charge of Zambia, George Lwandamina, took ZESCO United to the semi-finals of the Champions League last year, showing he was good, but he failed with Chipolopolo when it came to getting a place in Gabon, losing to Guinea-Bissau who had never qualified for the AFCON finals before,” said Chigogora.

“Bafana Bafana, who have good sponsorship, also failed to make it to Gabon which tells me that Pasuwa should be hailed for what he did. Angola, who were at the World Cup finals just 10 years ago, also failed to make it to Gabon.

“What we need right now is to look at our structures, from the grassroots right up to the Premier League, see where we are not doing things right in terms of producing quality players like the Peter Ndlovus and Moses Chungas of the past and also why we are not creating clubs that can compete very well in the CAF competitions.

“Once we do that we will have helped our national team and coach and we also need to empower our national coach by taking him to attachments in Europe so that he learns what is happening in this game which is changing all the time.”