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Sunday “Mhofu’’ Chidzambwa.

Grace Chingoma Senior Sports Reporter
IN a bid to keep himself abreast with modern trends in football, Warriors coach Sunday “Mhofu” Chidzambwa is planning to go for an attachment with a top club overseas as a way of refreshing his skills. Chidzambwa last had a coaching course way back in November 1986 when he went to Brazil for a three-week high-level course.

In fact, Chidzamba first went for a coaching course in Brazil in February 1985 with the late former Dynamos and CAPS United coach Obediah “Wasu” Sarupinda before returning to the South American country for a similar mission in November 1986.

Since then the veteran gaffer has been practicing locally and winning accolades with clubs such as Dynamos as well as the senior national team. But yesterday Chidzambwa revealed that he is “organising something” so that by the time the Africa Cup of Nations qualifiers resume later this year, he would have freshened up his expertise.

Chidzambwa said he values an attachment as he will get to see first hand experience how other top performing clubs are doing from build-up to the time they play a match.

“I haven’t done anything regarding updating myself for a long time but with the advent of the internet one is not left behind as you continuously update yourself through learning what other modern coaches or top clubs are doing.

“An attachment, for instance at a club like Liverpool or Arsenal, accords one with an opportunity to watch live what that club does to be successful in the field of play. There are two options, either getting an attachment with a national team that is preparing for the World Cup when they get into camp or getting a placing at a club which is playing league matches.

“This will help with better insight and I would want to do this exercise before the (AFCON) qualifiers start. I am currently planning something to empower myself but I don’t want to pre-empt much,” he said.

Although football trends have been evolving, Chidzambwa feels coaching is universal and he hasn’t been left behind.

“What I learnt in Brazil back then is what is happening, nothing much has changed. The technology is getting much advanced, yes, (with) the likes of training drills and so forth but football is still the same.

“There is no new formation that I am not aware of. For example the 3-5-2 formation has moved to 4-4-3, pulling one midfielder upfront so nothing much has changed especially in my case. If you look (at it), the teams are now more defensive than attacking and when you lose the ball, all the players go behind it.

“These days everything is there on the internet, you Google Barcelona training, the videos and everything comes up. So you can easily catch up with the latest training methods like how the cones are now set up on the internet.

You don’t necessarily need to go to a coaching school to learn some of these things because they are changing. There is nothing new to learn in coaching and what I learnt back then and what I see daily on television it is the same football language,” said Chidzambwa. Chicken Inn coach Joey Antipas is one of the local coaches who have benefited immensely from refresher courses in Europe.

In 2012, Antipas was attached to German Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund and had a chance to work with the first team when Liverpool coach Jurgen Klopp was still their head coach. The following year, the former Motor Action coach attended another supplementary course with Danish club Brondby at the instigation of his son Quincy.

Antipas say these refresher courses have inspired him since European clubs have better facilities compared to this part of the world and also their training methods and philosophy greatly helped him.