Pressure on 'ECD', not good for team

HIGHLANDERS secured a point, but were uninspiring when they drew 1-1 against Chapungu United in a Castle Lager Premier Soccer League game at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday.

Bosso mounted a late siege on the Chapungu goal area, but their frontline's bluntness was again laid bare before thousands of the club's increasingly frustrated fans.

It turned out to be another gritty performance and far from the pretty football Bosso had been dishing out at the beginning of the season. Highlanders enjoyed the majority of possession and much of it well inside Chapungu's half, but the attackers' failure to convert frustrated all their efforts.

We appreciate that Bosso are in a rebuilding mode and results shouldn't matter that much, but questions begin to arise when weekly performances no longer match promises made to fans ahead of the 2018 campaign.

Coach Madinda Ndlovu promised to restore the Bosso legacy by promoting players from the club's junior set up, in whom he said it was easy to instill the club's culture and values compared to players acquired from other teams.

He also promised supporters beautiful football in the process, and while he managed to assemble a home-bred squad that showed glimpses of pretty performances at the beginning of the season, something has crept in that seems to suggest the rebuilding plan has been shelved.

Just what is the problem? Fans were treated to a feast of energetic, free-flowing football at the beginning and things were looking great. The boys showed loads of promise and even dismissed fiercest rivals Dynamos in Harare, making their fans believe that the rebuilding project was on course to bear fruits.

They gave Ngezi Platinum Stars a tough matchup by going toe-to-toe with the runaway log leaders at Baobab Stadium before succumbing to a defensive error in the closing minutes of the match to suffer their first loss of the season.

Following that loss, things have not been looking good for Bosso and their brave few committed supporters have continued to watch in mounting disbelief weekly as their side seems to contrive to throw away games.

So desperate to win games are Bosso that they now resort to long balls, despite their players' aerial weaknesses.

There is no doubt that Bosso have been hamstrung by injuries, especially of star midfielder Nigel Makumbe, who engineered the team's early pretty football. Since his sidelining, the midfield has found life difficult against generally organised opponents and the team has almost become complete toast.

To make matters worse, the technical team succumbed to pressures and demands of the fans even before we reach mid-season?

Coach Ndlovu's demands some weeks back that his players must graduate from "ECD" seemed to suggest that the rebuilding path has been abandoned and all incumbent first team players should go toe-to-toe with their Premiership counterparts.

Under the "ECD" rebuilding project, there was little pressure on the players to win at all costs, but the lifting of that veil has exposed them to the cruel demands of fans, who expect to celebrate a win after every match.

Although there seems to be nothing wrong with Ndlovu's demands from his players, the public platform he used exerted unnecessary pressure on his boys.

Surely Ndlovu could have made his demands at practice far away from the media glare instead of announcing it at a press conference.

Most of the players, including those that showed promise in the beginning, have been reduced to a bundle of nerves in home games; even against sides fans expect them not to raise a sweat.

Even senior players that have been in the team for more than two seasons seem lost and are central to blunders that have cost the team most matches.

Such has been the slide, so poor the decision-making and basics of the game that there is likely to be a lot more pain to come before this season ends.

Players are somehow unable to control the ball or pass properly and there's no doubt that the team needs to strengthen in several areas.

Reinforcements are definitely needed and priority should be in attack, midfield and the left wingback. Skipper Honest Moyo does well, but his game is just too erratic to justify keeping him as a starter.