Kalisto Pasuwa believes FCB Nyasa Big Bullets will not find it easy to defend the TNM Super League despite seeing his team defeat Mafco 4-0 at Kamuzu Stadium on Sunday afternoon.
Bullets returned to the Kamuzu Stadium for the first home league match in the new season having started the title defence with a 1-1 draw away to Silver Strikers last week.
A brace each from Alick Lungu and Lanjesi Nkhoma was enough to hand The People’s Team the first win of the campaign to move up to second in the standings with four points, two behind neighbours Mighty Mukuru Wanderers.
Reacting following Sunday’s victory, the Bullets head coach said the majority of teams, especially fellow title contenders, beefed up their squads to end his side’s dominance hence warning his charges not to expect an easy ride in the 2023 season.
“It will not be an easy ride this year because most of the teams beefed up their squads for Bullets. It’s the standards that we set as Bullets. We need to pull up and go another level for us to be a step ahead of them.”
Commenting on his side’s performance after playing second fiddle in the first half despite Lungu’s 12th-minute stunner, our coach observed the opponents had a good game plan for his boys, but some tactical changes in the second half made the difference for The People’s Team.
“Just like the last game we played them in Dedza [in the second round of the 2022 season], they came on us, they pressed us and they were more physical hence dominating in the first half. In the second half, we changed, we were very offensive because we put two strikers to high-press their centre-backs and we were no longer allowing them to hit those long balls. Very outstanding performance from my boys in the final half.”
On why the team hasn’t picked up their usual form despite collecting four out of the possible six points, the tactician said he is yet to get the right combinations since he has just assembled a new team.
“Remember, we are a team where we are rebuilding every time. One time, we build a team and the next minute, five players are gone. If you look at the team, the majority of the players that were playing regularly are no longer with us and we have plenty of new guys in the team, so if you can see, combinations are a problem, we need more time to have everything in right place.”
Bullets’ third game in the 2023 Super League campaign will see us travelling to Lilongwe to play the newly-promoted Extreme FC at the Civo Stadium on Saturday.
