As we gear up for Sunday’s pre-season friendly against Blue Eagles at the Aubrey Dimba Stadium in Mchinji, the club media on Friday caught up with the head coach Peter Mponda.
He shared his thoughts on the importance of this match, his evaluation of the pre-season so far, the much-anticipated return of Mike Mkwate, his latest signings, playing Yankho Singo as a centre-half and more.
Here’s the full transcript of Mponda’s interview.
On the upcoming clash with Blue Eagles ahead of the new season
A very important week for our preparations. The preparations have been going very well, and playing Blue Eagles a week before facing Silver Strikers in the league will be a very good yardstick for us. Blue Eagles is a team that is full of confidence after coming back from the Premier Division. They have been playing well in the [Lower League], but now it’s a different league, which is not a new environment for them. They have been here. They have been in the Super League for quite some time, so it’s a good test for us.
On the overall pre-season preparations
It has been a very good pre-season. The way we found the team and where we are now, we are a team full of confidence through the work being put on. The guys have been responding very well, and they adjusted to a few things, but all in all, it has been a very good eight weeks for us.
On the team’s defensive department
There is still a lot of work to do in terms of defending, and this is not only about the back four. It’s about the whole team. We are still not looking comfortable and confident enough, and like I said earlier on, the players are working very hard to be okay, and I believe that by the time we face Silver Strikers, we will be ready.
On the strikers’ struggles to capitalize on scoring opportunities
It’s not a concern. I am very happy with the attacking part of the team. They are creating chances. Yes, we are not taking all of them, but we are happy that we are creating chances, and once we start scoring, we will be scoring more goals. So far, so good.
Regarding Mike Mkwate’s comeback
You have seen yourself that Mike is fully fit, he is competing, and he is tackling and doing everything that he used to do before getting injured. We are happy with what we have seen and what he is giving to us in training. I believe that Mike will give us what we know that he has been giving to the team before the injury.
On the arrival of Dominic Musonda and Henry Chiwaya
I am very happy with the signings. In terms of how they have played, we have seen that Dominic Musonda is a very good player, but he stayed for a long time without playing football and he still needs to work on his fitness so that we get the best out of him. As for Henry Chiwaya, he has played for Super League teams before, but last season, he played for a lower-division team and he still needs to adjust to the Super League environment, but I am very happy with the signings.
On supporters’ perception of Andrew Jovinala as the standout signing
I am very happy that people have noticed that Jovinala is doing well for Bullets. During the pre-season, he showed that he could play for this team, but we can not take the views of people that the best signing is Jovinala. We believe that we made the right calls, we signed good players according to our needs, and we don’t need to listen too much to what people are saying because we will end up being confused. After all, they have different views, and as coaches, we see what we are doing in training, and we pick players who can do the job for us. Out of all the signings, we are very happy that we made the rights calls.
On deploying Yankho Singo as a central defender
When we were playing KB, the need for the team was to stabilize the back line. That day, some of the players were just new. We wanted them to see how the team plays. It’s not that we have changed Yankho Singo to a centre-back, but we will ask him to play according to the needs of the day. If we feel that Yankho should play as a defender, he will play as a defender and if we feel that there is a threat in the midfield, he will play in the middle to diffuse the enemy. We are very happy that we have a player like Yankho Singo, who is very versatile and can play in different positions. We are very happy.
On injuries
We have all players available, no big injury apart from those players that have been out like [Chrispin] Mapemba, Peter Banda; those are the two main players who are missing. Apart from that, we are happy with the squad we are having.
