Ahead of our final TNM Super League match against Kamuzu Barracks at Kamuzu Stadium on Saturday, head coach Kalisto Pasuwa was back in front of the media for his routine pre-match press conferences.
He talked about the desire to avoid complacency, his thoughts on why Bullets failed to defend the league title, and leadership in the team, among other issues.
Read on to find out more about what Pasuwa said during his media briefing.
On his approach to the KB game to avoid complacency…
Our motto has always been winning. It doesn’t matter that we are playing our last game or even to say the championship is over. The professional player needs every time to be positive in whatever he does, hence the approach that we need in tomorrow’s game. The last time we played, you could see complacency in the players; hence, we had to take some of them out at halftime and bring others who came in and raised the game. I think when approaching Kamuzu Barracks tomorrow, we will have the right sense of mind to play well.
On where it went wrong for his team to fail to defend the league…
We started slowly and you saw that we were playing the [CAF] Champions League, and we had so many players who were injured and when we started, I think half of the team was out and some had flu and some were sick. Even the way we were travelling wasn’t good enough. But the good thing is that as games progressed, we picked up and we started collecting points and also playing better in some of the cup games.
On whether the team was affected by the early departure of Patrick Mwaungulu and Lanjesi Nkhoma…
Maybe it can be, but remember I have been talking about injuries and sicknesses, and we have been rotating these players a lot. You see [players like] Ephraim Kondowe, one time he plays, the other two games he is not around and because of the minimum space that we have been given, for us to say we will play Ephraim for three consecutive games, it was very difficult for us, hence we had to rotate and in doing so, he is missing another game and he goes and plays another one and he has missed goals that he can easily score and that’s how it is.
On his assessment of his defence…
It’s maturity, and as you saw, we ended up taking Gomezgani Chirwa from the right back to the central role. We needed a leader. Like I said, when playing these games, when building up a team, you need a spine. So, if you saw on that defence, mostly, we were having problems where we were rotating. It’s either through injuries or fitness to some of the guys. Like last year, we had Senaji who was one of the seniors in our defence but again, he got injured and sometimes he was sick, we ended up rotating every time trying to have a solid defence and hence we conceded more goals. But one thing it was lacking a leader, communication in defence.
On whether the departures of senior players contributed to having no leader in the team…
One would attribute our failure to win the league to the departures of the senior players, but there was going to be a time when we were going to release those senior players, and it was the [time to] transition. Yes, we failed in some of the players to handle the pressure, taking over from the players who left. But again, if you looked at those players, remember last year, we could have resigned them the other year, but we pushed them. Players should sit down on their own or even in the field of play to say guys we can do it, let’s go and do it or even if we are having problems, let’s play football and we move on. We lacked that maturity in some of the areas, but I wouldn’t blame them much. They did well, played well, we pushed, and it’s very unfortunate that maybe we couldn’t defend the title.
On players’ behaviour and attitude…
In some of these areas, I wouldn’t talk much and we had a problem where outsiders also invaded our camp. They were coming in on the boys, and I wouldn’t talk much about it. To some of the guys, you will be surprised to say Sambani can be seen as one person who can be mischievous in the team, and you can be surprised to say Kajoke is one person who can be mischievous in the team, but a lot of things happened and maybe yes, punishments were done and can’t go any further about it.
On what will motivate his players ahead of KB’s match…
One thing which I have seen here is that the moment everyone seems to say the games are over, the league is over, and everyone switches off. It’s not only the duty of the coaches to push up these guys. The same way that we were doing starting from day one should remain until day 30 in our last game. Seeing a positive mood in everyone will make the players positive. But again, I will do my part; I will try to push them for us to have results, and as I said, a player should remain a professional. Whatever the problem can be, you need to be positive. You never know tomorrow.
On injuries…
We still have Chrispin Mapemba and Clyde Senaji on the sidelines, and we have recently added Blessing Mpokera to the injury list.
On Peter Banda’s progress…
I think on that one, I will refer it to the manager of the team. Maybe he can answer it better.
