FCB Nyasa Big Bullets head coach Kalisto Pasuwa spoke to the media before our midweek TNM Super League tie against Mzuzu City Hammers.
Coming from a hard-earned 1-0 victory against Baka City on Sunday, Pasuwa anticipates another tough outing away at Mzuzu Stadium on Wednesday afternoon.
A win against the Hammers would move The People’s Team to third place in the standings and keep our title hopes alive.
“A tough game against Hammers, and we expect every team we meet to come hard on us more than what Baka City did on Sunday, so we need to be very optimistic and cautious with how we will approach the game.
“[We have been] travelling a lot, which needs recovery for the boys. We have tried to manage the recovery part because they are humans and need to rest, but unfortunately, you play a game, travel and train one day, but we should be ready because that’s how the games were arranged,” explained Pasuwa.
Against Baka, Bullets struggled with the playing surface’s condition. Pasuwa has admitted that most of these venues don’t suit our style of play, but his boys need to quickly adapt and get used to them.
“Again, the style of our play doesn’t suit well with these venues, but this is what we have in Malawi. It won’t just change. So we also need to have a plan B of saying that when we are playing in these bumpy pitches, we also need to play secondary balls, and we also need to be very careful in the build-ups we do when we are playing out from the back. We need to adapt and get results quickly,” he added.
He also revealed that he has worked on the mental strength of the players who are always afraid of committing mistakes. This situation saw us sit too deep and minimise shooting chances when facing Baka in Karonga.
“We have been working on it, and one thing is our mind of failing to hit at goal. You can’t score when you are not shooting at goal, so we need to have more entries and numbers in the attacking box and, mostly, overloads so that we can create more scoring chances,” he shared.
With more games coming within the shortest period, the tactician says his players have lost more energy, hence the need to balance.
“We are coming from another game, a tough match for that matter, and more energy was lost, so we need to be very careful with how we approach them. We need to balance and manage the game [against the Hammers].”
The two teams are separated by a point in the standings. Bullets sit fifth in the table with 33 points, while Hammers are sixth with 32 points.
