UGANDA CRANES AND THE ONE MAGIC POINT! Although Uganda Cranes is a strong team, qualifying for major tournaments has remained a nightmare, and like it has always been the case, inadequate organization skills have left us waiting for another day as sports interests continuously shift to the silky European leagues. The last Cranes game left me speechless, and many of my fb friends were wondering why I had gone silent, but I told them that I needed some time to compose my self for a comprehensive analysis as hereunder; Having watched the game for a full 90+ minutes, I did observe that the player in the name of Andy Mwesigwa is partly to blame for the loss. He allowed himself to make each and every silly mistake that exited the Cranes. Although, he had all the necessary confidence, he threw away tactical discipline, creativity and game adaptability. It seems he went to the pitch with a transfixed coached mind, which probably inhibited his ability to perform much better, other factors notwithstanding. He appeared to be too loyal to the mangers instructions and panicky at the same time without a good reason; not knowing that he was the last man. However, Mwesigwa shouldn’t shoulder the entire blame alone. Right from us the supporters, the manager to his team mates; we all had a mindset for a draw, to obtained from an ordinary physical defending as a preference. I remember pointing out on the wall of Chris Ivan that in modern football, appropriate defending is done in the 3/4 of the opponents half so as to avoid gifting the opponent with undue advantage of set pieces. If you may recall, H.E the Presidents had also appealed to the manager to advise his players about set pieces. I should therefor, think that H.E the President by saying so he was telling to plan a game from which the Cranes would be capable of launching a counter offensive against Guinea. An offensive would have certainly left Guinea with no option, but to make mistakes, hence throw ins, penalties, corner and free kicks. Surprisingly, Micho failed to listen, and the Guinea’s coach took our President’s advice, which made his team to reward him with victory. It is always a better strategy to prevent the enemy at his own door steps than allowing him to get so close yours, as way of avoiding any underestimation of his strength and ability, although you can make tactical withdrawal within his territory. Therefore, if Micho had taken trouble, and tactically interpreted the President’s advice, he would have realized that set pieces, could only accrue from a siege his boys were capable put on Guinea in the ¾ as a perfect defending strategy. It cannot be doubted that Uganda Cranes is a very good big game player; and like any other team of that nature, when faced with a small ones, they are always likely to loose a simple game. To avoid such defeats, tactical mangers plan and approach such a games with deception. They usually avoid a complete regular starting eleven. They craft in some irregular faces with a precise executory mission. The team selection is normally premised on a fast attacking strategy aimed at heavy bombardment and destruction or to say-killing off the game at the very earliest. That is what Sir Alex Ferguson, used to do at the Theatre of Dreams, and is what the ‘Sirless’ David Moyes failed to do, hence his premature exit and the temporary crumble of the Mighty force of England/Europe; though there is hope of revival starting with a decisive attack on the Emirates this Sunday. In that regard, I didn’t expect Geoffrey Massa to feature in the starting eleven. There should have been an energetic and ambitious young man who would have surprised the Guineans defenders. Alternatively, since it was expected that Massa would be marked more than any other Cranes’ player, they should have positioned him on the flanks where he could hold the ball, thereby attracting several opponents. This would have inevitably broken Guinea’s defence to the Cranes’ advantage, and eventually allowed the deceptive player to rein in unrestricted. That aside, team selection ignored one important fact. Although Andy Mwesigwa is good player/defender, he is not an appropriate centre back. In my view, he is better as right full back, which means he is more of dependent defender rather than independent. Critical understanding makes it clear that a centre back must be gifted with both feet, and must exhibit and an independent commanding ability of the defence as well guiding the midfield. Andy lacks the ability to act independently, and I think this’ because he depended a lot on Ibrahim Ssekagya who was nearly equal to Dr. John Latigo, though the latter had more commitment to the National team. Dr. Latigo was there whenever the team required him, unlike Ssekagya who let us down when we also needed the usual difficult one point to qualify, and as they say – the rest is history. That notwithstanding, Ssekagya was a very good centre back likened to defenders such as Jap Stam, Rio Ferdinand, Sol Campbell, Gerald Pique and Thomas Vermlene (though injury prone). This is what Andy is supposed to be, but it is not his mistake, because he is being forced to take up a role which he can’t handle. Failure to find a suitable replacement for Ssekagya is similar to what United is facing in the aftermath of Rio Ferdinand. It’s what Chelsea faces whenever John Terry is away. It is similar to what the Super Eagles of Nigeria faced when Taribo West retired. It is what weathered Mikael Silvestre and Wes Brown when Rio Ferdinand got suspended for 9 months, even though returned later on, they continued to deteriorate. Neither, did the frequent injuries of Rio Ferdinand spare Namanja Vidic and Patrice Evra. The recurrence of injuries to Phil Jones or Rafael Da Silva is all associated to the absence of a formidable centre back. In this regard, it is plausible to opine that both right and left backs cannot permanently replace a centre back effectively, since they are dependent players. Therefore, we went into such a crucial game without a natural commander, and that is the best result we could get away from the home crowd. Having laid that diagnoses, it is therefore appropriate for me to squarely put the blame on Micho and his technical bench for failing to prepare and manage the team. It appears he took the supporters’ advice quite literally without threading it to fathomable footballing instructions. As the nightmare of one point rages on, sacking Micho will not help, instead capacity building coupled with bonding him could be a positive step towards solving managerial soccer problems in Uganda. Therefore, a three month refresher course in any Germany football Coaching Academy would be ideal for him. Nice weekend!
Posted on: Fri, 21 Nov 2014 13:00:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015