Zico, Shakava: Not time to panic yet
Despite a poor start to the 2018-2019 season, interim coach Zedekiah Otieno “Zico” says its not time to press the panic button yet. Harun Shakava also concurred with the coach.
In a post match interview, Shakava averred that it was only the first game. He says the team played well and created numerous chances in the second half. But good goalkeeping saved the dockers.
Shakava also faulted Bandari for their time-wasting tactics which he considered unsportsmanlike.
Nevertheless Shakava concluded that the team will learn from their mistakes and correct them before the next game which is slated for Wednesday.
Coach Zico for his part says the first game is not the time to start discussing the title.
“It is too early to start talking about the league title. Last season we lost over six matches and still went on to win the title. I can only admit that we have started badly which is not good for any defending champions in any league but we must now focus ahead and start winning matches from Wednesday.” he told goal.com
However if all Kogalo did was lose this game then fans would not panic. The reason some fans are already in panic mode is because there has been a precipitous decline in Kogalo’s performance. It started at the end of last season when Gor Mahia went on a losing streak.
They then went to Merseyside to play Everton and their performance was abysmal compared to the show they displayed against Everton when the two sides met in Dar es Salaam. Then came the loss to Kariobangi Sharks. Even the win over Big Bullets of Malawi was far from impressive. To some it appears the players have lost their motivation. To most however, the club simply has no strikers. Coach Zico concurs.
“We lost because we failed to score from the many chances we created and ended up conceding very cheap goals. It is unfortunate that a big team like Gor Mahia can give away such goals at this level,” he went on
“I don’t think so, we have the same players as from last season and remember we scored from a striker and not a defender.
“That will not be a good excuse. Let’s accept that we were not clinical upfront and we deserve to improve on the same as many teams will now want to come hard on us and win because they are playing against the champions.
Zico went on to say that the team cannot use the absence of Tuyisenge as an excuse.
“I can only admit that we are missing Tuyisenge (Jacques). He was our top scorer from last season but what can you do, if the player is injured? Tuyisenge is out and we must build a team without him as we wait for him to return. We miss him yes, but must always remain focused and use the players that we have.”
This is especially so because Tuyisenge may also be on his way out.
Jasego come Sunday we want to see no similar 1-0 situation again
Nigeria is not Malawi. Hatutaki aibu ndogondogo. Go and talk to the coach. No experiment s on that day
Aol omera but let us revive our mojo on Wednesday first with our first league win. Anie pap pile this week i took a sick leave from work adok rwako tracksuit zoezi with players they must shape up technically wang’ni…
Give us two lethal strikers and replace Odhoji with credible goalkeeper if you want us not to panic.
Zico you say we conceded two very cheap goals which a big club like Gor should not,who was in goal and why?Is it lost on you that the ONLY keeper who ever keeps a cleansheet in GM is Peter Odhiambo? With due respect to Bonny the GK Trainer Willis Ochieng Must also be called into Question…what does he train his keepers in Gor during practice?Kariobangi Sharks released a very good GK Trainer in Sunil Shah who has for a longtime been the National Team Under 20 and 23 Keeper trainer. Let’s hire his services as am taking him to Aduda in the Afternoon . We are tired of GK blunders. Finally am also going with Folly Klan Christophe to Aduda with an offer to pay his sign on fees which GM can pay me later when the qualify for Caf Group Stage or Walusimbi’s transfer cash ever reaches. Same to Bonfils Caleb Bimenyimana or Yunus Ssentamu let me bring them and pay. Some of us get sick when GM is losing left right and centre and were not born to fathom such results…
He he he! @ jasego uko loaded, bazenga fulani.kweli.!!, hauwezi ni dunga ka kitu ni ko down, GM AR ata sort?
Haha Levelmind bro hii ya Mayienga safari hii ni ngumu tusiposaidiana. Wanadai hawawezi sign more foreigners juu hakuna ganji ya sign on fees while in the meantime kupigwa mabao ndio zetu jo…
Starting games are usually the most difficult thing or points. Every team is breathing fire wanting to start well. Anything does happen to any team. History has shown that there are teams that start very well but only to completely fizzle out mid season. I am not however trying to justify the lose or the poor start. I am simply saying that it is just but a start. I am also cognizant of the fact that other teams have also started poorly and have remained there and consequently getting relegated I think Shakava as a captain is coming in at the right time to give the team what they require. Admitting to the bad start but also saying there is the next game to do better and gain the equilibrium. I do not think it is easy for the players. Alluding to the thought that many players want out, My question is to where……..? Where do you leave to go to? Which club with an opportunity like Gor Mahia? Any way these are just my thoughts. The other side of it How many players would want to be part of the great Kogallo? I believe they are many. This gives me the confidence that we are not and will not be in a crisis. The ship will steady up and will begin to roll.
@Jaupanda, I like the optimism. As of now the only thing that is not POSSIBLE is to win the league unbeaten. And why should we as fans panic when the playing unit believe that nothing is lost ?
For myself winning the league is not a discussion topic….the discussion topic should be consistently playing in the group stages of champions league or confederation cup for the next 5 years .
That is what build character, strengy, team cohesion, winning mentality and exposure to conquer Africa . Imagine gor mahia playing TP mazembe, zesco, al hilal, as vita, Esperance, and wydad casablanca every 2 months ? That’s
true championship stuff !
Jakoyo we need two foreign strikers to get to those group stages consistently as you note above. The said players are expensive and Gor is Broke. Igolo adii as Ja Gor machoon in helping Jasego purchase for Gor Yunis Ssentamu and Bonfils Caleb Bimenyana?
Good encouragement from Shakava but you can also help the team better by avoiding those long balls which end in the opponents’ possession every time. Always try building from behind so that you keep possession and thereby create scoring chances.
I watched Bandari Game and noted the following:
1. Our recent Brand( Kerr Brand) of keeping the ball, deny them the ball and play the ball was lacking. We now play long high balls hence most the time we loose the balls and keep on chasing the opponent. You can not win a game with this because of the heat.
2. Our key strikers had no one play behind them and feeding them. If they lose the ball no Gm player follow up.
3. Kahata was playing as a winger – Why ? only coaches know.
4. Batambuse is overlapping to much and no one provide cover for Him. This gave a lot pressure to J.Onyango.
5. Hurry to score. This made SAKAVA to play long balls to the strikers.
6. Gm did not use mid field instead they were using wingers( Kahata and samuel).
7. Philemon was not match fit. This cost us the second goal.
8. KEEP OUR PLAY BRAND AND YOU WILL REACH CAF GROUP STAGE. THIS THE ONLY WAS TO FRUSTRATE THE opponent.
@macholung I totally agree with you especially on point no.2,I observed this against sharks and big bullets away,it’s something that the team needs to correct otherwise we shall keep loosing all second balls to opponents and keep socking the pressure
The issue of bypassing the midfield with long balls is occassioned by Gor Mahia’s recent cancer that i have tried curing until i have given up . It is why i wanted Solomon Mensah signed years on end. The holding midfield pair of Ernest Wendo and Humphrey Mieno is the cog around which the whole team should rotate much like days of Aucho and Gattuso and Baba Kizito and Eric Ochieng. Nowadays those two are slow as tortoise and can’t hold any ball or boss the midfield by overpowering opponents. End product is use the wings to attack or play long balls to the strikers. If Batambuze overlaps which is why we acquired him then Wendo should slot into his position as cover that is how modern football is played. Even ingwe has a more compact midfield than ours from their game vs sharks that i watched. Victor Majid is very tenacious in that defensive midfield role…
1.Arsenal’s Aoron Ramsey’s contract negotiations has hit a snag but he keeps on turning up for training and giving his best in matches , Innocent Wafula’s contract negotiation has hit a snag , he has gone into hiding .
2.A good coach must always have optional formations for any situations that arise , Chelsea’s coach dropped Morata and Giroud for the Man City game and played with a false 9 , changed Ngolo’s position , stuck with David luiz despite criticism from “football experts , they won the game.
3.We cant forever mourn the crosses Nzigimana and Sibomana/Walusimbi used to give Olunga , Olunga was multi dimensional , in the air , with his feet , holding the ball etc , without such a player , we must change our tactical approach to fit
with what/who we have .
4.Making those kind of long Shakava balls is a speciality not reserved for anybody , the kind of long crosses Rooney used to make or like the 50yard cross David Luiz made to Pedro is not done the shakava way and when done is done for a specific reason and not the to whoever it may concern shakava way , we lose our possesion cheaply and unnecesarily and its a forte of one without self confidence .
5. For a team to perform on the field , conditions off the field must be conducive .
6.After all that has been said before about our coaches when they arrive , from Loga , to Nattal who we were told by “Kogalo experts’ was a mere fitness trainer , to Kerr who we were told had failed elsewhere , I will hold my opinion on Oktay as I absorb the “experts opinion”.
7.We will be Ok despite the slow start .
Are some people really serious(Zico and Shakava)????just imagine a team that lost to Everton by 4 goals to nothing,beaten by k-sharks and bandari consecutively.
Gor must offload the two foreign players (Guikan and Mustaffa)and sign quality foreign players and not people warming bench.
Why sign a foreigner who is not adding any value to the team????
Gor lacks a striker and a creative midfielder period.Lets not cheat ourselves.We either correct it now or forget about football this period.
Wan Gor ema wahero
@Jasego and others, our well travelled club informant tells us that the only kenyan strikers available in December for possible discussions are john makwatta and elvis rupia who have both been released by their clubs… Paul were is also available but might be out of budget.
in East Africa, Yunus sentamu is currently in Uganda on holidays and will soon be a free agent…bonfils is still attached to Rayon sport but comes with a release tag way above our match. His counterpart at kiyovu, Djuma niyezimana (the next meddie kagere) is interested and can be a direct swap with Mustaffa ( the same case that was with jean baptiste mugiraneza) since Kiyovu is mustafa’s immediate former club.
Perhaps may be try west , Southern and Central Africa but truth be told, I cannot remember any west african, southern ( remember situmbeko saga) or central african donning a gor mahia jersey in the last 50 years. Surely, there must be a reason !!
@Jakoyo this Djuma Niyezimana was he there when Aduda went for Francis Mustapha?I ask because if he was and Aduda and his Advisors thought Mustapha was better then i don’t know how good he will be to us. Also Camerounian Baldwin Ngwa donned our Jersey with great fighting spirit between 2005-2010 so yes we can make it West if we wish. Problem in GM is lack of money and love of free signings which most often will lack impressive quality. Elvis Rupia is a very good striker who might have found it hard adapting to life in Zambia we should sign him very fast if available. Paul Were has been taking K’Ogalo in circles for long i lost interest. John Mark Makwatta is the direct running type but can help us as we need all the help we can get. I tried signing Ezekiel Okare from Sofapaka but office dilli-dallied until Ulinzi swooped him with a job offer. I believe he would have been terrific in GM
My take is that the caliber of coaching has gone down significantly since Kerr left. if you listen to Zicos comments after games…they are general and vague no key takeaways of areas to improve on. Kerr used to be specific and one thing he always criticized his players for was them being too much in a hurry to score and not retaining possession. We would beat a team 2-0 or 3-1 and still he would complain that we could have scored more and that we gave away possession cheaply. It is a bad habit that the coach was trying to fight day in day out and now that he has left it seems the players have gone back to default settings.
When a fatigued GM played AFC in the first leg last season, we created no less than 5 good chances in the first half despite AFC playing a packed midfield and high pressing game, we still forced a mistake that Tuyisenge finished with aplomb. When AF threatened a comeback and scored an equalizer, we didn’t panic a few tactical changes without making a subsition-moving Wafula to right back and and taking Mbish to add steel to the mid completely shut out AFC and berry scored a brilliant volley of a sublime Kahata pass and we won the game.
This is what the team is lacking, a tactically astute and brilliant reader of the game who can effectively coach the boys and give them the kind of self belief that team wakulima demonstrated when they completely outclassed AFC to confirm the title, the kind of confidence that young Asudi had when he made a delightful chip for Tuyisenge to score against Mathare united on coronation day.
The issue is not the strikers, GM was hard to beat with Kahata on the field but we still won games without Philemon, Mieno, Berry or Tuyisenge. Its the coaching thats the problem and i dont think Oktay is the solution, his credentials are woeful and more than one week internship with the team has resulted in any meaningful shift in how the team plays.
My take is that the caliber of coaching has gone down significantly since Kerr left. if you listen to Zicos comments after games…they are general and vague no key takeaways of areas to improve on. Kerr used to be specific and one thing he always criticized his players for was them being too much in a hurry to score and not retaining possession. We would beat a team 2-0 or 3-1 and still he would complain that we could have scored more and that we gave away possession cheaply. It is a bad habit that the coach was trying to fight day in day out and now that he has left it seems the players have gone back to default settings.
When a fatigued GM played AFC in the first leg last season, we created no less than 5 good chances in the first half despite AFC playing a packed midfield and high pressing game, we still forced a mistake that Tuyisenge finished with aplomb. When AF threatened a comeback and scored an equalizer, we didn’t panic a few tactical changes without making a subsition-moving Wafula to right back and and taking Mbish to add steel to the mid completely shut out AFC and berry scored a brilliant volley of a sublime Kahata pass and we won the game.
This is what the team is lacking, a tactically astute and brilliant reader of the game who can effectively coach the boys and give them the kind of self belief that team wakulima demonstrated when they completely outclassed AFC to confirm the title, the kind of confidence that young Asudi had when he made a delightful chip for Tuyisenge to score against Mathare united on coronation day.
The issue is not the strikers, GM was hard to beat with Kahata on the field but we still won games without Philemon, Mieno, Berry or Tuyisenge. Its the coaching thats the problem and i dont think Oktay is the solution, his credentials are woeful and more than one week internship with the team has resulted in any meaningful shift in how the team plays.
I echo @jakoyo WE’RE NOT WORRIED ABOUT THE LEAGUE, WE ARE PANICKY ABOUT CCL LOBI’S MATCH ON SUNDAY. By now the team should be clinical, have gelled, EC cleared off field issues etc. Players/TB you’re 2 games away from a 55m payout.EC work out a bonus plan
Oduor12 we must be worried about winning the league too all the time as it is by virtue of thst that we are playing continental football evem now. The KPL should always be priority one as it is in every league in the world until such time when GM can be given a bye directly into the 1st round like TP Mazembe…Esperance…Al Ahly etc due to strong performance in Caf competitions year in year out…
Any team in the CAF is likely either a national league/shield winner but can still be ousted early. To constantly feature in the group & later stages of the CAF means that your peers are Zamaleck etc rather than stagnating for Bandaris,Sharks etc.
@jakoyo for the first time you have written some sense worth digesting.Maybe that’s the reason for the heavy downpour at the lakeside today.
Jakoyo do you remember. … something ..zinho from Nigeria some five years back? Rupia nyale but if anyone was to come in now it would not help in the CCC. How’s Tuyisenge’s injury, any updates?
Even Zakary Tawfiq from Ghanawas a gor player in 2013 and failed terribly and was a victim of Logarusic chasing players who can’t run and think at the same time…
Internship and probation over Oktay confirmed as head coach.Let’s hope and pray for a change in the way Gor plays.
after working with Zico…..as intern do not expect much
Hehehe. @Odhis Muga, Your comment about Jakoyo and the rain at the lake side. I think you missed something bigger and more important; That for the first time the two senior bloggers Jakoyo and Jasego have talked to each other and not at each other. They usually throw spanners, folks, jembes…anything they find at each other. This is the way to go in this forum. This is on a light note. Otherwise, I am not panicking yet about the teams performance. We have experienced bad league starts before but finished great. Its not the humbleness of the beginning that matters, but the greatness of the finish. I heard this somewhere.
Hassan Oktay the team is yours now. Steady the K’Ogalo ship very fast akin to a Westham United project as we have no time for trial and error. We are fast approaching ngwech days if this declining form and performance is not arrested. I wish you the best in your new role
I watched Afc game against Sharks. They played well, If GM does does not improve their game, then AFC will give them hard time this season.
Copied,
Karim has rekindle talks with Mahia, terms and conditions to be agreed on, most probably 11th Dec 2018.Karim has also stalled talks with Sofapaka so as to weigh options of the two deals.Incase he agrees with Mahia, one foreign striker might be sacrificed because of the foreign quarter rule… Developing Story ……..
Watched Lobi stars play Rangers intl on SS9. Gor must be prepared of more of a physical game than tactifull.We will need either very strong players or very fast players. And their field was like Thika county stadium though the terraces are ok
@Dan Original, Lobi stars is beatable and we can only do it here in Nairobi not in Nigeria. My only worry is the absence of energy level which the team had under Frank Nattal. Could it be absence of physical trainer or it is just our style. Did you watch Rangers Intl. Vs Kano pillars – a team that was down by 3 goals ,came back in the last 10 minutes of the games to force a draw and won the game on a post match penalties? A typical Nigerian style.
if Karim comes back then Mustfa must go, he is a surplus baggage.
Gor of today will make you sick….those on HBP drugs please have them ready.