Moses Chunga comes up against his former club Caps United in his first match as Gunners coach when the two teams meet on Thursday at Lafarge as the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League resumes after a break due to the Cosafa Women’s Championships.
The nomadic coach was fired from Caps United last month following a string of poor results and was immediately replaced by caretaker coach Maxwell Takaendesa Jongwe.
While Chunga’s immediate task at Gunners will be to save the club from impending relegation if they don’t step up their game, it is clear he would also be aiming to prove a point to the Caps United fans who gave him a torrid time during his second stint at Makepekepe.
Gunners have found the going tough this season and currently occupy 15th position on the 16-team log with a paltry 12 points from 14 matches.
The 2009 champions’ major undoing has been their failure to convert the chances they create into goals which is why they have scored the least number of goals than any team in the league so far.
Gunners have managed to score just 10 goals from 14 matches justifying claims they have struggled to fill the void left by last season’s Golden Boot winner Norman Maroto who was swooped by big spenders FC Platinum.
Chunga seems to have wasted no time in trying to rectify this problem by bringing in striker Merciful Ncube who he hopes would start banging the goals for Chando Kupisa.
Gunners will however be encouraged by the fact in their last match at Lafarge they managed to beat fellow relegation candidates Black Mambas 1-0.
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Chunga has built a reputation of saving teams from relegation and it remains to be seen if he is going to pull off another Houdini act at the same team he won the championship with in 2009.
Caps, on the other hand, currently occupy ninth position on the log with 21 points, and a win for Jongwe and his assistant Alois Bunjira in tomorrow’s match could see them move within six points of log leaders FC Platinum.
Under Chunga, Caps United got off to a flying start winning five of their first six matches of the season, but an inconsistent run since then saw them dramatically falling from being championship contenders to championship pretenders.
Jongwe is also likely to unveil highly-rated midfielder Tendai Samanja, who they hope will give them the cutting edge in midfield, where the team has struggled.
The trio of Leonard Tsipa, David Sengu and Ndumiso Khanye are also believed to have rejoined Caps United after being dismissed at the start of the season due to indiscipline.
