HIGHLANDERS coach Madinda Ndlovu has shifted focus to building a team that will compete for honours next season.
BY FORTUNE MBELE
Having done badly in the Chibuku Super Cup and the Castle Lager Premier Soccer League, Ndlovu yesterday said his thrust this season has been to assess his players to come up with a better side to compete next season.
“The season has been of mixed results. What I will promise is that I am not going anywhere. I am not going to abandon my project. My marriage with Highlanders is to see the project through, which has the first year of assessing who are the best players for the club and the second season to put together a strong side. Next season, we expect a better performance and a target-oriented kind of competition where will be competing with the platinum sides.”
The Bulawayo giants face in-form Harare City at Barbourfields Stadium on Sunday before taking on Bulawayo Chiefs and finishing off with FC Platinum at the same venue.
“The team has not been doing very well in the past four games or so and it’s worrisome to every stakeholder. We embarked on this project in which we want to see bearing fruit. That has been achieved. We did well 75% of the first half of the season. We played very exciting football. After the break, we tried to strengthen a few areas of concern, mainly the strikeforce, but little has been achieved in the second half of the season.”
The coach said there several attributes that make a complete player and people should be surprised not to see some of the faces that are in the team this year come next season.
“This season has been a platform for us to go through and scrutinise the players and see which player has the capacity to endure premier league football; we are still in that process. There are ups and downs. Having not played well in the second half of the season, which has been worse in the past four weeks, is the phase of the game. It is now the time when you can see qualities of a champion. If you have been hit hard and show no strength to keep on fighting, then you are not a champion,” he said.
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He said every player in his squad will be given a chance to prove himself in the last three games.
