BY HENRY MHARA
DYNAMOS new coach Tonderai Ndiraya says his squad is beginning to embrace his philosophy and what it means to play for the Harare giants, claiming he found a club in total disarray with a group of unfit and disoriented players, in what could be viewed as a direct attack on his predecessor Lloyd Chigowe.
DeMbare face Yadah at Rufaro Stadium on Sunday in what looks like an easy fixture for Ndiraya’s men as they look for back to back wins for the first time in this campaign.
Ndiraya has been on this job for just two weeks, but he feels his ideals and doctrines are sinking in well into the squad who managed a 1-1 draw against TelOne on his first match before beating ZPC Kariba 1-0 last weekend.
Speaking to the media yesterday, Ndiraya said he is impressed with the progress that the team is making since he took over, and he expects the players to continue in that positive trajectory.
“The players are doing fine, they are slowly responding to our training methods and philosophy. I’m just hoping that they will continue responding; and that is what is important. I hope that they will continue to be committed, with the same (spirit) that they showed against ZPC Kariba. I’m glad that it’s evident and I’m sure it’s going to stay for sometime,” Ndiraya said.
Ndiraya has picked some huge grey areas in the team which had lost four games before he arrived, which he says is working hard to improve.
“In football, the most important aspect is the physiological part of the game, and so after getting four defeats, it badly affected the players. And you add the low fitness levels to that, and you have a recipe for disaster. That was the situation when we got here. But we have since trained with the boys for two weeks now and we have been pushing them in terms of fitness levels and I’m glad that there is so much progress. Of course fitness is acquired over time, but we hope that in the next three weeks, the boys will be at reasonable fitness levels. It is the fitness part which was worrying.”
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He said he had put the players on an intensive fitness programme to try and condition them for the demands of the topflight.
“We have been on an intense training programme, training twice on Tuesday and Wednesday. We will continue doing that until we are satisfied with the fitness levels of the players. Also, the commitment to play football and for the brand Dynamos was not there, but that comes with the fitness. But with better fitness levels, we have seen more commitment and I think our last match against ZPC is a testimony to that and that was the reason their coach had to label a match a rugby match. It was because of the commitment and the intensity our boys put in that match, so we are expecting the same in the next match, and if we can do that we will get results.
“There are also some technical and tactical issues that needed to be put in place and those we are putting in place. We had a better shape when we played ZPC Kariba and we expect to have an improved shape going into the Yadah game. We don’t want players just running everywhere. We want players to understand their roles and I’m really happy by the progress we have made so far.
“We have also noted some bit of individualism in the team and that is what we have been trying to work on and I’m glad that in our last match they fought as a unit to get maximum points. That is the spirit that we are instilling in them and I hope going forward we can get more of that.”
Dynamos will be without their foreign imports for the next match, with the Cameroonian pair of Clade Junior Nkahan and Herve Mbega injured, while Ngandu Mangala of the Democratic Republic of Congo is suspended. Ghanaian Robert Sackey is also carrying an injury and will have to wait a little longer to make his debut for DeMbare.
