Napsa Stars are currently on a ten-day pre-season camp in Livingstone ahead of the 2019/2020 season that kicks off in early August.
Coach Mohammed Fathi gave a short review and preview of the status at the Lusaka club.
Q: Why did you pick on Livingstone for your pre-season camp?
Mohammed Fathi: Livingstone is a good environment, good town and a lot of clubs like to come here because of the facilities and also they have good teams here.
It is also near Zimbabwe and so we can invite teams from Zimbabwe to play with us.
Q: What are your objectives from this pre-season camp?
Fathi: The pre-season is six weeks. We start with physicals in the first two weeks.
Then next four weeks we will be involved in the technicalities and the tactics of the team and also friendlies and find the best lineup we are going to start the league with.
Q: Let’s talk about how the 2019 transitional season ended after the disappointment of missing out on continental qualification.
Fathi: I think it was a very good run after coming from surviving relegation in 2018 then coming to the 2019 transitional league.
The players didn’t rest enough within this period but we played very well and we were unluckily because our opponents in the matches usually came back from behind against us and so rather than win the games, we drew.
But anyway I don’t want to talk about the past, we finished number five in Stream B and it is a sign we are not far from finishing in the continental zone this season.
Q: Which areas need attention going into the next season?
Fathi: We have to beef up our defence line but our goalkeepers, midfield and strike force are OK but we have to look at our defence.
Q: How do you look at the coming 2019/2020 league season?
Fathi: It will be competitive and I think the number of the teams will now be 18 from 20 which is a good number.
So far we will be ready for the season and we are looking forward to the first season in Zambia that will be played in this European format for the first-time ever.
Chapwa just like that and you throw on us ati “interview”.
We have work to do, give us respect.
Livingstone is my home town but, until now, had no idea it had facilities to host a training camp. The only stadium Maramba is just an old cracked wall with concrete seating.