Coach George Lwandamina has warned Chipolopolo against over-dependence on Patson Daka and Enock Mwepu in the upcoming 2022 FIFA World Cup qualifiers.
Lwandamina, the coach of Tanzanian side Azam FC, said the Zambia Under-20 graduates have not reached a stage where they can be considered as dependable players.
“Yes we have those boys who won the Under-20 Africa Cup but that is not enough,” Lwandamina said.
“You should have the core of the team and then you fuse in those boys, because those are still boys but do we have the core of the team.”
Lwandamina, the ex-Zambia and Zesco United coach, said more years are needed to build a strong Chipolopolo squad.
He said Zambia’s opponents in the World Cup qualifiers like Mauritania and Equatorial Guinea have improved over the years.
“These teams have improved a lot and we are stagnant, for lack of a better word, they have done so much even in investment in the coaching so they are improving. Us we are still thinking of 2012,” he said.
Zambia will also face Tunisia in Group B of the World Cup campaign.
Please lets have the game between Zambia vs Tunisia played in a third party Country that is not on COVID red list Countries to allow DAKA and MWEPU to play, FAZ can we expedite this option.
Well spoken chicken George, we are esp weak in defense where no solid central pairing has yet emerged to replace the Sunzu – Himonde combination!! We need to identify the next stable, calm & reliable pairing @ 4 & 5 now!! ??
I don’t think that age is an issue here. Patson and Mwepu can easily perform at a bigger stage. Lwandamina took the likes of Stophila and Mayuka to the U-20 World cup in Canada in 2007 and in 2012 the boys I have mentioned won us the Afcon cup. This is the same case today with Patson and others who performed and won us the U-20 Afcon in 2017. Today is 2021, meaning that this is the same time frame.
The issue I think is just organisation of our beautiful game which is lacking. We have been rebuilding the team since 2013 when we faltered at Afcon in South Africa and eight years later we are still thinking of rebuilding?
I personally think the ‘fish is rotten from the head’. The people at the helm of FAZ have failed us period. We need to have people with the knowledge of football to…