AfricaPress-Tanzania: SIMBA SC head coach, Didier Gomes Da Rosa, has admitted that the squad’s two signings, roped in during the mini transfer window, Nigerian forward Junior Lokosa and Zimbabwean central defender Peter Muduhwa are good but they face a tough test to break into the starting team.
So far neither of them have played any competitive match for Simba, despite being touted as good acquisition.
The two players were given condition that they have to put more effort especially in training so that they can land a place in the squad that takes part in this season’s CAF Champions League.
The two players’ working permits allow them to only take part in the tournament.
Lokosa and Muduhwa are not eligible to play for Simba in domestic competitions due to being signed only for CAF Champions League.
Technically, Lokosa is still physically fit and Muduhwa is failing to play due to Paschal Wawa and Joash Onyango already getting along well in terms of combination.
The Simba tactician said: “Lokosa failed to play competitive matches for a long time because the league he was previously playing in was suspended because of the corona, so until the time he got here he was not physically fit.”
“I need more time to keep the fitness high for Lokosa and restore his physical fitness and after that I will give him a chance to play, that’s why he has not been seen in competitive matches so far,” he said.
On Wednesday, Simba found it hard again to post victory over Prisons, when the two sides locked horns in a Premier League clash which was played in Dar es Salaam, with the latter forcing 1-1 draw with the former.
The tactician opted to shoulder the blame after the clash.
Simba failed to pick maximum points and narrow their gap with rivals Yanga at the top flight’s top.
The French coach noted there must be no excuses as he accepted to take full responsibility for the results.
“We are responsible and I am the coach of the team so I take responsibility for this bad draw. We could have won easily but we did not make things clear,” the coach said as per the club’s online TV.
He stated: “But I know it will help us to react and to recover for the rhythm that we had played with Al Ahly.”
“I am sure together we will react and we will be more aggressive in future. Of course, we can say we have played a lot of matches in one month but that is not a reason for us to post the draw with this team,” he said.
”Like I said we are very disappointed especially after dominating the game towards the end and failed to make something out of it.”
Although Da Rosa said they should not find excuses for failing to dismantle Tanzania Prisons, he defended his players from individual blame.
“We missed many things, we missed the penalty, and so many opportunities to score so we can accept but we cannot be satisfied. We are disappointed and we are a top team and that is the reason I will not find excuses because we must be ready to play in three or four days,” he said.
He added: “I have always said that I will not blame my players when we lose a goal. Even when we work on set pieces, penalty and corners during training we are not efficient offensively.”
“Defensively we are better now, especially during corner kicks. We had a lot of opportunities and it is not only the penalty that we lost. But I have trust in my players that we will recover mentally before the Al Merreikh fixture,” he disclosed
After the midweek clash, Simba are set to shift focus to this season’s CAF Champions League games as they are set to face Al Merreikh, AS Vita Club and Al Ahly respectively in March and early April
