Loss to Coastal Union skirts Yanga out of comfort zone

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AfricaPress-Tanzania: BEING handed a 1-2 defeat by lowly Coastal Union has dragged Young Africans SC (Yanga) out of its comfort zone, despite that it is just one defeat for a fairly long period.

The defeat rattles spirits because the club fan base was hanging on a thread, that they were still the Premier League leaders and had not been defeated so far, where at least one datum has been disrupted by this defeat.

What comes out of the defeat isn’t whether the side is still league leaders but whether there is a possibility it may be repeated, as at that point the confidence wanes completely, and since this is a middle ranking club at best, repetition is likely.

It is hard to see how this is avoided as in the first place there is too much of traditional type of soccer where scoring is a matter of luck, instead of field programming on ball possession and recovery, when the side loses the ball.

This is ultimately the mark of technically respectable soccer and the side has difficulty keeping to possession, seemingly interested in kamikaze long balls, risky jumps to collect the ball from the air, vain dribbling ending in dispossession or ball being put to a throw in.

Then a restart begins of the same techniques, with good passing noticed when players are close to one another, a clear shortcoming.

In 1974 or thereabouts Simba SC were in Brazil and when they came back they had picked up something that at times used to be known as ‘diagonal’ football, which comes down to the W playing formation.

Players at the five at regular intervals give back passes of a timely kind to avoid dispossession as well to to give chance to a player facing no direct adversary to figure out whom to pass the ball.

The idea is chiefly that the next person to have the ball will be in a better position to avoid being dispossessed, and thus see if the ball can be passed forward fruitfully, where it stands a good chance of being guarded too.

Evidently it can’t be said that coach Cedric Kaze is unaware of possession techniques, but there is a problem of player habits and fan base pressures, where excitement is about how the ball is thrust forward towards goal, and who can shoot brilliantly to score an all-important goal.

Coaches in the past have tried to get past that sort of culture and while it can’t be said that Kaze has not been trying to overcome that habit, it must be said that the proper ‘diagonal’ way of playing wasn’t in view in the Coastal Union tie.

That means the coach is still following club culture and behests, rather than introducing clear patterns.

When one recalls the sort of outrageous disputes and exclamations of the former Yanga coach, Zlatko Krmpotić, and how he was dismissed from his job, it appears that these problems are far too entrenched for Kaze to actually take the bull by the horns.

In that way he may choose to play along with what it is believed is what the fans want, where every moment of play is a chance for one player to show his running and dribbling skills, loses the ball and then someone else tries out his abilities, repeatedly.

No question that goals can be scored in this manner as well, but engineering a move isn’t easy as not one player is predictable in play.

There are of course other problems that can be traced to overall limitation of experience (in the sense of comparing for instance with higher leagues abroad rather than with their city rivals) as even in the most watched premier leagues such mistakes happen.

It is to angle to the far right or far left when a goalkeeper comes diving at the ball, instead of flicking it over, which pundits will say ‘easier said than done.’ Surely that is the case, and it needs players with coolness of mind and deftness of control to think or do the trick.

Thinking of these tactical issues and trying to figure out how the tag ‘people’s team’ comes up, it would appear that the side is for a certain while to come tied down to playing by the dictates of the stand, where the fans don’t support the side but teach them, boo them etc.

This is what riled the previous coach and it appears the situation has remained the same, despite that other teams are picking up composed and resolute possession football, at least for long periods in the 90 minutes engagement.

For Yanga to actually use the skills of the players it possesses, it will have to cut out the unpredictable running and continuously losing the ball to set up a genuinely professional playing pattern.

Players need to be used continuously in keeping the ball and seeking space to make a well connected pass in wide ground, not crowded runs, falls.

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