June 25, 2008
The extracts on this page are taken from Zambia Daily Mail newspapers. The views expressed here do not necessarily reflect the views of Zambianfootball.co.cc
Zambia did well to beat Swaziland 1-0, thanks to Christopher Katongo who really showed why he is just about the best player in the country at the moment.
But looking at the more than 15 chances that were spurned, I am forced to address coach Herve Renard, who it must be appreciated, seems to be building a good team. If you have been following, you may have discovered that his reading of games is really impressive.
Permettez-moi, Monsieur Herve Retard, de vous dire que (permit me to advise you coach). Zambia still needs Collins Mbesuma’s goal-scoring prowess if we are to soldier on to Angola and South Africa in 2010.
I have to step into the middle of this because I believe Mbesuma is now the most misunderstood goal-poacher in Zambia. If we do not nurture this great talent, a rarity in our soccer annals not since the
Kalusha Bwalyas, Charles Musondas, late Godfrey “Ucar”
Chitalu and Bernard Chanda, it could take time before we are blessed with another.
The irony of it all is that a great talent is able to recognise another great talent and perhaps that explains how in a string of many coaches, only Kaiser Chiefs’ Ted Dumitru, Kalusha and former under-23 2004 trainer Peter Kaumba knew how to make the most of Mbesuma.
Even a half-fit Mbesuma has always been good enough for any team. His weight gives him impetus to bludgeon through defence systems like a knife through melting butter.
Yes, there are issues of discipline here and I must confess that Mbesuma is not a good student of it.
These are issues of player management but it is important to understand Mbesuma’s history to appreciate his character.
Rejection is at the centre of his character.
Rejection is not easy to handle as it manifests itself in various forms even when one is grown up. It is sometimes the reason for wayward behaviour among some of the greatest talents in the world.
The pain of rejection leaves fractures.
Sadly, the rejection at English side Portsmouth may have touched a raw nerve. He tried picking up the pieces at Portuguese side Maritimo and onward to Turkey where, again, he faced rejection perhaps because of a persistent knee injury. All these things add up.
As the poor finishing against the Swazis showed, we still need Mbesuma. Renard must stop casting aspersions on Mbesuma’s weight (that’s why the player was deeply offended and refused to show up because he’s obviously feeling dejected by comments).
May I argue that the weight is Mbesuma’s strength and with it he has tremendous speed.
Kaizer Chiefs understood Mbesuma better. He is the sort of player to whose strength the team must play.
He is not the player who plays to the strength of the team. The team must play to his strength, give him the ammunition and you will see him demolish Togo with a deluge of goals.
Rephrased, the team must play to Mbesuma’s strength and not Mbesuma to the team’s strength (C’est a L’equipe de s’oppuyer sur la force de Mbesuma et non a Mbesuma de s’oppuyer sur la force de L’equipe).
Renard needs to have a chat with Dumitru and Kalusha to understand Mbesuma better.
Renard also needs to show Mbesuma compassion not rejection by factoring in the psychological thread that has run through the player’s life.
Zambia has two months to prepare for the match against Togo on September 6, and Renard has two months to assess Mbesuma.
[Zambia Daily Mail]
23 Comments on "Comment: Zambia Should play to Mbesuma’s Strength"
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DaMwiinger on Wed, 25th Jun 2008 11:22 AM
If Mbesuma cannot take positives from criticism, then he is not worthy being a professional of any kind. He might as well return to Luanshya or RSA and be the “star” that he thinks he is and continue in mediocrity. You can’t make it to the big stage with that kind of attitude and I don’t think babysitting him will be of any help to him or the nation as a whole. I think he is getting a bit ahead of himself in that he thinks he is better than he really is. Let him prove himself on the big stage and then he can call the shots
Anonymous on Thu, 26th Jun 2008 1:35 AM
Big Steve from SA says:
It is shocking that people (like the writer of the article) still think like this. I was basically out of words when I first read it. We have had a history of the nonsense of playing names and yet have we won anything like the Africa cup or feature at the world cup to show for this name playing?? Even in Europe you lose your National team spot if you are under performing at club level. Mbesuma is good and has huge talent but we cannot run from the fact he has an even bigger ego. He has not ticked in Europe and many people can point out many reasons why but the fact that he is such an under performer that two national coaches have dropped and he has under performed himself into clublessness should say something. It is good he may find himself at a big club in SA but he should first tick at the club and show his prowess then think of national duty. We need to stop playing names in the national team. It has not worked before why will it start now. I said it before, only club performing players should be considered for national duty. Let us play performers and not names.
I am a big fan of Mbesuma and believe with the riight attitude he could be welll on the way to becoming the next ‘Ucar’ but even in the dictionary ‘S’ comes after ‘H’, ‘success’ after ‘hardwork’