It is time our squad is strengthened – Katwila

MTIBWA Sugar’s coach Zuberi Katwila said a 4-1 loss to Young Africans over the weekend in the Premier League is a wakeup call for them to use the mini-transfer window to strengthen their squad.

The mini-January transfer window which was officially opened last Saturday will allow the technical benches of the teams to strengthen their squads for the league’s second leg and Katwila whose side is currently placed at the bottom of the league table needs it most as to escape relegation or playing in the playoffs.

“We didn’t use our chances well created in the game, it’s clear that we need to utilise this to the maximum this transfer window to improve the quality and standard of our squad if we want to continue to be in the topflight league,” Katwila disclosed.

He further said despite their defeat at the Azam Complex in Dar es Salaam he was happy with the team’s first-half performance as they managed to contain their opponents in the midfield although they went down by 1-0 into the breather.

“In the first half my players were tactically disciplined, especially in the midfield area and that saw us manage to put our opponents at bay and reduce destruction on our side,” he said.

Mtibwa Sugar is at the bottom of the league with only five points from 13 outings as they managed to win only a single game, two draws and were defeated 10 times, are now remaining with two games to wind up their first-round campaign.

On his side, Yanga head coach Miguel Gamondi said he was impressed by how his team performed in their Saturday’s victory against bottom-of-the-league side Mtibwa although he lamented on the scoring chances created but wasted by his players.

“Some of my few players are injured, others were suspended, but I am still very happy with the performance of the team, we created a lot of chances we failed to turn them into goals but the good thing is we won the game,” he explained.

Gamondi disclosed that despite missing some important players through injury and suspension he was very much impressed by how his team performed.

However, Gamondi revealed that sometimes he prefers to play with wingers, and sometimes he doesn’t use wingers as it depends on the kind of opponent he faces.

“As a coach you need to create your style and at the same time you need to think about your opponent as well, that’s why I said sometimes I prefer to use wingers, sometimes I don’t,’’ he explained.