Akbay lays into blunt Bosso strikers

By Jeffrey Muvundusi

Highlanders coach Erol Akbay is losing sleep over his side’s lack of goals in the Castle Lager Premiership.

For a side that was expected to challenge for the title, Bosso forwards have faltered, scoring a paltry 16 goals in 15 matches.

Former Dynamos forward Roderick Mutuma has only scored two goals this season while Prince Dube has found the net on six occasions.

This poor return in front of goal has seen the Bulawayo giants fail to assert themselves in the title race and Akbay is not pleased at all.

“We were expecting to score lots of goals but we have missed a lot of chances and I’m a little bit disappointed,” Akbay said during his weekly press conference yesterday.

“I was expecting my strikers to score lots of goals but this is not happening.

“Of course Prince (Dube) has scored six goals, actually his target was that by now he was supposed to have scored a minimum of 10 goals . . . as a striker what is important is you have to be scoring goals.

“Even if you play good football and you are not scoring, then you are not doing your job; you are nothing.”

The Dutchman said the rest of his team have played according to their expectations except for the frontline.

“Honestly, the strike force has let me down, they have disappointed but the rest of the team; the midfield and the defence, I can’t complain,” he said.

Akbay said he might be forced to use a different line-up for Sunday’s match against Yadah FC at Barbourfields Stadium.

The Harare-based side are high on confidence following their Tuesday victory over defending champions CAPS United.

“I have only watched Yadah once, I know they are a physically-strong team and dangerous as you saw this week when they beat CAPS United,” he said.

“That means they are not an easy team to beat and also if you realise all the teams at the bottom of the log are not easy to beat.

“When playing top teams you need players who can play tactically but for the bottom of the log teams you need a different style of play.

“So at that time you need players who are fighters and young fighters fit the bill.”

Akbay added: “What is important is to play good football and what we need now is points so that we can stay on top, we are not far just three points from the top.

“So we have to win and the margin has to be not wider than that.

“If you look at all the top eight teams they are very close to each other and that means that if you win you can go into the top three.” Daily News