Warriors vice captains Munetsi, Hadebe impress at their clubs ahead of WC qualifiers

The Zimbabwe senior national team vice captains, Marshall Munetsi and Teenage Hadebe are impressing at their clubs.

Munetsi who joined Wolves on deadline day and has made six appearances for the Premier League side across all competitions so far, has turned out to be a key figure in the squad.

His coach Vitor Pereira and teammates are speaking highly of him.

“This is what we wanted when we looked for him. We wanted to find a physical midfielder who can support the other two midfielders,” said Pereira about Munetsi.

The 28-year old versatile midfielder repaid his gaffer’s faith, scoring the equaliser against Everton over the weekend.

This was to the delight of his teammate Nelson Semedo who said: “Very important goal for us. And for himself as well to give him some confidence.

“I think he’s doing really well. Munetsi is doing really well. I think the goal, it’s something he deserves already. Congratulations to him, and I hope he keeps doing this work and scoring for us.”

Meanwhile, Hadebe who is the Warriors’ second vice captain after Munetsi, is also shining in the MLS for FC Cincinnati.

He has been commanding the first jersey in a 3-5-2 formation preferred by his coach Pat Noonan.

This past Saturday, Hadebe started but was subbed off in the 60th minute in their 2-0 home victory over Toronto FC.

The substitution was part of the coach’s tactics to rest key players for their tough Concacaf Champions Cup reverse fixture versus Tigres UANL on Tuesday in Mexico.

However, commenting on Hadebe’s performance after the weekend’s 2-0 victory, Noonan told the club’s media:

“I think I said to Teenage when he got subbed off, I think we handled it perfectly. I think we did really, really well. And I think today it was the perfect tactic.”

Noonan’s comment comes after he had switched to a new formation which required new tactics on the day, playing with four defenders instead of three.

Meanwhile, the pair’s form is a good boost for the Warriors coach Michael Nees ahead of the World Cup qualifiers against Benin and Nigeria next week.

Nees is set to announce his squad for the upcoming assignments on Wednesday.