A win for Malawi
the Flames against Algeria at African Cup of Nations (AFCON) in 2010 which was
held in Angola made the flames to get carried away since it followed up with
two consecutive defeats to the host nation and Mali which marked the end of the
road to the final.
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| Flames celebrating a goal against Algeria (credits BBC) |
Flames lacked good
philosophy, concentration and fighting spirit like their neighbours Zambia who
went on to claim their first ever trophy by beating the then favourites Ivory Coast
(8-7 on penalties). Zambia’s road to AFCON glory was based on the youth and
employment of Herve Renard, a European coach with both European and African
experience after being in Le Roy’s Ghana coaching panel 2008 at AFCON.
Lack of football
academies have contributed to poor performances of the team as observed by
Stephen Constantine, a former flames coach who began building the national team
that went on to qualify for the AFCON under Kinnah Phiri. Constantine claimed
that lack of grass-root soccer contributes to failure of African teams when
they are competing at the top level.
“Players in Africa,
don’t really get coached properly, most of them unless they go to the national
team. If the national team has a foreign coach, that’s great but if they don’t,
there’s not a great deal of coaching going on,” Constantine said as quoted by
Goal.com in 2012 when he was managing Sudan.
Constantine was
later replaced by Kinnah after failing to impress in the latter stages by not qualifying
to either AFCON or FIFA World Cup although some people claimed that he was not
given enough time to build the team.
People lacked
patience with Kinnah as people of Zambia did with Herve Renard who guided them
to their first and historical triumph in South Africa 2012. Herve came in after
being in the coaching panel of Ghana national team of 2008. With African
experience and European experience, Herve laid his foundations on the youth and
professionals who showed hunger to play for the team.
Renard claimed
that he models himself to Jose Mourinho because of his style of play which
demands more from his players.
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| Zambia AFCON winning team (Credits BBC) |
“I admire his
blend of intelligence and strength, and I also admire Barcelona’s philosophy
which helped me a lot in my time in Zambia,” said Renard in an interview with
Goal.com
Renard’s
admiration was shown when he recruited the youth to his Zambia national side
and also playing a fast passing game (possession football) with Ivory Coast
side which the Flames side lack although they admire to play the brand of
football which is displayed by FC Barcelona.
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| Renard Herve being carried after Winning the final in 2010(Credits BBC) |
Although Renard
claimed to be a big fan of FC Barcelona, he never followed the Catalan’s
culture of playing ultra-attacking football which involved high pressing
(winning the ball back as soon as possible from the opponents) and fast passing
game in his Zambia managerial days to win the country’s first AFCON cup.
Life after AFCON
exit in 2010 and Kinnah has been turf for the flames as they failed to qualify
for a major tournament and they being knocked out at Confederation of Southern
African Football Associations (COSAFA) in the hands of Zimbabwe on penalties
when Tom Saintfiet was employed as a caretaker coach. On the other hand
Zambia’s form has dropped since Renard’s departure who won Ivory Coast AFCON
cup after many unsuccessful attempts with one of the best squad in Africa’s
football history.
Some part of
Barcelona’s philosophy which can be adopted in Malawi is the recruitment of the
youth and building a team on a promising player who can carry the team on his
shoulders with the help of aggressive midfielders who can have the desire to
win and press in the opposition half to give the forwards freedom to run and
score in the opposition’s box through fast movement (passing) of the ball by
the midfielders.
Former FC
Barcelona head coach and player, Late. Johan Cryuff from Netherlands always
used to say that keeping the ball (dominating possession), move it well than
the opposition is what makes a you (team) dangerous because you have what they
don’t have which can avoid them to score.
“The person that
moves decides where the ball goes, and if you move well, you can change
opponents pressure’ into your advantage. The ball goes where you want it,” said
former FC Barcelona coach Johan Cryuff to Spanish newspaper ‘Deportivo Mundo’.
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| Johan Cryuff (Credits wikimedia.org) |
“I was criticized
for playing three at the back but that’s the most idiotic thing I’ve ever heard.
What we needed was to fill the middle of the pitch with players where we needed
it most. I much prefer to win 5-4 than 1-0,” continued Cryuff.
Indeed defensive
thinking did not enter Cryuff’s mind but now days, teams have adopted the
system of playing three at the back although they’ve come up with a different
approach of using wing defenders to overlap in order to create chances and track
back to defend deep against the opponents by shifting into a five men back
line.
Six time English
League champions, Chelsea have adopted a 3-4-3 system under new manager Antonio
Conte which helped them to win their sixth title by staying on top of the
English Premier League (EPL) table since last year.
“I think this is
the right way for the players, it is good for the team and we have found a good
balance,” said Chelsea manager Antonio Conte, last year after a win against
Manchester United at Stamford Bridge.
Malawi should at
least try to adopt the philosophy of Renard’s Zambia and Cryuff’s Barcelona of
using the youth and playing a more attacking football in order to succeed since
the ageing players can’t survive alone in tournaments and qualifying matches
due to fatigue while the young guys can help to emulate them when needed just
like what Barcelona did by offloading Ronaldinho, Deco and Rafael Marquez when
Josep ‘Pep’ Guardiola came in as a coach replacing Frank Rijkaard. Guardiola
then built the team around Lionel Messi which claimed a sextuple in 2009
consisting of La Liga (Spanish premier league), Copa Del Rey (Kings Cup), UEFA
champions League, Spanish Super Cup, UEFA Super Cup and a FIFA Club World Cup.
Sources:
Four Four Two
BBC
BBC Blogs
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