. Nyirenda

By NDINAWE SIMPELWE –
NATIONAL football team coach Wedson Nyirenda has asked fans to scale down on expectations from the Zambia Under-20 team as the current squad had a young and inexperienced crop.
He admitted that with the bar set so high by the previous under-20 team, a lot was expected from this under-20 side which was basically an under-17 team.
In an interview after Zambia lost t2-0 to Uganda at the ongoing COSAFA under-20 championship in Kitwe, Nyirenda said the fans were expecting nothing but the same performance that was set by the previous team that won both the COSAFA and Africa Cup.
Nyirenda urged the fans to be more  patient with the players as the team was adapting to its new higher level adding that it would not help anyone by condemning and putting the young players under pressure.
He said the current team was still inexperienced as they were just graduating from the under-17 level and that only encouragement and guidance would help them do better.
“The first games in every tournament are always tricky more especially that we are playing at home. The expectations are very high. With the background of the previous team and how they performed last year, the bar is really high,” Nyirenda said.
He said not all hope was lost as the team can bounce back and win the two remaining games of the group to progress to the next round especially if every fan rallied behind them.
Nyirenda said there was a bad culture that was developing with the Zambian football fans who only wanted the team when it was winning but failing to lift the players when down.
“It’s a pity that some people were trying to cheer Uganda instead of giving encouragement to their own team. When you are a supporter, you die with your team. Where are we getting this thermostat kind of supporting, when it is hot I’m part of it, when it’s cold I leave it. It should not be like this,” Nyirenda complained.
Nyirenda further urged the players to give out their characters when they are on the pitch instead of trying to copy their predecessors.
“We lacked a little bit of coordination and there was a lot of individualism. I saw players wanting to be Fashion (Sakala), wanting to be (Enock) Mwepu. That’s what killed us,” he said.