Zapata should stay on if Leopards are to pounce again

Despite failing to win this year’s SportPesa Premier League title, the current AFC Leopards coach, Rodolfo Zapata should be allowed to continue with his job.

I believe another chance will enable the Argentine to correct most mistakes seen in the team this season, and take the team to the next level.

The changes we regularly experienced in our technical bench affected our team this season, and it is my hope that Zapata and most of the payers should be retained for continuity.

The changes effected in the club’s technical bench did not seem wise; hence keeping him will be pivotal for the success of the club.

The true Ingwe fans guided by the club’s motto: “Obulala na Maani” must rise up and say no to any official who will try to mess up our technical bench to save our beloved club from sinking further.

It was a familiar tale of good coaches throwing in the towel, while others being forced out through unorthodox means.

Zapata has experience and should be maintained to continue selling his philosophy to our players who are willing to learn. Most of them will have played together for two years. Any team whose core has stayed together have good results.

Most of our players are young, but since he took over, we have seen a lot of improvement even in the way the club is run. We no longer have infighting among club officials and renegade camps, player indiscipline, apathy among fans, and interference from political leaders.

The coach has good understanding of Kenyan football for the short period he has been around, and we should let him build a team for next season.

We have a youthful team and we should let him develop the squad, but rotten apples must be released.

The coach should be made to look inward into the lower leagues to fish out talents. Rather than starting to look for a new coach, let us give Zapata all the support he needs as he starts laying the foundation to challenge for the league title next season.

This season, we didn’t play well against Gor Mahia, but we live to fight another day.

We must not forget that Gor played better because their core players have been together for a long time. Other teams in the league which kept their players for long have also done well.

Leopards players seem to have given their best against stronger teams in the league but seem to have struggled all season against some teams that have been difficult to beat for Leopards.

Our technical bench must remember that the first 10 matches of the local season are crucial in determining how the season will end. I still think we can improve our team by managing things well.

Our greatest undoing was the shaky defence that conceded many goals, allowing pressure to build on the team as the season wore on.

We lost balance and concentration towards the dying moments of most opening games. We had controversial referring, especially against Gor Mahia, but we cannot complain that we were cheated in most games because we, too, had chances that we didn’t take.

Leopards need one or two central defenders to protect our reliable goalkeepers Jairus Adira and Ezekiel Owade who have been outstanding in the season.

We should learn to keep the ball when we are defending and more importantly, we should learn something from the fact that most of our opponents came from a goal or two down to equalize against us and win.

Keeping the team together is bound to make the players develop a relationship based on good understanding of each other’s strengths, and that will make life easier for us.