Former Zambia national team midfielder Noah Chivuta is concerned that academy coaches may be creating “robots” out of young players, something that is detrimental to the development of players. 

Chivuta, who was part of the 2012 Africa Cup of Nations (AfCON) winning team, has said academy coaches are stifling young players’ creativity by enforcing rigid playing styles.

Since retiring, Chivuta has worked in various roles including punditry. He now works as an analyst in Thailand, providing consultancy services to clubs and national teams that call for his services. 

“You find players are in the early stages of development, like U-12 and we are overloading them with so much information about playing a particular system…it is like we are building Ai tools, we are not building players, coaches are not leaving the kids to explore. 

“We are taking away, the players’ intelligence, their way of thinking, we are teaching players that ‘this is the only system you can play’, then at the end of the day, that player will grow up programmed, he cannot adjust to any other system,” Chivuta is quoted by SportsBoom.com 

Chivuta on dangers of robotic football

He has said the danger of this is that players being produced lack consistency to perform at the top forever. 

“When you look at the players we are producing right now, there is a difference with the older generation when it comes to consistency; we are not developing enough players who can compete consistently at the international level.

“I will talk about my generation, we had a lot of players who played in foreign leagues and they stayed there for a long time, and that brought results to the national team, even the 2012 cup came through that set up,” Chivuta said.

Chivuta has transitioned into football analysis since he quit playing. He is currently working as a consultant, offering a wide range of football analysis services to clubs and national teams that seek his services.