Former Zambia national team midfielder Noah Chivuta has blamed the Chipolopolo’s humiliating 5-0 defeat to Russia on Tuesday night on a lack of quality players capable of executing the tactical setup.
Zambia was overwhelmed in Moscow, conceding five goals, including a hat-trick by Maksim Gkushenkov, and one goal each from Ilya Vakhaniya and Aleksey Batrakov.
In an interview, Chivuta stated that the team lacks the necessary players to perform as expected by Avram Grant’s technical staff, particularly in initiating play from the defensive end.
He explained that the goal was to retain possession against a highly tactical Russian side, but the plan failed due to the team’s lack of quality.
“You could see the plan of the game, trying to play from the back where the defender will start passing into the goalkeeper, and then you start building up from there, something new I’ve seen Zambia now doing,” Chivuta said.
“But thereafter, we are lacking quality, and we’re losing the ball again cheaply after the initial start. Thereafter, we were just clearing a long ball, which was not working for us; you could see the plan that this is what the coach wanted. But I think to implement some of the tactics, it demands high quality players to be on board to execute them, and that is lacking in our team.”
Technical Bench Had No Solutions
Chivuta emphasized that after the initial plan failed, the technical bench was unable to develop an effective solution, leading to a humiliating performance, especially in the second half. He noted that the lack of an alternative tactical approach resulted in the team making avoidable mistakes.
“We lost it in the second half. We’re just playing, like, whatever happens. And they are such silly goals that we started conceding, and that’s the difference between top players and the average players,” Chivuta said.
“So, this scoreline, I think we expected it maybe not to be in our favour. We just looked like amateurs at the end. There’s a fourth goal where the keeper just hits a long ball, and it goes in the midfield, and they are scoring in an open net.”
Chivuta has voiced concerns about Zambia’s limited prospects of obtaining high-profile friendly matches due to a lack of competitive edge.
“This heavy defeat can really affect getting more high-profile matches. That’s the truth. If we are not putting on a good fight, most teams, because, like Russia in this game, really, they are not even celebrating. It’s just like it was a walk in the park, and it really affects our chances.”
READ MORE: Russia’s Coach Valery Karpin Explains Why Chipolopolo Lost to His Team
