Nees to name his men this week . . . Warriors coach worried over local players

Tadious Manyepo

Zimpapers Sports Hub

WARRIORS coach Michael Nees is closely monitoring possible national team candidates and used the weekend to finalise on his squad for the FIFA 2026 World Cup qualifying assignments.

The gaffer is on Wednesday expected to announce an enlarged squad for the African Zone Group C qualifiers against Benin and Nigeria.

Zimbabwe will first host Benin at the Moses Mabhida Stadium in Durban, South Africa, on March 20 before they play Nigeria in Uyo five days later.

Nees, presiding over a World Cup assignment with Zimbabwe for the first time, has a huge task to help the Warriors move from the bottom of Group C. The Warriors only have two points, five behind leaders Rwanda after four games.

But the 57-year-old German coach deliberately delayed announcing his men for the two assignments as he sought to first monitor the readiness of the footballers, especially those playing on the domestic front.

The Castle Lager Premiership is only two weeks old after a two-month off-season break and Nees is concerned about the players’ match-fitness levels, which he first wanted to analyse before making any move.

Last week the former Seychelles gaffer watched three games and is in line to observing three more, including the showdown between CAPS United and Scottland at Rufaro Stadium today.

Nees said the Warriors have three groups of players — overseas-based ones, the local contingent and those based in South Africa and Tanzania.

“We have a diverse team.

“I said it before — a three-group team — diverse in terms of the fact that you have a group from overseas, that is Europe, Teenage (Hadebe), also from USA, and General (Gerald Takwara), now in Iraq.

“Then we have the South African group. Then we have the local group.

“Every group, the situation is different,” he said.

Nees highlighted the challenges in assessing player readiness, particularly within the local group, as the season has only just begun.

“For the local group, the season hasn’t yet started properly.  It just started last week. So, we watched three games (last week).

“Here is the mystery with me — three games. We drove up and down.

“Three games. It was, right, yeah, Friday, Saturday, Sunday,” he explained.

He expressed concern about the players’ fitness levels, emphasising the difficulty of making informed decisions when evaluating them over a limited number of matches.

“This week, I’m also watching three games.

“But I said it in November that my worry was always that the (local) players might not yet be in the right shape. I already expressed that.

“I predicted that already, because I cannot even check a player properly over two, three matches before I announce the squad.

“Basically, it’s like a blind flight. You pick players and you aren’t sure are they fit? Are they this or that? Very difficult.”

While there are doubts over the fitness levels of the locally based guns, the foreign-based ones are in the business end of their campaigns.

Resultantly, the coach’s concerns are on injuries. Among the local players Nees is keen to assess is Scottland hotshot Khama Billiat, who missed the opening weekend game against Triangle.

Billiat could play just once — if he makes it into today’s fixture against CAPS United — before Nees announces his squad.

Homegrown talent

The other homegrown talent includes Godknows Murwira, Richard Hachiro, Brian Banda, Martin Mapisa, Walter Musona and Emmanuel Jalai.

“Then we have the group, the                  other two groups; their leagues are running.

“Yes, that is not such a problem. You can easily observe, you know, in Teenage’s league; they now already have four or five games in the season, so they are in season and not yet 100 percent at the end, but there shouldn’t be a problem.

“Every group has its own challenges and that’s why I could not announce the squad earlier.”

Skipper Marvelous Nakamba remains a doubt, although Nees wants the Warriors doctors to have a look at him before they conclude that he is indeed out for six weeks.