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Ricky Zililo Senior Sports Reporter
PROBLEMS bedevilling Castle Lager Premier Soccer League champions Chicken Inn and Harare City are psychological and have nothing to do with fatigue, a medical doctor specialising in sports medicine has said.

Chicken Inn and Harare City had an early start to the season as they represented Zimbabwe in the Caf Champions League and Caf Confederations Cup respectively.

They failed to go beyond the preliminary stages and have been struggling in the domestic league.

Chicken Inn’s title defence is fading away with each passing week as they sit in eighth place with 10 points, trailing log leaders FC Platinum, who are on 20 points.

The Gamecocks’ 10 points are from three wins, a draw and four defeats, a statistic that is certainly not good for reigning champions.

Harare City are 10th with nine points and poor results cost coach Taurai Mangwiro his job on Monday. He was replaced by the nomadic Moses Chunga.

Harare-based doctor Edward Chagonda, who has had interactions with the Warriors, said external forces were affecting the two teams’ performances.

“From a scientific point of view, Chicken Inn and Harare City should be performing better because they had an early season start. They can’t complain of fatigue because here in Zimbabwe we play few matches a season than clubs in Europe or South Africa. After their continental participations, Chicken Inn and Harare City’s advantage was having better match fitness than other clubs,” Chagonda said.

“In my view, change in matrix of the team’s coaching set-up really upset the players. The talk of coaches leaving certainly brought turmoil in the mind of players. Of course Joey Antipas was leaving for greener pastures, but that still destabilised the team. Mangwiro on the other hand was always under pressure from external forces and that somehow affects the players. It’s unfortunate that some clubs don’t have resources to hire psychologists because they really do help in times like these,” he said.

When news started filtering in that Antipas was leaving Chicken Inn for Durban-based South African National First Division side Amazulu in April, the Gamecocks, who had a promising start to the season, collecting seven out of nine points in three matches, started struggling to cope.

Chicken Inn opened their account with a 3-0 win over Dynamos in Week One, a 1-0 victory against Border Strikers in Week Two and a 0-0 draw with How Mine. That was followed by three losses to ZPC Kariba, Bulawayo City and Triangle United.

It was after the 1-2 loss to Triangle at Luveve Stadium that Chicken Inn’s management decided that Antipas’ successor Rahman Gumbo takes full charge of the squad instead of waiting for another month.

Gumbo went on to win his first match, beating Mutare City Rovers 3-1, and then disaster struck as they were beaten 1-2 by Caps United at Luveve.

Chicken Inn players’ looked dejected after conceding the second goal to Caps United and one could tell that the players wanted the match to end quickly.

“Besides getting a psychologist, sometimes team performance can be affected by failure to have a proper diet. What athletes eat also has an effect on their performance. Another aspect can be fitness. Are they getting proper fitness training? That is when you begin to understand the importance of a fitness trainer, who should be part of the club’s medical team,” Chagonda said.

A sports science lecturer at the National University of Science and Technology (Nust), who chose to remain anonymous, shared Chagonda’s view of engaging psychologists.

“Chicken Inn players may be suffering from post Champions League expectations. They had high ambitions when they faced Mamelodi Sundowns and thought that was the stage for them to impress and probably attract foreign interest. They upped their game, but being knocked out of the tournament hit them hard. They should have engaged a psychologist for the players,” said the lecturer.

Chicken Inn spokesman Tavengwa Hara, a holder of a high-level sport management certificate from Wits Business School, said they have no intentions of engaging a psychologist.

“In Rahman Gumbo and his assistant, we’ve good coaches who know how to deal with psychological matters. The only time we engaged a psychologist was when we lost our former coach Adam Ndlovu. We believe the phase we are in now shall come to pass. We don’t have a timeframe as to when fortunes will turn around, but we believe our players are refreshing and will return to action supercharged,” said Hara.

Chicken Inn’s next game will be against Hwange at the Colliery Stadium when league games resume after the national team’s assignments.