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Ricky Zililo, Senior Sports Reporter
SOME Warriors’ fans want defiant head coach Zdravko Logarusic sacked for insisting he is within set targets despite stats showing that the national team has performed badly under his guidance.

They said Loga’s defence that he has achieved his immediate goal of securing Afcon qualification for Zimbabwe and the Cosafa Cup and Chan stats don’t matter is lame.

Trust Jim, Zimbabwe National Soccer Supporters Association (ZNSSA) Southern Region secretary, said Loga’s disregard for stats shows that he is a “joke” and not suitable for the Warriors’ job.

“Loga must go. It’s better to use a local coach than have a tourist masquerading as a coach in charge of the national team. He can’t say he led us to the Afcon finals when Joey Antipas laid the foundation. Does he know what coaching the Warriors means? For him to take lightly that we were knocked out of Cosafa without a win and failed to go past the group stage, losing to Namibia and drawing against Malawi and Mozambique, shows that he’s pathetic and doesn’t deserve a day longer in office,” Jim said.

Pauros Nekati said he is surprised that Zifa hasn’t fired Loga and questioned the national association’s wisdom to keep the Croat when Zambia fired their Serbian coach Milutin Sredojevic after a dismal Cosafa Cup outing.

“As a fan I know that statistics get a coach hired or fired and for a coach to brazenly come out making an excuse that people should consider that the seven games, three in Chan in January and four in Cosafa Cup shouldn’t be considered because players haven’t been active is just lame. Who selected those players? Were the players forced on him? Before leaving for the tournaments didn’t he say the Warriors were going to compete and not just to fulfill matches?” said Nekati.

“Loga shouldn’t take us for granted. The Warriors are our pride and they carry millions of people’s hopes. Zifa should just spare us the agony and get rid of him. Look across the Zambezi River, Zambians have been spared the agony and fired their coach because he failed to take them to the Afcon finals and had a poor show at Cosafa.”

Farai Chivorise said if Zifa is serious about the World Cup qualifiers, then Loga must be fired and replaced by a local coach.

“He has demonstrated beyond doubt that he is a failure. The same support and patience that Zifa has given Loga has never been granted to a local coach; which is sad,” said Chivorise.

Loga only won one game out of 12 Warriors’ outings against Botswana in an Afcon qualifier that secured Zimbabwe qualification for next year’s finals.

Zifa’s technical development committee is scheduled to meet this weekend to review Loga’s performance and make recommendations to the board. – @ZililoR