New Chipolopolo coach Milutin ‘Micho’ Sredojević has warned Orlando Pirates duo Augustine Mulenga and Justin Shonga of missing out on future call ups if they do not work hard at the club and feature regularly.
The Zambia international players’ game time has been reduce under new coach Josef Zinnbauer. Since last year August, Mulenga has only featured in 10 matches while Shonga has only made 5 appearances for the club.
The surgent of Malawian striker Gabadinho Mhango and Abel Mabaso has seen them been redspectatorsctactors. Mhango leads the top scorer chart with 14 goals in the PSL while Mabaso has scored 6.
And Micho who was talking to KickOff.com, made his point clear that he will not pick players on the basis of friendship nor relationship. Micho coached the duo during his time at Pirates before he left the club for Zamalek.
“They need to earn and deserve call-ups and we need to clarify this no matter where Zambian players are playing,” He said.
“Whether it’s in Lubumbashi, Stellenbosch, Orlando Pirates or any other team, I have my invisible eyes that supply me with technical information that are telling me the real state and condition of each player.
“This is so that no player has an automatic selection even if you have a history with them, thank you for everything that we’ve been through together but there’s no automatic call-up, I always select on merit.”
He continued saying, “In the network of friends I have across the continent I have planted ‘technical eyes’ to offer honest and accurate assessments of the talent pool available for Zambia selection.”
He concluded, “I will never bring players to the squad just because I can say ‘I know them’ and they know me, I want to rely on their mental state, physical, fitness and tactical competitiveness at the given moment.”
Micho is racing against time to assemble a team for the back-to-back AFCON qualifier match against Botswana and for the CHAN tournament in Cameroon. He has assessed a group of players on the Copperbelt and Lusaka so far.
