KCCA manager Mike Mutebi feels his side were undone by lack of experience in the 4-0 away loss to Club Africain that dumped them out of the Total CAF Confederation Cup 2017.
The loss coupled with FUS Rabat’s slim victory over Rivers United meant KCCA could only finish third in Group A thanks to an inferior head to head record against the Moroccans.
“I think experience came to the fore,” Mutebi said in the post-match presser. “They (Club Africain) have been there and know how to handle situations where as for us we are just emerging,” he added.
We are trying to learn the trade at the table of best clubs in Africa.
The gaffer also admitted that besides experience, the hosts were the better side and deserved the victory.
It was good for Club Africain. Very good result for them. They played better than us especially in the first half. In the second half, we reacted tried to play but we weren’t effective.
The pragmatic tactician also thinks inefficiency undone his side in comparison to what the Tunisians demonstrated on the day.
We created some chances and got like three chances but we didn’t put them away. Club Africain got five and put four away. So it demonstrates efficiency but I wouldn’t worry that we were outplayed. No, we weren’t outplayed.
Right team? Yes
Going into the game, a draw was enough to seal KCCA’s spot in the last eight of the competition and perhaps a more solid team defensively would have done the job.
Instead, Mutebi named a side full of attack minded players and he defends the decision.
I picked the best team. And you could see they were playing some good football. For me that’s very important for our club to have identity home and away. We want to be talked about as Club Africain. They play good football like you saw.
The porous defence
For the first time this campaign, the Ugandan champions conceded four goals to end the campaign with a dozen goal shipped in at the group stages and the outspoken former Miracle FC, SC Villa and Maroons coach wasn’t impressed.
“Of course not,” he replied when quizzed on whether he was impressed on how his team defended.
When you concede four goals, you can’t be impressed. You could see the defending has been our problem.
The defending isn’t smart, we were careless but those are the things we have to work on.
Nunda early substitution
Immediately after conceding the second goal, the KCCA technical bench made their first change with striker Derrick Nsibambi replacing midfielder Jackson Nunda.
“He didn’t manage the ball very well,” Mutebi said of Nunda. “If you have a number 10 playing him off a number 9, you would expect him to handle the ball very smartly but he didn’t do that,” he added.
Maybe because in the first half, Club Africain had most of the ball so he couldn’t play so we had to bring in a centre forward to resort to maybe being direct and not going through the midfield because the number 10 had failed to play.
Like this year, KCCA will represent the country in the CAF Champions League after defending their title.
