Harambee Stars head coach Engin Firat has revealed why he failed to name a striker in the starting lineup against Zimbabwe despite having three forwards on the bench.Firat was expected to start either Benson Omala, Jonah Ayunga or John Avire following the absence of skipper Michael Olunga in the 2025 Africa Cup of Nations qualifier match staged at Mandela Stadium in Namboole. Firat faults Senegalese referee for failing to sent off two Zimbabwean playersInstead, he deployed Eric Johana, a natural midfielder, as the team’s main man upfront, a decision which backfired as Kenya struggled to poke holes in the Zimbabwean defence.Fielding Johana in unfamiliar territory seemed not to work as planned as the former Mathare United man would occasionally fall back into the midfield and struggled to hold up play. ##NAJAVA_MECA_8318215##Asked to shed light on the decision, Firat said he had observed that the Zimbabwean central defence pairing was not fast and thus his decision to field midfielders whom he thought will have an easy time passing the ball around them.Zimbabwean head coach Michael Nees paired John Takwara and the experienced Peter Garananga at the heart of the defence. ‘We can only dream of such stadiums in Kenya’ – Harambee Stars head coach in Uganda”Their central defenders were not very fast. They were however physical and strong in the air. We wanted to capitalize on it and pass the ball around them. We had situations where it worked in the first half but not as I had wished,” he revealed.It is after the failure of the experiment that Firat withdrew Johana for Avire, who is the most senior striker in the camp at the moment given that he played in the 2019 AFCON finals in Egypt.##NAJAVA_MECA_8318187##Avire put the Zimbabwean defence under pressure in the minutes he lasted on the pitch but the supply let him down. “I had to bring Avire who was very aggressive. He plays as a centre forward at club level throughout but in the end, we didn’t get a goal,” he added.
