It was always going to be a poisoned chalice appointment for Portuguese Vaz Pinto when he was appointed to lead Gor Mahia. The technical bench was in disarray following the botched appointment of Brazilian Oliviera Goncalves and the sudden departure of the assistant coach. Some key members of the first team had left in the off-season and there were doubts about the calibre of some of the new signings, especially the foreign contingent …and all this before we talk about the perennial financial difficulties at the club.Gor Mahia have appointed Portuguese Vaz Pinto as the new head coach pic.twitter.com/RyP91ZykQ5— Brian Kawalya 🇺🇬 (@BrianKawalya1) January 10, 2021 On the pitch, the club had barely scrapped through the preliminary rounds of CAF Champions League against Rwanda’s APR before being humiliated by Algeria’s CR Belouzidad in the 1st round. On the league front, after narrowly beating Ulinzi, consecutive losses to Tusker and Kariobangi Sharks in which the defence shipped in 6 goals in 2 games followed. Everyone had written Gor Mahia out. It is against this background that Vaz Pinto checked in.29 games later, he’s gone. He leaves Gor Mahia in 4th position in the log, still facing an uphill task of defending the title but he did manage to win the FKF Cup over rivals AFC Leopards, the first time Gor Mahia is winning this cup since 2012 – and securing a CAF Confederation Cup slot.Vaz Pinto has attracted mixed feelings from the fan-base so here we take a look at his numbers as compared to the clubs other recent foreign coaches.He took charge of 29 games in all competitions, just 2 games shy of Steven Pollack’s 31 games in the 2019-2020 season that was cut short by the covid-19 pandemic. This is the fewest number of games that a full-time coach has overseen at the club in recent times (this excludes Brazilian Oliviera Goncalves who did not take charge of any match due to lack of papers).Winning a trophyThe FKF Cup means that only Ze Maria failed to win an official major trophy for the club since Gor Mahia appointed Zvardko Logarusic in 2012.Win PercentageIt might surprise most but in his short stint, Steven Pollack had the highest percentage among recent Gor Mahia coaches at 65% having won 20 of his 31 games in charge in all competitions. Pinto’s 55% (16 of 29 games) was only better than Williamson’s 51% (27 of 53).Loss Percentage Vaz Pinto’s 24% loss rate (7 losses out of 29 games) was the worst among the last 8 managers, way behind Logarusic’s 13% (6 of 48) and Ze Maria’s 13% (6 of 45) who proved to be the most difficult coaches to beat.Gor Mahia head coach Vaz Pinto linked with a move to Portuguese Second Division side, CD Nacional. #FKFPL pic.twitter.com/zeRqL5YVwN— Ole Teya (@Kevin_teya) July 5, 2021 Pinto did not have access to the striking riches some of his predecessors had it reflects on his average of 1.4 goals scored per game. Steven Pollack’s team was more attack minded and averaged 1.9 goals per game, slightly better than Frank Nuttal (1.8) and Dylan Kerr (1.8), the two coaches that had access to the best strikers the club has had in recent years.Better defense If there’s one area that Vaz Pinto deserves credit, it is in shoring up the defence, perhaps helped by the return of Harun Shakava and the emergence of Frank Odhiambo in defence. Having inherited a team that was leaking goals, his average of 0.7 goals conceded per game was is only bettered by Ze Maria (0.4) and Zdravko Logarusic (0.6).It is difficult to judge a coach entirely on statistics without taking into account the context under which he worked. Given better resources and personnel, he might have performed better, we will never know. What is certain though is that the next coach faces an even sterner test as the club grapples with reduced sponsorship, star player exits and lack of fans in the stadium.
