Lack of cutting edge is threatening Highlanders' title charge with coach Kelvin Kaindu bemoaning a striker crisis after he watched his team fall to FC Platinum on Sunday.
Bosso lost 2-0 to Norman Mapeza's side to slide to fourth position on the league table.
“Honestly in terms of depth, if we have to balance players in terms of positions, it’s a bit difficult especially when you want to make certain substitutions to be offensive. We don’t have enough depth and that is why we rely on permutation," Kaindu said.
“[Archford] Faira was not available because of the injury and we had to bring back Godera [Godfrey Makaruse] and he couldn’t finish the match because of the hamstring. We had to take him out and bring in the youngster [Talent Dube]."
Because of the problems he has at the point of the attack, Kaindu wants scoring goals to be a shared responsibility.
“Upfront we only had Panda [Calvin Chigonero] who came in as a striker, even when we thought we could push in another striker, we didn’t have options again on the bench and we relied on permutations. That is why we encourage everyone to score goals in our team. I am talking about the balancing in terms of positions upfront. We are a bit limited upfront. We cannot make a substitution, striker for a striker. It will be maybe a permutation, we take a midfielder and we put him on the left.”
This weekend they are away to ZPC Kariba before hosting on-fire Manica Diamonds.
On Sunday, Highlanders struggled especially in midfield where FC Platinum's Brian Banda had a field day as the hosts’ Devine Mhindirira, Mason and Mckinnon Mushore were chasing shadows.
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Kaindu bemoaned the absence of holding midfielder Melikhaya Ncube, who was on suspension.
Highlanders last season also struggled for goals under coach Baltemar Brito.
Most of the goals were coming from defenders or midfielders.
Brito went on a 19-match unbeaten run and appeared to be on his way to lifting the championship before his team lost its way.
With strikers Lynoth Chikuhwa, Stanley Ngala, Washington Navaya, Ray Lunga and Calvin Chigonero, Highlanders scored a meagre 24 goals in 34 games.
Even relegated Black Rhinos had 27 goals while Triangle, also demoted to Division One, had equal number of goals with Highlanders (24).
Bosso parted ways with Ngala and Navaya, retained Chikuhwa and brought in Brighton Ncube from Chicken Inn.
Chikuhwa scored two goals for Bosso last year while Ncube scored one for the Gamecocks.
However, Chikuhwa this season leads the league scorers’ chart with five goals after starting the campaign on a blistering note while Ncube has four goals. Highlanders have scored more than half the goals they scored last year in 11 games.
