Coach tips Sofapaka to rise from bottom to top five finish

In spite registering the worst start in the Kenya Premier League since their promotion with six defeats in a row, Sofapaka head coach David Ouma is optimistic a top five finish is possible.

The 2009 champions have bagged only three points after seven outings, earned in the opener where they thumped Ushuru 3-1 before their torrid run that has seen them sink to rock bottom of the SportPesa Premier League log.

“It is not really a good position to be at this moment because personally, since I joined Sofapaka I have never been below position four either at the beginning or end of the season and so we are concerned. At the end of round one we were top but at round seven we are 16th,” regretted the tactician who doubles as Harambee Starlets boss.

“It is realistic yes, a top five finish. As a coach I just need to see the wins and draws I receive and going to Round 16, I should be above 15 points.”

He faces a Herculean task to catapult Batoto ba Mungu back to the place they are accustomed with almost an entirely new team following a mass exodus in the closed season following a biting cash crunch at the onetime moneybags of the league.

“For sure Sofapaka is in transition. If you had 25 players then lose 23 these are key players you have seen in the top clubs, it means the task to rebuild is not easy. It is important for me to motivate the boys to fast acclimatize with the situation in the big stage,” added Ouma, who was speaking to Citizen Digital hours before departure to Algeria with Starlets.

But, he has confidence in the team he assembled, saying the crop is talented as he urged the management to motivate them in other areas that matter as he concentrates on their technical development.

“AFC Leopards had the same challenges before they found their current sponsor, their team is quite new but is well motivated, we can get there too.’’

Ouma who will be still in Algiers when his club faces Leopards who are joint-top with 14 points is optimistic his team will stop the rot with his deputy John Baraza who played for the club until the end of last season in charge.

“I think we are on a similar level, we both have new players but they have experienced strikers who have scored which I think is their another key turning point. We however have a strategy to stop them,” he asserted.

Nothing better can give life to Ouma’s emphatic verbal optimism than a win over Leopards, who will definitely offer a tough challenge after their painful 1-0 first defeat of the season to City Stars last weekend.