French coach Rodger Froger is “very disappointed” he could not last to see through his plans at TP Mazembe.
The 57-year-old former Togo’s Sparrow Hawks gaffer mutually parted ways with the DR Congo bigshots on Tuesday, less than two months into his one-year-contract, after crushing out of the Confederations of African Football (CAF) Champions League.
Zimbabwe’s CAPS United managed to hold on to a 1-1 first leg away score to edge the 5-times champions on away goal’s rule on Sunday.
However, the former Lille’s defender is adamant his exit had more to do with “dysfunctions” within the team and not the game’s outcome.
He alludes to lack of support for his blueprint, especially in the absence of the influential Mazembe president Moise Katumbi, who is in self-imposed exile for political reasons.
“I thought I was not in a position to respect the roadmap that president Katumbi had given me. We had to integrate young players and get the results. However, the current function of the club did not, in my view, achieve this double objective, especially in his absence.
Froger holds they had what it takes to finish the job in Harare, “We had the means to win in Harare but there were some dysfunctions and it revealed to me that it would be difficult to work under these conditions,” Froger told tpmazembe.com.
He defends his widely criticized approach to use young players in the decisive saying it was long overdue and he had no choice in the face revolt from section the old guards.
“It is avital necessity for the TP Mazembe to inject young people. It should have been done before. And the behavior of some elders forced me to speed up the process even further.
“On their return from the Super Cup, they were absent from the first training session. Can one admit that a player of the TP Mazembe statue misses a session without prior notice in the pretext he had some problems? For the transition to be made the elders must be role models and help the young ones.”
Froger watched Mazembe lose to African Champions Mamelodi Sundowns of South Africa in the CAF Super Cup on February 18th in South Africa, but had not taken over officially then.
He had started to develop a new style of play at Mazembe, which incorporated possession and construction and he was getting positive reviews for it.
“I wanted to develop a game on two major themes: possession and construction. At first, it was difficult to create good opportunities, then in the end we got a lot of them. People who attended our training sessions came to tell me that we were doing well.”
Froger believes the team has the potential to do well in the CAF Confederations Cup, where they are the defending champions, and will face JS Kabylie in the playoffs for a spot in the groups, but he says the team lack quality finishers.
“There is a lot of potential, but there are question marks on offensive efficiency. There is lack of finishers in attack.”
Mazembe have lost up-to six top stars in the past two seasons including Tanzania forward Mbwana Samatta, who is currently starring for Belgium’s Genk.
Samatta was pivotal in delivering the 2015 Champions League crown to Lubumbashi in the year he was crowned African Player of the Year based in Africa.
However, they still have within their ranks Zambian skipper Rainford Kalaba who top scored in the 2016 Confederations Cup with 8 goals.
