Tactical landscaping has to change to enable Ugandan clubs put on goal scoring clinics 

Can KCCA manage to pack 100 goals inside a singular season? Though hardly life-and-death, the controlling hold exerted by the question has confronted some with unsettling truths. 

Incidentally, the question was teased from the details that Mike Mutebi divulged during the unveiling of Juma Balinya on KCCA TV last Sunday. Since playing second fiddle to Vipers in a curtailed 2019/2020 topflight league season, KCCA have been at pains to ‘rebrand’ itself on the pitch.

The club’s backroom staff has faced an agonising choice of cutting loose formidable names deemed to have drifted into its crosshairs. High-profile new hires have helped prevent – at least cosmetically – the self-harm that comes with the proverbial dropping of the axe. For every Sadam Juma classified as deadwood have been new entrants like Balinya whose positions look unassailable. For now.

While not quite hailed as the man to pull the Garbage Collectors out of their hole, Balinya’s unveiling had all the pomp and circumstance of a big money signing. Because he has conceded that he will be expected to play an outsized role at Lugogo, the 2018/2019 topflight league golden boot winner won’t evade scrutiny. It’s also no surprise that Mutebi’s assertively bold pursuit of 100 goals roughly coincides with the capture of Balinya.

The 28-year-old provides a worked example of an attacking midfielder who teems with goals. The cup overflows so much so that Balinya has on multiple occasions been played as a second striker. Such smarts and nimble feet in the final third of the pitch should ideally brighten the prospect of producing goals on a scale hardly conceived.

Goals continue to be a rare commodity in Ugandan club football. Since the 2012/2013 season, KCCA have topped the scoring charts in the topflight. The Garbage Collectors’ most prolific season was in 2018/2019 when 61 goals were scored across 30 matches (2.03 goals per match). This pales in comparison with the juggernaut that Villa set in motion during the 1999 (108 goals from 38 matches or 2.84 goals per match) 2000 (87 goals from 30 matches or 2.9 goals per match) seasons.

The common denominator in those two seasons is that the Jogoos played with two out-and-out strikers. In 1999, for instance, the much-vaunted Mu-Mu twin partnership of Andrew Mukasa and Hassan Mubiru split an eye-watering 70 league goals between them. The tactical landscaping of football nowadays has made playing with two orthodox forwards a tad too antiquated.

It unsettles the shape of a team if one person doesn’t play up top. Midfielders have to consequently chip in to unburden a conventional striker ploughing the lone furrow.

Mutebi is one of the most enthusiastic supporters of this principle. And so expect him to unload on Balinya if the fleet-footed attacker drifts perilously close to the point where things go badly wrong for him. The marquee signing will be expected to hit the ground running when it comes to goal-scoring stakes. Scoring 100 goals across all competitions should be a distinct possibility given how active KCCA have been in the transfer market.

But for the possibility to be actualised, Balinya won’t be the only player expected to put his hand up. The creativity had to improve markedly. The Mu-Mu twin partnership benefitted enormously from schemers such as Hakim Magumba and Edgar Watson. There was also great talent in the wide areas. While KCCA have brought in Bright Anukani to make things happen through the middle, replacing the assists that Mustafa Kizza effortlessly rolled off his cultured left foot may yet be an increasingly onerous duty.

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