Nabi all out to solve Yanga’s defensive weaknesses

Jangwani Street-based Yanga, 2022/23 NBC Premier League defending champion, will welcome AS Real Bamako of Mali at the Benjamin Mkapa Stadium in Dar es Salaam on Wednesday for round four of the CAF Confederation Cup's Group D.

In their three CAF Confederation Cup Group D matches, Yanga has conceded a goal in each match and the goals have come from free kicks, a weakness Nabi has noticed as he aims to improve the aspect.

In Yanga’s 2-0 loss to US Monastir away in Tunisia, the first goal came from a free kick and the second came from a corner kick.

Sloppiness continued when Yanga beat DR Congo's TP Mazembe 3-1 at Benjamin Mkapa Stadium on February 19.

The DR Congo club's consolation was scored by Zambian attacker Alex Ngonga, whose well-taken free-kick went over Yanga's defenders and into the net, beating goalkeeper Djigui Diarra.

Yanga failed to record their first away win of the competition when they allowed an equalizer netted by AS Real Bamako in added-on time.

The hosts had won a corner kick that was connected in by center-back, Émile Koné, and the clash ended in a 1-1 draw.

Nabi revealed: "I am aware of the goals that we are conceding from those kinds of situations, I can't blame my players because things like that happen in the game and I know it hurts each one of us."

"The only way forward is, therefore, working as a unit from the training ground to the match day."

"Many times we have been looking for a way to prevent this kind of goal, it is something that is in progress and we will continue to work on it to make sure it stops completely and does not happen again in future matches," Nabi stated.

"Those kinds of balls lead to a lot of blame on defenders being short but that is not a big problem. The problem is in the way of playing those kinds of balls," the gaffer noted.

"High balls often require a sense of urgency, projection, and location, if a player has all of that he will be able to play high balls no matter how tall his opponent is."

From a set-piece coaching view, these kinds of plays are hardly defended since no team prepares for the deliveries of the opposition team as plays change per zones of the area of occurrence.

Yanga is sitting second in Group D with four points behind US Monastir which leads with seven points.

Third-placed TP Mazembe has three points and AS Real Bamako is placed last with two, having taken part in three matches each.