Gor Mahia head coach Johnathan McKinstry has revealed the club’s transfer plans following the revocation of their CAF Champions League ticket nearly a fortnight ago.
Gor were due to take part in Africa’s elite club competition but will have to wait at least another season to take part in the tourney.
McKinstry has revealed that he plans to make the team more competitive quality-wise, expressing a need to reduce the numbers in the squad following an exodus of a couple of players, including influential defender Dennis Ng’ang’a, Ugandan midfielder Shafiq Kagimu and youngster John Ochieng’.
“One is competition throughout the squad. It is very important to have not just one but two options for every position,” McKinstry said in an interview
The Northern Irish coach wants to add players with more end product in the forward areas to complement those already at the club.
He says that the club must rely on so much more than Benson Omala, Patrick Kaddu, and Austin Odhiambo for consistent end product.
“That has been especially true in the offensive line. Not necessarily at striker because we have Benson (Omala) and (Patrick) Kaddu who are great competition for each other and are different profiles.
“However, in the line behind that, (we need more) Austin (Odhiambo) finished the league very highly with nine goals and seven or eight assists, and fifteen or so goal contributions when you put everything together.
“Beyond that, no one else got into double figures for goal contributions. Peter Lwasa and John Macharia, and George (Blackberry) Odhiambo had lower numbers. Boniface Omondi was okay numbers but still not above the magic 15 numbers. So we are thinking of beefing up competition there.
“It is not that our number ‘9s’ can score the goals. There is no doubt about that, but if you said Ben and Patrick would have 20-goal seasons, that is what you want from your number nine. Expecting them to score 40 goals each is unrealistic. That is why we need to get more from that offensive line number 10s, 7s and 11s.”
Gor are also expected to beef up their midfield following the exit of Kagimu who left for Europe after a short stint at the club.
“We wanted a little more depth in midfield where we have added a little competition and also in goal, we wanted a little bit more competition.
“We want to add depth in terms of competition but also reduce the squad numbers. We sort of jumped from having 20 players in the first half of the season to 29 players after the ban was lifted. We want to reduce it down to 25 or 26 because we want to add real competition.”
